Dr Andre van Oudtshoorn

Dr Andre van Oudtshoorn has worked in ministry for 44 years. He is originally from South Africa and specialises in Systematic and Practical Theology.

Andre became a pastor in the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa. He has since served in various churches and denominations in South Africa and Australia.

Andre gets excited about the gospel every time he teaches it. He enjoys interacting with the students as they explore the riches of the Word together.

He loves the buzz of discovering something new in the Word and thinking through its application for today’s world and today’s generations. He enjoys seeing the theological lights come on in his students’ eyes and engaging in debate with those who oppose particular views.

“I love winning my students over to embrace my theology. I enjoy seeing God’s Word challenge and destroy the barriers we have set up to defend ourselves against Him. I just love practising theology.”

“If being a professional means to do things because you get paid to do them, I pray that the Lord may keep me from ever valuing such an aberration of Christian service!

If it means doing things well, I must confess that there are some administrative things that I could do better if my heart were more fully in it.

But I like talking about Christ, the Father and the Spirit in our world.”

Andre loves being a spectator of the great drama of salvation as depicted in Scripture – and, at times, being drawn into the drama as an amateurish ad-lib participant by the Holy Spirit.

“I must sadly conclude that I have no professional values.”

Andre values the privilege of share something of the gospel with students who stick it out with him on this journey – whether because they have already paid for the subject or because God’s grace has touched them and they cannot leave.

Andre loves spending time with his family, being a pastor in a local church, composing bad Christian songs and inflicting them on unsuspecting victims.

He enjoys reading fiction and non-fiction, writing and watching rugby union and cricket.

“At PBC, students need to learn about theology and learn to do theology.

Theological knowledge at PBC is about more than gaining rational insights into the Word of God. Good theology generates and demands faith, hope and love in those who practise it. It calls students to an exciting adventure of inner transformation by growing in gratitude and humility before God.

As an interdenominational College, PBC equips students to engage with and learn from the differing perspectives of believers from other theological traditions while also learning to take every thought captive and critically evaluate it in light of the supremacy of Christ and the final authority of God’s Word.

PBC’s courses introduce students to the profound, universal, unchanging truths about God, humanity and the world. PBC’s theology is trinitarian at its core. It is centred on Christ as the supreme revelation of God’s person and seeks to lead students to fully understand the love of the Father and the Spirit in light of God’s gracious actions in Christ, on behalf of sinful humanity.

PBC’s theology simultaneously focuses students on the practical life world of believers. It equips them to analyse, understand and engage with the various cultural and ideological contexts in which the gospel encounters the world.

The lecturers at PBC are people committed to the good news about Jesus. While being scholars of international renown, they are also fellow believers who humbly seek to serve their Lord by imparting life-changing insights from his Word to their students.”