Situated one mile above sea level in the Cordillera mountain range
on the island of Luzon in northern Philippines, 150 miles (250 km)
north of Manila, and commanding a spectacular view of mountains and
ravines lies the beautiful campus of Asia Pacific Theological Seminary
(APTS). As the flagship graduate theological school for the Assemblies
of God of Asia and the vast Pacific Rim, APTS is a dynamic center of
spiritual and academic development, serving students from more than
twenty nations each year. A highly qualified multi-national missionary
faculty, themselves representing a half-dozen or more nationalities,
provides a comprehensive and demanding academic program.
Over the forty years of the school's existence, the alumni have
gone out to serve in significant roles of leadership in the churches of
the Assemblies of God and many other denominations throughout
the region. A significant proportion of the administrators and faculty
members of the approximately seventy-five Assemblies of God Bible
Schools and extension centers in Asia Pacific are alumni of APTS.
Pastors of great urban churches and pioneers in remote and difficult
places have been trained at APTS. Many national church leaders in
their respective Assemblies of God fellowships have received their
ministry training at APTS. Increasingly, graduates are moving into
foreign missions service, representing Asian national churches that are
catching the vision of taking the gospel to the unreached peoples of
Asia and the world. It would seem that the Lord of the Harvest has
been pleased to use APTS as a major factor in sustaining continuity and stability within the Assemblies of God throughout the Asia
Pacific region over these past forty years. While there have been many
contributing factors to the dynamic growth, influence and strength
of the various national Assemblies of God fellowships in the region,
APTS surely has had a significant place. Governed by a dozen national
Assemblies of God general councils that border the Pacific Rim in
partnership with the American Assemblies of God World Missions
(AGWM), APTS is truly a shared vision and ministry.
In the pages that follow, we will take a journey through the story of
this remarkable school during the first forty years of its existence. We
will review its origins and trace its process through both humble years
and those with more dramatic developments, to the present. With the
completion in 2001 of a major new facility, the Asia Pacific Center for
the Advancement of Leadership and Missions (APCALM), an edifice
that is primarily intended to facilitate the equipping of Spirit-filled
Asians and Pacific Islanders for missionary ministry, APTS is poised
to provide even greater service in the 21st Century.
