NPTS Fall Intensives Gather Students for In-Person Learning and Formation

In September, North Park Theological Seminary (NPTS) hosted intensives in Illinois, California, and Nebraska, gathering new and returning students from across the country and around the world for in-person coursework and deepened relationships with faculty, staff, and fellow learners.  

North Park Theological Seminary welcomed in-person and distance students to Chicago September 15–18, 2026, for Campus Immersion, an intensive week that blended academic formation, community building, worship, orientation to Seminary life, and field trips on Chicago’s North and South Sides for a taste of the city’s culinary and intercultural riches. 

A highlight of the week was Fall Convocation, a formal academic and worship service that celebrated the beginning of the academic year, honored returning students, and welcomed new students into the NPTS learning community: sixty men and women across the Master of Divinity, Master of Arts in Christian Formation, Master of Arts in Theological Studies, and certificate programs. Convocation speaker Rev. Richard W. Johnson, Director of the Weborg Center for Spiritual Direction, preached about “Theology in Service to the Living God.” Drawing on one of NPTS’s core values, the service emphasized that theological study is not an end in itself, but a means of serving and responding to the living God through faithful discipleship and ministry.  

Ignite and Equip ECC conference cohorts gathered in California and Nebraska the following week, September 21–25, for intensive courses. At Mission Springs Conference Center in Scotts Valley, California, we welcomed the seventh Ignite cohort: thirty students representing seven sponsoring ECC conferences.   

The in-person intensives that open each academic year reflect North Park Theological Seminary’s pietist commitment to theological education rooted not only in academic excellence but also in embodied  community, worship, and spiritual formation. 

Join us in celebrating North Park Seminarians beginning and continuing their theological education this year—and in praying for God’s sustaining, forming, and transforming presence in their journey together.