Dallas Theological Seminary and Passion Global Institute are excited to announce a dynamic new partnership that blends Passion’s vision and culture with DTS’s commitment to rigorous, biblically centered education.

Nearly twenty years ago, Louie Giglio led the first Passion Conference in Austin, Texas. After a decade of conferences with hundreds of thousands of college students in attendance, Louie and his wife, Shelley, founded Passion City Church in Atlanta, Georgia. This enabled them to reach their city as they had reached around the world to cities such as Kampala, Manila, Kiev, Sydney, and many others. As the ministries of Passion continued to grow, Louie and his team recognized a need to offer their staff, Door Holders (volunteers), attendees, and those connected to the Passion Movement a deeper level of theological training. 

“When you think about seminaries with a strong reputation for training people for gospel ministry, Dallas Theological Seminary is in an elite class. As our team evaluated who we wanted to partner with, DTS was clearly the best fit for our vision,” said Louie Giglio, founder of the global Passion Movement. After Dr. Mark Yarbrough, academic dean at DTS, taught the inaugural class of fifty students this spring in Atlanta, he said, “This is the most fun and encouraging group I’ve had the pleasure to teach in a long time. Their yearning to know God’s Word and put its transforming power into practice is amazing.” 

Through Passion Global Institute, DTS plans to offer the complete Master of Arts in Christian Leadership (MACL) and Master of Biblical and Theological Studies (MBTS) to the people of Passion City Church as well as anyone connected to the worldwide Passion Movement. Classes are scheduled to continue during the fall of 2016 in a “beta” format, and the program plans to formally launch to the world at Passion 2017 in January.

DTS also welcomes Dr. Jake Gross to our partnership. As director of student engagement, Jake will assist prospective and current PGI students who have needs and questions about the programs. Jake comes to this role with an extensive background in higher education. Before joining this initiative, he served at Kennesaw State University as the director of orientation and transition programs. Prior to KSU, he worked with the student engagement teams at both Pepperdine University and Auburn University. He earned his PhD in higher education from Azusa Pacific in 2013. Jake and his wife, Emily, have been a part of Passion City Church for over three years. They have three children and reside outside of Atlanta.