Worldwide Evangelical Seminary
Training in mission, for mission.
Open and affordable theological education for Christian leaders who are already serving in their churches and ministries. Online, in English, at your own pace.
WWES Online 3.0 is planned to open its first courses by 1 December 2026.
Who we are
Three words, chosen on purpose
Worldwide
The church belongs to every people and every culture. Theological education should serve the whole church, not only the West. Many of our students live where a residential seminary is far away or simply not affordable.
Evangelical
We stand on the authority of Scripture, the centrality of the cross, the need of personal conversion and the urgency of mission. We hold the essentials firmly and the secondary questions with generosity. WWES subscribes to the Statement of Faith of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada.
Seminary
The word means a seedbed. We are not here to hand out information but to help something living grow: a person who can think theologically, lead faithfully and keep learning for a lifetime of ministry.
Why we exist
We want every WWES graduate to be a mature Christian thinker who serves the indigenous, multiplying mission of Christ’s church: making disciples, raising leaders, and planting fellowships and congregations.
You do not need to leave your ministry to learn. You study where you serve.
Our story
From letters in Finland to a worldwide seminary
A mail-based extension program in Finland in the 1990s moved online in 2009 and proved that digital texts and volunteer teachers could make theological education very affordable. WWES grew from a Doctor of Ministry project at Acadia Divinity College in 2012 and was incorporated in Nova Scotia in 2013 as WWES International Education Society.
What guides us
Learn while serving
Students stay in their churches; ministry is the classroom, in the tradition of Theological Education by Extension.
Open to those shut out
Open and affordable, by principle. Volunteer faculty; courses written for second-language English and low bandwidth.
Multiplication
Evangelical and academically serious. Every graduate teaches others (2 Tim 2:2): growth through people, not buildings.
How you study
Four steps
Apply
Fill in the application form. The WWES Selection Committee answers you by email.
Study the courses
Each course has its textbook as a Book and a PDF, your Study Questions, short quizzes and a Course Final Exam (a practice for the Year examination). Study at your own pace on a phone or a computer, and download the textbook to read offline.
Take the Year examination
Your courses prepare you. One supervised examination at the end of each year of study gives the credit and the grades. Dates and places are not set yet. In Year 1 you also do a practicum in your own ministry, with a mentor: about 24 weeks, about five hours a week. You must pass both the examination and the practicum.
Receive your certificate or degree
Year 1 leads to the Certificate, Year 2 to the Diploma, Year 3 to the Bachelor of Theology and Year 4 to a Bachelor of Arts (BA). Years 5 and 6 lead to the Master of Arts (MA).
What it takes
Studying takes real dedication: steady reading and writing, week after week. WWES is built for phones and weak connections. You need a phone or a computer, a Google or Microsoft account to sign in, and an internet connection from time to time. Quizzes and exams need a steady connection while you take them. For the Year examination a computer may be needed.
By the numbers
7,100+
students registered since 2013
22,000+
courses completed
96
countries: 85% Africa, 10% Asia, 5% other
The vast majority of students are already church leaders or teachers when they apply. Hundreds of degrees awarded, from certificate to master level. Figures: WWES registry, 9 October 2026.
Good to know
Who can apply
Christians who serve in leadership or teaching in their church or ministry, and who can read and write English well enough to study. Simple English is welcome: we assess what you understand, not your spelling or grammar.
What it costs
WWES is open and affordable. Check if you are eligible for 100% free studies. You ask for financial aid in the application form. Aid never covers travel, a device or internet.
What your studies are worth
WWES provides private theological education and is registered as a society in Nova Scotia, Canada. Whether another school, church or employer accepts our studies is their decision, so please check with them first.
Write it yourself
Everything you submit must be your own work. Text produced by AI tools or copied from elsewhere is not accepted, and submissions are screened.
Already studying with WWES?
If you already study with WWES, you continue where you study now; we will invite you to WWES Online 3.0 later. Every new student, including Master’s (MA) students, starts in the WWES Commons, and from there we guide you to the courses of your program.
Questions
Write to office@wwevangelical.ca.
Our courses
82 courses
Year 1 (Certificate)
BI-101 Old Testament Survey
Biblical Studies 4 credits
Read the Old Testament as one story, from creation to the long wait for Christ. Learn its covenants, kings and prophets, and see how it all points to Jesus.
BI-102 New Testament Survey
Biblical Studies 4 credits
Walk through the whole New Testament, from the world of Jesus to the church after the apostles, and see how it completes the story the Old Testament began.
BI-131 The Bible as History
Biblical Studies 2 credits
The Bible's faith rests on what God did in history. Learn what kind of history the Bible gives, and what history and archaeology can and cannot tell us.
BI-132 Biblical Theology
Biblical Studies 2 credits
The Bible is a library of many books, yet it tells one story. Learn to read it that way, from the first promise in Genesis to Christ, the church and a renewed creation.
ST-101 Catechism
Theology 1 credit
Learn the heart of the Christian faith by question and answer: the gospel of grace, the Bible, the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles' Creed.
ST-102 The Bible and Its Interpretation
Theology 2 credits
The Bible is the book Christians read most, and misread most often. Learn to read it with understanding and care, so that you can teach and preach it well.
ST-103 Short Introduction to Theology
Theology 2 credits
Every Christian is already a theologian; the question is whether you do theology well. Learn to see the whole faith, test a teaching and keep each matter in its right place.
ST-121 Apologetics
Theology 2 credits
Sooner or later every Christian is asked a hard question. Learn to give a thoughtful reason for your hope in Christ, with gentleness and respect.
CH-101 History of the Christian Church
Church History 2 credits
The church you belong to has a story. Follow it from the apostles in Jerusalem to the churches of the Global South today, and find your own church's place in it.
MI-101 Internship I
Mission and Ministry 5 credits
Put your faith into practice. With a ministry mentor beside you, share the gospel with care, keep a habit of Bible reading and prayer, and lead a small group through the Catechism.
MI-111 Christian Community Building
Mission and Ministry 2 credits
A church is a people who belong to God and to each other, and who are sent into the world. Learn how such a community grows from grace into belonging, discipleship and mission.
GE-101 World Religions
General Education 2 credits
Your neighbours, colleagues and relatives may follow other faiths. Learn to describe the world's faiths fairly and in their own terms, and to meet their followers with respect.
Year 2 (Diploma)
BI-211 Pentateuch
Biblical Studies 3 credits
The five books of Moses are the foundation of the whole Bible. Read them as one story of covenant and grace, and see how Jesus and Paul read them.
BI-212 Old Testament Historical Books
Biblical Studies 3 credits
Joshua to Esther shows what happened when Israel tried to live as God's people in the land. Follow the story, and see how it points forward to Christ.
BI-221 New Testament Jesus
Biblical Studies 3 credits
The whole Christian faith stands or falls with Jesus. Read the four Gospels as four witnesses to one Lord: his kingdom, his words and works, his cross and his rising.
BI-222 Acts
Biblical Studies 3 credits
Follow the gospel from a small group in Jerusalem to the capital of the empire. See how the Spirit carried it across every barrier.
BI-223 Paul's Letters
Biblical Studies 3 credits
Next to Jesus, no one has shaped Christian thinking more than Paul. Read his letters to real churches with real problems, and see the one gospel they share.
ST-211 Christian Doctrine
Theology 4 credits
See the Christian faith as one connected whole, from how God makes himself known to the hope of the new creation, and learn to keep each teaching in its right place.
CE-201 Youth and Children's Ministry
Mission and Ministry 2 credits
Children and teenagers are members of the church today, not only of tomorrow. Learn to welcome them, teach them, protect them and walk beside them.
MI-201 Internship II
Mission and Ministry 5 credits
Serve for about 32 weeks in a defined ministry role in your own church, under a ministry mentor, and grow as a Bible teacher, a carer and a leader.
MI-221 Transformative Bible Teaching
Mission and Ministry 2 credits
Many believers own a Bible yet cannot read it for themselves. Learn to teach so that people discover Scripture first-hand and are changed by it.
MI-231 Pastoral Care
Mission and Ministry 2 credits
Pastors and church members meet people in trouble: the sick, the grieving, the guilty and the afraid. Learn basic care as a share in Christ's own care.
Year 3 (BTh)
BI-313 OT Wisdom and Poetry
Biblical Studies 3 credits
Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs give God's people words for suffering and joy, work and death, prayer and love. Learn to read them well.
BI-314 OT Prophets
Biblical Studies 3 credits
The prophets are among the most quoted and least understood books of the Bible. Learn to hear them in their own time and to see how they are fulfilled in Christ.
BI-324 Hebrews, General Letters and Revelation
Biblical Studies 3 credits
Hebrews, James, Peter, John, Jude and Revelation were written to churches under pressure. Learn what God says through them to tired, tested and troubled believers.
BI-325 Paul's Theology
Biblical Studies 2 credits
Does Paul's thought hold together as one whole? With Romans as your guide, follow his gospel from human need to new life in Christ, and see how it shapes the church.
BI-331 Intertestamental Period
Biblical Studies 2 credits
One blank page stands between Malachi and Matthew. Learn what happened in that time, and how it prepared the world into which Jesus came.
ST-321 Ethics
Theology 3 credits
Christian ethics is not a list of rules to earn God's favour. It is the life that answers God's grace. Learn to reason from Scripture to real cases.
CH-301 Church History for Evangelicals
Church History 2 credits
Follow the evangelical line through the whole story of the church, from the martyrs to the world church of today, and find your own place in it.
MI-321 Biblical Preaching
Mission and Ministry 2 credits
A sermon can feed a church, or mislead it. Learn what a preacher is called to do, and how to build a sermon that is clear, faithful to the text and useful.
MI-322 Expository Preaching
Mission and Ministry 2 credits
Let the text, not the preacher, decide what the sermon says. Learn a clear eight-step method for preaching that explains a Bible passage, and plan a series through a book of the Bible.
MI-331 Diaconal Ministry
Mission and Ministry 2 credits
Every church meets someone at its door who needs help. Learn what the church owes that person, and how it can give without doing harm.
MI-341 Mission and Ministry
Mission and Ministry 2 credits
Mission begins with God. Learn how a young church can stand on its own: led, supported, multiplied and taught from within, without lasting dependence on outside help.
MI-342 Church Leadership
Mission and Ministry 2 credits
People copy what a leader does far more than what a leader says. Learn how leaders shape the culture of a church, and why character comes before skill.
MI-343 Discovering Organic Church
Mission and Ministry 2 credits
What if the church has always been, first of all, a people, not a building or a service? Explore how the first churches met and what that means for church life today.
PS-300 Theological Statement
Theological Statement
Write your own theological statement across Year 3: what you believe and why, where you stand in your tradition, and how you will lead and preach.
Year 4 (BA)
BI-441 Text and Transmission I
Biblical Studies 2 credits
Did someone change the Old Testament? Learn the real story of how the Hebrew Bible was copied and kept, and help your church read its Bible with confidence, not fear.
BI-442 Text and Transmission II
Biblical Studies 2 credits
Are modern Bibles "missing verses"? Look at the evidence behind the Greek New Testament, and learn to help believers read their Bible with settled confidence.
ST-431 Israel in Prophecy and Politics
Theology 2 credits
What does God's promise to Abraham mean after Christ? Study Israel in the Bible, in church history and today, and learn to teach on it with clarity and humility.
CH-401 Creeds and Confessions
Church History 2 credits
Christians have always said together what they believe. Read the great creeds and confessions, and learn to use them to teach and guard the faith in your church.
CH-402 History of Christianity
Church History 3 credits
How did Christianity shape the civilisations it entered, and how did they shape it? Follow the church through two thousand years, from Rome to the Global South.
CE-401 Foundations of Christian Education
Mission and Ministry 3 credits
How does the church form the people who teach and lead it? Learn how leaders grow inside ministry, and the work of the mentor, the coach and the tutor.
MI-423 Preaching for Variety
Mission and Ministry 2 credits
A story, a parable or one rich verse does not speak like a letter of Paul. Learn six sermon patterns that let the shape of the passage shape your sermon.
GE-411 World History I
General Education 3 credits
The gospel rests on real events, and every church serves a people with its own past. Learn the human story from the first cities to 1500, and read it as a Christian.
GE-412 World History II
General Education 3 credits
Since about 1400, ships, trade, empire and the gospel have joined the world together. Learn the modern story that shaped the people you serve, and read it as a Christian.
GE-413 Introduction to Philosophy
General Education 3 credits
Everyone has a philosophy, and church workers meet these ideas every week. Learn to reason well and to weigh the great questions of what is real, true and good.
GE-421 Introduction to Psychology
General Education 3 credits
Every pastor, teacher and parent already studies people. Learn how psychology understands the mind and behaviour, and how to give a first, safe response to people in distress.
GE-422 Introduction to Sociology
General Education 3 credits
Every minister works among families, groups, markets and nations. Learn how sociology sees society, and how to use its tools in your church and community.
GE-423 Introduction to Anthropology
General Education 3 credits
Church workers cross cultures every week. Anthropology helps you listen before you speak, see a community as a whole, and notice what you miss in yourself.
GE-424 Lifespan Development
General Education 3 credits
Churches walk with people from birth to death. Learn how people grow and change in every season of life, and how to serve them well at every age.
GE-425 Introduction to Political Science
General Education 3 credits
Every community must decide who gets what and who decides. Learn how people govern themselves, so you can give wise counsel in elections, corruption and conflict.
GE-431 Educational Psychology
General Education 3 credits
Every Sunday-school teacher, youth leader and pastor is a teacher. Learn how people learn and grow, and how to teach them well, even with eighty pupils and one chalkboard.
GE-441 Introduction to Business
General Education 3 credits
Churches, schools, clinics and small shops all buy, sell, borrow, pay workers and keep accounts. Learn the basics of business and use them in your own ministry.
GE-442 Principles of Management
General Education 3 credits
Every pastor, school head and clinic manager plans, organizes, leads and checks the work of others. Learn what managers do, and how to lead work faithfully.
GE-443 Organizational Behavior
General Education 3 credits
Every church, school and clinic is made of people. Learn how people act at work, what moves them, and why conflict and stress arise, so you can lead them well.
GE-444 Principles of Marketing
General Education 3 credits
Every shop, school, clinic and church makes itself known, sets prices and keeps promises. Learn the core of marketing and practise it honestly in your own setting.
GE-445 Entrepreneurship
General Education 3 credits
Most church members, and many pastors, earn their living through small enterprise. Learn to start and run one well, and to guide your church in work, money and business.
GE-451 Introductory Business Statistics
General Education 3 credits
Churches, schools and clinics decide with numbers every week. Learn to gather, describe and read data honestly, and to draw careful conclusions from them.
GE-452 Principles of Data Science
General Education 3 credits
Every church, school and clinic keeps data: registers, offerings, marks and visits. Learn to collect, clean, show and report data well, and to keep people's trust.
GE-491 Academic Writing
General Education 3 credits
Your Bachelor's thesis asks you to read critically, argue clearly and credit every source. This course trains those skills and ends with a draft thesis proposal.
CC-402 Christianity and Culture
Christianity and Culture 3 credits
When the gospel enters a culture, what does it change and what does the culture do to it? Learn to help your church decide together what to keep, change or refuse.
Years 5–6 (MA)
BI-5003 Introduction to the Old Testament
Biblical Studies 3 credits
Study the whole Old Testament, from Genesis to Malachi, with a standard evangelical introduction, and learn to read, preach and teach it with understanding.
BI-5103 Introduction to the New Testament
Biblical Studies 3 credits
Study all twenty-seven books of the New Testament with a standard evangelical introduction, and learn to read, preach and teach them in their first setting.
BI-5203 Old Testament Backgrounds
Biblical Studies 3 credits
Step into the world of the Old Testament, from Egypt and Mesopotamia to the villages of Israel, and read the Bible with a sure sense of its setting.
BI-6003 Old Testament Theology
Biblical Studies 3 credits
Discover what the Old Testament teaches as a whole about God, about mankind and about God's purposes for his world, and learn to preach and teach it as one story.
BI-6103 New Testament Theology
Biblical Studies 3 credits
Study the theology of the whole New Testament, from Jesus' preaching of the Kingdom to Revelation, and learn to teach it with depth and balance.
BI-6203 New Testament Backgrounds
Biblical Studies 3 credits
Step into the world in which the New Testament was written, and learn to read, preach and teach it with a better grasp of its context.
BI-7003 Historical Jesus
Biblical Studies 3 credits
Who was Jesus of Nazareth, and how can we know? Learn to answer with historical care from the best sources: the Gospels, read in Jesus' Jewish world.
BI-7103 Paul's Theology
Biblical Studies 3 credits
Study the theology of Paul as a whole, from God and the human plight to Christ, salvation, the church and daily life, and learn to preach his letters with insight.
BI-72003 Old Testament in the New
Biblical Studies 3 credits
Learn how the New Testament reads the Old: compare three evangelical answers to a hard question, and follow the story of Scripture from Eden to the new creation.
PS-5003 Orientation to Theological Studies
Theology 3 credits
Every Christian is a theologian, say Grenz and Olson. Learn what that calling involves and gain the basic tools for theological study, interpretation, preaching and research.
ST-5003 Historical Theology
Theology 3 credits
Follow the history of Christian thought from the church fathers to today, and learn where the church's beliefs come from and how the past can guide and correct it.
ST-5103 Systematic Theology I
Theology 3 credits
Learn what theology is and how to do it well, and study the God of the gospel, Father, Son and Holy Spirit: what he is like and how he creates, reveals himself and works out his plan.
ST-5203 Systematic Theology II
Theology 3 credits
Study who we are as human beings, who Jesus Christ is and what he has done, and what salvation means, so that you can preach, teach and care for people with clarity.
ST-5303 Systematic Theology III
Theology 3 credits
Study the Holy Spirit, the church and the Christian hope for the future, and learn to teach these doctrines with clarity and lead God's people with wisdom.
ST-7003 Contemporary Evangelical Thought
Theology 3 credits
Explore what holds evangelical faith together and where evangelicals disagree, so that you can teach with conviction and lead a church through debate with fairness.
ST-7103 Apologetics and Ethics
Theology 3 credits
Learn to give clear reasons for the Christian faith and to guide God's people through today's hardest moral questions with conviction, fairness and care.
MI-5303 Kingdom and Power
Mission and Ministry 3 credits
Study the kingdom of God that Jesus proclaimed, already at work and still to come, and weigh what it means for evangelism and prayer for the sick today.
MI-6003 Theology of God's Mission
Mission and Ministry 3 credits
Discover mission as God's own work from Genesis to Revelation, and learn to lead your church to take part in it with a whole-Bible vision.
MI-7003 Organic Church
Mission and Ministry 3 credits
Is the church you know the church of the New Testament? Study the organic church movement and weigh its call for a simpler church of disciples who make disciples.
PS-7003 Studying World Religions
Mission and Ministry 3 credits
Understand the world's great religions as their followers understand them, and learn to serve and witness with respect among neighbours of other faiths.
PS-7103 Theology of Persecution and Discipleship
Mission and Ministry 3 credits
Study what the Bible teaches about suffering for Christ, and learn to teach and care for believers who pay a price for following him.