History

The Brotherhood of Evangelical Christians-Baptists of Ukraine has 150 years of history. It was time of constant harassment and persecution for brothers and sisters because of their faith in the Lord. However, the leaders of the Brotherhood understood the importance of religious education and used even brief periods of freedom for Bible, Music and singing courses and seminars.

 

At the foundation of the Irpen Biblical Seminary were two wonderful servants - J. K. Duhonchenko and A. G. Brinza.

 

Looking back at 1990, we see that the brothers Duhonchenko and Brinza originally made the right start. They received the blessing from Ukrainian Baptist Union and with God's help identified true strategic partners.

 

Brothers J. K. Duhonchenko and A. G. Brinza visited the Dallas Theological Seminary, Moody Institute (Chicago), the Masters Seminary (California), where they got acquainted with the curricula and forms of training. J. K. Duhonchenko contacted with the Slavic Gospel Association, which started to support the establishment and development of the seminary.

 

Alexey Gavrilovic Brinza was appointed to become the Rector of seminary. Brinza was a believer for over 40 years, he was the pastor in one of the Zaporozhian churches for 21 years and for 15 years he was the senior pastor in the Zaporozhye region.

 

The ministry of A. G. Brinza in seminary was not limited only with lectures. He knew every student and graduate by name, remembered important moments and experiences of their personal life, prayed for them. He participated in the lives of his students and graduates: he visited their churches and preached there, ordained them for the ministry, performed the marriage and prayed over children.

 

Alexey Gavrilovic Brinza received an "Honorary Doctor of Ministry" from Masters Seminary for his faithfulness in ministry, faithfulness to the Word of God, for the education and training of ministers for the churches.

 

A. G. Brinza with his ministry and his personal life taught students to preach the pure Word of God, to reveal the Lord in their character, behavior at home, in the church, in the community.  He warned them not to use the God-given freedom lightly, not to make a drama from worship, not to entertain audience, not to lower the level of holiness and religious upbringing.

 

1990 (December)

The Ukrainian Congress of Evangelical Christians-Baptists had decided to organize a seminary in Irpen (Kiev region). The head of the Baptist Union of Ukraine J. K. Duhonchenko suggested Alexey Gavrilovic Brinza as a candidate to become the rector of seminary. Alexey Gavrilovic Brinza was appointed to become the Rector of seminary by the decision of the Congress. The name of the seminary was approved as “Kiev spiritual educational seminary”.

 

1991 (February)

The official opening of the seminary. Dedication of the first students to study in the pastoral faculty.

 

The Pastoral Council of the Baptist Union approved teachers for the seminary: Brinza A. G. (dogma) Duhonchenko J. K. (exegesis), V. F. Goncharov (moral theology), Matviev V. N. (homiletics), Tkachuk V. D. (hermeneutics).

 

1992 (December)

At the seminary was opened the Faculty of Christian education in order to meet the urgent needs of the local churches in well trained organizers of biblical education and Sunday school teachers.

 

The Musical and Choral faculty was opened because of the lack of educated musically leaders and choral directors in the churches.

 

1993 (September)

The full-time study program "Bachelor of Pastoral Ministry" was opened on the Pastoral faculty. This program was designed in order to give a fundamental biblical-theological education for ministry in the local churches and to prepare teachers for Bible colleges and regional training centers.

 

1996 (December)

Pastor Yaremchuk I. M. was  appointed to become the prorector of seminary by the decision of the Council of Baptist Union of Ukraine.

 

1997 (April)

The faculty of Deaf-and-Dumb Pedagogy was opened as a branch of Christian Education faculty.

 

1997 (December)

The Council of Baptist Union of Ukraine decided to rename the seminary in Irpen Biblical Seminary, due to the fact that the courses in the seminary were not only for academic training of theologians, but also for preparing students for practical ministry in local churches and training centers, as well as in connection with the opening in Kiev, a new theological seminary.

 

Seminary with this name was registered in the Committee for Religious Affairs under the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

 

1999 (September)

The Masters Seminary (Sun Valley, USA),  cooperated actively with Irpen Biblical Seminary.  The new program “Master of Pastoral Ministry” (M.Div.) was organized with their initiative and support. This M. Div. program provides in-depth study of systematic theology and methods of biblical interpretation, methods of pastoral counseling and mentoring, pays great attention to the study of the original languages of the Bible and theological English.

 

2001

The preparation of interpreters and organizers of the biblical education for the deaf was started in seminary. In addition to that, that faculty started to develop common gestures to transmit the Christian biblical vocabulary and they started to publish training videos.

 

2001 (June)

It was the celebration of the 10th anniversary from the founding of the seminary. The graduation ceremony, pastoral conference and women conference for all graduates and their spouses were timed to this event too.

 

2001 (September)

Music faculty resigned from IBS and established as an independent institution - Christian Academy of Music.

 

2002 (April)

With the support of foreign donors IBS bought the building on the street Lomonosova 17-A for a future reconstruction in the educational and residential complex of seminary.

 

2006 (September)

Grand opening of the new seminary building. The Celebration of the 15th anniversary of the founding of the seminary.

 

The resumption of the Music faculty.

 

The resumption of the Christian Education program for the sign language interpreters.

 

2007 (September)

The new program “Bachelor of Christian Education” was designed in order to prepare the experts who will be able to make Bible study programs for churches and teachers of Christian ethics.

 

2008 (June)

Brinza A. G. asked to be relieved of his duties because of his health problems.      

I. M. Yaremchuk was appointed to become the new Rector of IBS by the decision of the Board of Trustee. At the request of the Board of Trustees A. G. Brinza stayed to work in the seminary as a pastor.

 

2008 (September)

On the Pastoral faculty was opened new extramural program ‘’Bachelor of Theology’’ (B.Th.).

 

Today Irpen Bible Seminary - is higher religious education center, which trains ministers for local churches and teachers for religious educational centers of Evangelical Baptist Brotherhood of Ukraine and other countries.

 

2008 (October)

Pastor, teacher and a faithful servant of the Lord Alexey Gavrilovic Brinza passed away.

 

2008 (October)

At the seminary, was started a new program of theological education "Master of Theology” (Th.M.) from the European Bible Training Center in Berlin (EBTS). The courses are taught in English.

 

2011 (October)

The celebrating of the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Seminary. The conference with participation of John Macarthur was timed with this event too.

 

Irpen Bible Seminary develops its strategy and builds the educational process in order to meet the current needs of the local churches. Their goal is to form a theologically educated, highly spiritual Christian, capable of continuous growth in knowledge, ready to develop and improve the skills of service.

 

Students have all conditions in the seminary in order to get a quality fundamental spiritual education based on biblical doctrine, in the spirit and traditions of Evangelical Baptist Brotherhood that have accumulated over the years, the wealth of experience and brought up many wonderful ministers.

 

Years of IBS confirmed that time well spent, and selected forms of education for the students are very successful.

 

We see one of the important reasons for God's favor that all seminary workers prayerfully selected for work in IBS. We select spiritually mature Christians, dedicated to the Lord, who have high personal moral qualities for the work in the seminary. 

 

The team of staff and students has established good and friendly relationship. Over the years there had been no sin or a vice or by employees, either by the students, which would entail the loss of God's blessing. We also tried to keep ourselves from the various conflicts in relations with other spiritual institutions and missions.

 

Through many years our seminary tries to keep in touch with all the local churches, where our students participate in ministry.

 

We always had a sufficient number of applicants because of good behavior of students in local churches and their participation in the ministry. Our seminary creates a positive reputation in many cities of Ukraine.

 

Our constant desire was and still is a desire to please God in all things and to serve one another.