History of the Program

A History of Sowing and Reaping

Warner University's Online Church Ministry (OCM) program was birthed the winter semester of 2000. In January of the new millennium, students and faculty gathered in Lake Wales, Florida, to tackle the challenges of distance ministry education.

The OCM program started as a dream. The Warner University Board of Trustees and President Greg Hall envisioned a dynamic and academically demanding program where ministers could receive top-notch training without uprooting their families or leaving their local churches. President Hall gathered with ministry and education veterans making this poignant mandate: make the Board's dreams practically attainable. These experts set out to create a virtual campus with all the vital elements students would need to learn and thrive online.

Our first challenge was to find fertile soil for such a program: the Internet with its vast accessibility met this challenge. Via the net, students and faculty could keep in touch from across the globe, right in the comfort and convenience of their own offices and homes.

Next, experts from Warner's Church Ministry Department teamed up with our Adult and Continuing Education Department to devise a curriculum that coupled cutting-edge ministry materials with classical Biblical studies tools. After months of planning, countless meetings and hours of prayer, Warner's Online Church Ministry program began taking shape. It was to be a rigorous program, in every way compatible with Warner's on-campus ministry programs--while being tailored to the needs of working adults involved in full-time ministry.

The planted seeds took root and flourished. In time, exemplary faculty members were in place; Biblically based curriculums were developed; and strategic technologies were acquired. The final phase of this gestation period was our formal approval from the regional accrediting body: the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS).

Since that time, Warner's Online Church Ministry program (formerly known as Distance Ministry Program) has blossomed into a vital, Internet-based ministry program with students from coast-to-coast.

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Call 1-866-401-7075, or e-mail ocm@warner.edu, for more information!