Word of Life Bible Institute

Word of Life began in 1940 with Jack Wyrtzen and Harry Bollback, evangelists to young people in New York. Its Bible Institute opened in the United States in 1970, modelled on a school the ministry had already started in São Paulo, Brazil. The first year is a full year of Bible and ministry training; a second year is offered in New York.

Credits are designed to transfer: the institute is accredited by TRACS, and its first year counts at Davis College and other partner Christian colleges. Besides New York and Florida, the same first year is taught in Canada, South Korea and Hungary. The Hungarian school in Tóalmás, near Budapest, is the closest to Poland.

Word of Life also has its own ministry in Poland, based in Zgierz near Łódź. It runs summer and winter camps, supports youth work in local churches, and since 2019 has run English4Life, a live-in English and Bible course for school-leavers.

• Founded
  Word of Life in 1940; the US Bible Institute in 1970
• Founders
  Jack Wyrtzen and Harry Bollback
• President
  Don Lough, Jr., President and CEO of Word of Life
• Based in
  Schroon Lake, New York; campus in Pottersville, New York, and a teaching site in Hudson, Florida
• Teaching sites
  New York, Florida, Canada, South Korea and Hungary (Tóalmás)
• Programme
  One year, at every site, with an optional second year in New York
• Accreditation
  TRACS, Category I, reaffirmed in 2022; credits transfer to Davis College and other partner schools
• Cost
  US, 2026–27: $23,500 for the year — tuition $10,400, fees $1,500, meals $4,300, housing $7,300. The school says 99% of students receive aid or scholarships. The Hungarian site does not publish its fee
• How to join
  Online application on wordoflife.edu; students whose second language is English take a proficiency test
• Statement of faith
  Published on wordoflife.edu
• Financial reporting
  ECFA member since 2012. Form 990 filings are public through ProPublica (EIN 13-5648615)
• Polish
  Yes — Word of Life Polska, ul. Łanowa 24/26, 95-100 Zgierz: camps, youth work with about 12 Polish churches, and English4Life since 2019 (wolpolska.org). It runs no Bible institute in Poland
• Contact
  Bible Institute: 1-800-331-9673 · Word of Life Polska: wolpolska@gmail.com, +48 669 752 892
• What we checked
  The history, sites, accreditation, costs and beliefs come from wol.org and wordoflife.edu; the Polish ministry from missions.wol.org and wolpolska.org; the finances from the ECFA and ProPublica. The legal form and registration number of the Polish ministry are not published on its site

Word of Life Bible Institute does not sponsor or endorse Embassy of the Kingdom, and we are not affiliated with them. We list them because we checked them and would put them in a friend’s hands. If you lead a ministry and would like to be considered, or believe something here should be corrected, write to us — we read every message ourselves.