Seminars for 3 years

Understanding that the church is missional by nature reframes the historical approach to ecclesiology and places the mission of the Triune God within both creation and redemption front and center in the conversation, with the church being responsible to discern the Spirit’s leading for participation in that mission. This is the framework that shapes a missional ecclesiology and this framework represents the subject matter of this course.

Exegetical and Hermeneutical Practice is The Master’s Institute’s required introductory class to the study of the Bible. The class exposes ministry students to what is known as inductive or methodical Bible study. Using the principles and exercises of Wald’s The Joy of Discovery students will work as individuals and teams to develop the skills involved in this approach to accessing Scripture. The desired result is that students will use this method as a foundation for Scripture Practicum and future preaching, teaching, and other pastoral ministry.

Our study of the Book of Acts aims at uncovering what The Early Church, under the Spirit's influence, looked like and then imagining what the 21st Century Church can be like if it is intentional about living under the Holy Spirit's influence. We will consider what practical challenges we church leaders face as we seek to be Spirit-empowered.

This class will introduce major characteristics of Postmodernity. Comparing major characteristics of postmodernity with modernity and helping us reflect on how these major characteristics of Postmodernity intersect and are relevant with the Christian Faith. The professor will then introduce historic anchors of the Christian faith and examine how they can still be relevant and help make us more effective in carrying out our mission in a postmodern era.

This course is an introduction to the apologetic task and the need for Christ followers in our day to develop a Christian mind. You will learn that loving God with our minds – as we are commanded to do by Christ – involves using our minds to destroy arguments and every false idea that is an obstacle to the knowledge of God, to take every thought captive to Christ. In order to lead people who have questions and objections to Christ, we must give honest answers to honest questions and make a defense for Christian Truth.

The first part of this course will focus primarily on helping participants to reflect biblically on what it means to be followers of Christ who are potent for the Kingdom purposes of God in the world today, and a real threat to the dominion of darkness.   Part two of this seminar will enable participants to learn what it means to be a safe place for dangerous people by learning how, from the life of Jesus, to most effectively relate to people that they might have the opportunity to grow into those dangerous people for the Kingdom of God who can help others have the opportunity to be encountered by the love of God and the Gospel of His Kingdom!

How can the Christian Church best discover and share the new wineskin of Jesus in a society blitzed by TV images and self-help books?  Should the Church respond with values from popular culture, or just lean more on old church traditions?  The intent of this course is to study the following case studies of cultural and traditional theologies to rediscover how a Bible theology of vision and values will lead the Missional Church to its new wineskin for the new day!

The purpose of the Bible paper is to provide the MI student an opportunity to interact faithfully, responsibly and in depth with a biblical text. The student has the choice of writing a paper based on a biblical text, or, creating a project that puts a biblical text to use, and then writing a paper that interacts with the text, describing the project that was created, and sharing observations based upon that project. The starting place for both is the selection of a specific passage of Scripture that you wish to primarily interact with.

This course takes a fresh look at how ministry leaders are developed based on how Jesus developed his own disciples. It presents a holistic and thoroughly biblical model for congregational-based training of disciples, pastors, teachers, evangelists, missionaries, church planters or other ministry leaders.

This course is about “contemporary models of being church which are suggested by the outlook and practices of the indigenous Christian communities of the British Isles between the sixth and eleventh centuries, the ‘golden age’ of so-called Celtic Christianity.” (Ian Bradley, Colonies of Heaven). Due to a “serious dissatisfaction with the institutional church” many have recently looked to early Celtic Christianity for inspiration. In this course, we will seek to discover the distinguishing marks of their way of being the Church that seem so appealing to a portion of the Church today.

This will be a theological examination of confessional thought rather than an historical review of their development. As ministers of the Gospel we are frequently called upon to say what we
believe about a wide variety of subjects in the Faith. We are not the first to wrestle with these issues. Down through the history of the Christian Church people have struggled, debated, and written down their “confessions of the faith” that hold wisdom and value even today. The course will deal with some of those struggles in history and some of the challenges to confessional confidence today. We will also examine how ancient statements of faith carry the message of God’s Word even in our postmodern culture. Within the Lutheran heritage the Book of Concord (1580 A.D.) represents the Lutheran Confessions. Segments of those documents will be examined with an emphasis on wisdom offered to theological discussions that still continue today. Week two will continue with discussion of ministry and doctrinal issues that frequently arise. A good confessional background will assist a pastor in many of these issues.

Not only is God relational, God is a relationship. His very essence is the love that links those Three Persons as One God. Scripture suggests that human relationships are precious. Just as individual people are created in his image, so relationships between individuals are as created in his image as well. Nevertheless, human interaction is wrought with difficulty. As a result church leaders often end up refereeing interpersonal conflicts, or finding themselves in troubled interactions. In this course we will explore the dynamics of healthy relationships. We will examine how conflict often arises in churches and we will explore the paths to personal and corporate reconciliation.

The jargon of Christian theology down through the ages is provided by the creeds of the early church. This course will study the texts of the four great ecumenical creeds (Nicea, Constantinople, Ephesus, Chalcedon) and their historical backgrounds.

Whatever your writing projects are now or will be in the future, you’ll want to write well—not only to inspire and motivate others in the Lord, but as a positive reflection on the Great Communicator, the Living Word, Jesus Christ. Part of being entrusted with ministerial and leadership gifts is God’s calling to communicate clearly to others what He conveys to you. In this hands-on workshop, we’ll concentrate on the skills a Christian “professional” needs in order to meet the writing requirements involved during a lifetime of ministry. We’ll talk about the nuts and bolts of good writing, trimming excess verbiage, meeting recurring deadlines, and writing to change lives. Everyone’s work will receive individual attention.

This course covers the most significant background information (especially of the socio-religious kind) and exegetical and Biblical-theological questions pertaining to our understanding of Ephesians. Questions that may have been asked of Ephesians historically, but that do not matter theologically, fall outside of the purview of this course. Ephesians is treated as a first century theological speech-act that presupposes and contextually elaborates on the Biblical narrative of God's Abrahamic project humanity in light of the missional situation of first century Western Asia Minor. 'Unplugged' in the title refers to the interactive nature of this course. It will primarily consist of a communal, yet deeply scholarly close reading.

This course will provide a scriptural background for the need to have a well-defined, personal philosophy of ministry. This course will also illustrate what a healthy philosophy of ministry looks like. We will discuss the benefits associated with having a clear philosophy of ministry. Also, this seminar will aid the student in developing his/her own philosophy of ministry.

Part One of this course will present and discuss differing sides of various theological issues that currently divide evangelicals. Topics shall include Inspiration and Inerrancy of the Bible, Providence, Divine Foreknowledge, Genesis One and Creation, Humanity, Christology, the Atonement, and Salvation. Part Two of this course will present and discuss differing sides of various theological issues that currently divide evangelicals. Topics shall include Sanctification, Eternal Security, Destiny of the Unevangelized, Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, the Charismatic Gifts, Women in Ministry, Eschatology, and Hell.

Evangelical Protestantism is the driving force of Christianity in America and has been from the time of the Puritans. This course will examine key events of the story of evangelicals in America: the First and Second Great Awakening, the experience of the Black Church, the rise of Pentecostalism.

This course brings together Paul’s ancient wisdom with today’s culture and values. The themes of the epistle: division, freedom, dualism, sexuality, rights, marriage or single, love, faith, use and abuse of spiritual gifts, resurrection of the body - all these will promote fruitful discoveries by and life-changing truths for the students. There exists in this epistle an amazing parallel between how the ancient world thought and how the modern world thinks. Issues like competition between God’s servants, playboy sexuality, my rights, or true love and sacrifice will stir our minds and inspire our hearts. This study will prepare the student to dialogue with our culture in an authoritative, yet reasonable way.

The course will address the theological basis for leading local church members through a process of “gifts discovery”. We will consider proper choices of content (i.e. which sets of spiritual gifts to include, passions, personality profiles, etc.) and effective methods of leading such a course that will result in building up the individual believers and benefit the local church.

The thesis of the course is that the worldview of the Bible is a "warfare worldview," in which God's will is set against the wills of spiritual and human agents that oppose him, rather than a "blueprint worldview," in which everything that happens – including all evil – is understood to be the direct or indirect result of God's will.

This course is a study of the demonic in the history of Christian thought.  Special attention will be given to the function of the concept in dogmatics, its role in the understanding of evil, and the theological contributions of major figures including Augustine and Luther.

This is the story of the formation of Protestant faith. The sixteenth century is the most important century in church history since the first century and the coming of Christ because of its consequences for the future of the church.

This course is designed to provide teachings on the following dimensions of inner healing: prayer, biblical foundations, different models, training to receive and minister inner healing including experiential learning and ministry and hopefully revelation of spiritual adoption and Abba Father’s love.

For the Cross Cultural Orientation (CCO) and Training we will explore cross-cultural attitudes and stereotypes, develop cross-cultural sensitivity and understanding, understand principles for sharing personal testimony in cross-cultural settings, enhance team building, and develop a model for team conflict management. For the Outreach portion, we will impart vision for building the Kingdom from a cross-cultural perspective, foster building of community amongst MI students, learn to develop and nurture cross-cultural ministry skills and learn to serve in many ministry capacities using current ministry gifts and to stretch by serving in areas and ways you may not be used to.

This course will examine issues of vision and leadership and linking them to management in the church today. Starting at a high level on the first day, we’ll examine the role of vision and traditional roles of planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling with both volunteer and paid staff. The second day will find us looking at practical applications of working with people. The mechanics of this will be review with a workbook provided in class.

A cursory examination of the book of Acts illuminates numerous strategies utilized in evangelizing both the gentile and Jewish peoples. There were strategies that encouraged “additions” to the kingdom and strategies that provided “multiplication” to the kingdom. Church planting is a multiplication strategy. It is the most effective way of reaching those who are unchurched with the message of salvation in Christ. In this course we’ll explore the fundamental call to evangelism and how church planting meets that call. We’ll explore the “DNA” of a church planter, the “DNA” of church planting churches, types of church plants, effective strategies and most common errors church planters make. If you want to begin pondering this course read Dr. Seuss’, “Green Eggs and Ham”. Sam is doing the work of a church planter…trying to get someone to taste something they are not interested in tasting. It’s a divine challenge and a divine joy!

This course will provide a brief history of Pastoral Counseling. We will discuss why counseling belongs in the Church, Prayer Ministry, Counseling, and other helping ministries compared (continuum of problems?) We will discuss why people change and present a scriptural background to Misbelief Therapy. We will explore an introduction to the cognitive model and how to apply it as well as learning listening skills.

In this course the student will learn to nurture their understanding, appreciation, and respect for himself, to nurture his/her relationship with Jesus Christ and His call upon their life. This course will help enable the student to discern more clearly their specific and unique call to ministry. We will discuss Temperament Analysis so that the student can assimilate the process into his/her personal and professional life and ministry. This course is also designed to be a reminder of the urgency and necessity for this essential God-given process to be included in all aspects of the student’s personal and professional life.

The word “Missional” and the term Missional Communities are popular phrases in the church today, seeming to offer a means for the church to engage with and evangelize 21^st Century Post- Christendom society. Or is it just the church’s latest fad?  This course explores the theology and theory behind Missional Communities, shares stories of Missional communities around the US and beyond. It aims to give the student a working definition and model of a missional community. Finally the course provides an opportunity for the student to contextualize their learning as each student will consider a missional community pilot event as part of their post class assignment.

In this course students will learn to understand the distinction between law and gospel and apply it to their Biblical studies and to their preaching and church leadership.

This course will provide a scriptural background for change and provide an exploration of the steps involved in the change process. Present practical models for diagnosis and communicating in a change process will be presented. The student will be aided in developing his/her own philosophy and approach to leading change.

Leadership is impossible. God often puts us in situations that require influence above and beyond what we can naturally muster. This is God’s way of insisting upon dependence. Prayer is our invitation to God to empower us and change circumstances we cannot control. Prayer then is the greatest tool a leader can employ. In this course we will explore the limits of human leadership practices and principles sketching a plan and pattern for initiating true spiritual influence through intercessory prayer.

This project is designed to provide MI students with the opportunity to practice their leadership abilities by selecting a project that will require the exercise of leadership gifts and abilities and to process and reflect upon their leadership experience, helping them learn how to identify and gain from both what went well and what did not. The project can also be a joint project by a team of students.

"God is love" (I John 4:8). This biblical claim is as profound as it is simple. Its implication is equally profound: that at the center of everything is agape-love. This course will investigate the biblical concept of love as expressed within the context of covenant relationship. An exploration of the six major covenants between God and humanity will serve as a framework for the course. Within this biblical framework, theological and practical questions concerning the nature of covenant relationship – both divine and human – will be addressed.

Students will gain a foundational understanding of the first book of the New Testament. Those completing the course will be able to describe the thematic aim of Matthew, the historical/social context in which it is set, significant literary forms the writer employs, and specific contemporary applications for the messages in Matthew.

Mentoring, in its many forms, has historically been the primary means for the Church to build and disciple healthy leaders. As seen throughout Scripture, the relationship of mentor and mentee is intended to be a normal part of leadership development within God’s Kingdom. Yet in our culture, this life-giving & strategic relationship has become more widely used for advancement in business than for discipleship. We must recapture and restore this essential ministry to its place as a core value of Christian leadership. This course is meant to define, train, equip and mobilize Christian leaders into a lifestyle of mentoring.

Each year MI students go on a road trip to serve in an area congregation. The purpose of this class is to provide students the opportunity to serve and encourage the congregations and gain helpful ministry experience. During the road trip students have the opportunity to preach, teach, lead worship, lead children’s and youth activities, and to serve in any capacity as requested. An added benefit of the road trips are the building and deepening of relationships between MI students, and among the students and MI staff members on these trips.  Students meet at a central location and drive together to their ministry destination. The congregation you are visiting will provide food and housing. You will be responsible for meals while traveling.

MI students are being called to “move on with God in ministry” as they discern and respond to God’s Kingdom assignment for the next season of their life and ministry after they leave seminary. This course is designed to help students explore various aspects and dynamics involved in moving on with God; and provide them with tools which can help MI students discern and follow God’s call and assignment for this next season of life.

Preaching is at the heart of Christ’s church. St. Paul writes, “So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ.” As the course title suggests, this class will explore the foundations of the church’s preaching enterprise as found in the writings of the New Testament. What, in fact, did the earliest preaching of the message of Christ look like and what implications does this have for preaching today. Special attention will be paid to the lexical foundations of preaching and how the New Testament authors adapted secular terms to describe the preaching enterprise.

This course is designed to provide practical skills for pastors and care givers to minister love, hope and healing with the dying, grieving, survivors of suicide, hospitalized, people suffering from chemical imbalance mood disorders (depression and anxiety), abuse (marriage or childhood) and addiction (chemical and sexual).

This class will focus on the task of bringing a family and /or individuals through the grieving process, with particular attention given to the funeral itself.

Sacraments are wholly about God creating and mending a covenant relationship with us so that we can make a Kingdom difference. A renewed understanding of the Sacraments means that God’s work can no longer remain at church. When we’re at our best, as church, we’re generating ways for individuals to bring what they have received in community (in the Sacraments, in Worship, in Relationship) into their daily lives. It is no longer enough to attend classes at church. Now the question is, how do classes attend daily life? As Faith Leaders, the Sacraments are your responsibility to administer, teach, and then entrust to the body of Christ. Clear understanding is requisite, but clear doing is transformative. This set of classes will examine the theory, the theology, and the application of Sacramental and Milestone practice and instruction in the context of community as it is integrated with home.

This workshop will explore the biblical basis for marriage, pre-marriage and marriage counseling, the practicalities of planning for and conducting wedding rehearsals and services, the theology of ministry with cohabitating couples, the theology of divorce and divorce ministry, sexual addictions, marriage enrichment ministry ideas and how to care for your own marriage when in ministry.

The majority of individuals who cross the threshold of a church door for the first time do so because they are facing a major life transition. That transition can be something marvelous like marriage or the birth of a child. But, often the transition is a major life crisis, and often those crises have a compound impact in the spiritual, emotional, and physical realm. A minister of the Gospel must be able to walk with the compassion and authority that is ours in Christ – into the deepest pain of life – and not flinch, but bring the unwavering hope of the Father to the most forsaken of lives. This is such a rare quality in our world, that those who possess it will at once stand out and have every opportunity to share the hope that is ours in Christ. So, “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened. But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect….” 1 Peter 3:14-16. Pastoral Care in Sickness and Trauma will equip you to be a living, breathing, ministering theodicy.

This double seminar is the second in a two part series on the Pentateuch and provides a cursory overview of the Old Testament book of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

This triple seminar is the first in a two part series on the Pentateuch and provides a cursory overview of the Old Testament book of Genesis.

 

This seminar will introduce students to a realistic strategy for church planting in situations with limited financial and personnel resources. Focus will be mainly on cell church and house church models, placing the entire church-planting process in the context of real life disciple-making. We will draw on the New Testament as well as Reformation history to lay a theological foundation which will challenge students in some cases to re-think typical modern American concepts of church ministry. The instructors will draw on real life past and current experiences of church-planting to help students wrestle with the challenges and joys of starting “non-conventional” churches.

This course is designed to give students experience in preaching while receiving feedback from other students and instructors and to equip students as communicators of the Word of God.

The Christian leader in our world is challenged by the reality that most people under 40 or 45 have grown up in the postmodern era. This means they instinctively think things are not as solid as they look, that there is another opinion for every idea offered, and that there is no one way to do whatever is suggested. This includes spiritual and religious issues. The result is that we who want to offer the “truth” of the Christian faith are met with people who relativize truth or, worse yet, ignore it, and for whom the institutional church holds little interest. If we are to be confident missionaries to this culture we need a way to competently enter this postmodern world and at the same time retain the coherence and power of the Christian message. This can be done without resurrecting Christendom or insisting on old modernist philosophies. This course will explore the possibilities for missional confidence in our current American mission field.

Christianity in much of the modern world has fallen prey to the spirit of evangelical passivity. Such an attitude is distant from the heart of the Gospel. This course will argue for the urgency of evangelical mission, address commonly held myths about the unchurched population and uplift proven methods to effectively reach the unchurched with the saving message of Jesus.

Romans is a pivotal book for understanding the role of law and grace. Living out their implications in everyday life can be confusing and frustrating. Perhaps they are not as confusing as some have made them. Paul spells out the role of Israel in His eternal plan. This has been a controversial topic throughout history and is no less so today. He also specifically addresses the power of sin and its effects on us and in us and offers God’s solution. We shall attempt to sort through these issues and provide biblical answers that we can “live by.”

Audacity is defined not only as a person’s willingness to take bold risks, but to do so in a manner that may be construed as impertinent or down right offensive. Creation, Resurrection, Miracles— how could God be so audacious as to make the claims that are stated in the Bible? Furthermore how could the church have the audacity state these claims in such an exclusive manner? Indeed, no greater sin and effrontery exists in the postmodern West than religious audacity, and in particular, the exclusive truth claims of the Christian church and its Scripture. With the ever-impinging grip of secularism on society, is there still reason to hold to a traditional understanding of God’s Word? This seminar will examine the classic Reformation teachings regarding the doctrine of Scripture, note their value for ministry today, and briefly discuss how these claims sit with people in an age of skepticism, doubt, and pluralism.

Scripture Practicum is the second component of The Master’s Institute’s Accessing Scripture class. The design of the class centers on an ongoing inductive study of Hebrews. The practicum class will meet on Thursday’s throughout the academic year (with exceptions as noted). Additionally the class will be getting a greater exposure to the history of Robert Traina’s Methodical Bible Study.

The concept of shame is thoroughly embedded in Scripture but the significance of shame and its ramifications are generally not understood or addressed by those in ministry leadership or those they lead. As a result, there is an impoverished view of the cross. This course is an attempt to address that problem in a way that brings transformation first in the life of the minister and secondly in the life of the church—deeper faith, joy and commitment for all followers of Jesus. In addition, the course will equip the participant to reach people outside the church with greater insight and effectiveness.

A vibrant relationship is nourished when we take time away to focus on each other. The Lord calls you to come away with Him; give Him your full attention, quiet your heart to hear from Him, receive and return love for one another, spend time with Him on His agenda without distraction or time constraint. In recognizing that vibrant living flows out of a vibrant relationship with the Lord, and fruitful ministry flows out of intimacy with Him, students are asked to search out and find an affordable place to get away with the Lord.

No other topic is more central to the Christian faith. It is our acknowledgement of our sin and the realization that we cannot atone for that sin that sets Christianity apart. But exactly how to say that – how to describe sin and its pervasive character, and how to describe the atonement that God has effected for us - has a long history of debate. Pastors in Christ’s church need to have a clear vision of what sin is and what it does to us all. They also need a clear understanding of what God is doing in redeeming us from that sin. The more comfortable we are with how we understand what God is up to, the more readily we will graciously proclaim Him to others. The course uses a new text that walks the student through several of the key attempts to describe God's atoning work. The call is to remain faithful to Scripture and to say what it says as clearly as we can in words and concepts our mission field will understand.

Spiritual Formation is much more than a fad or buzzword in the Church; it is a term that expresses the journey every human being is on as we seek fulfillment and purpose in life. As spiritual beings, created by God, we are all in the process of spiritual formation, and because we are spiritual beings this forming happens whether we seek after the Lord God or not. For a Christian, spiritual formation is the work of cooperating with the Holy Spirit as He conforms us to the image of Christ Jesus. Understanding this forming process helps us cooperate with the work of the Holy Spirit in our own lives as well as the lives of others, individually and in a community.

All who call on the name of Jesus are thrust into the heart of a cosmic conflict in which the stakes are ultimate: life and death. We do not follow Jesus for our own amusement, nor merely to secure our own salvation. We follow Him because He is altogether lovely and in Him is eternal and abundant life, and He has commissioned us to be about the dangerous work He gave His life to.

We will explore some dimensions of the power of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament church and the relevance of that experience for the contemporary church.

The primary message of Jesus was: The Kingdom of God is at hand. This course will shed light on that kingdom, how it was and is different, yet the same, from the Jewish expectation of the kingdom, what Jesus meant when He said, “the mysteries of the kingdom.” It will use the kingdom parables in Matthew 13 as a spring board into discovering rich and practical insights of living in the kingdom of God on earth. This course will also bring the student face to face with genuine Kingdom Ethics: how to live out the demands of the kingdom. This will be a revolutionary course that will bring renewed courage to those weary in the battle and renewed faith and hope for those ready to do greater exploits in this life for the Lord.

This class will alert the student to the potential pitfalls he or she can expect to face in vocational ministry and will equip the student to successfully meet these challenges.

In this course students will gain an understanding of the significance of Jesus’ crucifixion in its Biblical and historical context and consider how the cross could more thoroughly shape their own faith and ministry.

As you write your theology paper it is especially helpful if you can set the topic against a specific pastoral problem and compose a concrete, pastoral response based on your understanding of Scripture and historical theological conversations. For example, on any paper written about the atonement, a student must demonstrate knowledge of the major beliefs and then defend the one she/he believes best fits the biblical account. Consider, how and why your understanding of this theological topic is important, relevant and applicable to “real life” ministry.

This course covers the major types of psalms, the use to which they have been put throughout history, and legitimate ways of interpreting them today. Consideration is also given to the contexts of the psalms: their context in Israelite history, their theological context within the Biblical canon, and their literary context within the Book of Psalms. Selected topics arising from the psalms are also covered. Some Topics Covered: Hebrew Poetry, The Composition of the Psalter, The Psalm Types, Messianic Psalms, Imprecatory Psalms, and The Use of the Psalms.

The course will ask and answer three Questions: 1) Where are our Muslim friends coming from? 2) Where are we coming from?, and 3) How do we communicate truth to our Muslim friends? We will examine the Muslim cultural/religious paradigm to understand the driving forces in the Muslim worldview. We will then do an overview of our need for a paradigm shift from a “cultural Christianity” paradigm to a “Biblical Kingdom of God” paradigm. We will follow these paradigms with a ministry approach that includes exposure to truth found in the Qur’an and to practical “tools” that go from the Qur’an to Truth found in the Scriptures.

This course will be a survey of the major religions of the world, with the intention of providing a solid base to understand the appeal of each religion for its proponents to help us reach out to people from these religions in the tradition of St. Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles. We will consider the roles of religion in society, to explain origins, life purpose and regulate social structure. We will look at the basic beliefs of each religion comparing what is similar to and different from Christian belief, to grow in appreciation, understanding and ability to ommunicate.