Michelle Nunn

We’re ready to clock up another century!

As Regents Theological College gets ready to mark 100 years of preparing people for ministry, there are some big changes on the way, explains Michelle Nunn

At the start of 2025, the team at Regents Theological College has a lot to reflect upon and look forward to, writes new Principal Michelle Nunn.

It was just over 100 years ago, in November 1924, that George Jeffreys and EJ Phillips shared their vision for a Bible college that would train men and women for Elim ministry. April 2025 will mark 100 years of preparing people for ministry and service through Elim’s Bible College. An anniversary that we will be celebrating in the year ahead.

For staff and students at Regents, 2024 was a year of significant change. Early in the year, Principal Dave Newton moved on to become Scripture Union’s National Director for England and Wales. Then at the end of the summer, Paul Folland, Pastoral Dean, left Regents to take up another key role at Scripture Union.

At the same time, Pete Read retired as Vice (and Acting) Principal, thankfully committing to lecture for another year. These changes led to my appointment as Principal in August and Simo Frestadius as Vice Principal in September.

Further changes have happened within the team, with Ollie Ward increasing his focus on the Spiritual Formation of our students and David Johnson taking the lead of the Institute of Pentecostal Studies. We have also created some new part-time chaplain roles to improve the well-being of our students.

This year, the Regents’ team is feeling particularly grateful to God. After some challenging years during and after the Covid-19 pandemic, Shelley Cave our Student Services Manager received a prophetic word at the Elim Leaders’ Summit from a chaplain who was representing another charity attending ELS. The word recognised the struggle of the previous years and encouraged us to look and see what God would do and be astonished at God’s blessing.

Since that time, we have seen increased applications, dramatically increasing our September 2024 intake, particularly for campus students, which doubled on the previous year.

Our campus undergrads are generally aged 18-25, with mature students often choosing the context learning option, which means they can study from their own home or church environment whilst visiting Regents in Malvern for a week of teaching for each module.

We also have a balanced ratio of male and female students; and 50 per cent of students come from Elim churches, and the remainder from further afield.

Most applicants for Elim ministry now apply having studied for a degree, master’s or Elim’s Ministerial Foundation Certificate. The Regents’ team consider it an immense privilege that our students trust us with their education and ministerial training.

We are readying ourselves as a team for a season of significant change in 2025. We will be celebrating the Bible college’s centenary and working to establish Regents as a new charitable company. Naturally, some will be concerned that these organisational changes will weaken the college’s links to Elim. However, the team and I are working to strengthen our connections.

In addition to myself and the other Elim ministers on the team at Regents, including Jenny Kimble (Dean of Undergraduates) and Simo Frestadius (Vice Principal), the new charity will have a group of trustees including Elim minister Dr Rev Neil Hudson (Chair of Trustees), Elim’s Director of Ministry Stuart Blount, and two further National Leaders, James Glass and Kojo Wood.

In addition, other trustees include Elim ministers Anna Chan and Wendy Pawsey, Claire D’Abreu-Hayling, who has served as an Elim local church elder and Jo Davies, our student representative. Longstanding member of the Elim family and Regents Operations Director Andrew Cave is on the board as well as some others who bring expertise from outside of Elim.

A century ago, George Jeffreys in the Elim Evangel asked the Elim family to pray for the provision of premises, funds for the work and wisdom for the choice of staff. Today, Regents enjoys sharing premises at Malvern with Elim’s Central Office, accesses student funding to support the work and has an outstanding team.

We ask that you, our Elim family, cover the Regents’ team and students in prayer throughout this time of transition so that we can excel in preparing our students for ministry and service, and help Elim and other denominations in continuing to develop those in ministry.

We ask you to pray that we would experience God’s continued favour in the provision of donations, grants and other funding to support the growth of the college ministry and ensure its sustainability and place within the Elim family.

We have a centenary programme for 2025, and hope many of our Elim friends and family will join in our celebrations and participate in events throughout the year.

A centenary book celebrating the history of Regents will be available at the Elim Leaders’ Conference in May 2025.

If we can help your church develop ministers, please do not hesitate to contact us. In the meantime, the team at Regents wishes our Elim family a blessed 2025.

This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details about Direction, please click here.