A missionary who once had a vision while driving through Michigan snow will soon lead one of the world’s most far-reaching theological education networks.

A Legacy of Transformation

With sincere gratitude, Global University (GU) announces the leadership transition of Gary Seevers, Ph.D., who has faithfully served as president since 2010.

Seevers’ tenure at GU represents an extraordinary season of Kingdom impact. The numbers tell the remarkable story: 14 million lives touched, 2 million decisions for Christ, 100,000 churches planted. These milestones reflect the multiplication of the gospel across continents and cultures. In his new role as chancellor, Seevers will remain actively engaged in advancing GU’s shared vision, continuing his partnership with Assemblies of God World Missions while helping guide the institution through this transition.

With Seevers’ transition, Global University welcomes Steve Pennington, Ph.D., as president-elect. Pennington brings decades of experience in cross-cultural training and a compelling vision for the future of Spirit-empowered education.

A Vision Takes Shape

Steve Pennington never planned to be an educator. Following Bible college, Steve and his wife Trina served in pastoral ministry in Michigan before pursuing missions. In 1992, they began itinerating to raise support for their call to reach the Somali people. As Steve was driving through a Michigan winter to their apartment complex, something unexpected happened.

“I saw a vision,” Steve recalls. “I vividly and clearly saw myself leading a Bible school in Africa. I was just shocked, because it never entered my mind. I was going to reach unreached peoples.”

That moment — seemingly lasting 15 minutes but taking only a second — would shape the trajectory of his entire ministry. Three and a half years into their work among the Somalis in East Africa, the leadership of AG World Missions asked the Penningtons to consider moving to Ethiopia to teach at Addis Ababa Bible College. As Steve went to teach a trial course, he already knew what God was doing. The vision was beginning to unfold.

The Both/And Philosophy

For many missionaries, reaching the unreached and training believers are mutually exclusive goals. You either pioneer new ground or invest in existing ministries. Steve Pennington refuses that dichotomy.

“I see an intimate and powerful connection between unreached peoples and training,” he explains. “They go hand in hand. Part of our challenge has been that people are either/or — you’re either this or you’re that. We need both. It’s both/and.”

Steve’s reasoning is straightforward and profound: “If we’re going to reach the unreached, we need to do it with people who have been discipled. And once those unreached people are reached, they’re not fully reached until they’re discipled.”

This conviction grew from experience. Steve and Trina served for 28 years across East Africa — in Kenya, Ethiopia, and beyond — working among unreached peoples while simultaneously investing in training institutions. Steve consistently encouraged his colleagues to connect with Bible schools and trainers. “You’re going to need training institutions before you get there, not in 10 years,” he told them. “Bring in those guys and gals and let them train; let them disciple right alongside you.”

The results of this philosophy are written across the African continent. Steve served in various leadership roles at Addis Ababa Bible College and East Africa School of Theology, both GU partner schools. He was appointed East Africa and Indian Ocean Basin area director in 2014, and in 2019, became vice-chancellor of Pan-Africa Theological Seminary — the Africa AG Alliance doctoral-level training initiative that draws students from across the continent and beyond.

The Miracle of Multiplication

To understand what training makes possible, Steve tells the story of a dear friend named Wolde Dagnachew.

In the early 1990s, Wolde was a major in Ethiopia’s Communist army. When the regime fell, he fled to Kenya, ending up in a refugee camp where members of an Ethiopian church in Nairobi were constantly witnessing. Wolde gave his life to Christ, and his transformation was immediate and dramatic.

Church leaders took a bold step: They enrolled Wolde in East Africa School of Theology. Here was a young man, newly saved, whose life had been defined by violence and ideology. Steve, then a young missionary himself preaching in chapel at EAST, met Wolde briefly. “He was baptized in the Holy Ghost and fire,” Steve remembers. Wolde completed his four-year degree in three years.

What happened next illustrates the exponential power of discipleship.

Wolde returned to Addis Ababa and took over leadership of a small group meeting in a living room — just 12 people. Within 10 years, that church had grown to 16,000 people. Dozens upon dozens of daughter churches were planted. During this time, Wolde earned a GU MA degree. “It’s one of the greatest revivals in history,” Steve says, “and it’s probably not in the books. In fact, it’s still going on today.”

The Ethiopian Assemblies of God, ignited by that revival fire, now consists of 2,000 churches. Under the leadership of Pastor Ayansa Obsi, in the last year alone, they planted almost 1,000 new churches. When asked how they find leaders for such explosive growth, Pastor Ayansa points back to training: “We’ve already got them trained. Addis Ababa Bible College has been training them for 25 years. We’ve just been waiting for the mechanism.”

This story — of a refugee transformed, trained, and released to transform a nation — “is replicated again and again and again not only in Africa, but in Latin America and Asia and Eurasia, different parts of the world,” Steve says.

A Global Vision for Global University

Steve Pennington sees this transition not as leaving his mission calling, but as an extension of it. He believes GU is uniquely positioned to advance gospel access. With programs spanning from discipleship to undergraduate and graduate degrees, a network of 215 offices worldwide, and courses available in 141 languages (including in highly sensitive regions where traditional missionary presence isn’t possible), GU touches every level of spiritual formation. The institution has demonstrated strategic expansion into unreached populations and proven effectiveness in cross-cultural theological education across diverse global contexts. Its vision — “Transforming lives through a global network of Spirit-empowered education and training” — aligns perfectly with the demands of this historic moment.

“Global University has the capacity to be part of the greatest discipleship movement in history,” he states with conviction. “Especially with MM33, we’re talking about planting all these churches, but those churches will need a discipleship structure.” MM33 represents the World Assemblies of God Fellowship’s vision to reach one million churches by 2033, the 2,000th anniversary of Jesus Christ’s resurrection. It’s an audacious goal that will require unprecedented coordination, prayer, and preparation.

Steve’s vision for GU includes a robust commitment to U.S. ministerial training. The institution equips pastors, church planters, evangelists, and educators across the nation. “We need to be serving our districts, serving our churches, serving those seeking credentialing,” Steve emphasizes. Last year, 24 percent of new AG credential holders trusted GU’s Berean School of the Bible to fulfill their educational requirements. These leaders will transform communities from coast to coast and ultimately carry the gospel beyond America’s borders as missionaries who span the globe.

John Easter, executive director of AG World Missions, says, “I am excited to congratulate Steve Pennington as the new president of Global University. I have known Steve and Trina for many years as we worked alongside each other to train African pastors and leaders. His heart for training and discipleship is at the core of everything he does.”

Sowing for the Harvest

Steve and Trina Pennington bring more than credentials to this transition. Steve holds a B.A. in world missions from JSBC as well as an M.A. in biblical literature and a Ph.D. in intercultural ministries from the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary. He was licensed with the Louisiana District Council in 1987 and ordained with the Michigan Ministry Network in 1991. But beyond the degrees and the decades of service are his relationships — “wonderful, long-term relationships across the African continent,” as one colleague describes them.

Steve expresses a deep conviction that training is not an end, but a means. “Training is not our goal,” he emphasizes. “Training is our methodology. Our goal is to make disciples.”

With three children — Josiah and his wife Elizabeth, Priscilla and her husband Reed, and Micah, who is with the Lord — and four grandchildren, plus another on the way, Steve and Trina understand legacy. They’ve spent 33 years investing in Africa’s future leaders. Now, they’re preparing to invest in the world.

As Steve prepares to lead GU into its next chapter, he carries that vision with him: the refugee who becomes a revivalist, the student who becomes a superintendent, the vision received in a Michigan winter that unfolds into a global calling. The goal isn’t just to train. It’s to make disciples who make disciples — a multiplication movement that reaches every nation, in every language, at every level.

The vision God gave a young missionary over three decades ago is far from complete. In many ways, it’s just beginning.