Meet The Director
The Interim Board of IRBS UK is delighted to announce that Enoch Adekoya, a member of the board for several years, has been appointed Director, beginning Jan/2025.
Enoch served as Pastoral Assistant at St. Giles, Islington, and has been called to pastor Grace Baptist Church, Port Erin. He holds a Master’s in Theology and is currently pursuing a PhD in Political Theology at the University of Manchester, where he has served among the Postgraduate Researchers under the Lincoln Theological Institute. Enoch has been actively engaged with the work at IRBS UK as one of the Interim Board members. He is currently a member of Trinity Grace Church, Ramsbottom. He and his wife, Rosie, are blessed with three daughters.
Alongside distance and legacy courses, IRBS (International Reformed Baptist Seminary) currently offers four in-person courses a year, ranging from the one-year Certificate in Reformed Baptist Studies to the four-year Master of Divinity. Enoch’s appointment will enable IRBS to cultivate the growth of their UK faculty and facilities at their base – Trinity Grace Church in the North West of Manchester.
He says, “It is a delight to formally join IRBS UK as the new Director. Having had the joy of serving on the Interim Board, I have witnessed the seminary meet the increasing demand for training gospel ministers across the nation and beyond. IRBS has been richly blessed with gifted pastor-scholars whose dedication and commitment the Lord has blessed tremendously in recent years. I am deeply honoured and thankful for this call and pray that God makes use of this appointment to further the seminary’s vision: equipping confessionally grounded stewards of the gospel to faithfully labour for the glory of Christ among the churches.”
To learn more about IRBS UK or sign-up for one of the four in-person courses in the year, visit the website below
A Distinctively Reformed & Baptist Seminary: The Story of International Reformed Baptist Seminary & the UK.
Prof James Renihan, alongside a team of like-minded brothers trained young men for the ministry through the Institute of Reformed Baptist Studies, based at Westminster Seminary in California, for many years.
By God’s grace, a residential Seminary was finally established in Texas in 2018. The IRBS faculty are training more men each year to be faithful pastors, powerful preachers and sound theologians at their Mansfield campus and online.
Since 2011 Dr James Renihan has visited the UK many times to encourage and direct us to return to our confessional roots and build churches that are distinctively Reformed Baptist, committed to the Second London Confession of Faith.
Our relationship with IRBS has grown in recent years, and we have recognised the need for a theologically rigorous confessional Baptist Seminary in the UK. In light of this, we began holding training weeks where Dr Renihan came and taught some of his courses, first he taught Baptist Symbolics, which explores the Reformed Baptist Confessions, their context, content and use.
In the Spring of 2020, Dr Renihan came and taught his ‘Theology of Ministry’ course to twenty-two registered students, seven of them taking the course for credit and carrying out the course assignments. This was a week of MDIV level training on the nature and practice of gospel ministry including teaching on the call, the role of the minister, preaching, worship, the gifts and graces of the minister and much more.
Shortly after this week, the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic halted our efforts in arranging future in-person training days. However, in God’s providence, this provided the opportunity for UK brothers to take IRBS courses as the Seminary moved to online teaching over the summer months. Several men took courses in Basic and Intermediate Biblical Hebrew, Puritanism and Puritan Preaching. These courses were a great blessing to those that attended them, and we thank God for working out his gracious purposes through a time of trial and challenge.
Since then, we have recommenced in-person courses in the UK, with teaching from both Dr Renihans (Jim and Sam) on the doctrine of the Church and Covenant Thelogy, Dr Barcellos on Hermeneutics and Dr Montgomery on Patristics. We are now able to hold four in-person courses each year, adding UK professors such as Dr Robert Stivens, who has taught his Puritanism class.
Please pray that God will make it possible for these weeks of teaching to develop and that in future days men may be fully trained in the Scriptures through these weeks of biblical and confessional teaching.
2025 Course Schedule
IRBS UK is pleased to host four residential courses this upcoming year. IRBS serves a global constituency, offering Masters degrees which provides robust academic preparation theological and ministerial disciplines. The courses are also available to pastors and men who desire to grow in their understanding of theology and be refreshed by the sound biblical teaching. All our instructors are outstanding scholars and experts in their respective fields, as well as having a wealth of knowledge and experience as pastors.
Here is a list of courses for 2025:
BAPTIST CHURCH HISTORY
3-7th February
Dr Robert Strivens
PROPHETS
19-23rd May
Dr Josh henson
THEOLOGICAL PASTORING
7-11th July
Dr Ryan Davidson
BIBLICAL THEOLOGY
13-17th October
Dr Richard Barcellos
Doctrine of God, May 27th-31st 2024
IRBS UK is pleased to have Dr James Dolezal, associate professor of theology in the School of Divinity at Cairn University in Langhorne, PA teach Doctrine of God in May 2024.
This course will consider the doctrine of God (theology proper) by examining God’s existence and
attributes, his triunity, and his acts of decree, creation, and providence. The contrast between classical Christian theism and its modern alternatives will be given special attention.
Spaces are limited in order to facilitate discussion and personal engagement in the classes, so be sure to make your booking as soon as possible to secure your place.
IRBS Church Partnership Program
IRBS Theological Seminary recently launched a new program for local churches to partner with them in the training of men for the ministry. Local churches can partner with IRBS and IRBS UK by investing in confessional ministerial training through financial support.
Churches that regularly support the seminary with a monthly gift of £150 ($200) will receive significant benefits including tuition-free enrollment for members of your church, free access to video courses, and reduced costs to various resources.
For more information about how your church can partner with IRBS TS and IRBS UK please consult their website, Church Partnership Program – IRBS Theological Seminary (irbsseminary.org)<https://irbsseminary.org/church-partnership-program/>
