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Flexible, Group-based, Open Learning Courses

ABOUT GOLD PROJECT

#discoverthetreasure

#encountergod

#beshapedbythemessage

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#discoverthetreasure #encountergod #beshapedbythemessage 〰️

 

OUR VISION

We long to see church and society transformed as God’s people studying his word together and apply its message in all aspects of their lives.

  • ‘To see church and society transformed as God's people learn to meet him through Jesus Christ in the power of his Spirit by studying together and applying the message of the Bible in all aspects of their lives.’

OUR MISSION

The GOLD Project exists:

  • To provide interactive learning resources to enable systematic biblical discipleship.

  • To resource facilitators for active learning communities in the context of the local church.

 
 
“If you train leaders, you don’t necessarily get disciples. If you train disciples, you will always get leaders.”
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OUR VALUES

  • Prayer is the centre and foundation on which all our work is established on and our personal lives. We believe that nothing of lasting value can be done unless it is bathed in prayer.

  • Through the power of God, we are committed to helping local churches in their task of making disciples of all nations, building up the body of Christ to maturity and passing on what has been learnt to others.

  • Embracing the model of Jesus who came not to be served but to serve, we seek to honour God by giving our best in the service of others. We hope to encourage one another to persevere and know the joy of the Lord as our strength.

  • We are committed to partnership based on good relationships with our partners, supporters and colleagues, showing humility and integrity in our dealings with others.

  • We are a grassroots organisation and are committed to serving and working with local churches to encourage local church ownership and leadership of the programmes. We believe these are the best people to understand and apply the courses to their local context.

  • We desire to make our courses accessible in terms of:

    • Understanding: Formal education levels should not be a barrier to someone working through our materials.

    • Availability: We want churches to be able to get hold of our courses wherever they are based.

    • Affordability: We believe that cost should not be a barrier to anyone seeking to study our courses.

 
““I am excited about the way the courses are appropriate to people of many backgrounds.””
— PaSTOR dIA mOODLEY

What People Say

Featured

"This was an excellent study day which whetted my appetite for more. There were helpful suggestions for action which made me feel I could do something, without leaving me paralysed by the enormous size of the task. The reflection from Alison was particularly powerful and moving - thank you."

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Student Voices
Student Voices

"The course was very insightful and balanced. I will consider other course with the Gold Project" Paullette.

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Student Voices
Student Voices, Video
Student Voices, Video

For me, taking GOLD Courses has been like discovering treasure...

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Student Voices, Video
Miranda Seldon, Video
Miranda Seldon, Video

It’s only years later that I realised just how much I’d learned and gained from the experience.

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Miranda Seldon, Video
Christine Ramshaw, Video
Christine Ramshaw, Video

It’s really made a huge difference to my life...I’d recommend every Christian to do these courses

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Christine Ramshaw, Video
Jolyon Trickey, Video
Jolyon Trickey, Video

I’m a theology graduate, I have had vast experience of discipleship training, so I was amazed to learn new things. A real freshness to the way I was looking at and experiencing Jesus’ early ministry, its structure, its context,

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Jolyon Trickey, Video
Leearna Pilgram
Leearna Pilgram

I recently attended a study day on the book of Romans with the GOLD project and I found it so informative, interesting and helpful.

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Leearna Pilgram
Jackie Knott
Jackie Knott

As a relatively "new" Christian I have found this Bible study brilliant. I really feel as if God is talking to me as I study and I am being taken to a new depth of understanding.

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Jackie Knott
Michael Huggins
Michael Huggins

I firmly believe that the future of Britain requires a radical change of priorities within our churches. We need to seriously disciple our people far beyond Alpha.

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Michael Huggins
Amanda Furlong, Video
Amanda Furlong, Video

The Gold Project courses enable me to study the Bible in far greater depth than I could on my own. The tutorials allow me to question and discuss my beliefs with people from different church backgrounds so strengthening my faith.

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Amanda Furlong, Video
David Wenham
David Wenham

What a fine course! I wish all theological students had the chance to do something as thorough, interactive and valuable.

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David Wenham
Dia Moodley
Dia Moodley

I am excited about the way the courses are appropriate to people of many backgrounds.

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Dia Moodley

 READY TO EXPERIENCE THIS IN YOUR OWN LIFE

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Our Team

David Ball is Director of the GOLD Project. David has a PhD in New Testament. From 2009-2015, was Director of Open Learning at Trinity College Bristol out of which the GOLD Project has formed. David and Angie worked for 15 years with TAFTEE (The Association for Theological Education by Extension) in India. David believes that the strength of the church's life and witness depends on the equipping of all God's people for mission and ministry in the world. He is committed to enabling every Christian to grow in their faith through disciplined study of the Bible. David and his wife’s passion for GOLD Project has seen the success and vision come alive for many people been touched by God’s word. David is also actively involved in the Christian Motorcyclists’ Association, and has raised a lot of money for the charities involved.

Grace Kirby is administrator at the GOLD project and says that the role is God’s answer to her very specific prayer for the job she wanted to do! She previously worked as Operations and Events Manager at the BISC (The Bristol international student centre) which was a small christian charity that ran events (including alpha), trips around the country, weekly meals and rooms to rent for international students; with the heart to provide a 'home away from home'. Grace is an actress and author, ‘I love writing poetry’, she says, she also loves producing art and has had one of her canvases hung up in the Hill House Christian centre for roughly 18 years. She is such a wonderful addition to the team and brings with her such depth of knowledge and passion for our vision. She grew up in and currently lives in Bristol and has been part of a variety of churches over the years and is presently in the leadership team for Open House Community Church, which is a two-year-old church.

 
 
 

Course Writers

A number of people have been involved in producing the courses over the years. Course writers have included 

  • Dr David Ball - Biblical Studies, Hermeneutics

  • Revd Dr Mike Butterworth - Biblical studies, Hermeneutics, Ministry, Inter-faith issues 

  • Dr Martin Davie - Theology  

  • Revd Professor Rudolph Heinze - Church History

  • Rev David Field - Ethics

  • Ms Alison Le Cornu 

  • SEAN International Course Writing Team


Consultants have included

  • Dr John Bimson - Old Testament  

  • Revd Dr John Corrie - Mission

  • Revd Dr David Samuel  - Theology

  • Revd Dr David Wenham  - New Testament

GOLD Leaders

GOLD Project depends on the commitment of our local leaders who voluntarily give up their time to facilitate our local study groups. Each leader has a basic theological qualification and is committed to seeing others grow in their faith and knowledge of the Bible.

Trustees

Our Current Trustees are:

  • Rev Dr John Nolland - Chairman 

  • Dr David Ball - Director/Secretary

  • Mrs Samantha Hands 

  • Mr Ben Stansfield

  • Rev Jolyon Trickey

  • Rev Richard Moy

Our History

The GOLD Project has developed out of more than 30 years’ experience of offering distance learning courses in the context of the UK church. Courses that were originally developed in India were adapted for use in the Oak Hill Extension College (OHEC) where several new courses were developed over the course of several years. After OHEC closed, OHEC’s courses were relaunched through Interactive Christian Extension Studies (ICES). ICES worked closely with St Albans and Oxford Diocese. In 2009, Trinity College Bristol took over the programme and developed the course materials as its Open Learning programme for six years until the end of 2015. GOLD Project became a Charitable Incorporated Organisation in 2016.

Revd Mike Butterworth oversaw the development of Open Learning courses over many years.  Before becoming head of the St Albans and Oxford Ministry Course, Mike was a distance-learning course writer when on the staff of TAFTEE (The Association for Theological Education by Extension), India.  Following his time in India, Mike was on the staff of Oak Hill Theological College where he developed further courses that were offered under the name OHEC (Oak Hill Extension College). Mike relaunched the courses under the banner of ICES (Interactive Christian Extension Studies) for the St Albans and Oxford Ministry Course. They were used for many years by the Ministry Course to train ordinands and independent students in theology and ministry. Mike now serves as a trustee of the GOLD Project.

 

Partnership with SEAN

SEAN courses have been used with remarkable success around the world for more than 40 years. It is our hope that the addition of these courses will enable discipleship pathways for churches and individuals to grow in their faith and contribute to the mission and ministry of the church. For more information about SEAN's history, click here.

GOLD Project and SEAN UK share a vision to equip all Christian believers in the UK in their faith and active ministry in their local churches and communities. As a result of this shared vision, SEAN UK and the GOLD Project entered into a partnership on 9th December 2018 to allow GOLD Project to use SEAN courses within its programme.

The SEAN courses have been reformatted and added to the courses that GOLD Project already offers. This enables GOLD Project to provide churches with a range of courses at different levels to fulfil their own vision to see church and society transformed as God's people learn to meet him through Jesus Christ in the power of his Spirit by studying together and applying the message of the Bible in all aspects of their lives.

As a result of this partnership, we are able to offer three levels of courses. Each group can choose the level at which they want to study.

SEAN International

 
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MEMBERSHIPS

We are happy to be members of

  1. the Evangelical Alliance UK;

  2. Churches Together in England;

  3. the European Council for Theological Education, .

  4. NCVO.

If you would like to find out more about these organisations, and how your organisation can join them, click through those links provided or speak to us about the benefits involved.