The Bible College of South Australia is hoping a new Principal from interstate will raise the profile of the college, making it the “go-to place” for people in South Australia seeking to be trained to do gospel work.

BCSA has appointed Melbourne’s Tim Patrick after headhunting him during a lengthy search for a suitable candidate.

Peter Lockery was Principal of the College until March this year, when it was decided he would focus on lecturing in Ethics and Theology and the College would look for someone to take BCSA into a new phase.

Tim and Cat Patrick

Tim is currently in Cambridge with his family (wife Cat, daughter Poppy and baby on the way), finishing a PhD on the English reformation. Previously, Tim has been a church planter at St Jude’s Anglican Church in Melbourne, adjunct lecturer in evangelism at Ridley Melbourne and Project Leader for the City Bible Forum Melbourne during their Reason for Faith festival last year.

Acting Principal and Dean of BCSA, Mark Kulikovsky says he’s confident Tim has the qualities needed to raise the profile of the College.

“The Bible College of South Australia is the best kept secret in Adelaide,” he says. “But we don’t want it to be; we want to be well known. And so we want to see someone like Tim out in the public forum, and putting a public face to the college. We don’t think that’s happened well for us in the past but it’s something that we see that really needs to happen.”

Mark says the committee who appointed Tim considered other candidates who had held similar positions before, but decided Tim would bring unique qualities to the role.

“His track record in being able to see change happen within an organisation, his ability to take people with him through that change, someone who was passionate about the gospel and evangelism and outreach, but also his background in academic studies… He’s the guy to be able to lead the College forward.”

Though known as the “City of Churches”, Adelaide isn’t known for its strong Christianity. Mark says it’s hoped Tim’s experience doing evangelism in Melbourne will help change that.

“It was thought it would be advantageous to have someone come from outside, who would bring a bit of a different perspective,” says Mark. “People who come from out of state in the theological area seem to think that Adelaide’s a very difficult place for the gospel. It’s just not as open to the gospel as perhaps other places in the eastern states are. So someone who’s got some track record doing that in the eastern states was thought to be a good person for us to appoint.”

Mark says another key aspect of Tim’s role will be building cross-denominational networks to see the college thrive into the future.