MA in Intercultural Ministry Education

The Master of Arts in Intercultural Ministry Education is designed for you to train others effectively for missions. While some courses are missiological, the focus is practical implementation of mission concepts and methodology. Students may choose between a Course Track and Thesis Track.

At the end of your degree you will:

Learn how to successfully plant and grow a church within another cultural context.
Develop skills in designing missionary training programs and curricula that are outcomes-based as well as cognitively, holistic, and comprehensive.
Enhance your ability to understand and teach the nuances of cross-cultural communication.
Gain effective teaching methods and skills (deductive and inductive) specific for differing cultural settings and student learning styles.
Learn how to do field training for skills development in cross-cultural and field settings.
Learn how to use many types of evaluative procedures in a multiplicity of teaching and training contexts.

There are 2 different tracks you can take to accomplish your MA in Intercultural Ministry Education:

The Course Track is designed to be more content based and focuses on how you can implement the content you’re learning in the classroom immediately.

The Thesis Track is designed for those who want to further their education after an M.A or teach at an advanced level. The thesis track is also beneficial for those interested in ministering overseas because some countries only acknowledge master’s degrees with a written thesis (for instance, Brazil).

Course Track - 12 Classes
Thesis Track - 7 Classes + 5 Thesis Classes

Course Track - 12 Classes

Intercultural Ministry Education Core Classes - 5 Classes

Training for Affective Growth
Empirical research has demonstrated that the most critical factors affecting cross-cultural ministry competence are the spiritual, character, and social dynamics of the missionary. This course looks at these empirical studies, detailing the spiritual, character, and social dimensions, and considering ways and models by which these can be developed in the lives of missionaries for effective ministry. (3 Credits)

Philosophy of Missiological Education
This course is focused on educating and training missionary practitioners for competent cross cultural ministry. It studies theoretical and empirical literature on wide-ranging concepts of competence. These concepts include adaptive patterns, competence assessments, cognitive social learning concepts, social and psychological orientations, models of cross-cultural competence, personal qualities, and ministry skills. Empirical field studies that have redefined cross-cultural competence will be presented along with recommended content design models with reference to their defining philosophies of education and training. (3 Credits)

Design for Effective Teaching
Approaches to teaching differ around the world. Each of these approaches have strengths and weaknesses inherent in them. This course looks at effective teaching processes and elements from both inductive and deductive approaches to communicating truth. (3 Credits)

Design for Effective Training
Competence in cross-cultural ministry demands skills including language learning, culture study, religion and worldview study, and ministry skills specific to the cross-cultural context. The course looks at specifics in designing, managing, doing, and assessing experiential field training. (3 Credits)

Program and Curriculum Design
This course takes students step-by-step through a system-approach in developing competence oriented missionary training programs. This will enable students to start their own training schools or to evaluate and effectively improve the training in existing schools. (3 Credits)

General Electives - 4 Classes

Our general electives requirements are designed to fit your needs. We have a large selection of courses that you can choose from.

You can download our course description to see all of our courses.

Intercultural Studies - 2 Classes

You can choose any of the 2 classes to fulfill your Intercultural Studies requirements:

Cross-Cultural Communication
Communication is complex; cross-cultural communication is even more complex. This course first lays a foundation of theory in the field of intercultural communication. It overviews many elements and processes involved in the sending and receiving of messages within intercultural contexts. It then addresses issues in communication that students must be aware of, including 15 factors affecting cross-cultural communication, communication competence models, cognitive social learning concepts, perception, categorization, attribution, and cognitive complexity. The course wrestles with the implications of these for effective ministry and how to implement training to develop these competencies. (3 Credits)

Intercultural Interaction
This course will explore the factors that serve to facilitate or impede communication within one’s cross-cultural context. The student will be able to learn the difference between perceived communication and the reality of what cultural communication consists of and apply the principles to help him or her communicate more effectively. (3 Credits)

Applied Cultural Anthropology
This course looks at the universals of culture from the perspective of a missionary, using theory, research, and case studies to help missionaries think about issues and processes of cultural adaptation/contextualization they must work through. As an applied course, this is meant to be practical, its concepts and principles integrated into cross-cultural ministry. (3 Credits)

Applied Church-Planting Models and Methods
Lessons from evangelistic and church-planting models from around the world are compared to identify strengths and weaknesses of each, and how to personally develop a contextually effective method from the insights gained. (3 Credits)

Contextualization in Missions
Every church exists in some cultural and sociological context. Yet missionaries tend to plant churches that function like their home-culture churches. It is essential that the church be both biblically sound and culturally viable. Contextualization is an essential concept and a necessary skill. However, contextualization is fraught with controversy over degree of contextualization and how contextualization in various contexts is undertaken. These issues will be considered and a theory and model for a biblically and missiologically sound approach to contextualization developed. (3 Credits)

Bible & Theology - 1 Class

Dynamics of Kingdom Ministry
This course gives students a personal and Kingdom-oriented theology of ministry, demonstrating God’s heart and passion for the world through Scriptures. How mission fits into the extension and promotion of the Kingdom of God is studied, including the power and resources of the Kingdom, the centrality of the Kingdom in proclamation, and the final victory of the Kingdom over Satan and all his kingdom as mission works towards the culmination of this present evil age and the inauguration of the eternal Kingdom of God, the reign of the King, Jesus, and the role of the glorious people of God in all of these events. The course is intensely practical, each student working through how a Kingdom worldview should transform life and ministry. (3 Credits)

Thesis Track - 7 Classes + 5 Thesis Classes

Bible & Theology - 1 Class

Intercultural Education - 5 Classes

Training for Effective Growth
Empirical research has demonstrated that the most critical factors affecting cross-cultural ministry competence are the spiritual, character, and social dynamics of the missionary. This course looks at these empirical studies, detailing the spiritual, character, and social dimensions, and considering ways and models by which these can be developed in the lives of missionaries for effective ministry. (3 Credits)

General Electives - 1 Class

Our general electives requirements are designed to fit your needs. We have a large selection of courses that you can choose from.

You can download our course description to see all of our courses.

Thesis - 5 Classes

Each student will have a faculty advisor assigned while the student is taking the Research Methods course who will advise while the student is looking at research design, doing preliminary literature research, and developing a bibliography. The advisor will help the student clarify the thesis proposal which must be accepted by the thesis committee. Students then write their thesis using accepted thesis format, footnoting, and bibliographic methods following the Turabian format. When the faculty advisor feels the thesis is ready for submission, the committee will receive the thesis from the student for evaluation. Thesis grading is on a pass/fail basis. (3 Credits)

Graduate Studies

Graduate Programs

MA in Intercultural Ministry Education

Course Track - 12 Classes

Intercultural Ministry Education Core Classes - 5 Classes

General Electives - 4 Classes

Intercultural Studies - 2 Classes

Bible & Theology - 1 Class

Thesis Track - 7 Classes + 5 Thesis Classes

Bible & Theology - 1 Class

Intercultural Education - 5 Classes

General Electives - 1 Class

Thesis - 5 Classes