It wasn’t until Taylor Bradbury came back home that he knew he was missing something. 

An Indianapolis native, Bradbury moved his family back to the city after completing two years toward an MDiv at Sovereign Grace Pastors College and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. 

“I wanted to get back to Indianapolis to help my local church and to serve and love this city. I wanted to get back on the ground, back in action in pastoral ministry, and finish my degree online,” said Bradbury, who serves as director of ministries for New City Church, under the care of Central Indiana Presbytery. 

He soon realized that online education wasn’t what he had hoped it would be. 

“Watching lectures, submitting papers electronically … not that there is anything wrong with that, but I really enjoyed studying theology and doing my seminary education in class in a brick-and-mortar building with a professor, in person.”

Then Bradbury learned that he could continue his studies in person at Indianapolis Theological Seminary (ITS), a brand new interdenominational Reformed seminary launched by a group of Indianapolis pastors from a variety of theologically orthodox  backgrounds—Baptists, Anglicans, and Presbyterians alike. 

Keeping Learning Local

About two years before Bradbury enrolled at ITS, PCA Teaching Elder Steve Sandvig was invited to a meeting called by a group of local pastors to discuss the possibility of starting the seminary. 

With a population just over 2 million in the metropolitan area, “Indianapolis is one of the largest cities in the country without an evangelical seminary,” said Sandvig, who is currently serving as the vice president of the board of directors for ITS. 

The vision for the seminary was for it to be deeply partnered with local churches and designed for future pastors, ministry leaders, and laypeople who didn’t want to remove themselves from central Indiana in order to further their theological training. These churches would be learning labs for future pastors to serve in intern roles. 

“Typically many of those who train for the ministry need to pick up and move to another city and we are trying to encourage those kinds of people not to move but stay here, and stay connected to the church that you’re already a part of,” explained Sandvig.

Teaching Elder Dan Herron, pastor of Hope Presbyterian Church in Bloomington says that ITS meets a practical need for many.

“Classic brick and mortar seminaries have been and still can be an essential part of a minister’s development (Covenant Seminary certainly was for me and my family). However, for a growing number of men and women, uprooting from one place to begin connections in another can be a logistical, financial, familial, and vocational impossibility in many cases. Potential students, especially those with families and jobs or who may already be carrying a heavy student debt load, are just not able to invest what is necessary to attend a more residentially-focused seminary, so localized schools like ITS provide even greater opportunity for equipping more of God’s people for ministry.”

Classes currently take place at a couple of local churches. 

“With the globalization trend continuing, people in our culture long to develop greater and greater regional rootedness—local place really matters … As a result, the Church needs to be pursuing opportunities to develop people and ministries that are specific to particular places … Having a gospel-centered, Reformed seminary in Indianapolis allows us to partner with these other churches more effectively and also makes the church planting endeavor a much more realistic and attainable challenge for our local PCA churches,” says Herron.

Casting a Wide Net

In 2015, a board was formed, a president was hired—Dr. Nicholas Piotrowski, Ph.D. in biblical theology, Wheaton College—and professors began flowing in from Reformed institutions across the country to serve in an adjunct capacity, including PCA teaching elder Dr. Bill Barcley (Reformed Theological Seminary, Charlotte). 

Sandvig explains that while ITS is committed to Reformed soteriology and Covenant theology, it casts a wide net. 

“If you adhere to one of the key confessions of the Reformation—the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Second London Baptist Confession, the Belgic Confession, and the Thirty-nine Articles—you’re welcome here.”

Various PCA teaching elders from Central Indiana Presbytery with the required academic credentials have been recruited to serve as tutors and guest lecturers, including Herron, Dr. Kristopher Holroyd (senior pastor, Westminster Presbyterian Church, Muncie); Jeff Nottingham (assistant pastor, Redeemer Presbyterian Church, Indianapolis); and Brian Allred (assistant pastor, New Life Presbyterian Church, Yorktown). Roger Williams, senior pastor at New City Church (Indianapolis), serves on the board, as well as ruling elder Art Kirschmann (Christ Community Church, Carmel).

With almost 80 students and in its fourth year, ITS offers evening and weekend classes toward three programs of study: a traditional MDiv, an MA in Biblical Ministry, and a Graduate Certificate in Christian Studies. The MDiv is for those currently in or wanting to enter pastoral ministry, and the MA for those heading toward Christian education, counseling, and missions. The graduate certificate is designed for anyone who wants a more integrated “Reformed world and life view,” Sandvig explains, “those in the workplace, fathers, mothers, those in corporate America, service industries.”

In Bradbury’s classes, he has sat alongside those who are preparing for full-time pastoral ministry, as well as those who are taking it simply because they want to be better equipped for kingdom work, like a couple of full-time stay-at-home mothers who are passionate about theology.

“It’s this cool, happy amalgamation of different types of people studying the Scriptures together,” Bradbury says.

ITS is not accredited, but has established understandings with the leaderships of both Covenant Theological Seminary and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary that they will accept transfer credits to their institutions, for those who want an accredited degree.

As Bradbury nears the final stretch of his degree, he says he is looking forward to a broader ministry reach because of the relationships that have happened through the seminary. 

“There is an aspect of meeting people in the city of Indianapolis who are like-minded who I would not have met otherwise. Not only am I in a classroom sitting under a great professor teaching me the Scriptures, I’m also in class with fellow students, fellow pastors-to-be that I have met and grown to love because I’ve met them in the classroom at ITS. I have dear friends now from the south side, the north side … that I’m now friends with, co-laborers with because ITS has brought us together.”