Dr. Vince Bantu will serve as the next director of Covenant Theological Seminary’s City Ministry Initiative (CMI). He takes over the position from Dr. Greg Perry, who recently accepted a role with Third Millennium Ministries.

Through conferences, events, internships, core classes, and mentorship, CMI seeks to create opportunities for students to understand and serve in intercultural environments.

Prior to his role with CMI, Bantu served as a visiting professor of missiology at Covenant, a post he began in 2016 and will continue. His main areas of scholarly interest include theological contextualization, racial reconciliation, early Christianity in Africa and Asia, and theological education in under- resourced communities. In addition to his role with CMI, Dr. Bantu leads networks in the St. Louis area such as the Inter-Minority Dialogue, Minority Scholars of Religion and Theology, and the African-American Interfaith Dialogue of St. Louis.

In a press release announcing his selection, Bantu said, “I am humbled and excited to serve Covenant Seminary and the St. Louis community in this way. I’m grateful for the solid foundation laid by my friend and mentor Greg Perry and I hope to serve in the same manner. It has been inspiring to see the tremendous things that God has been doing in recent years both in the city of St. Louis and the Covenant Seminary community. I am excited to join efforts to continue bringing them together.”

Bantu is a St. Louis native.