Welcome to the first and only Baptist seminary to the English-speaking Caribbean region!
Northwestern Caribbean Baptist Theological Seminary offers theological training for men and women called of God to Christian ministry, present and future leaders who will serve the churches within the Caribbean community in their mission to reach the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Understanding the foundation of biblical authority and the call of the Great Commission, Northwestern’s motto is: “To Know Christ and His Word … and Make Him Known to the World.”
About Us
Northwestern Caribbean Baptist Theological Seminary, located in Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands, is a not-for-profit theological training institution cooperatively supported by churches in the US, the Fellowship of Baptist Churches of the Cayman Islands, and the larger Caribbean Baptist Fellowship. Launched in March 2018, in a partnership effort with the Center for Global Theological Innovation of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Ft. Worth, Texas, NCBTS was born out of a vision to train pastors and church leaders for the English-speaking Caribbean, a diverse region of eight and a half million people living on numerous islands stretched across and around the Caribbean Sea.
Our history starts with the dream of a church...
In the Fall of 2016, Randy Von Kanel, pastor of the Cayman Islands Baptist Church in Grand Cayman, along with George McCarthy, a lay-leader in the congregation, met with leadership of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and in Ft. Worth, Texas. The group met over breakfast at Pecan Manor on Seminary Hill as guests of Dr. and Mrs. Paige Patterson on October 5. The two brothers shared the need for the training of pastors and church leaders for the Baptist churches in the Caribbean region. The reality that no Baptist school, college, seminary, or theological training institution existed for the more than eight million English-speaking people in this strategic part of the world caught the attention of every heart at the table. A vision was born that gave way to an eventual partnership for the incubation, birth, and launch of NCBTS.
The seminary was chartered and legally recognized in the Cayman Islands in the summer of 2018. Classes are offered both on the campus of the local host church, the Cayman Islands Baptist Church located in the Savannah community, and through distance-learning sites functioning or anticipated in Trinidad (2018) and in the Bahamas (2019) in a partnership effort with the Caribbean Baptist Fellowship. The strategic development of the seminary is centered around two core concerns:
• Our Vision: To be a Christ-centered, distinctively-Baptist, Caribbean-based theological training institution recognized for its excellence in equipping persons called by God to proclaim the Gospel and lead in Christian ministry.
• Our Mission: To provide quality biblical, theological and pastoral training for Caribbean pastors and local church leaders that is affordable, accessible, and applicable in the Caribbean setting.
From its inception, Northwestern Caribbean Baptist Theological Seminary has been a testimony to the providence of God and to the prayers of His people in providing a way for local Baptist church leaders to be equipped for biblical ministry and mission.
