Missions and Church Planting:
Advanced Program of Study

Syllabus & Learning Outcomes

Introduction

Grow in living out the Great Commission, from your home church to international mission fields! With this track, you will study under seasoned church planters and missionaries to prepare both you and your church to respond to a changing missional landscape. Whether you are preparing to help equip your local church to develop a missional mindset, prepare for short term missions, or study toward a lifetime of planting churches amid unreached people groups, this track will equip you with a foundation of biblical, historical, theological and practical knowledge.

Purpose

The Missions & Church Planting track is designed to provide a foundation for missional studies for both professional and lay ministry. The courses will prepare the student toward living out the Great Commission in home and international mission fields.

Specific Outcomes

Knowledge-Based Foundational Outcomes

• Describe the changing world of the past 70 years and identify how these changes have impacted and influenced the current practices of missionaries and mission agencies
• Recount the overarching shape of missions throughout Church history
• Outline guidelines for self-preparation for a mission, cultural preparation for missions, and establishing effective strategies for developing and supporting a mission
• Describe missional approaches to encountering the religions of the world
• Analyze the trends and issues in contemporary global missions and give thought to where global missions are headed
• Explain the concept of a “missional hermeneutic” and its relationship to the gospel
• Summarize how the Old Testament people of God shape our understanding of the Church
• Discuss the significance of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and ascension on the identity of the Church
• Describe the development of the New Testament Church with respect to its mission
• Discuss how pastors can provide for the nurture of church members through church ministries
• Describe how the organization of a church can support its missional purpose
• Identify major changes in global Christianity over the past 150 years and describe how these changes have impacted assumptions regarding missions and approaches to missions by Western missionaries and mission agencies
• Discuss the importance of theologies that have emerged from the global South and from other non-Western cultures
• Summarize missions tactics that hamper the independence of indigenous churches
• Identify examples of subtle residual attitudes of paternalism, racism, and colonialism that may linger in Western missionaries and mission organizations
• Describe the opportunities presented by business as mission (BAM)
• Evaluate the resource consumption and overall effectiveness of short-term missions
• Discuss the impact of spiritual conflict on the effectiveness of missionaries and describe various approaches to engagement in the conflict
• Identify theological matters that are currently being debated as the world moves toward cultural and religious pluralism
• Analyze approaches to contextualization and consider the matter of potential syncretism
• Present the leading positions in the debate over the roles of evangelism and social justice in missions
• Support and defend the concept of church planting from biblical, theological, and practical viewpoints
• Recognize Church planting as an outgrowth of Jesus’ proclamation that he will build his Church
• Relate to church planting as participation among “God’s fellow workers” in the proclamation and demonstration of the kingdom of God
• Summarize the skills and character attributes needed by successful church planters
• Analyze the positives and negatives of church planting using a team approach
• Develop an appropriate ecclesiology for the planned church plant
• Define the characteristics of healthy churches
• Explain the importance of vision to church planting and describe how core values and cultural style and expectations may dictate how the vision will be implemented
• Discuss key issues that must be addressed in the church planting effort
• Choose leadership styles and structures appropriate to a church planting effort within a particular culture and community

Knowledge-Based Intermediate Outcomes

• Describe the challenge religious plurality presents to the church
• Explain the terms “missionary encounter,” “missionary approach,” and “subversive fulfillment”
• Communicate how the gospel permeates all aspects of life
• Describe the importance of having a theology of religions
• Discuss the beliefs and practices of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam
• Identify the “orienting core” of these religions and describe how the gospel fulfills it
• Articulate the mission of the Church and explain how Christians provide a witness by their lives and actions
• Summarize how the Bible portrays God’s revelation as a defense of himself
• Discuss the role of covenant in apologetics
• Explain the significance of 1 Pet 3:15 and 2 Cor 10:1–5 for understanding apologetics
• Describe the roles of exegesis, theology, and philosophy with respect to apologetics
• Summarize the Reformed doctrines of Scripture, God, man, and salvation
• Define “common grace” and discuss its three key elements
• Summarize the development of scholarship on worldview
• Discuss the speaker’s definition of “worldview”
• Compare and contrast covenantal apologetics and traditional apologetics
• Explain how various approaches to apologetics deal with the problem of evil

Knowledge-Based Advanced Outcomes

• Define the Church’s mission and explain how the Church has approached the task of accomplishing that mission during various eras of Church history
• Discuss the theological challenges of accomplishing the mission of the Church
• Describe the models of discipleship evident in the lives of Jesus and Paul
• Explain how these models can be applied in the context of the local church
• Explain the urgency of evangelism
• Discuss the biblical foundations of evangelism
• Identify the five elements of the REACH acrostic and discuss their importance
• Summarize the responses to significant questions that surround evangelism
• Identify the paradigms that have characterized the Church in history and discuss the significance of the present paradigm
• Compare and contrast the ideas of the Church as an institution and the Church as an organism
• Describe the promise of the Reformation with respect to believers as ministers and explain why this promise has not been fulfilled
• Compare and contrast the traditional top-down style of church leadership and the bottom-up approach
• Discuss the three kinds of calls and explain their significance to the life of the church
• Summarize the value of small groups to church ministry

Skill-Based Foundational Outcomes Using Logos Bible Software

• Discover translation obstacles in the UBS Handbooks
• Use the Bible Facts Tool and Topic Guide on Samaria
• Discover maps that illustrate the spread of Christianity
• Use the Topic search to study the feast of Pentecost
• Start a study on “synagogue” with the Bible Facts Tool
• Study early Christian persecution and perform other studies in early Church history
• Research the missionary and martyrdom traditions about the apostles
• Use the Timeline Tool to find relevant historical occurrences
• Perform a heading text search on William Carey
• Complete a Basic search for articles on the Second Vatican Council
• Use BDAG to study the Greek of the New Testament and other ancient literature
• Study the Greek words behind the English “good” and “evil'
• Examine Jesus’ use of the term “gospel” using the Words of Christ search function
• Use the Copy Bible Verses function to view Bible text only
• Trace the Old Testament metaphorical use of “sheep” in the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament
• Use the Logos Deluxe Map Set for a chronological, birds-eye view of the persecution and expansion of the early Church
• Study the ministry of Barnabas using the Bible Facts Tool
• Research the imperial counter-narrative in the song of Rev 4:11
• Find biblical benedictions for use in church services
• Thematically organize the New Testament use of allēlōn using the passage list document
• Examine scriptural themes of prayer using the topical index from An Exposition on Prayer in the Bible
• Begin a study on early Church leadership using A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ
• Preview global theology resources
• Search for articles on missional Scripture reading
• Complete a Basic search on Protestant clergy and aity divide
• Start a study on “hell” with the Bible Word Study Guide
• Conduct a Morph search on Jesus’ use of “Gehenna”
• Use the Bible Sense Lexicon to perform a study on demons
• Research Hebrew contextualization in the Lexham Bible Dictionary
• Create a Faithlife group for missionaries
• Search Themelios for “insider movement”
• Sort different uses of ekklesia with Louw-Nida numbers
• Find metaphors for the Church using the Bible Sense Lexicon
• Research the dating of Acts in commentary introductions
• Find references to the Holy Spirit in Acts
• Use the Prayer List feature for church planting
• Perform a search on biblical conflict resolution
• Study Acts 16 in the Faithlife Study Bible

Skill-Based Intermediate Outcomes Using Logos Bible Software

• Find charts that represent world religions
• Use the resource Christ and Creation to investigate the global implications of the gospel
• Create a collection of world religion and apologetics resources
• Catalog information and resources on general revelation
• Complete an exegetical word study on Rom 1:18–32
• Use the Apologetics Study Bible
• Use the Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics
• Add reference websites to your Logos shortcuts bar
• Use apologetics resources not found in the base package
• Use timelines to establish historical context
• Perform a morphology search for kakoō
• Find Old Testament allusions with the Passage Guide and Explorer Tool
• Research exegetical issues in 1 Pet 3:15
• Research the idea that Paul’s opponents in 2 Corinthians were Sophists
• Search for the power of God in the New Testament
• Explore the Catholic and Protestant canons
• Study “jealousy” with the Bible Word Study Guide
• Examine names for God in Psa 50:1
• Study the Trinity with the Sermon Starter Guide
• Use Calvin’s Institutes in Logos
• Survey James Orr’s impact on apologetics
• Create a clipboard file to record quotes by Calvin on apologetics
• Study logic in apologetics by creating and searching a custom collection
• Contrast two Hebrew words for “knowledge” in Genesis

Skill-Based Advanced Outcomes Using Logos Bible Software

• Use Proximity searching to research the mission of the Church
• Use morphology features to find Greek constructions
• Use visual filters to mark verbal participles
• Search the writings of the Church fathers for theological ideas
• Use the Sermon Starter Guide to find helpful illustrations
• Use root searching and Greek lexicons to study words used only once
• Search the words of Christ for commands to disciples
• Create groups in Faithlife to share prayer requests
• Use Faithlife groups to share reading plans and community notes
• Use notes to do inductive Bible study
• Use the Baker’s Dictionary of Practical Theology to investigate the development of church government forms
• Use the Bible Sense Lexicon to discover the two meanings for the term “body” in 1 Cor 12
• Locate all the places where the term “head” refers to Jesus
• Locate a comparison chart that displays the various spiritual gifts in order of appearance
• Discover the common Greek root behind key words in Acts 6:1–4
• Use the Bible Facts Tool to conduct a character study on Jethro
• Run a Bible search to compare the New Testament use of “elders” vs. “elder”
• Run a Clause search to find places where God is the subject of a clause, performing the action of calling
• Use Faithlife to create and share prayer requests
• Use Logos to create and share a custom reading plan with your Faithlife group