I know of a church that has started its own school of ministry in the Kalamazoo, MI area. It makes a lot of sense to me if the church has the resources. I don't know how missions organizations vet a program like this, especially if lots of people start applying with training from these types of organizations. But I like how the church knows the people that they are sending out, and the education is much more accessible. https://www.radiant.school/
One of the most fruitful ministries in the world is World Impact's The Urban Ministry Institute (https://tumi.org/) which has trained over 60,000 people in over 400 locations in Africa, Asian, South America, Europe, and North America. It combines non-formal and formal approaches in oral-based cultures in 30 languages, and growing.
Ted, thank you for this "flyover" of shifts in training over the decades. Do you have any book or article recommendations that have chronicled these developments? I'm in learning mode and I appreciated this information.
I used ChatGPT to create a list of documents to read/review. I then pumped them into Notebook LM for summarizing. But... I removed those sessions and don't have access to them anymore. I would recommend using a deep research tool like the one found in Google AI Studio. I did all that in about 25 minutes before outlining and writing the article (I did not use AI for the writing!).
Thanks Ted, It is an interesting trend. The schools are "following the students" not always leading the way. Indeed, who can major in any ministry area (pastor to global servant) and pay the bills these days?
Or, they are following the money: A long-term mission guy at Biola told me a year ago that they got a gift of $60 million for the Film School. (It might have been $80...from the LA based burger chain I won't mention by name).
It seems like the mission agencies have a bigger problem though: there are fewer and fewer who are going the traditional full-support route. And more going in those majors they go for the most like: Business, Nursing, Education...Not many orgs are handling that well it seems.
I think you are spot on but I think it continued on and now rather than being "pastor centric" they have become American Dream centric. The Christian liberal arts college I attended had 44 Biblical and Religious Studies and Ministries majors in 2002. In 2022 they had 3. Parents are pushing their kids to "real jobs". If you can graduate with a business or engineering or science degree and graduate making $20,000 - $40,000 more a year than a pastor, the choice is easy. New models are needed! In every respect.
I was intrigued by your comment "It would be better if churches were doing this job, but in light of the fact that they aren’t . . ." A big "Amen" to the first phrase! Has a poll been taken of MissioNexus partner churches if they or churches they know of have similar strong discipleship/internship/outreach programs for their members? I suspect (and pray that) there might be. In line with "Gospel Fluency" by Vanderstelt, this is the work of local churches.
One way this gap is closing is fully-accredited universities/seminaries offering "courses" that are relatively cheap and can be taken as stand-alones or together with others. A local church or mission agency could easily use such courses in their traning. I'm familiar with Fuller's version of this (https://fullerequip.com/) but I'm sure others are doing the same. Interesting that as enrollment drops at many of these schools, they have to adapt or die. Time will tell what the future holds for both and if/when hybrids will become the new thing.
We (Missio Nexus) offers a BibleMesh certificate to satisfy this need. However, these "Jesus Schools" are more focused on discipleship than coursework. The standard seminary doesn't really have it in them to disciple somebody. If the classroom has 25 students, and the teacher has two classes per week, you can't deliver that life on life experience that this new model makes possible.
Hi Ted, I am fascinated by this. After reading your essay, I'm wondering what precisely it means to have life on life discipleship without coursework? Is there some guiding resource/structure for this? Maybe I would find the answer to this by looking more deeply into some of the training schools you suggested. Thanks!
I know of a church that has started its own school of ministry in the Kalamazoo, MI area. It makes a lot of sense to me if the church has the resources. I don't know how missions organizations vet a program like this, especially if lots of people start applying with training from these types of organizations. But I like how the church knows the people that they are sending out, and the education is much more accessible. https://www.radiant.school/
One of the most fruitful ministries in the world is World Impact's The Urban Ministry Institute (https://tumi.org/) which has trained over 60,000 people in over 400 locations in Africa, Asian, South America, Europe, and North America. It combines non-formal and formal approaches in oral-based cultures in 30 languages, and growing.
WOW! That is incredible.
Ted, thank you for this "flyover" of shifts in training over the decades. Do you have any book or article recommendations that have chronicled these developments? I'm in learning mode and I appreciated this information.
I used ChatGPT to create a list of documents to read/review. I then pumped them into Notebook LM for summarizing. But... I removed those sessions and don't have access to them anymore. I would recommend using a deep research tool like the one found in Google AI Studio. I did all that in about 25 minutes before outlining and writing the article (I did not use AI for the writing!).
Thanks for sharing your process! It's amazing how AI can be a useful tool.
Thanks Ted, It is an interesting trend. The schools are "following the students" not always leading the way. Indeed, who can major in any ministry area (pastor to global servant) and pay the bills these days?
Or, they are following the money: A long-term mission guy at Biola told me a year ago that they got a gift of $60 million for the Film School. (It might have been $80...from the LA based burger chain I won't mention by name).
It seems like the mission agencies have a bigger problem though: there are fewer and fewer who are going the traditional full-support route. And more going in those majors they go for the most like: Business, Nursing, Education...Not many orgs are handling that well it seems.
I think you are spot on but I think it continued on and now rather than being "pastor centric" they have become American Dream centric. The Christian liberal arts college I attended had 44 Biblical and Religious Studies and Ministries majors in 2002. In 2022 they had 3. Parents are pushing their kids to "real jobs". If you can graduate with a business or engineering or science degree and graduate making $20,000 - $40,000 more a year than a pastor, the choice is easy. New models are needed! In every respect.
I was intrigued by your comment "It would be better if churches were doing this job, but in light of the fact that they aren’t . . ." A big "Amen" to the first phrase! Has a poll been taken of MissioNexus partner churches if they or churches they know of have similar strong discipleship/internship/outreach programs for their members? I suspect (and pray that) there might be. In line with "Gospel Fluency" by Vanderstelt, this is the work of local churches.
One way this gap is closing is fully-accredited universities/seminaries offering "courses" that are relatively cheap and can be taken as stand-alones or together with others. A local church or mission agency could easily use such courses in their traning. I'm familiar with Fuller's version of this (https://fullerequip.com/) but I'm sure others are doing the same. Interesting that as enrollment drops at many of these schools, they have to adapt or die. Time will tell what the future holds for both and if/when hybrids will become the new thing.
We (Missio Nexus) offers a BibleMesh certificate to satisfy this need. However, these "Jesus Schools" are more focused on discipleship than coursework. The standard seminary doesn't really have it in them to disciple somebody. If the classroom has 25 students, and the teacher has two classes per week, you can't deliver that life on life experience that this new model makes possible.
Hi Ted, I am fascinated by this. After reading your essay, I'm wondering what precisely it means to have life on life discipleship without coursework? Is there some guiding resource/structure for this? Maybe I would find the answer to this by looking more deeply into some of the training schools you suggested. Thanks!