Year-round contextual training

When you join the Trinity community, we will work with you to discern what experiences you need to gain to help you prepare well for the type of ministry to which God is calling you.

Based on our conversations with you, we will place you in a context church for the duration of your training. There you will serve alongside others from your pastoral group at Trinity—enhancing the ways in which you can learn together and support one another—and receive supervision and mentoring from an experienced church leader.

Your church placement is important not just for the hands-on leadership experience it gives you, but because it forms the context for your assessed learning. You can use your placement experience very intentionally in order to gain particular experiences you’ve not yet had in ministry; you can also gain the experience of serving in a church environment different from the type of church from which you’ve come. You choose your church context in conversation with Trinity tutors to determine what will best fit you, given your past experiences and your future calling.

We partner with a wide range of local churches to give you the best possible chance of exploring the type of ministry setting God may be calling you into, whether in villages, deprived neighbourhoods, suburban areas, or in the city centre. (Take a look at our partner churches.)

Your practical experiences of ministry will inform your academic assignments for classes on topics such as leadership, worship, mission and pastoral theology, and vice versa – it’s all part of the holistic nature of your training.

Read more about how our students are changed through their church placement experience >

 

Latest blog posts

Academic Awards celebration

We had a wonderful day on Saturday at our annual Academic Awards ceremony, celebrating the academic achievements of students  at Trinity College Bristol and Bristol Baptist College. At the service at St Mary’s, Stoke Bishop, Bishop Graham Tomlin delivered an uplifting address. The celebrations ended with lunch at Trinity and a chance for old friends […]

Mike Pilavachi visit

We were delighted to welcome Mike Pilavachi to Trinity College last week. The founder of Soul Survivor and a powerful speaker, evangelist and author, Mike brought his trademark enthusiasm and humour to an address to the School of Leadership in the afternoon and a packed audience at a celebration hosted by St Mary’s Stoke Bishop […]

Jubilee Scholarship launched

At the time of Trinity College’s 50th Anniversary, research was conducted into the history of our building, which showed that the family who built Stoke House had links with the transatlantic slave trade. In response to this history, and in recognition of the ongoing benefits we receive from the building, Trinity College is pleased to […]

New Principal announced for Bristol Baptist College

Congratulations to Revd. Peter Morden who will be taking up the role of Principal at Bristol Baptist College at the start of the 2023/24 academic year. He has served as Senior Pastor at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Leeds since 2017, and in the 10 years before that held a variety of roles at Spurgeon’s College, […]