House Value: Community
Dr Godfrey Noel Vose was born in Western Australia in December 1921, Noel grew up in the Great Depression, in a humble family that moved regularly in order for his father to look for work. By the time he was fifteen, he had attended eighteen different schools. Due to his dislike for education, he left school at fifteen and joined the public service. In 1943-1945 he served in the Air Force. It was in his Air Force years that Noel felt called to the ministry of the word and his love for education grew. He applied to study at the Baptist College in New South Wales. After completing his studies, he went on to further study in Chicago and Iowa. Noel returned to Perth and was ordained in 1951 and pastored small churches in Fremantle and Dalkeith. Though at heart a pastor and an evangelist, he was moved by the need for training amongst Baptist pastors and in 1963 he began The Baptist College as its principal and sole faculty member. As Vose’s community built in Perth, he also took on the mantle of president of the Baptist Union of Australia. Later then becoming the president of the Baptist World Assembly in 1980. In 2008, The Baptist College officially changed its name to Vose Seminary to honour the man that started it. Because of Noel’s obedience to God, he has created a community that has seen generations of Australian’s better understand the bible, in turn training outstanding pastoral leaders for the church, the marketplace and the mission field.