Ep. 29 | The Future of Immerse w/ Ruth McGillivray, Kyle Nichols, & David Horita
We needed to find a way to train pastors who knew how to apply the theology they were learning to real church situations with real people who have real problems.
This was the challenge that led to Immerse. Immerse is a competency-based Mdiv program where students earn their Masters degree while continuing to work in their ministry context.
In this episode, Krista Penner from our Leadership Development team has a conversation with Ruth McGillivray, Interim President at Northwest Seminary & College; Kyle Nichols, Lead Pastor of Princeton Baptist Church; and David Horita, Regional Director of Fellowship Pacific about why this innovative style of education has been so effective in training up pastors.
They also share about an exciting new expansion of Immerse that will make this type of learning experience available and accessible to even more leaders, whether in the church or in the community!
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Living Life Backwards by David Gibson
RUTH MCGILLIVRAY
Ruth joined the staff of Northwest in 2017 as the Director of Competency-Based Education. She has a rich and extensive history in developing CBE programs, having formed such programs in the high-tech and Canadian apprenticeship sectors since the early 1990’s. In 2019, Ruth transitioned her role to become Northwest’s Chief Innovation Officer, and in 2020, she became the Chief Operations Officer and is currently serving as the Interim President.
Ruth has her Master of Arts in Learning and Technology from Royal Roads University. She has been the Conference Director since 2018 for the annual international conference on CBTE, held in partnership with the US-based Competency-Based Education Network (C-BEN), and leads a CBTE Advocacy Group comprised of leaders from the Association of Theological School, In Trust Resource Center, C-BEN, and four seminaries.
KYLE NICHOLS
Kyle is the lead pastor of Princeton Baptist Church. He and his wife Rachel (who is beautiful and amazing and who suffers patiently with Kyle’s many changing interests (imagine it!)), moved to Princeton in 2012 where they started their family (currently holding at three young kids), and where they first felt the call to ministry.
Kyle loves his family and is passionate about Christ’s church; passionate about seeing us move as a family in the direction God calls us.
DAVID HORITA
David completed his Master of Divinity at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and then went on to serve in both small and large churches, including planting a church in Surrey in 1990. During those years he also received his Doctor of Ministry degree and worked extensively on a variety of Fellowship Pacific Boards before stepping into the position of Regional Director.
David greatly enjoys working alongside the team in the Fellowship Pacific Ministry Centre, applying much of his education and experience to developing church-focused tools to help them achieve their unique vision within the Kingdom of God.
He has been married for over thirty years to his wife Jo-Anna, and they have three adult sons. David and Jo-Anna love dogs, especially their wheaton terrier puppy—Winston Furchill, who is the unofficial office therapy dog.