For the Church Institute Reaches 15,000 Subscribers

Kansas City’s Midwestern Seminary is celebrating a significant milestone for its For the Church Institute platform, which has now surpassed 15,000 subscribers worldwide. Launched in the summer of 2020, For the Church Institute exists to support biblical training within local churches by providing free, video-based curriculum taught by Midwestern Seminary faculty.

“I am very encouraged by how the Lord continues to use our For the Church Institute,” said President Jason Allen. “When we first envisioned it, we thought it could serve the Church well. But we had no way of knowing how it would actually be received. We praise the Lord that He continues to equip and edify His Church through this platform, and we are eager to see more courses developed for the Church.”

From its inception, FTC Institute was designed to serve pastors, ministry leaders, and church members by equipping them with accessible, theologically rich resources that strengthen discipleship and biblical literacy within the local church.

“Our hope from the beginning was to put a tool into the toolbelt of pastors that aids them in disciple-making, said Jordan Wilbanks, vice president of church partnerships. “Given that most pastors don’t have time to write curriculum or build training programs, we aimed to give them a structure to work around with solid content from some of the best Bible teachers in the world—the MBTS faculty.”

FTC Institute offers a growing library of courses, with topics ranging from Scripture and doctrine to church history and the Christian life. While the platform is accessible for self-paced learning, its primary aim is to serve the life of the local church through small groups, Sunday School classes, staff and volunteer teams, and other discipleship contexts.

“We wanted to build a free resource that could serve regular church members and help them take ownership of their growth in biblical literacy—and at the most fundamental level, help them grow in their love for their God and His Word,” Wilbanks said. “Sometimes regular Christians lack confidence in handling the Word, and even subconsciously, the work of ‘theology’ can be designated to ‘professional Christians’ like pastors.”

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Wilbanks emphasized that FTC Institute is intentionally designed to cultivate theological confidence among everyday believers. “We want to see teenagers growing in the knowledge of how the Old Testament teaches and anticipates Christ. We want to see new believers see how the sovereignty of God plays out in all areas of life. We want to see regular Christians—working in factories and universities, sports arenas and schools, grocery stores and banks—flexing their own theological muscles and discovering that the Word of God is accessible, knowable, and meant to be reproduced in their lives.”

Churches across the country have already experienced the impact of FTC Institute in their discipleship efforts. Tim Williams, pastor of The Vine Church in Mount Pleasant, Texas—a church plant partnered with the Send Network—shared how the platform has strengthened his congregation.

“I love the FTC Institute model because it takes a huge weight off my shoulders when it comes to prep, and it allows me to entrust facilitation to newer believers without sacrificing class quality,” Williams said. “Our plan is to finish the New Testament track this school year, and we’re already thinking ahead to what class will be best for next year.”

FTCI has also been used in nontraditional ministry contexts. Terry McIlvoy, a counselor with a recovery center in Kentucky, described the platform’s influence on men in recovery. “FTCI has become an integral part of our ministry to these men,” McIlvoy said. “These courses have helped us instill a greater level of faith and commitment to ministry in many men who have gone on to serve not just in our center, but beyond in several local churches.”

Student Pastor Kevin Browning of First Baptist Church in Cleveland, Alabama, highlighted FTC Institute’s flexibility and long-term value. “We are so excited about the resources at For the Church Institute,” Browning said. “Our team is working through the courses and building a discipleship pathway for our congregation primarily built upon FTCI. The ability to utilize these resources in various formats allows us to create multiple bridges to our people and bring them into a deeper relationship in their life of faith.”

As FTC Institute continues to grow, Midwestern Seminary plans to expand both the depth and breadth of its offerings. Upcoming developments include enhanced learner workbooks for each course and several new classes slated for release. This spring, FTC Institute will release Discerning Your Call to Ministry with Dr. Jason Allen. Additional courses currently in production include Doctrine of the Church with Sam Bierig and Introduction to Christian Theology with Ronni Kurtz.

Looking ahead, Wilbanks emphasized that the Institute will remain guided by the needs of local churches. “We will continue to listen to pastors in what will help their people, while leveraging the expertise and gifting of our faculty,” he said. “We pray that For the Church Institute can be an instrument of God and of local pastors to center church members and fasten them to the anchor of the Word—and that it multiplies their joy as they feast on God’s Word with increasing delight.”

For more information about For the Church Institute or to access its free courses, visit ftcinstitute.org.

– By BRETT FREDENBERG, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary