MA in Intercultural Ministry Studies

The Master of Arts in Intercultural Ministry Studies is designed for you to develop a worldview that is missions minded. This program borrows elements from our Intercultural Studies, Bible & Theology, Education, Leadership, and History programs in order to make you the most well-rounded individual in your field of work.

At the end of your degree you will be able to:

Understand the transformative power of the Gospel in individual’s lives and in society and carry this understanding into a cross-cultural community and bring them the life-giving message of Christ.
Enhance your ability to be effective in cross-cultural communication.
Learn how to successfully plant and grow a church within another cultural context.
Understand approaches, models, and issues in contextualization.

Develop leadership skills for cross-cultural ministry settings.

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

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

The Thesis Track is designed for those who want to further their education after an MA or teach in an academic setting. The thesis track is also beneficial for those interested in ministering around the world because some countries only acknowledge master’s degrees with a written thesis (i.e. Brazil).

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

Course Track - 12 Classes

Intercultural Ministry Studies - 4 Classes

You can choose any of the 2 classes to fulfill your Intercultural Ministry 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.

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)

General Electives - 6 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.

Bible & Theology - 2 Classes

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)

Transforming Power of the Gospel
This course looks first at the transformational power of the Gospel in regeneration, making all things new, and through the changed life of the transformed believer, affecting his family, business, perspectives on culture and entertainment, and society. These changes do not occur without profound personal and worldview change. The early church demonstrated this by “turning their world upside down.” Secondly, this course wrestles with how the church is meant to be transformative, what this means and how it occurs. Many places where the Gospel has gone in modern missions, corruption has increased. This should not be the case. The course looks at issues in society that are destructive and how the church can respond to these issues. It considers the spiritual authority the church has to enact change as it functions as light and salt. It asks if the church can influence the political and authority structures in society, and if so, how. Finally, it takes into account the “push-back” the church can experience as change takes place, from minor to severe persecution. (3 Credits)

Thesis Track - 7 Classes + 5 Thesis Classes

Bible & Theology - 2 Classes

Intercultural Studies - 4 Classes

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.

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.

Graduate Studies

Graduate Programs

MA in Intercultural Ministry Studies

Course Track - 12 Classes

Intercultural Ministry Studies - 4 Classes

General Electives - 6 Classes

Bible & Theology - 2 Classes

Thesis Track - 7 Classes + 5 Thesis Classes

Bible & Theology - 2 Classes

Intercultural Studies - 4 Classes

General Electives - 1 Class

Thesis - 5 Classes