Midwestern Seminary and Spurgeon College Announce Elliff Center for Global Missions

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Midwestern Seminary and Spurgeon College have announced the launch of the Elliff Center for Global Missions, an institution-wide hub that brings together missions training and opportunities from high school through doctoral study.

“It is a distinct institutional and personal privilege to announce the founding of the Elliff Center for Global Missions,” said President Jason K. Allen. “We are praying for God to do incredible, unimaginable things through the Elliff Center, that one day we will look back and see that the gospel of Christ has advanced because of this new effort.”

The Center will provide pathways for students to grow in theological conviction, cross-cultural understanding, and practical ministry experience. As part of the launch, Spurgeon College’s Fusion Program will be renamed the Global Missions Cohort, continuing its immersive undergraduate missions training within the Center’s broader framework.

Named in honor of Tom Elliff—a pastor, missionary, and former president of the International Mission Board—the Center builds on Midwestern and Spurgeon College’s longstanding commitment to prepare students to take the gospel to the nations. Its vision is summarized in three commitments: Pray. Prepare. Go.

“Being for the church means helping the church fulfill her mission to spread the glory of God among all nations,” said Joe Allen III, assistant professor of missions at Midwestern Seminary. “The Elliff Center is strategic for cultivating a stronger culture of missions across Midwestern Seminary and Spurgeon College by creating a hub for equipping the next generation of bold, joy-filled missionaries.”

Allen III said the Center’s name also reflects a legacy the institution hopes to carry forward.

“People who are familiar with Dr. Tom Elliff know that his ministry has stood the test of time,” he said. “They know of his commitment to proclaim the gospel around the world and disciple the nations. We feel honored to carry on that legacy.”

Rather than serving students at only one point in their education, the Elliff Center brings together missions preparation across four educational levels.

Global Missions Impact introduces high school students to cross-cultural ministry through a one-week training and three-week international trip, with three college credit hours available.

At Spurgeon College, the Fusion Program is being renamed the Global Missions Cohort. Undergraduate students in the cohort complete two semesters of training in Kansas City and a three-month international mission trip while earning 33 credit hours toward the BA in Intercultural Studies.

The Missions Cohort provides a master’s-level pathway through Midwestern Seminary for students pursuing long-term cross-cultural ministry, combining graduate theological education, discipleship, and hands-on, overseas service.

At the doctoral level, Elliff Scholars for the Nations prepares theological educators and global ministry leaders through doctoral education and international study tours.

Across those pathways, the Center is for students considering overseas missionary service and for those who want to help their local churches pray for and support the work of missions.

Allen III compared the Center’s approach to a greenhouse, where students can grow from an initial awareness of the world’s needs toward wise engagement.

“Students in various stages of education—from high school and college through graduate and doctoral study—are challenged to move progressively outside of their comfort zone with ever-increasing levels of expertise and competency,” he said.

That preparation must be substantial because cross-cultural ministry can involve risk, suffering, and resistance, Allen III added. He said the Center will help students develop a theological foundation for faithful service and learn to navigate environments that have historically been resistant to the message of Jesus.

The Global Missions Cohort will be the Center’s undergraduate pathway. Formerly known as Fusion, the Spurgeon College program will continue to give students an immersive year of preparation that combines college coursework, intentional discipleship, and overseas ministry. Fusion has trained college students for cross-cultural service since 2005.

Under the Global Missions Cohort name, students will complete two semesters of training in Kansas City followed by a three-month international trip. The year provides 33 credit hours toward a BA in Intercultural Studies.

For Erik Odegard, director of the Global Missions Cohort, the cohort’s distinctiveness lies in the way it brings the demands of missionary preparation into a student’s first year of college.

“Students in the Global Missions Cohort spend an entire academic year in focused preparation to bring the gospel to the nations,” Odegard said. “They do not sleepwalk through their freshman year; instead, they train physically, spiritually, and mentally to proclaim Christ.”

The program is not a pause in a student’s education or simply a short-term trip, Odegard said. Coursework, life together in small teams, and practical training all contribute to students’ preparation before they serve internationally. He described the cohort as “a carefully crafted process designed to give our students the character, knowledge, and skills required for cross-cultural evangelism and discipleship.”

“The Global Missions Cohort provides holistic training for the head, heart, and hands,” Odegard said. In the program, students learn to share the gospel and make disciples across different religions, languages, and cultures while developing the character needed to serve faithfully.

He went on to say, “The Cohort aspires to produce graduates who are zealous, humble, resilient, and faithful. These values are essential for cross-cultural ministry.”

The cohort’s place within the Elliff Center gives the undergraduate experience a clear connection to the institution’s wider missions work. Students can encounter cross-cultural ministry before college, receive intensive preparation as undergraduates, or pursue further theological education for long-term service on the master’s and doctoral levels. Each pathway contributes to the Center’s purpose of helping students and churches participate faithfully in the Great Commission.

Odegard said the Center’s emphasis on prayer is as important as its emphasis on going.

“The self-reliant, prayerless disciple has no place in the work of missions because it cannot be accomplished by human effort,” he said. “Our graduates are committed to be prayerful goers or prayerful senders until the end of the age.”

International ministry experiences can help students discern a call to long-term missionary service, Odegard said. “For some, trips taken through the Elliff Center will ignite a passion for making disciples among all nations. Long-term missionaries frequently point to a short-term mission trip as the moment they knew for certain the Lord was leading them to a lifetime of missionary service.”

“For others, trips will strengthen their commitment to be a prayerful sender and supporter of missionaries from their church,” he added. “Church members who have taken an international mission trip pray differently and give differently.”

For Allen III, the launch of the Center represents an opportunity to give sustained attention to both the preparation of missionaries and the churches that send them.

“I am convinced that the missionary task requires the kind of focused attention and support that the Elliff Center will provide,” he said.

To learn more about the Elliff Center, visit mbts.edu/global-missions.