Equipping Disciples
Preparing Shepherds
Proclaiming God’s Word
The mission of the Reformed Baptist Institute is to worship God through deepening discipleship opportunities and preparing pastoral candidates to apply the whole counsel of God's word in His church and to the world.
We believe, teach, and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, that He is the Son of God who came in human flesh to fulfill the law of God, was crucified for our sins, buried, and raised again so that through repentance from sin and faith in Him we are forgiven and counted righteous in God’s sight. We affirm the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 and the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith 1689.
Reformed Baptist Institute is non-accredited and a ministry of Village Church in Midlothian, Virginia.
Welcome
Seminary is not for everyone, but church members should be approaching a seminary-level knowledge on many topics as they grow more spiritually mature. The Reformed Baptist Institute is just one of the ways that we accomplish this aspect of discipleship.
Seminary is for pastors, but many seminaries have shifted to addressing the aforementioned purpose of discipleship for non-pastoral roles instead. A young man, considering the pastorate, is pulled from the very context in which he first sensed and confirmed his call to the ministry - his local church - and relocates, having to start over in terms of housing and employment, church and ministry. Not only are some of his professors not pastoring, they may have never pastored at any point in the past. Ordinarily, someone might question why young men go off to be trained for pastoral ministry from men (and women) who have no pastoral experience. The overly general focus of the seminary, and its almost purely academic approach, not only results in the problem above, but means that everyone receives the same training that is supposed to prepare a man for the pastorate.
The Reformed Baptist Institute seeks to meet these challenges by operating within the context of the local church, leaving men where they are already serving in ministry, freeing them from the possibility of decades of debt from relocation and student loans, and providing seminary-level, hands-on, practical training from men who not only have extensive experience in the pastorate, but actively serve as pastors now. While RBI still meets the more general need of providing seminary-level courses for the whole church through its Discipleship Track, it specializes in training pastors through the Pastoral Track, which is limited to those who come under the church’s care in understanding, responding to, or pursuing a call to pastoral ministry.
Meet our Team
Dr. Steve Gentry
Instructor at the Reformed Baptist Institute
Lead and founding Pastor of Village Church in Midlothian, Virginia
Dr. Nate Schlomann
Instructor at the Reformed Baptist Institute
Executive and founding Pastor of Village Church in Midlothian, Virginia
Instructor and Director of the Reformed Baptist Institute
Pastor of Theology and Apologetics at Village Church in Midlothian, Virginia