Dr. Jonathan Watt is a Bible and linguistics professor at Geneva College, and he is very passionate about missions.

Born in Sydney, Australia, Watt was raised in England, the United States, Australia, and Hong Kong before permanently immigrating to the United States in 1967. His citizenship was granted in 1975. He continues to love travel, having visited dozens of countries. Last summer he visited Liberia, a country he has had a connection with for several decades.

Liberia is a poor and politically quiet country on the bulge of West Africa. About 36 years ago, the Reformed Presbyterian mission board on which Dr. Watt served attempted to establish a mission church there. Sadly, right after all the plans were laid, a civil war broke out. The mission attempt was dropped and left alone until approximately six years ago.

At that point, several RP churches in the Great Lakes–Gulf Presbytery put together a new initiative to help many ministries, including existing churches in Liberia. This led to Dr. Watt visiting the work in Liberia several times in 2018, 2022, and 2023. While there, he taught a seminar at African Bible College University, located in Yekepa. His goal was to help train and assist pastors to go out into the world and spread the gospel. On his most recent trip, he was given the privilege to teach undergraduate students about the book of Romans.

The living situation in Liberia was not what we would think of as comfortable. Dr. Watt would get eight hours of electricity a day: four hours in the morning and four in the evening. There was also little water, and the tap water was undrinkable, forcing him to use bottled water. But despite these conditions, he was able to teach and fellowship with the saints and students there.

In addition to several other roles, including being pastor of Tusca Area (Beaver, Pa.) RPC, Dr. Watt is also very involved in the Bible Department at Geneva College. He is one of the leading faculty members for the missions, biblical studies, pre-seminary, and student ministry majors. He has been working in the Bible department part-time since 1994, becoming a full-time professor in 2000. Dr. Watt has taught nearly 10,000 students during his time at Geneva.

Watt says, “I was hired as a general specialist. I taught general Bible courses, but I was also already published in Greek and linguistics, and I had a long run as the executive secretary of the RP missions board. This allowed me to design a four-course missions sequence to help establish a missions major.”

Often students pursuing a missions degree at Geneva will get to take a trip to a different country, including Israel or Italy. Dr. Watt loves accompanying these trips, partially because he enjoys eating ice cream with students and watching them grow and broaden their horizons. He enjoys watching students’ eyes light up from experiences they had only heard of. “You have history, archeology, culture, language, food. And all these things are coming together and the students, just as I am, are enthralled with it.”

There are also times when students have to go through situations that challenge them and push them outside of their comfort zone; but, once they get through those situations, they gain new understanding of the complexities of ministering in other cultures. Watt tells an example of students taking a taxi ride as the Muslim driver shared his anguish and frustration over complex Israeli/Arab conflicts. Through that experience, the students were able to gather a new understanding of the nuances of that situation and the world around them.

“Whether we are doing an academic trip or helping students get connected with missions partners, we think it is a good way to connect with the world at large, outside of their own familiar world.”

Dr. Watt delights in the broadening of students’ minds and the joy or realization on their faces. They see that Christ’s kingdom exists in a world so much larger than they originally thought it was. That is the goal he wants to accomplish when taking students abroad, or when teaching them in a classroom.

For more information about Dr. Watt’s work in translation and linguistics, visit geneva.edu/faculty-staff/faculty/bible-philosophy/faculty_jonathan_watt.