Bachelor of Science in Pastoral Ministry

Nyack’s Pastoral Ministries department equips men and women to successfully serve the church and not-for-profit organizations locally and globally. We also prepare students to be ministers in the workplace in any professional context. We focus on the well-rounded development of our students in the areas of attitude, knowledge, and skill so that they graduate equipped with the following: an understanding of their unique calling and gifting; the ability to lead with a servant’s heart; a deep understanding of the Bible; healthy emotional, physical, and relational habits; spiritual maturity and passion; and the desire to apply biblical principles to every area of their life.

Why Study Pastoral Ministry at Nyack?

Our program is not just for students who are preparing for traditional Christian ministry in a church or parachurch organization. We also equip students who want to be more effective ministers in their community, family, secular work environment, and beyond.

Nyack College offers a Christian, academic environment where you can acquire and hone the skills needed for ministry in any context. You’ll gain a well-rounded education that will serve you in whatever ministry or industry you pursue. You’ll also form lifelong friendships that will support you in your future endeavors.

What Will I Study?

Aside from your core requirement coursework, you will take ministry classes such as Pastoral Counseling, Divine Healing, Preaching/Homiletics, Introduction to Pastoral Ministry, Church Planting, Leadership and Mentoring, Spiritual Formation, and an array of courses focusing on the Bible.

Concentrations

• Missional Living: Designed for students who desire to specialize in a ministry of evangelism, disciple-making, and church planting. May be taken both as a terminal program and as preparation for graduate studies.
• Leadership and Preaching Concentration: Designed for students who feel a call to lead through the preaching ministry. A special focus is given to the development of the young leader. May be taken both as a terminal program and as preparation for graduate studies.
• Pastoral Counseling Concentration: Designed for students who are interested in counseling within the local church or para-church organization. May be taken both as a terminal program and as preparation for graduate studies.
• Worship and the Arts Concentration: Designed for students with a call to worship ministries within the local church and beyond. A theology and practical philosophy of worship will be developed which includes preaching, music, drama, dance and the recapturing of all the arts for the Glory of God. May be taken both as a terminal program and as preparation for graduate studies.

Our Mission

Nyack College, a Christian and Missionary Alliance educational institution, through its undergraduate, graduate and seminary programs, pursues its historic mission of preparing men and women to “take the whole Gospel to the whole world.”

Core Values

Nyack seeks to exalt Jesus Christ and fulfill its mission by being:

Academically Excellent The academic excellence of Nyack has been recognized by the Middle States Commission on Accreditation, The New York State Department of Education, and The Association of Theological Schools.

Globally Engaged We live in a world that demands engagement from all of its citizens. Nyack will meet these 21st-century challenges with a commitment that for us dates back to the 19th century.

Intentionally Diverse Nyack is the most ethnically diverse Christian College in the history of American higher education. We celebrate this as an important part of both our effectiveness and our identity.

Personally Transforming This transformation is what occurs when students encounter Jesus Himself on our campus and abandon their citizenship of a self-centered, materialistic world in favor of becoming citizens of the Kingdom of heaven.

Socially Relevant Nyack graduates do more than take the words of Jesus to those who have never heard. Our graduates take the love of Jesus to those who have not known love.

A Little History

Over one hundred and thirty years ago, God ignited an overwhelming love for people of every race and tongue in the heart of a Canadian named A.B. Simpson. In those days, Simpson was pastor of a large and affluent church in Manhattan. In response to what God was doing in his own life, Simpson urged his congregants to reach out to the immigrants who were pouring into the city. He even went so far as to bring the poor and the downtrodden into his church. When he began to do this, many in the church were less than pleased.

So in a Sunday morning sermon in 1882, Simpson declared, “I am not interested in being a respectable Christian.” He left the church and began a new venture in which his burning desire to serve all people could be satisfied. He left his church to start a school in which people would be trained to take the Good News of God’s love wherever this news needed to be heard.

That school today is known as Nyack College.

Since its inception on the back of a Broadway stage in 1882, Nyack College has grown to become an institution of over 2,500 students pursuing a wide variety of graduate and undergraduate degrees on multiple campuses. At the heart of it all, is a burning commitment to bring the good news of God’s love wherever this news needed to be heard.

A.B. Simpson described this commitment as taking “the whole gospel” to “the whole world.” Today, as Nyack College serves students who represent “the whole world,” the result is a diverse and vibrant community unlike any other in higher education.