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Winfield, Kansas -- April 10, 2026 The 25th anniversary of the founding of the Bishop Richard and Julia Wilke Institute for Discipleship brought persons from around the nation to Winfield April 10 to celebrate the Institute’s ministry. More than 50 guests attended the event at the Barns at Timber C ...
February 20, 2026 A $26,000 grant to the Institute for Discipleship will be used to support a new 12-week study for youth or young adults. The grant was made by Tenx10, which is hosted by Fuller Seminary and funded by Lilly Endowment. Tenx10 is committed to engaging teenagers in intentional act ...
January 3, 2025 Dr. Cheryl Rude became the executive director of the Bishop Richard and Julia Wilke Institute for Discipleship on Jan. 1, 2026, becoming only the second top leader in the history of the Institute. The founding executi ...
July 7, 2025 Winfield, Kansas — The Richard and Julia Wilke Institute for Discipleship at Southwestern College has developed an ambitious three-year strategic plan that will guide the Institute for the upcoming three years. The new plan was put into place July 1 and will be well into its first y ...
RICHARD BYRD WILKE, 1930-2025Richard Byrd Wilke, a retired United Methodist bishop and author of the popular Disciple Bible Study series, died on Easter, April 20, 2025, in Winfield, Kansas. He was 94.Wilke was born June 18, 1930, in El Dorado, Kansas, the son of Clarence Wilke, a funeral home direc ...
Winfield, Kansas, May 7, 2024 – Richard E. Clark has joined the Southwestern College faculty as a Visiting Scholar of the Institute for Discipleship (IFD). Each academic year the Institute for Discipleship provides a $20,000 fellowship and housing to a new or near-completion Ph.D. candidate in relig ...
November 6, 2023 — The BeADisciple Study App has been named best in class for internet communications in the 2023 United Methodist Association of Communicators Awards competition.The app, which began public beta testing in August 2023, is a ministry of the Richard and Julia Wilke Institute for Disci ...
August 24, 2023 — After more than two years of development and testing, a state-of-the-art app created by the Institute for Discipleship at Southwestern College is now available for widespread use around the world. The BeADisciple Study App has been created by a team that has included SC alumni in t ...
August 24, 2023 -- The Institute for Discipleship at Southwestern College has announced the successful completion of a fundraising campaign that will support the development of its new BeADisciple Study App. Donors contributed more than half a million dollars, surpassing the campaign’s goal. In Apr ...
June 6, 2023 (Winfield, Kansas) -- Lori Richey has been named director of online education for the Institute for Discipleship, and will oversee all offerings at BeADisciple.com beginning July 1. BeADisciple.com is part of the Institute for Discipleship at Southwestern College and has offered quality ...
May 1, 2023 – For 35 years, the DISCIPLE Bible Study series has been transforming millions of lives around the world with its print editions, and the popular curriculum is now going digital, the Richard and Julia Wilke Institute for Discipleship and the United Methodist Publishing House jointly anno ...
May 31, 2023 — A new cycle of online ministry certification courses is set to begin Aug. 21, 2023, at BeADisciple.com. BeADisciple.com is part of the Institute for Discipleship at Southwestern College and has offered quality online educational experiences with roots in Wesleyan theology since 2006. ...