This course systematically studies similar and differing world views of various societies. The goal of this course is to focus the student on his own world view as well as on a conscious understanding of the world views of people in other cultures.

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This course deals with the barriers that hinder people from hearing the Word of God for meaning in the areas of behavior, values, beliefs and basic world view. It also suggests helpful approaches for breaking through these communication barriers and building communication bridges over which the Gospel of Jesus Christ can reach men’s hearts and minds for Spirit-inspired understanding.

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A study of contextualizing in the mission effort which contrasts the divergent understanding of the term while concentrating on how the biblical writers applied God’s Word to their contemporary cultures and environments in ways that helped people hear the message for meaning.

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This course builds on the premise that God will build His Church in each of the variegated cultural environments of this world. It shares what Scripture says about the communication of God’s Word for understanding with special emphasis on the sociological factors that impede the growth of God’s Church in the cities of our world and what can be done to overcome these barriers to meaningful Gospel communication.

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This course offers a Lutheran approach to the unique challenges of missionary communication with the educated-unevangelized. Students will learn to confront authentic intellectual impediments to reception of the Gospel through the study of secular literature, the biblical model of evangelistic dialog and historic contributions to this mission problem. Special emphasis will be given to the analysis of apologetical methods that are applicable to the tasks of campus ministry and the role of reason in witnessing to the intellectually minded.

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This course introduces the study of linguistics in a formal way. It deals with language sound systems, semantics, syntax and phonology with application in the areas of cross-cultural communication, language learning, language analysis, literacy and Bible translation.

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Biblical, theological and historical foundations for teaching adults. The course deals with problems and needs for teaching adults in the contemporary Church. A variety of techniques and strategies usable for a minister’s roles and functions in relating religious content to laypeople as a teaching-learning transaction are examined.

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This course teaches the theory and practice of Bible translation. It focuses on typical translation problems and on the processes and approaches that should be utilized to solve these problems in a way that produces accurate and meaningful translations in a variety of receptor languages.

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This course looks at family units in the U.S.A. from the perspective of various ethnic groups. The different styles of life and value systems of each group will be examined. The goal is to increase each student’s sensitivity to other cultures and to provide helpful ideas for effective and efficient outreach across cultural boundaries.

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The approach of this course is to study the special components of animism in contrast to other religious systems. The goal is to develop an effective approach for communicating Christ in an animistic context.

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The goal is to make disciples who are functional Christians fulfilling the Great Commission in functional churches. Two models are contrasted: the biblical model of grace-based, education process, utilizing biblical principles for individual spiritual growth versus the institutional, budget, needs approach to gain human expectations. The class is designed to train disciples who learn, grow, mature and shape in the image of Jesus Christ, keeping strong in the Word to edify fellow Christians and evangelize non-Christians.

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When students wish to fulfill a special need, they may request an independent study course through the director of the Doctor of Philosophy in Missiology Program.

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Directed readings may be from one to three quarter hours. They are to be arranged with the director of the Doctor of Philosophy in Missiology program.

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