Evangelical Theological Seminary
Osijek, Croatia

About Us

Since the fall of communism in the late 1980s and early 1990s, political, social, and spiritual unrest has been a major problem for Eastern Europe. As an agent for spiritual light and healing in the face of these problems, the Evangelical Theological Seminary (ETS) in Osijek, Croatia has been a key institution for training pastors and church workers to serve in the Balkans and more broadly in Eastern Europe.

ETS, founded in 1972, is an evangelical and interdenominational educational institution dedicated to training Christian pastors and lay workers. Like most seminaries in Europe, ETS provides undergraduate training to pastors, though it also has a graduate program in Theological Studies. With a library of approximately 150,000 theological books (unusual for a Protestant seminary in E. Europe), ETS remains a key evangelical school for Eastern Europe.

The school has full and part-time students and extensive distance learning activities. In addition to its undergraduate and graduate programs, the Seminary is a place of higher theological education for pastors, priests, preachers, evangelists, religious teachers and others ministering in the church. The Seminary advances theological science by performing scientific research work, equipping students for independent work in theology, and preparing them for the complexity and diversity of pastoral work.

ETS students are active in the Osijek region during and after their ETS training. According to school officials, ETS students have planted more than 80% of the current evangelical churches in Bosnia and Herzegovina. They started two Bible schools, one in Mostar and other in Sarajevo; began a publishing house in Zenica; and they have helped with a new Bible into Bosnian.

ETS has developed summer programs to provide training and fellowship for pastors in the region, a program to help visiting doctoral students do research at the school’s library, and training programs in missiology and counseling psychology. Graduate students may choose from one of three specializations offered: Christian pedagogy, Christian counselling, and Missiology.

The National Presbyterian Church has had a warm relationship with ETS and with its US affiliate New Europe Vision in Peabody, MA since 1997 and is delighted to continue that relationship. From 2013-2017, ETS received one of NPC’s Shaw Grants. The school used most of the funds from the grant for scholarships and to improve the school’s distance learning program.