The leadership major of the Masters of Divinity degree offers an additional focus in equipping leaders for the unique challenges of leadership within the church and parachurch. It equips leaders to develop healthy ministries and mobilize followers of Christ to impact their spheres of influence in society. Leaders are equipped in areas of pastoral leadership and care, organizational change, leadership communication, and multiplying leaders.
This course prepares current or future ministers for the caregiving and counseling demands of ministry. Students learn how to come alongside people in a variety of significant life moments for the purpose of offering care, comfort, and timely guidance from God’s word. In particular, the course equips students to use God’s Word as they minister to those who in struggle, conflict, or pain, and to help others discover and apply the truths of Scripture to their own situations. (3-lecture units-course; 3 hours per week)
This course builds on the Biblical Preaching course, offering deeper insight into and practice with the art and discipline of expository preaching. Students learn how to bring accurate interpretation of various biblical genres into their preaching with creativity and practical relevance to their specific contexts. Peer group interactive learning and individual mentoring help build the student's preaching confidence and skills. (1.5-lecture units-course; 1.5 hours per week)
This course equips students to lead and sustain organizational change to better fulfill a mission and vision. Students learn how to work with teams to successfully implement new ideas or programs that support organizational values and goals in addition to developing new leaders who can sustain change. Students learn how to ground their change initiatives in biblical principles, spiritual dependence, and appropriate cultural or contextual factors. Students learn to wisely influence from anywhere in the organization and evaluate several models of change and contemporary tools for planning with their context in view. (3-lecture units-course; 3 hours per week)
This course equips current and emerging ministry leaders for the calling, demands, and functions of pastoral leadership of a local ministry in their context. Students learn how to wisely lead God’s people in ways that result in spiritually mature and healthy ministries. Students will be prepared to respond to common organizational, personnel, and community challenges, and to address contemporary issues that ministry leaders face in in mobilizing a church for disciple-making and Christian witness in the community. (1.5-lecture units-course; 1.5 hours per week)
This course equips students to reach wise agreements across material and relational differences in ways that build trust, sustain partnerships, and decrease conflict while accomplishing personal, team, or organizational objectives. Students explore how identity, culture, and emotions impact negotiation, then examine their own values and motivations in the midst of difficult conversations. Students demonstrate thoughtful negotiation characterized by love when interests are in conflict. Students explore several approaches to negotiation and practice the requisite skills that result in forging agreements. (3-lecture units-course; 3 hours per week)
BIBLICAL STUDIES Major
The Master of Divinity in Biblical Studies develops proficiency and passion the original languages to prepare students for lifelong study and communication of God’s Word in the context of an MDiv degree that broadly prepares a student for holistic ministry. This degree contains six semesters of original languages and courses to deepen exegetical and hermeneutical ability, broaden awareness of issues in biblical interpretation, understanding of historical and cultural backgrounds of the Old and New Testaments, and skills for biblical research and effective communication. Target Audience: This program prepares students to be preaching pastors, Bible school teachers and leaders, Bible translators, and research capable of further academic study.
This course assists students in further developing their exegetical skills by deepening their understanding of Greek grammar and syntax. It offers further practice for students to sharpen their Greek skills in the exegesis of biblical texts by reading extensively in Greek. (3-lecture units-course; 3 hours per week)
This course assists students in further developing their exegetical skills by deepening their understanding of Hebrew grammar and syntax. It offers further practice for students to sharpen their Hebrew skills in the exegesis of biblical texts by reading extensively in Hebrew. (3-lecture units-course; 3 hours per week)
This course assists students in deepening their exegetical skills through a discussion of current issues in biblical interpretation. This course will cover additional issues related to genre, the relationship between the testaments, and how theology impacts exegesis. An emphasis will be placed on the "hermeneutical spiral" in biblical interpretation.. (1.5-lecture units-course; 1.5 hours per week)
This course helps students understand several approaches to biblical theology and its complementary function alongside systematic theology. Students will develop a theology of a particular book (e.g. the gospel of John) and trace the development of key themes across the canon (e.g. the land). (1.5-lecture units-course; 1.5 hours per week)
This course examines the cultural and historical backgrounds of both the Old and New Testaments. Old Testament backgrounds includes a study of the religion, literature, and culture of Israel as well as the nations around it in the ancient Near East. New Testament backgrounds examines Jewish and Greco-Roman religious beliefs and customs, folk belief, ethnic issues, the political situation and other cultural phenomena that form the background to the Gospels and early church. Through increased familiarity with the historical and cultural context of the biblical writings, students will improve their ability to interpret, apply, and contextualize the Bible in their own contexts. (1.5-lecture units-course; 1.5 hours per week)
This course broadens and deepens the students’ understanding of Israel and its bordering nations, examining the land’s geography and climate and how these factors affected its history. This course enables students to step into the world of the biblical writers and understand the particular lands in which God has chosen to work out His plan for mankind. (1.5-lecture units-course; 1.5 hours per week)
This course takes students through a selected book in the Old or New Testament with the goal of exegeting and understanding the book in its historical, literary, and canonical context. Students will focus on an individual book with an emphasis on interpretation according to genre of the book as well as the cultural context. This course will also give attention to the application of the book to life and ministry contexts. (Students required to take 3 credits of a class based on a book of the Bible. This could be one 3 credit class or two 1.5 credit classes)
INTERCULTURAL STUDIES Major
Intercultural Studies major equips students with the understanding and skills for effective ministry in the varied cultural, socio-economic, and religious contexts throughout the world. ICS majors will be enabled to integrate biblical, theological, and inter-cultural disciplines in order to interpret and appreciate cultures, to address worldview transformation, to plant indigenous churches, and to initiate appropriate community development ministries. This missiological approach gives students the ability to approach contextualization of the Gospel and Scripture in a more comprehensive manner.
This course examines the world-changing, cross-cultural expansion of the church. Students will gain familiarity with the personalities, events, strategies, and movements that have shaped the church and its growth (and decline) over the centuries. (3-lecture units-course; 3 hours per week)
This course enables students to understand poverty in a holistic manner and equips them to engage in sustainable solutions with a biblical foundation. Students develop an understanding of poverty from a material, social, psychological and spiritual perspective. Students also develop a holistic understanding of development with the goal of establishing shalom. The course explores various community development efforts of churches, NGOs, INGOs, and short-term missionaries in responding to developmental opportunities in Asia. (3-lecture units-course; 3 hours per week)
This course provides students with an understanding of the basic aspects of culture and worldview, and their relationship to ministry in their own culture as well as in cross-cultural contexts. Future Christian workers will be able to serve, and communicate the Christian message, in a contextualized way with the goal of cultural transformation. The course will also provide students with an experience of doing sample research on a target culture and addressing relevant issues in it. (3-lecture units-course; 3 hours per week)
This course offers an overview of the process of starting churches and facilitating their maturation and growth. Students will learn to evaluate and utilize strategies for church planting in their own context as well as to address the special challenges associated with planting indigenous churches in cross-cultural contexts. The course will address significant theoretical issues related to church-planting before introducing approaches that support the establishment of indigenous churches. (3-lecture units-course; 3 hours per week)
THEOLOGY Major
The Theology Major of the Master of Divinity equips leaders for uniquely Christian engagement (e.g. sermons, teaching, books, articles) with contemporary issues by grounding them in Scripture and Christian thought. This will enable church leaders, teachers, and missionaries to empower their local communities to bear faithful witness to the kingdom of God in their unique situation. Students will gain expertise in engaging Scripture wholistically, addressing contextual matters with theological discernment, and the wise appropriation of the Christian heritage.
This course offers students an advanced exploration of the doctrine of Scripture and gives them experience in exploring the mutually formative relationship between Scripture and Christian doctrine. Topics include the nature, inspiration, and inerrancy of Scripture, as well as the ways it has been interpreted by the Church. Students will grow in their appreciation for the authority of Scripture and in their confidence in interpreting and communicating God’s Word in their contemporary contexts.(3-lecture units-course; 3 hours per week)
This course introduces students to theological developments from the 19th century to the present day, allowing them to develop an approach to theological reflection informed by key thinkers and systems in both Western and Asian Christian thought. Topics include both significant thinkers and key schools of thought (e.g. liberation theology, neo-orthodoxy, postmodern theologies). Familiarity with key theological developments of the recent past enables students to understand the formation of contemporary ecclesial perspectives and practices. Students will grow in their ability to evaluate current Asian and Western theological trends and to thoughtfully construct evangelical responses to the challenges of modernization, pluralism, and postmodern thought.(3-lecture units-course; 3 hours per week)
This course enables students to deepen their appreciation for the theological foundations of Christian life and worship, helping them to grasp how Christian practices and traditions fit into the grand narrative of redemption. Students gain deeper theological insight into the ways in which ordinances, weddings, funerals, child-dedications, worship services, and church ministries for all stages of life function as sacred occasions for our lives in communion with God. By equipping students for theological engagement with the practical aspects of pastoral ministry and life in the body, this course grows students’ capacity for fostering meaningful Christian practices with contextual creativity and biblical fidelity.(3-lecture units-course; 3 hours per week)
This course enables students to deepen their appreciation for the theological foundations of Christian life and worship, helping them to grasp how Christian practices and traditions fit into the grand narrative of redemption. Students gain deeper theological insight into the ways in which ordinances, weddings, funerals, child-dedications, worship services, and church ministries for all stages of life function as sacred occasions for our lives in communion with God. By equipping students for theological engagement with the practical aspects of pastoral ministry and life in the body, this course grows students’ capacity for fostering meaningful Christian practices with contextual creativity and biblical fidelity.(3-lecture units-course; 3 hours per week)
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