President’s Letter

                                                                                                                                                                     Vol. XXIV, No. 1, January 2011

[Note: This is a letter from Dr. Gerald Cowen, president of Seminario Bautista Vida Nueveo is San Salvador. TCP]

In 2007 God put it in the heart of the leaders of Iglesia Bautista Vida Nueva to begin a seminary. It was needed because the numbers of new converts and new churches was growing much faster than the number of pastors ready to assume leadership. They asked me to help them establish Seminario Bautista Vida Nueva. After much prayer and planning, the seminary began classes in August 2008.

The goal of SBVN is to provide a level of education comparable to seminaries in the United States. The focus of the school is to combine strong Biblical teaching with practical application in ministry. There are three areas of emphasis at SBVN.

1. Strong Biblical Doctrine. In an environment where doctrine is weak or lacking, we want to produce pastors with a clear understanding of sound doctrine. This is necessary for the church to grow strong.

2. Aggressive evangelism. We also want to produce pastors who have a passion to win lost souls for the kingdom of God. All students participate in evangelistic crusades that are held regularly. This is the first step in fulfilling the Great Commission.

3. Expository Preaching. The only way to grow disciples is to teach them the word

of God. Expository preaching follows Scripture more closely than any other kind of preaching, so it is the only type of preaching we offer.

We believe the work of God demands the best we have, therefore we want to maintain a high academic standard that will bring out the best in each student. In only our second full year of operation, God has sent us fifty students. Almost all of these students are from San Salvador. In January we will be adding a new member to our staff. Mr. Thomas Hudgens and his wife will be moving to San Salvador to work with us. Thomas is a graduate of Southeastern Baptist Seminary in Wake Forest, NC. His wife Lesley is a native of Hondouras. Part of Thomas’ job will be to find ways to make our program available to more students. Few students in Central America can afford to move to a distant place, and pay tuition and living expenses in order to go to school. One of the plans is to make some of our classes available on line. These classes will be open to anyone in the world who speaks Spanish. If you are interested in knowing more about this ministry, contact us at: gcowensbvn@yahoo.com or check out the website at sbvn.org.