AMD Announces Adrian L. Varlack All Nations Scholarship

Accredited Ministry Development of the Church of God of Prophecy announced on Friday the creation of the Adrian L. Varlack All Nations Scholarship. This new academic scholarship of $4000.00 will be awarded annually to a ministerial student who is enrolled with one of the church’s academic affiliates and is interested in or desires to serve as a pastor, missionary, or church planter.

A native of the Virgin Islands, Bishop Varlack came to know the Lord at age 14 during an island-wide revival in a Methodist schoolhouse. He trained for three years as a primary school teacher, and later served five years with the British Civil Service rising to the level of senior executive officer. While working as an accounts clerk and bookkeeper, he studied advanced accounting, principles of management, business law, and federal taxation, at the College of the United States Virgin Islands. Licensed in 1968 as a Business and Management Consultant, he operated his own firm for five years.

His Christian service includes various local church positions and as a bi-vocational pastor, evangelist, national treasurer, and convention committee chairman in the Virgin Islands. Since 1972 when he was ordained a bishop and appointed to the Church’s International Offices, he spent 22 years in international missions promotions and church administration as Mission Representative to Africa and the Caribbean and World Mission Secretary for the Church of God of Prophecy. During those years he also served as interim overseer of Haiti, Greece, and Indonesia where he prepared indigenous leaders to assume responsibility for the work.

As a senior church administrator, Bishop Varlack has served on many of the Church’s international boards, committees and task forces, such as Biblical Doctrine and Polity Committee, World Missions, Administrative, Educational, Youth Missions, World Harvest, and the Presbytery Working Group, which drafted documents for the implementation of plural leadership within the church. After two years as an Administrative Assistant to the General Overseer and Director of Ministerial Services, he served for three years as overseer of Canada.

As a conference speaker, he has lectured widely at leadership conferences, international youth functions, retreats, citywide crusades, national and state conventions, and the Church’s International Assembly. In September 1999, he joined Leadership Development and Discipleship Ministries at the Church’s International Offices, as a member of the faculty and instructor for the Center for Biblical Leadership and served as CBL liaison to Africa.  At the 2006 International General Assembly he was also appointed Church Historian. He is a regular writer for the White Wing Messenger, the Church’s official publication and has contributed lessons and articles for college-level texts, Sunday School curricula, and other training courses. His book “Church of God of Prophecy: Concise History, Polity, Doctrine and Future” a part of the Foundations Series, was released by the White Wing Publishing House in July of 2010. He lives in Cleveland, Tennessee, with his wife, Janice. They have been married for 50 years and have seven children, 19 grandchildren, and two great grandchildren.

“It would be impossible to summarize the impact that Bishop Varlack has made on our movement” said Shaun McKinley, director of Accredited Ministry Development. “While much has changed within our church over the past four decades, Bishop Varlack’s faithful ministry has been constant as he has served with integrity, anointing, and stability. The Adrian L. Varlack All Nations Scholarship seeks to honor Bishop Varlack’s contribution by investing in leaders who embody the vision to ‘send the light’ that Bishop Varlack preached and promoted for so many years.”

Applicants for the Adrian L. Varlack All Nations Scholarship must be a member of the Church of God of Prophecy who are currently involved or desire to prepare for full-time Christian ministry in the Church of God of Prophecy. The applicant should hold ministerial credentials with the Church, be in the process of securing such credentials, or commit to begin the process during that term. Following successful submission of the application, additional information will be requested verifying participation in outreach and evangelism efforts.

To learn more about the legacy of Bishop Adrian L. Varlack, to donate to this fund, or to apply for this scholarship, please visit www.cogopamd.org/varlack.