When I was a student at Bakke Graduate University, I learned about the concept of exegeting the city. The training that I received propelled me into my community to listen and learn, and to become a more transformational leader by building on what God was already doing through the people and places in the neighborhood. Recently, I had the opportunity to do a training with a church staff team on those same timeless principles and tools of exegeting the city. It was exciting to see their pastor and other staff members light up with the possibilities that God might have in store for their church and their community as they made their way out into their city.

“These concepts are timeless,” I thought to myself, as each individual shared about the signs of hope, signs of need, cultural clues, and things that they did not understand, as they came back to report on their time spent in their community. I was reminded that many of the tools and concepts that we train people on as students at BGU are meaningful from place to place and from one generation to the next. While BGU is always innovating with new concepts, we are deeply grounded in perspectives that are biblically sound, historically informed, statistically verified, skillfully taught, and increasingly relevant to people working to bring about transformation in cities around the world.

With that strong foundation, we move forward collectively to expand our global impact at BGU. In September, BGU will celebrate another class of graduates from the BGU Korea program in partnership with the Sarang Church in Seoul. In October, BGU is offering a Tri-Cities Urban Immersion in North Carolina, and we are also rolling out more world-class online classes, including an increasingly popular class called Transformation through Digital Platforms and Social Media. In November, BGU will once again have a strong presence at the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA) National Conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where we will partner with the CCDA to host global connection experiences. As we look ahead into 2026, we will host urban immersion courses in Jamaica during the January term and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, during the April term. God is moving around the world, and BGU has a critical role to play in equipping the next generation of transformational leaders to serve in many different countries. The mission continues!

Dr. Bryan McCabe

President, Bakke Graduate University