Building Leaders: McBath's Vision for Virginia Christian College

Courtney McBath has been running Virginia Christian College since 2021 after nearly thirty years at Calvary Revival Church in Norfolk. Before taking the academic helm, he built a thriving congregation that swelled to eight thousand members. Now he's guiding the school through a major expansion, opening two brand‑new campuses in May—the School of Business and Leadership and the School of Human Services—alongside the original School of Christian Ministry.

McBath's journey began far from academia. Growing up in Alcoa, Tennessee, he spent his teenage years helping out at a nuclear power plant, learning how to collaborate across teams and with both engineers and non‑technical folks. A National Merit Scholar, he attended MIT where he balanced humanities, engineering, and early ministry studies. Later, he worked as a nuclear licensing engineer and in quality assurance roles at companies like Texas Instruments. Even at sixty‑three, he kept learning by studying at Oxford's Saïd Business School, earning a postgraduate diploma in organizational leadership in 2024.

His leadership philosophy centers on service rather than titles or size. He believes true impact comes from helping others grow, not from holding a big position. This mindset drives his vision for the college, where leadership principles thread through every course regardless of whether a student pursues business, education, or social work. Looking ahead, McBath expects enrollment to more than double within a year as the new schools attract more students and the college broadens its outreach.

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