Clinging to God’s Promise of Joy in a Dark World “‘Tis the season to be jolly.” In our consumer-driven society, the season began the minute the trick-or-treaters took off their costumes. The Reese’s Pumpkins were gloriously transformed into Reese’s Christmas trees overnight. Little Debbie does her best work during this time of the year, as Christmas Tree Cakes fill the shelves. The stores we visit daily suddenly become winter wonderlands with lights, decorations, trees, and gifts. Home Alone (the second one is better, by the way) is on every channel, and Nat King Cole still makes children smil ..read more

YTI has been busy this past fall moving into “The Barn,” our new home at 83 Rowland Road in Bozeman. Faculty and staff are in our offices, the library’s shelves are filled with books, and classrooms are ready for classes in the new year!! Read more about YTI’s move to “The Barn.” Library with movable shelves Administrative suite Faculty suite Christmas decorating in big room Front doors The post Moving into the Barn! appeared first on Yellowstone Theological Institute ..read more

The Christmas season is a celebration of light. We light our trees, our banisters, our mantels. We string our doors and eves to counter against the sun’s early retreat. We shine candles against our darkened church sanctuaries. Why? For Christians, this is a celebration of the advent of the light of the world. We sing with Richard Crashaw: Gloomy night embraced the place Where the noble infant lay: The babe look’d up, and show’d His face; In spite of darkness it was day. And with Milton we proclaim that: [The sun’s] “inferior flame The new-enlighten’d world no more should need: He saw a greater ..read more

Long-time Bozeman resident Dr. Megan Peach, a member of YTI’s Community Advisory Board, recounts challenges—and blessings—that have come with living in Vienna, Austria, for the past year. It has been just over a year since we left my parents at the Bozeman airport with a single suitcase each and flew to our new home, a tiny 900 square feet apartment in Vienna, Austria. We left our beloved community with grand ideas of introducing our kids to the world and immersing them in a new culture. Navigating the rules of a new country was overwhelming and the first few weeks felt a little bit like grief ..read more

A Prayer for Peace as We Close a Turbulent Year “Blessed are the Peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.” — MATTHEW 5:9 (NIV) I write this letter one month away from the end of 2023. It has been a turbulent year in our world to say the very least. Poisonous politics in the U.S.; war between Ukraine and Russia; war between Israel and the Hamas in Gaza; rising tensions with China; a fifth COVID booster; soaring interest rates, and inflation across the board have made average American Christians anxious and stressed out. Christianity Today editor, Dr. Russell Moore, shared his dism ..read more

Renovations are underway at “The Barn,” YTI’s new home at 83 Rowland Road in Bozeman. The institute is in the process of moving into our offices at the property, and we’re looking forward to teaching in our new classrooms later in September! Read more about YTI’s move to “The Barn” Faculty offices Downstairs classroom Administrative offices The post Progress at the Barn! appeared first on Yellowstone Theological Institute ..read more

“Insight. Discovery. Adventure.” As we embark on a new chapter in the history of Yellowstone Theological Institute — with a new building to call home, a re-tooled curriculum, and fresh opportunities — we believe these three words capture the heart of our mission. In this newsletter, faculty members reflect on this statement of YTI’s vision (crafted with our new marketing partners, IDD Agency) and our new foundational Scripture passage, Philippians 1:9–11. “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what i ..read more

New Building, New Curriculum, New Era! As the summer moves into its last month and the temperatures continue to rise, work on “The Barn” at the new Yellowstone Center is reaching a crescendo. Sheet rock, glass walls, floor tiles, mosaics, carpet, cabinets, and a thousand other items are being installed as you read these lines. It has been quite the summer. The faculty and staff have been working hard to prepare our curriculum for the new academic year and to prepare the new facility for move-in. The staff, with help from faculty and spouses, have packed the over 950 boxes of books in our libra ..read more

Miss Norah Hager is YTI’s newest Yellowstone Fellow. Hailing from Edmond, Okla, she is currently in her first year of pre-med studies at the University of Tulsa. She was 2023 National Merit Finalist and part of a biomedical sciences academy, which piqued her interest in the medical field and gave her the opportunity to work in a gastrointestinal cancer research lab at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. An avid musician, Norah performed as a trombonist in the Oklahoma Allstate honor band for two years and participated in the Oklahoma Youth Orchestra throughout her high school ye ..read more

Over this past year the faculty at YTI has been evaluating its Master of Arts program with the aim of updating it. This process of review is standard practice for educational institutions. But this year’s review uncovered an insight—an insight into what we are trying to accomplish with our MA program and why. And so we began to develop that insight. YTI began because it saw the troubled state of theological education in America not as a problem to bemoan but as an opportunity to seize. For the past decade or so, YTI has probed, considered, experimented, discovered, and revised as it sought to ..read more