About Us

Our Mission, Values and Theological Position

Who is MST?

Melbourne School of Theology is a inter-denominational, evangelical Bible college that is devoted to training those with a heart for ministry and mission with a solid Biblical grounding in God’s Word.

Founded in 1920 as the Melbourne Bible Institute, then renamed as Bible College Victoria before becoming Melbourne School of Theology, the College has a 100 year long history of faithfully serving God’s kingdom locally and globally.

MST offers a range of diploma to postgraduate level studies with various focuses on Teaching Ministry, Leadership, Intercultural Ministry, Chaplaincy, Pastoral Care, Creative Arts, Worship & Spiritual Formation. MST also offers practical experience in ministry, working closely with local churches, mission and para-church organisations.

MST has a vibrant and diverse community, made up of staff and students from a range of denominations and from all parts of the world. MST is also one of a few Bible Colleges in Australia with an established Chinese Department, Arthur Jeffery Centre for the Study of Islam, and Centre for Theology & Psychology.

Our Mission

MST exists to equip God’s people with transformational theology,
biblical depth, and a missional heart, to effectively communicate the Gospel of Christ
to a diverse and changing world.

Our Values

A Passion to Glorify God

Our single greatest motivation, and the driving conviction behind all we do, is to bring glory and honour to the Lord Jesus Christ. We love God and delight in His heart being pleased by our faithfulness to his cause.

Commitment to the Scriptures

We are unashamedly of the conviction that the Bible is inspired Scripture; the literal written Word of God. Knowing the Bible, handling it well, understanding, teaching and preaching it with excellence and skill, and applying it with relevance, are central and fundamental to seeing the Gospel effectively proclaimed, and lives transformed.

Academic Excellence

We believe that excellence in learning, research, and achieving the highest possible standard of scholarship in theological education is one of the key areas in which we are called to make a contribution to the work of the Gospel. Our faculty are committed to both relevant and compelling spirit-empowered teaching, and to rigorous scholarship at the very highest level.

Character & Spiritual Formation

Our studies are about transformation not just information. Our purpose and our hope is that every single student who passes through the doors of MST, will be profoundly impacted in heart and soul; that they will experience not only spiritual growth, but spiritual renewal; and that they will develop habits of the heart that will see them continue to grow more and more like Jesus, and more in love with Jesus, throughout the rest of their lives.

Active Engagement in World Mission

MST’s story has always been the story of people with a heart and passion for global missions. Generations of men and women have been trained here, and have gone on to shape the work and world of global mission in remarkable ways. Missions has been our heritage; our lifeblood, and our passion. It remains central to who we are, and why we do what we do.

A Servant & Partner to the Local Church

We view ourselves not only as an expression of the church, but a servant to the church. We seek to come alongside local churches, listen and learn from them, engage with them, and be accessible to them, in the ministry partnership we share.

Theological Position

MST is an evangelical college, thoroughly committed to the infallibility of the Bible as the foundation for training and the empowering of the Spirit for service.

We believe and affirm:

The divine inspiration and supreme authority of the Old and New Testament Scriptures.
The Triune Godhead Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The twofold nature of our Lord Jesus Christ God and Man. His virgin birth, vicarious death and bodily resurrection.
His present majesty.
His future coming in glory.
The fall of humanity and their consequent moral depravity and need of regeneration.
Justification by faith through the substitutionary death of Christ.
Sanctification by the Holy Spirit.
Resurrection of the body and eternal judgment.

Two Colleges, One Community

In 2018, Eastern College Australia – formerly Tabor College Victoria – relocated to MST’s Wantirna campus, and the two schools entered into a new, and unique ‘two-college, one community’ relationship.

Both institutions remain separate in terms of accreditation; MST is a provider of Australian University of Theology courses in Bible and Theology, while Eastern is a Higher Education Provider in its own right. However, despite being two separate legal entities, both operate in partnership with each other and have a merged operational footprint. This allows for opportunities available to students to be significantly broadened, with new avenues for interdisciplinary Christian education, and cross-institutional credit for a range of subjects from theology to counselling.

The collaborative partnership significantly strengthens and broadens our capacity to serve the church, and equip God’s people to live for, and testify to, our Lord Jesus Christ. Being able to offer biblically focused courses at Eastern College Australia across a range of disciplines, including education, counselling, chaplaincy and pastoral care, in addition to the existing courses at MST in theology, Biblical studies, mission and ministry makes for a rich, and profoundly valuable learning environment for all our students.

While our respective faculties generally work within their natural teams (MST English, MST Chinese and Eastern), we are also seeing a sharing of teaching and delivery as well, with MST and Eastern faculty teaching in both institutions.

This collaborative partnership provides for a unique experience for our students that transcends an average college experience.

“Every day at MST and Eastern we see God at work, bringing about a beautiful convergence of theological truth, identity, calling and vocation in ways that shape women and men long after their studies here are over,” noted Tim Meyers, Executive Principal of both Colleges. “We are so thankful for this unique privilege.”

“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil,” Ecclesiastes 4:9.

Want to find out more? We invite you to come experience this difference at our colleges where we are Two Colleges, One Community.

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with us

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