Northwest Gap-Year
Northwest's Gap-Year is a nine-month apprenticeship program that allows you to serve your local church or other ministry context. Whether you are pursuing vocational ministry or simply want to elevate your understanding of God, the Bible, yourself, and the world around you, Gap-Year will provide you an opportunity to serve, study, and grow with the help of a team of mentors. This holistic program isn't just a placeholder for your life, it's a strategic investment in your personal and spiritual growth.
Discover your next step and be equipped to love God, and love your neighbour as yourself, in your context.
Competency-Based Program
Mentor-directed Learning
Hands-on Ministry
Interested in Gap Year? Complete an interest form and we will contact you.
Program Details
At Northwest Seminary & College, we exist to help churches, camps, and other ministry organizations train their emerging leaders. That is why Gap Year exists. Gap Year helps ministry organizations supplement volunteer programs, summer internships, or even part-time ministry positions by allowing emerging leaders to grow in their knowledge, skill, and character, equipping them to better serve.
The Gap Year program ensures that students develop in 5 main areas:
- Bible: Communicate the meaning of a scriptural passage at a personal and person-to-person level.
- Theology: Survey historic and modern Christian thought to describe Christianity’s essential doctrines.
- Formation: Define worship and discipleship and be shaped by the ordinances, practices, disciplines, and habits that nurture worship and discipleship.
- Ministry: Recognize the church as a primary means by which God speaks to, saves, and shapes people and participate in speaking, saving, and shaping through service in a local church.
- Culture: Respectfully differentiate a Christian worldview from other worldviews.
- General Studies: Develop cross-disciplinary knowledge and skills.
After Gap Year
Gap Year is an investment in deepening your understanding of God and the Bible, discerning God’s calling in your life, and better understanding who you are and where God is leading you. It will give you a foundation to take your next step – whatever that may be!
By completing the six Gap Year outcomes, you will earn an 18-credit certificate of completion from Northwest Seminary & College. The program is accredited and transferrable to any other Northwest program or for credit to other institutions. That means that when you complete Gap Year, you can continue on your studies at Northwest or elsewhere.
Gap Year is the first of four laddered credentials leading to a Northwest Bachelor of Arts in Christian Leadership.
Program
Gap Year
Gap Year +
Diploma
BACL
Credits
18
30
60
120*
Credential Earned
Ministry Apprenticeship Certificate
Certificate of Christian Foundations
Diploma in Christian Leadership
BA in Christian Leadership
Purpose
Develop personal understanding and confidence
Develop broader understanding, prepare for further Bible education
Develop as a Christian leader
Prepare for Christian ministry as a vocation
*Note that 27 credits in the BACL program are comprised of general studies that can be taken through Northwest or transferred in from another school.
Ministry Context
Northwest's mission is to enable ministry organisations to develop the future lay and vocational leaders that are growing up in their context. As a foundational, ministry apprenticeship program, Gap Year is a key aspect of this mission.
A student's ministry context serves a vital role in their development. Student's are asked to serve around 10 hours a week in various ministry opportunities from their context and may also serve in a summer internship. The ministry context provides a ministry mentor that also serves on the mentor team for each student.
Additionally, ministry contexts that are training multiple students are empowered to contribute to their student's development in additional ways. If you are a leader in a ministry context and want to partner with Northwest to develop multiple leaders, please contact us to discuss how you can customize your student's experience.
Program Information
Outcomes
Northwest's Gap Year is a competency-based theological education (CBTE) program. Northwest's CBTE programs utilize outcomes which identify knowledge, skill, and character qualities that are developed in those outcomes. Outcomes in Gap Year each are worth 3-credits and can be consider similar to a course. The 6 outcomes in Gap Year are listed below.
Seminars
Part of completing outcomes includes attending seminars taught by Northwest faculty. Gap Year students participate in two seminars per term for a total of four seminars throughout the year with each seminar consisting of weekly classes hosted in person and on Zoom. This hybrid model taught from our fully equipped digital classroom allows students to enjoy the classroom environment but remain in their local context.
Cohort meetings
Gap Year students participate in weekly meetings with other students in their cohort and lead mentor. These group meetings are used to build relationships, engage in discipleship, and share insights from work each student is doing.
Retreats
Gap Year opens up with an orientation retreat in which students build initial relationships and learn how to engage the program. And then the year closes with a retreat that helps students engage their final assignment and celebrate their year together.
Financial Information
Tuition and fees for the Gap Year in 2024-25 are $xxxxx, payable in two instalments . The first is due in September, and the second is due in January. Students serving in church or ministries affiliated with the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches in Canada may be eligible for tuition discounts.
This price covers the cost of your program tuition, seminars, both retreats, and access to Northwest’s digital library resources. In addition to program tuition, you will be responsible for the costs of additional books and travel to each of the two retreats.
Mentors and Faculty
Gap Year students will have the opportunity to interact with a number of Northwest staff and faculty both in class and in the mentor teams. Including:
Kajle Radbourne
Academic Mentor
Kajle brings pastoral experience in both rural and urban environments to his role as academic mentor.
Ana Rayes
Lead Mentor
Ana brings care and compassion to her role as lead mentor and is driven to help students succeed in their studies and ministry.
Dr. Michael Morelli
Faculty
Dr. Morelli brings a passion to help student see the fullness of who God is and engage different perspectives as they connect their study to worship.
Dr. Joel Korytko
Faculty
Dr. Korytko's energy and active research in Old Testament often leads to exciting discussions in the classroom as he helps student engage the bible.