Skip to main content

Kingdom Theological Seminary

Our History

A vision answered, a campus received.

From a small institute in 2005 to an accredited partnership in 2024, the story of Kingdom Theological Seminary is a story of persistence and provision.

Why we are historic

KTS is a historic seminary.

“A prophetic, relevant seminary to prepare leaders for Kingdom ministry.”

Dr. Dana Carson launched Kingdom Theological Seminary as a prophetic, relevant seminary meant to prepare leaders for Kingdom ministry. It arrived at a time of national conversation about racial division and disparity in seminary education, and it was built to offer a place of belonging and excellence for Kingdom-minded leaders.

The seminary’s campus is a story of its own. Securing it took persistence, and when it finally came, in the middle of a global pandemic, it was a miraculous testament to divine provision.

Today that campus is open to you. Come and see it for yourself, or read on to trace how the vision grew.

2020Campus secured

A campus received by persistence and provision.

For more than a decade, efforts to purchase the former Park Place Baptist Church campus were turned down. Dr. Carson and The R.O.C.K. Church kept pressing forward, and in May 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the campus became KTS’s home. Tour the campus today.

The journey to KTS

Nearly two decades of Kingdom education.

Each name change marked a step toward the seminary you see today.

2005

The Carson Kingdom Institute is born

The Carson Kingdom Institute of Ministerial & Theological Studies (CKI) opens as an on-campus and correspondence school. It trains many students and church leaders and serves several churches as ordination and consecration curriculum.

2011

Kingdom Leaders Institute

CKI becomes the Kingdom Leaders Institute (KLI), shifting its focus toward training pastors and church leaders in leadership as well as theology.

2013

Kingdom School of Ministry

The school is renamed the Kingdom School of Ministry and takes on a new mission: equipping leaders for 21st-century Kingdom leadership, since older church growth programs had become outdated.

2017

Kingdom Bible University

Kingdom Bible University (KBU) launches with an associate degree in Kingdom Theology, certificates, and a bachelor’s degree in Kingdom Theology, streamlining seminary-level courses for church ministry.

2021

Kingdom Theological Seminary opens

KTS becomes the graduate school of KBU, offering a dual degree program, five master’s programs, and two doctoral programs, the fulfillment of a vision Dr. Carson received in the early 1990s.

2024

Southeastern University at KTS

SEU at KTS begins offering theological degrees for biblical and ministry training, along with non-theological degrees for professional skills, through an accredited partnership with Southeastern University.

A crowd gathered at Kingdom Theological Seminary
Our mission today

Equipping leaders for the church and the marketplace.

The vision Dr. Carson received in the early 1990s, a seminary on a local church campus, is now a reality. Today KTS equips 21st-century Kingdom-minded leaders for life-changing ministry grounded in biblical Kingdom theology.

Read our full mission and vision and meet the faculty and staff carrying it forward.

Take the next step

Your calling is waiting. Take the next step.

Request information, or start your application and write the next chapter of the KTS story with your own.