I am pleased to be able to introduce to you our Master’s Online Intercultural Study programs. As you look through this brochure, you will see how to earn a Master’s Degree while increasing your ministry impact. Flexibility has been built into the program to allow study within your schedule, enabling you to continue with your vocation/ministry and home life as you work towards a degree. Bethany Global University’s Graduate Studies offers three compelling MA degree options crafted specifically for mission leaders, educators and trainers: Intercultural Leadership, Intercultural Education, and Intercultural Studies. Each program is designed to draw upon your experience and knowledge of missions and provide practical learning applications you can begin to use immediately. The courses have been written by mission practitioners with earned doctorate degrees for mission/ministry practitioners. As a result of completing this program, you will be better equipped to minister in both the marketplace and the mission field. To attempt to make the program available to those in active intercultural ministry, expenses have been held to about half that of similar programs. Having studied at undergraduate, graduate and post graduate levels, I recognize that ministry-minded individuals are seeking academically challenging, spiritually transforming, practically applicable study programs. I think you will find the course offerings of BGU’s Graduate Studies meet these aspirations. Dr. Jim Raymo
PREPARATION FOR THE ADVENTURES GOD WILL CALL YOU TO
GRADUATE PROGRAMS Master’s in Intercultural Studies
Since 1945, our holy calling has been to train others to take the church to where it is not. Over the decades our methods have been carefully crafted to become:
Master’s in Intercultural Leadership
The MA in Intercultural Leadership degree is designed to equip you, the leader, in today’s missions movement. Whether you will be serving on the front-lines as a missionary, working to develop national leaders, or serving as a strategic sender, this degree will help you accomplish your goals.
Master’s in Intercultural Education
The MA in Intercultural 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.
Master’s in Intercultural Studies
The MA in Intercultural 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.
Accreditation
Bethany Global University is nationally accredited by the Association of Biblical Higher Education (ABHE), the oldest Bible college accreditation agency, specializing in biblical ministry formation and professional leadership education.
INTERCULTURAL LEADERSHIP
INTERCULTURAL EDUCATION
INTERCULTURAL STUDIES
WHY BGU’s GRADUATE STUDIES? The Classes are FLEXIBLE
As a leader we know your time is your greatest commodity. So Bethany offers the convenience to pursue advanced intercultural degrees anytime, anywhere. Most of your study can be done without an internet connection throughout the week. It takes only two to three logins per week to upload assignments and post to forums. You have the flexibility to create your own study schedule—perfect for leaders in ministry and those who travel.
The Content is PRACTICAL
At Bethany, theory and practice are integrated to provide a learning experience that helps make learning practical. You will apply what you learn in the virtual classroom to your everyday life and ministry. This is done by our educational philosophy that stresses the “Know-Be-Do” concept. You will be given a biblical and intercultural framework to understand your world (KNOW). Then you will grow to be Christ-like to influence your world (BE), and gain special skill sets to impact your world (DO).
The program is AFFORDABLE
Bethany’s goal is to enable Christian workers and missions leaders to train without debt. We offer our programs at about one-third the cost of most online education programs—only $200.00 per credit hour—so that you stay engaged in God’s mission instead of paying off debt! Whether you are a frontline missionary, a leader training others, or you minister hope to society’s most vulnerable members, we have three MA programs designed to equip you to maximize your level of ministry effectiveness.
YOUR TIME, YOUR SCHEDULE
COURSE DESCRIPTIONS BTH 511 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. BTH 512 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. BTH 513 Biblical Foundations of Leadership This course is a study of key principles of intercultural leadership arising from a number of biblical passages and characters. It is tempting to impose generally accepted western leadership principles upon our understanding of how notable biblical characters exercised leadership. This course, however, will not follow that path. In addition to challenging teaching, with western and non-western perspectives, this course will provide considerable opportunity for reflection and interaction with fellow students and the instructor in the principles of intercultural leadership.
BTH 514 Jesus as Leader This course will examine key areas in which Jesus laid a foundation for intercultural leadership. It will particularly emphasize: guiding the student to study foundational issues related to servant leadership; and focusing on Jesus and the specific ways in which he modeled leadership for his disciples as well as for us today. As Jesus did in the first century, the student may find that much of his style of leadership runs counter- cultural to leadership theory and practice today. EDU 511 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. EDU 521 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. EDU 522 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. EDU 523 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.
EDU 524 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. HIS 511 History of Missions Movements This course focuses on how God has used the church for expansion of the Kingdom of God on the earth from the time of the apostles to the present. Seven major turning events in the history of mission development will be identified including the factors that led to those events, the ongoing impact of those events, and current lessons to be learned for personal cross-cultural ministry. Case studies will be presented of the men and women used by the Spirit of God to see these major advances take place. ICS 511 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 the 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. ICS 512 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. ICS 521 Applied Cultural Anthropology This course looks at the universals of culture from the perspective of a missionary, using theory, research, and vcase 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.
ICS 522 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. ICS 523 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 will be developed. LDR 511 Spiritual Formation for Leaders This course examines spiritual principles and examples that can be utilized in intercultural spiritual leadership. The student will study how God develops leaders, the essential qualities needed for spiritual leadership, and how to be successful and finish well as a spiritual leader. In addition, it will also address how to avoid common pitfalls that leaders encounter. Opportunities will be provided for personal evaluation and practice in one’s cultural context. LDR 512 Exploring Organizational Culture This course will examine the tools and methods used to explore organizational cultures. It will focus on the key concepts of Ethnography, Cultural Hermeneutics, and Qualitative Research and the value they play in helping a leader to shape and influence an organizational culture. LDR 521 Comparative Cultural Leadership Leadership styles, influenced by widely contrasting worldviews and cultural patterns, can differ markedly from culture to culture. This course will provide students with valuable perspectives on their own leadership views and styles as they compare various cultural expressions of leadership.
LDR 522 Lifelong Leadership Development This course explores the nature of lifelong Christian leadership development. It will help the student become a more effective leader by developing long-term vision and strength-based skills in order to be the leader that God envisions him or her to be. This course incorporates a project that focuses the student on creating a lifelong leadership development plan in the context of his/her ministry goals. LDR 523 Issues and Trends in Global Leadership This course will explore the current issues and trends in Global Leadership. It will look at what current issues are obstacles for leading in a global setting and possible solutions to effectively overcoming these boundaries. The course will also explore some recent trends that have had major implications for leadership development and the role the West plays in overcoming or further inhibiting leadership growth and development. LDR 524 Intercultural Leadership Development This course will address the theory and practice for effective intercultural leadership development. It will consider biblical principles of leadership and how western leadership principles can translate into a non- western context. intercultural communication, and their value in effectively developing leaders. LDR 531 Collaborative Leadership This course is designed to introduce both a theoretical and practical framework for collaborative leadership. It will provide opportunities to integrate both a practical and theoretical framework and will be valuable in assisting students in achieving collaborative relationships in a cross-cultural context. This course incorporates a 1 credit practicum in addition to the 2 credits of course work. LDR 532 Cultural Innovation and Change This course will look at change, how it is impacting local culture and how that change impacts ministry within the culture. Cultures throughout the world are changing, adapting to internal needs and external circumstances. The course will also look at the bigger picture of globalization and the placement of local cultures and worldviews within emerging predominant worldviews.
LDR 533 Vision and Strategic Planning This course will examine how leaders can use creative processes to develop shared vision, communicate it tointernal and external groups, and translate it through strategic planning processes into action. Leading theories of vision and strategic planning in organizations will be examined, as well as the dynamic of how these can most effectively be handled in a nonwestern context. LDR 524 Intercultural Leadership Development This course will address the theory and practice for effective intercultural leadership development. It will consider biblical principles of leadership and how western leadership principles can translate into a non- western context. Special attention will be paid to the role of collaborative leadership and intercultural communication, and their value in effectively developing leaders. LDR 532 Cultural Innovation and Change This course will look at change, how it is impacting local culture and how that change impacts ministry within the culture. Cultures throughout the world are changing, adapting to internal needs and external circumstances. The course will also look at the bigger picture of globalization and the placement of local cultures and worldviews within emerging predominant worldviews. RSC 511 Missiological Research Methods This course provides an introduction to the principles and practices of missiological research. It will look at how to do research on missions leadership and praxis or any missiological issue utilizing socioanthropological inquiry integrated with theological and missiological thinking. Development of a research design, bibliography, and database for the thesis will be included.
TUITION & FEES One of Bethany’s major goals is to enable you to be in ministry without debt. We offer our programs at about half the cost of comparable programs – only $200 per credit hour! Tuition full program (36 credits) – $10,800 ( about 2 ½ years to finish if you take 1 class at a time) OTHER FEES Technology & Administration Fee (per term) – $50.00
TUITION COMPARISON Total average for entire degree program
$60,000 $50,000 $25,000 0
$18,000
PRIVATE COLLEGE
PUBLIC COLLEGE
$10,800 BGU
CONTACT US FOR MORE INFORMATION
952-222-0092
info@BethanyGU.edu
BethanyGU.edu/graduate
WHAT CURRENT STUDENTS ARE SAYING...
"I appreciated the material and course assignments and how practical they were. This course gave me hope and helped me determine where I am at in ministry at this time.� "The courses are impacting and I have been able to apply the contents to different aspect of our ministry. My enrollment in the School while still on the field has broadened my horizon and positioned me well to serve God and humanity with an eternital perspective.� "The best part is that everything I was learning was immediately practical for my life and ministry."
Bethany Global University 6820 Auto Club Road Suite C Bloomington, MN 55438