This is an article from the March-April 1997 issue: Countdown to AD2000

Does God Take Degrees Seriously?

Does God Take Degrees Seriously?

Any clues from culture?

One of today's global cultural realities (unfortunately?) is the general, even uncritical, acceptance of "a university degree."

Some evidence from the U.S.A.:

  • Adults, motivated by training needs and the degree credential, are education's fastest growing segment.
  • Christian colleges are renaming themselves "universities" largely for the status it conveys.
  • Bible colleges are becoming regionally accredited, finally bowing to academic pressures (is this contextualization to contemporary culture?).

And from around the world:

  • Restricted access countries are more and more requiring "missionaries" to have accredited degrees.
  • The university tradition is highly (too highly?) respected in almost every country.
  • "Degree mania" is evidenced by the littering of degrees on the letterheads of some third world Christian organizations.

The university degree pattern has become as commonplace as Coca-Cola, assuming the aura of being "the real thing." What are we going to do about this?

As evangelicals, we know there is no absolute value in a degree. But do Christian workers need to take degrees seriously for other reasons?

Does God want us to take degrees seriously in order to speak the language of the culture?

But, is this a blind spot for Christian workers?

The "Year of Bible" pattern, not the university degree approach, has been the standard requirement for missionaries and national workers. ,- Is it a problem if our minimal requirement is at odds with the growing cultural reality?

- Is it possible for us to follow a secular pattern without sacrificing the Bible and theology foundation?

We think (see below) that it really is possible to incorporate into ministry training the liberal arts tradition of the university approach so that Christian workers can hold their own-in reality and perception-with the people with whom they will interact. And have the foundation they need for effective cross-cultural work.

But, does our "Institutionalism" works against us?

Ironically, our earnest efforts to provide leaders around the world with a serious Christian faith has produced a schooling pattern (culture) that has extensively excluded the precise leaders who most need the training.

The expansion of the Christian movement is greatly out-pacing the capacity of residential schools to train the leaders of the emerging church.

As an inevitable result of this expansion, it has become widely apparent that the rapidly growing churches are forced to operate with a leadership that has had little or no residential training.

Meanwhile, where the best residential schools are a required feature of pastoral training, slow church growth seems to be the norm.

Somewhat similarly, in the case of training missionaries, rightly or wrongly, the fastest growing mission agencies are harnessing people without requiring them to undergo a residential training experience.

Even those agencies that insist on serious pre-field training would be able to field far more missionaries if that training were more accessible, especially if significant components could be pursued on the field.

What do we know for sure?

  1. Cultural realities suggest that missionaries and national workers should take seriously the value of an accredited degree.
  2. Missiological insights suggest that missionaries and national workers need Bible and Theology plus a rounded education that allows them to understand many additional related subjects.
  3. Institutional training patterns are not accessible to the real leaders of the Christian movement.

Here's Our Solution

After 7 years of work with a team of people, we have developed the World Christian Foundations study program. It has three major features.

  1. Accredited: Can be gained from an accredited American school at the B.A. or M.A. level.
  2. Available: Can be gained living anywhere in the world, employing "distance learning" techniques.
  3. Integrated: Covers the content of Seminary as well as university or Bible college degree with an ever- present global, Biblical, mission perspective.

Accredited colleges in America are using it already. Wycliffe Bible Translators has approved it as a theological base for people working in their new Field Survey Division.

If God wants us to care about degrees, this curriculum offers one solution.

Want more information?

Contact the USCWM on the outer cover response form, email Ben. [email protected], or contact one of these regionally accredited Christian colleges.

M.A. Level: Steve Burris at Pacific Christian College, 2500 Nutwood Ave, Fullerton CA 92631, 1-800-762-1294, ext 620.

B.A. Level: Tim Tomlinson at Northwestern College, 3003 Snelling Ave, St. Paul MN 55113-1598, 1-800-308-5495.

Comments

There are no comments for this entry yet.

Leave A Comment

Commenting is not available in this channel entry.