Calvary Chapel Bible College Europe is on the move!

The Bible college originally began at the castle in Austria which was purchased by Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa more than 25 years ago. As nation after nation began opening up to the gospel with the fall of the Soviet Union, CCBCE then moved to Hungary with a strategic vision to bring the gospel to Eastern Europe. With many of these countries now having national pastors and leaders at the helm of mission-sending churches, the frontier of missions for CCBCE is now moving further East.

Where is CCBCE going?

The country of Georgia is located in the Caucasus mountains—a place where east meets west. Georgia is strategically positioned as a bridge between Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Seventy-six percent of Georgia’s population belongs to the Georgian Orthodox Church. Georgia was the second country in the world (after Armenia) to adopt Christianity as the official state religion in 326 AD. Georgia borders Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Russia. It is in close proximity to Iran, Iraq, and Jordan where visitors from these nations are welcome to travel freely to and from Georgia for leisure, education, and business.

Doors are opening wide.

Georgia is surrounded by nations that have historically been difficult to reach with the gospel. And yet, the doors of many of these places are now shaking. God is doing a work throughout the world and we believe that He is going to continue using CCBCE to train pioneering leaders to venture into these places and beyond with the gospel. Five years ago, Jed Gourley and his family moved to Tbilisi, Georgia to plant a church. Now three and a half years later there is a growing body of believers. CCBCE will work in conjunction with and under the umbrella of Calvary Chapel Tbilisi.

When is CCBCE moving?

Calvary Chapel Bible College Europe will move this summer. Our Fall 2020 semester will begin in Tbilisi, Georgia, in September.

What will it look like?

The first year of classes will be an experience like no other. As foundations are being laid in this new country, opportunities for CCBCE students abound. By living in Georgia, students will interact with, and serve those who have access to places we as foreigners seldom do. Along with new opportunities that will arise being a part of this new church plant, students will be raised up and discipled in the Word of God through the Bible college programs. Calvary Chapel Bible College Europe will continue to welcome students from all over the world.

CCBCE Programs

ASSOCIATE OF BIBLICAL STUDIES: 2-year Calvary Chapel Bible College program with an emphasis on missions

SCHOOL OF MISSION: 1-year program of cross-cultural training and equipping for missions and church planting

A VISION FOR LIFE: 40-day summer youth discipleship program

Students can apply now!

We are now accepting applications for our Fall 2020 semester at ccbce.com

Yes, this is really happening! Beginning this fall, CCBCE is moving to Georgia. As you pray for us, should the Lord put it on your heart to be more involved in this endeavor, please feel free to contact us.

To God be the glory, great things He has done and wondrous things He is about to do!

Apply Now!

We at CGN and CalvaryChapel.com were able to interview a representative of CCBC Europe, Pam Markey, about the college and biblical training opportunities under the CGN Training Initiative!

1. What is the vision of CCBCE?

The vision of CCBCE is to be instrumental in raising up, equipping and sending out Christians to fulfill the mission of God that is to take the message of the Gospel to all nations at home, near and distant. We seek to do this through a systematic study of the Scriptures, discipleship and practical opportunities to reach out into the world.

2. Is there a verse that sums up the vision of CCBCE?

While it is difficult to sum up the vision of CCBCE in a verse, 2 Corinthians 5:17-20 is one that is key when to understanding who we are in the light of the Gospel.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the ministry of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”

3. What is the mission of CCBCE?

As part of our mission, we at CCBCE desire to:

. Instill students with a love for the Word and a deeper relationship with God.

. Encourage each one to have a personal encounter with Jesus.

. See them increase in the knowledge of God and His heart for the world that they too would have His love for the world. ( A love for the world and not of the world.)

. Help them go out and be a part of teams that plant churches everywhere i.e. at home and abroad

4. What are the CCBCE beliefs?

While our student body and guest teachers come from a range of church traditions, CCBCE is an evangelical institution that is part of the Calvary Chapel family of churches.

5. What is the history of CCBCE?

Millstatt, Austria: 1994 -2002

During the years while CCBCE found its home in Austria, it was mainly a place where mature believers came to grow deeper in their knowledge and understanding of the Word in order to be raised up as passionate disciples for Christ. A high priority was placed on principles of leadership as CCBCE began to take a much more serious approach toward the discipleship and raising up of pastors and ministry leaders throughout Eastern Europe.

Vajta, Hungary: 2002 – 2017

In moving to Hungary, the focus became more missional. When we first started the program in Hungary, there would be between 30-60 Hungarians onsite who were being raised up to go plant churches or become involved in ministry at their church. Even though there was an outreach focus in Austria, outreach became more of the lifeblood of the campus when it moved to Hungary. With so many church plants so relatively close to each other, it was very easy for the students to build and grow in relationship with local fellowships and help them grow, evangelize and become healthier in general. In moving to Hungary, we truly became a birthplace of missionaries.

Budapest, Hungary: 2017 – Present (2020: new announcement!)

Over our years in Vajta, the missional focus has only grown. CCBCE is a launching pad for missionaries, church planters and leaders in this generation. It became clear that the Great Commission lived out through this ministry would be best exemplified in the heart of one of Europe’s largest cities. Budapest provides many opportunities for our students to invest themselves in the many church plants in and around the city. We are encouraged by the different seasons and locations God has taken CCBCE. Join us as we embark on this new adventure in Budapest and see the ways the Lord might use us next in this city, nation, continent and planet!

CCBCE came to Hungary from Austria, as it was expanding in discipleship and church planting Europe. The desire was to continue discipling and equipping individuals to church plant throughout the world, including the Middle East, Asia, Africa and India, to mention a few. Geographically, it is in a unique location for training in cross-cultural ministry, since it is surrounded by seven countries with their different cultures only hours away in each direction including Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Ukraine and Slovakia.

6. What degree programs are offered at CCBCE?

Currently, we are offering two programs at CCBCE:

Option one: We are offering, a two year non-accredited Bible College education that Calvary Chapel has offered for decades with an added emphasis on cross-cultural evangelism and church planting.

Option two: School of Mission. This is a two-semester, plus 40-day program, which offers more focused training and equipping for those students who feel a specific call for cross-cultural missions and church planting. As part of the program, a 40-day practicum is completed by the student under the leadership of a church chosen in agreement with the student and the leadership of the college. This practicum can be completed during the winter or summer break between semesters.

7. How would you best describe the local culture for prospective students?

Our students enjoy the benefits of living in downtown Budapest, Hungary. Hungary has an incredibly rich history, and the capital of Budapest shows it off in style. Even though the city has a population of just under two million people, the city feels much smaller and more intimate. Our students enjoy the daily benefits of ever-growing coffee culture, the beautiful Danube river cutting the city in two, and an endless number of places to explore! Above all, we have the benefit of living in an environment where we get to take the classroom to the streets daily!

8. Are there outreaches/ministry opportunities students can look forward to engaging in?

Literally, every night students have the opportunity for ministry and outreach. By living downtown, as a major European capital city, our students have opportunities to live out what they are learning in class as soon as they step out of their apartments! From working with evangelism teams, ministering at skate parks, ministering to the homeless or serving in a number of churches, there is almost an endless list of ministry opportunities. Also, as a part of our school program, students are encouraged to go on weekend outreaches to local churches throughout Hungary and our neighboring countries.

While there, the students will work alongside the church and missionaries and help impact the community and encourage people to come to church. Additionally, each semester, all of our students go on a 10-day outreach to a number of locations throughout Europe. This semester, we have students ministering in Spain, Ireland, Ukraine, Hungary and Romania. It is always an exciting time as the students are stretched in areas of serving and ministry! The churches and missionaries that we partner with absolutely love having the teams come, as they are able to do larger events for the community, such as organizing and running a VBS for the kids in the community!

9. How can people apply?

The best and easiest way to apply is through the CCBCE website.

10. What is the best way to contact CCBCE?

For all questions and any general information, our registrar can be reached at office@ccbce.com.

_{Article updated on May 8, 2020.}

Have you been praying about joining a Bible college to deepen your relationship with God? Are you looking to grow in your faith in a cross-cultural setting? At Calvary Chapel Bible College Ireland (CCBCI), we aim to disciple believers into a deeper relationship with Jesus, while equipping them for ministry.

Our heart for the school is summarized well by Ephesians 3:17-19, “So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

As a smaller campus, the pastors and Bible college staff are able to get to know the students in a way that really captures the heart of this verse.

We get the privilege of discipling, praying, teaching, serving, laughing and walking alongside each student. Each term we see God move and work in unique and specific ways within each student as they experience the love of Christ at work.

It’s our sincere hope that those who spend time at our campus will go on to use the discipleship and training they have received to fulfill the call of Christ in their lives to serve Him and His people, and to reach the world with the good news of Jesus Christ in whatever form or capacity He desires.

In Ireland attending Bible college is not a common thing to do, and for this reason, we open our classes for the local believers to come, attend and audit classes, free of charge. This means that many local people come and take a class or two alongside our full-time students, creating a fantastic mix of students of all ages and people at all different stages of life.

Waterford itself is the oldest city in Ireland with a lot of history attached to it, a country historically steeped in Christianity, but today, only 0.05% of the population profess to be evangelical Christians.

Our anchoring church, Calvary Waterford, is an extremely diverse church with over 20 nationalities represented. One of the unique aspects of CCBCI is our “adopt-a-student” program. Each student is assigned to a Calvary Waterford family who will be a point of contact for the student for their whole semester. Host families will be actively involved in students’ lives in a variety of ways – praying for them, bringing students to their homes for dinner, going out for coffee or bringing students out on adventures. This helps battle any feelings of homesickness, and many students keep in touch with their host families long after they’ve left Ireland.

Discipleship is an important and central part of what we do here at CCBC Ireland.

So much so that we shape our courses each term around what each student might need. With our term capacity set around 10 students, we are able to spend more time pouring into and praying for the needs of each individual student. Our staff is honored to be a part our students’ spiritual development.

Whether through our weekly prayer and worship nights, serving in the church, sitting under incredible teaching in the classes or meeting up for coffee and a chat, our hope is that each student would be filled with the fullness of God’s love, and from that place, would seek to share the gospel with the world.

We would love to have you join us this or any term.

Apply Now!

Calvary Chapel Bible College has opened a new extension campus in Paris, France. President, Mike Dente, and Director, Stevie Ekkelkamp, share the history, vision, mission and cultural context surrounding CCBC Paris below. If you are interested and would like to attend a semester, you may apply now!

Mike Dente:

“Opening an extension campus of Calvary Chapel Bible College in France is part of a long time dream. It reminds me of 20 years ago when we first worked with Calvary Chapel Nice’s pastor, Pierre Petrignani. Often times he would joke at staff meetings being weekly ‘conferences’ for Calvary Chapel France. Though he was being witty, he was also casting vision. We talked about opening a Bible College on several occasions, and the need to train up new leaders. France is a literary society and so education matters. People feel more comfortable in their calling when they have proper training.

When we think about the need, we remember the French-speaking world is vast – it is present on almost every continent. We are thankful for the work of Sebastien Frappier in Montreal and all he’s done to raise up new leaders for the mission field. We praise God for Rob Dingman and Loren Combs and their work training pastors in the Democratic Republic of Congo, not to mention all the ceaseless work that continues in Haiti by pastors Bastia and Poteau to train up new leaders. Yet, even with all this, there is so much more to do. Consider the fact that in France alone, there is only one evangelical church for every 33,000 people.

Over our years of service in France, we’ve seen people that wanted to go farther to be better equipped for the ministry and expand their knowledge of God. We sought to give them the same options that we love in Calvary Chapel Bible College, and we encouraged them to join foreign campuses. We were able to get a few people to go, but there was always the difficulty of the language and cultural barriers. This is why we feel the solution is a campus in France.

Thankfully, the Lord brought a young, dynamic couple, Stevie and Chelsea Ekkelkamp, into our lives with experience in running a Bible College. They’ve worked for years under the ministry of Wayne Taylor at Calvary Fellowship in the Seattle area and at CCBC Seattle.” -Mike Dente

Stevie Ekkelkamp:

“After bringing the CCBC Seattle students to Paris on a missions trip, we quickly realized the nature of the French population. With identity being found in academics and the need for Jesus seemingly nonexistent, my wife and I felt the call that a Bible college in this part of Europe was incredibly necessary.

We saw the beauty of a school where we could build up students with the biblical foundation to speak on the level of the Parisians. Our goal is to build students up with a fuller understanding of the need of the grace of Jesus, the awe of God and the fullness and the truth of the Bible. With bible-centered classes, we focus on the aspects of Jesus’ teachings, the history of redemption and the spreading of the gospel. Thanks to Mike and Becky Dente’s work in France, it was evident the soil is soft and ready for something as unique and exciting as a Bible College.

As a school, we want to teach the Bible and also provide opportunity for the students to step out in faith and obedience by reaching the nation of France. This creates a student that is not only pouring into their studies but finds purpose in them through the practical outpouring of living in a different culture that requires intense, stretching steps of faith.

One thing that transcends place, upbringing, or language is the emptiness that we all search for that only Christ can fulfill. Paul shows us in Acts 17:23 when he comes across the alter that says, “To a god that is not known,” that all of us desire the real God by the emptiness we feel. We see this written throughout history in many cultures by many people. Augustine, Pascal and C.S. Lewis writes the same thing, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” (Mere Christianity). This understanding is the purpose of the school.

As CCBC Paris kicks off this semester, we are deliberately defining this school to be building up students with a biblical foundation for their own faith and a heart of spreading the good news of Christ in France and the french speaking world. We will accomplish this with classes like French Language, Church History from a French Perspective, Evangelism and Discipleship. With distinctive classes, field trips, immersed culture, international teachers and clear vision, CCBC Paris offers a once in a lifetime semester. Please join us in prayer for the school as it starts this fall, that the Lord would move mightily and for CCBC Paris to become integral in the Calvary Chapel movement.

Consider joining us whether as students, teachers or partners in support, and contact us.” -Stevie Ekkelkamp

Pray and consider a semester at our Calvary Chapel Bible College campus in Israel. There are two programs available to choose from:

1. Jerusalem:

Located in the Old City of Jerusalem where you will focus on all four accounts of the life of the Messiah in the land where He spent His life and ministry.

2. Golan Heights:

Located 20 minutes above the Sea of Galilee in a pastoral setting where you will focus on the life of David, the making of a man of God.

If you feel led to attend, applications are being accepted for Fall 2017. Enjoy this video with President of CC Bible Colleges, Pastor Brian Brodersen, as he expounds on the opportunities available at CCBC Israel.

Calvary Chapel Bible College Israel from Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa on Vimeo.