Training for Eternity

Vocational Bible College is blessed to have a number of dedicated trainers working with us to deliver our practical Bible training. So what sorts of people come to work at VBC? 

Matthew Grant lives in Wollongong with his wife Sarah and their three young kids, and he’s delighted to come on board as a trainer with VBC in 2025.

Matt spent his primary school years in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains at Tumut, where his parents ran a Christian camp centre. He gave his life to Christ while attending a kids program for the annual Riverina Christian Convention, which was a fairly big annual event at the time. 

“They explained the gospel, and that by putting my faith in Jesus and accepting His death in my place for my sin I could be friends with God,” Matt reflects. “So I put my trust in Christ, and thankfully in God's kindness, my understanding of the gospel is not still that of a seven or eight-year-old.  I still worry and I'm still anxious about different things, but knowing the love of God that endures from here to eternity, and knowing God's kindness in Christ and in His death and resurrection means that I can face these worries with a confidence that I didn't have before I knew Jesus.”

After spending time in Geelong as a teenager, where his dad trained to become a pastor in the Christian Reformed Church, Matt ended up moving to Wollongong where he joined Wollongong Baptist Church. After graduating from high school, Matt says he was “the guy who couldn’t decide” what to do—his experiences ranged from a year studying at the Reformed Theological College, to a gap year in the army, to studying a Bachelor of Arts with a major in French. It was during his time studying French at the University of Wollongong that Matt got involved with the Christian group on campus, which ended up shaping him more than the degree he gained.

Matt’s involvement with the Evangelical Christian Union, as it was called at the time, was so influential that he ended up spending three years undertaking a ministry apprenticeship with them, which he loved. He then studied Primary Teaching, which is the field he’s been working in since 2018—although in 2025, he’s going to add ‘VBC trainer’ to his resume.

Wollongong Baptist Church has been supporting VBC for many years, so Matt has been glad of the ministry whenever he would hear an update, but it wasn’t until halfway through 2023 that he and Andrew got chatting.

“ I was talking to him about how I'd always been keen to be a bit more involved in ministry,” Matt explains. “Primary teaching is a good job, but it's only good for this life, and I'd like to give more of my energy towards things that last for eternity.”

It was at this point that Andrew suggested the idea of working as a trainer for VBC, which Matt had never considered before. It felt completely left field at the time, but the conversations with Andrew continued and Matt felt increasingly compelled to give some of his time in this way. After completing some training through VBC himself, Matt will be working part-time at a primary school while also working part-time for VBC.

“I'm stoked,” Matt smiles. “I'm so excited. The more time I've spent with Andrew getting to know what I need to know as a trainer, but also looking at the training material, the more excited I get about it. I’m so keen to see what good God will do with it.”

From Matt’s perspective, the fact that VBC’s training is so practical is what makes it most valuable.

“There's a pretty short gap between what we do in the training environment and applying it in a real-life ministry context,” he shares. “I think that's what separates VBC and makes its training most appealing.”