About WATS

About

West Africa Theological Seminary (WATS) was established in 1989. First, a group of Nigerian and expatriate Christian leaders met to consider the needs of the Church in Nigeria and, in particular, to determine how to provide sound theological training to as many pastors as possible, on a nondenominational platform. The aim was to spread scriptural holiness on a solid Wesleyan foundation. Led by Rev. Prof. Gary S. Maxey of the USA, the group moved quickly to found a strong, academically competent, non-denominational theological seminary, now known as WATS.

For its first twelve years, the seminary (first known as Wesley International Bible College and later as Wesley International Theological Seminary) was located in Owerri, Imo State, in eastern Nigeria. In 2000, the Governing Council voted to change the name of the institution to West Africa Theological Seminary (WATS). In 2001, the seminary took a giant stride by relocating 350 miles westward to Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital and the largest city in sub-Saharan Africa.

The growth of WATS has been significant since it first opened its doors, and over the years, more than 3,000 pastors, evangelists, missionaries, church leaders, and teachers have been trained. Over 200 missionaries have been sent into Africa, North America, Europe, and Asia.

Because WATS is nondenominational, it has attracted students and ethnic groups from a broad spectrum of churches, language groups, and countries. Today, WATS is Africa’s largest nondenominational seminary. A strong focus on holiness and missions continues to set WATS apart from scores of other Bible colleges and seminaries around the country. The primary academic strength of WATS is found within its robust Masters and doctoral programs.

WATS’ long-proclaimed intention to become the “soul” of a mega-Christian university is at last becoming a reality. WATS is fully on course to join the emerging Providence International University (PIU) as its autonomous faculty of theology. In addition to its historic success in training leaders for the African Church, WATS will now provide required training in spiritual formation and Christian worldview for all of PIU’s faculties, eventually impacting tens of thousands of university students.

At any given moment, WATS usually has students from at least:

Thirty of Nigeria´s states,

Over forty native languages,

Ten or more other African countries, and

Over eighty different church groups

Vision

To train men and women for holy living, for carrying the gospel to the unreached, and for catalyzing national spiritual awakening.

Mission

WATS is a non-denominational community of higher education that combines academic excellence and Christian spiritual formation to prepare leaders who are transformed, equipped, and anointed by the Holy Spirit for spiritual awakening and holy living so that God’s mission can be accomplished throughout Africa and beyond.

Core Values

The widely known and accepted core values at WATS include the following:

• Scripture: We value the Holy Bible as the divinely revealed and infallible Word of God that gives us guidance for our personal lives and encouragement to work together in redeeming our broken world.
• Holiness: We value the scriptural call for all believers to experience the deeper cleansing of their hearts that enables them to live lives of personal holiness that contributes to a society that brings honor to God and makes for peaceful social relationships.
• Mission: We value the scriptural call to “go into all the world and make disciples of all nations,” and therefore position ourselves individually and corporately to fulfill this Great Commission both through personal evangelism and global mission.
• Global: Both in scope of outreach and breadth of teaching personnel, we see the influence of WATS reaching beyond the boundaries of Nigeria to include areas all around the world.
• Community: We value the scriptural call to “love one another as Christ has loved you,” and commit ourselves to enrich the community of faith through mutual understanding, respect, discipleship accountability, and enthusiastic caring.
• Learning: As an educational organization, we value the opportunity to learn how to better equip men and women for Christian leadership.
• Excellence: We value the call to honor God through continually seeking to elevate the quality of our work, our processes, and our products.
• Diversity: As a non-denominational seminary, WATS pursues diversity among its students, faculty and staff. We serve the global church while remaining faithful to our doctrinal statement and our Wesleyan heritage.
• Spiritual Formation: WATS is a worshipping community that places high value on spiritual formation. We believe spiritual and academic pursuit should be pursued together. We emphasize personal and community formation by providing a rich environment and activities that provide formational opportunities to students, faculty and staff.

Accreditation And Affiliation

Since 1992 the WATS diploma and degree programs have been affiliated with the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN). WATS also has a very long-standing relationship with the Association for Christian Theological Education in Africa (ACTEA), leading to full accreditation with them.

WATS has strong credibility in the international academic community. Accordingly, it has established close working relationships with both Wesley Biblical Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi, USA, and Asbury Theological Seminary, in Wilmore, Kentucky, USA – for the purpose of Postgraduate Studies. These affiliations are done through the exchange of teaching faculty and various forms of academic consultancy.