A Short History of the NWMN and CTS

In 2018, Dr. Joseph Dimitrov, President of Continental Theological Seminary, was a guest at our Network Conference, and we shared the need at CTS, as they began building phase one. CTS is the only seminary in Europe not taking any government funding, and they are training over 200 ministry students. CTS is called to impact the 39 nations in Europe with five seminary sites in Ireland, Norway, Spain, and two in France as well as Brussels. The need for facilities was acute. At that time, you gave the largest missions offering ever, nearly $135,000. We were the first network to stand with CTS in this vision.

In 2024, CTS was close to completing phase one, we again stepped out in faith to do our part. Aided by the commitment of matching funds from an anonymous donor, we gave over $165,000 and it was matched bringing the total to over $325,000. This allowed CTS to complete phase one, so Dr. Dimitrov called us the “Alpha and Omega Network” because of our two offerings at each end of phase one.

In October of 2024, I was honored to be one of the speakers at the dedication of CTS phase one. Then, as the plan for phase two was being rolled out, I sensed God asking the NWMN to help CTS again. I talked with one of our attending Executive Presbyters, Dr. Gail Johnsen, about the idea of partnering over an extended period and doing our first-ever, three-year missions capital campaign. We’ve all been involved in giving campaigns for buildings, why not missions? I said I believed God was asking us to give $500,000 between 2025 and 2027. Dr. Johnsen quickly agreed, along with her husband, Darrel.

Dr. John Easter, AGWM Director overheard this and asked me if he could match the NWMN pledge, making it a combined one-million-dollar campaign. I immediately said yes, wouldn’t you? I didn’t know the anonymous donor who stood with the NWMN in 2024 was in the room right then. John called him over and he immediately said yes, he would again partner with the NWMN for this CTS offering. In two short minutes, this became a one-million-dollar missions capital campaign.

I knew the next step was to seek approval and support from the NWMN Executive Presbytery. I presented this idea in November and asked our EP to pray for two months. We met again in January to make a decision about moving forward.

There were two pivotal moments in that Executive Presbytery discussion. The first was when Pastor Bart Orth said, “This feels like a Macedonian call for us towards CTS, that we are to come over and help them. CTS has become a network focus.” These words impacted all of us.
The second moment happened as we discussed a request from Dr. Castleberry asking us to help Northwest University. We took a step of faith, knowing Northwest University needed us, but also sensing God asking us to stand with CTS. Pastor Tyler Sollie said, “I believe we should sow some good seed. To believe God that the NWMN can give $500,000 over three years to Continental Theological Seminary, let’s take a bold step of faith and tithe that amount and give $50,000 to Northwest University now, even before we begin this capitol missions campaign”. We all sensed the Holy Spirit leading us at that moment, so we paused to pray and voted in favor of proceeding with this plan. I have never been more proud of our Executive Presbytery.