Our Mission: Biblical Education. For the World. For Free.

The Need

Just imagine the kinds of troubles that come when Christian leaders know little about the Scriptures. But where the church is growing quickly, there are very few well-prepared men and women to lead God's Kingdom. By the year 2050 more than half of the world's Christians will live in Russia, Latin America, and Africa. Between 80 and 100 million Christians live in China today. Christian minorities are growing throughout Muslim nations in the Middle East and along the Pacific Rim. But at least two million functioning pastors outside of North America do not have biblical and theological education. This is a big problem.

Historically, the church has tried to solve this problem in these ways:

1. Bring Leaders to the West
   But only 10% of these leaders return to their homelands after completing their studies, and only half of those remain for more than 5 years. As a result, this strategy robs Christians in other lands of some of their best leaders.
2. Send Missionaries to Teach
   But today, missionaries only stay on the field an average of 5 years. Moreover, it takes several years just to learn the language and culture. So, their period of effective ministry is extremely short.
3. Build Seminaries
   But it is estimated that this would take an additional $15 billion every year to build and maintain these institutions. Furthermore, if everyone that graduated from a doctoral program in an Evangelical seminary joined the staff of a foreign seminary, it would take over 100 years to staff enough seminaries to meet the need that already exists today!

Our Solution

Traditional strategies are important and should continue, though they do need to be updated and improved. But even if these strategies were perfected, the need is far too great to be met by them alone. Thirdmill works with traditional efforts, but also has a new way of meeting the urgent need for well-trained leaders throughout the world.

We are saturating the globe with a multimedia, masters-level education for Christian leaders. Our lessons are used through print, audio, the internet, DVD video (special order), as well as radio and television satellite broadcast.

In our day could there be anything more important than biblical education for the world for free?

Our Name

Thirdmill was incorporated in 1997 as Third Millennium Ministries, Inc. Christianity was about to enter its third millennium in 2001 (the third thousand-year period after Christ). Realizing that the third millennium was set to bring new and exciting challenges for advancing Christ's kingdom, we chose this name as a way to shine light on a growing problem facing Christians in the new millennium: the lack of training for church leaders as the church continues to grow throughout the world. In response to this enormous need, Thirdmill brings a radical solution: Biblical Education. For the World. For Free.