Our mission is to take evangelical seminary training to under-served indigenous pastors and church leaders. Our goal is to provide these saints with a solid understanding of God’s truth in scripture, equipping them to effectively evangelize, disciple, and build God’s kingdom through the local church.

Our Seminary is designed to facilitate in-person courses taught by U.S. faculty and lecturers to underserved indigenous pastors and lay leaders. Currently, our work is focused in Brazil. Most of our students are not financially or personally able to attend a standard seminary. They are often bi-vocational holding full-time jobs along with their ministry obligations. To facilitate attendance of courses, and to make efficient use of our instructor’s time and the Seminary’s financial resources, our in-person classes are compressed into a week.

Attendance is required and tests are given during the week and written assignments and course work are virtually submitted within one or two months after in-person classes depending up the class. Also, to facilitate attendance we locate classes where a group of students an easily attend without significant travel, reducing their financial and personal burden. This structure while logistically complex is intentional, providing underserved students every opportunity to attend and complete certificates and in some cases graduate degrees. In this regards, our Seminary is unique, taking the seminary experience to local indigenous communities.

U.S. donations provide airfare for instructors and administrators from the U.S. to remote locations and provide funds for minimal administrative expenses in the U.S. Students pay a very minimal course fee, often less than $25 U.S. per course, that provides funds for our instructors travel and lodging in-country. Students are provided class manuals to help them take notes during class and the Seminary has developed a textbook series allowing students to purchase hardcopy or ebooks at a discount rate.

At times we have in-country financial or in-kind contributions, often provided by local churches or missionary organizations. We do, at times, financially assist our in-country translators and interpreter’s where appropriate. U.S. funds are provided through our non-profits (Project Reach Brazil is currently funding courses in Brazil). Donations are received from individuals, churches and aligned organizations. Our instructors, U.S. administrators, and in-country facilitators view their work as missionary contributions and do so without compensation.

In 2013 Dr. Coleman made his initial trip to Brazil. He met with missionary Alex Hensley to discuss how he could help Hensley’s missionary efforts. In the ride “down the hill” to the beach city of Caraguatatuba (Caragua), Hensley expressed the need for trained pastors and church leaders in the churches of Brazil as it had been witnessing significant growth in evangelical churches, but theological training was unavailable for most pastors and would-be pastors of these. Dr. Coleman then offered to provide this training.

Later that year Coleman returned to Brail where he and Hensley ventured on a seven-day car trip throughout the state of Sao Paulo talking to pastors and church leaders across Brazil’s most populous state. Coleman found the need Hensley expressed earlier glaringly evident. Coleman returned to the US and began making plans to launch a four-course seminary for training pastors and church leaders in Brazil.

When Coleman pitched the idea to the Missions Committee of the church where he pastored, although the chairman was in favor of it, the other members were against it. Although later the church would get behind the seminary and be its strongest supporting church.

Several of the church members who had gone with Coleman to Brazil vowed to make it work without the support of the church. The primary supporter was Dr. Jeff Stringer, a professor at the University of Kentucky, deacon, and long-time member of the church. Stringer lent his extensive post-secondary education experience by developing the administrative structure for the seminary. Together they formed Caragua Baptist Seminary. Coleman served as the president of the seminary while Stinger became the first registrar. Both continue to serve in these roles today.

Together, Coleman, Hensley, and Stringer held the first classes in Caragua, Brazil in 2014. Since then the seminary has expanded its initial four-course certificate to a 12-course master’s degree that became accredited by Brazil’s Ministry of Education (equivalent to the Department of Education in the US) in 2016. In addition, the seminary has expanded to other cities in Brazil including Orlandia, Garca, Sao Paulo, Campinas, Manaus, and Porto Velho.

In 2019, the seminary changed its name to Bluegrass Baptist Seminary in order to maintain its accredited status in Brazil. The seminary’s accreditation had been based primarily on its being a US institution, and while the name Caragua Baptist Seminary provided a connection to Brazil for both the Brazilian students as well as the American supporters, it created confusion to the Ministry of Education. Therefore, the name was changed to Bluegrass Baptist Seminary.