Seminar 1
901 Entering the Missional Conversation
The impulse for a missional approach to theology, church, and life arises from the notion of mission as a central aspect of the character of God. The actions of the triune God are reflective of this missional character and explain the primacy of mission that is at the heart of the biblical narratives concerning the work of God in human history. This missional perspective involves continual intellectual and imaginative reflection on the interaction between the Gospel and culture, and the creative outworking of this activity in socially embodied form of communal life. This seminar will introduce the ongoing conversation concerning the primacy of mission for Christian thought and practice and provide an orientation for further advanced reflection in missional theology and leadership.


Seminar 2
902 Reading & Communicating the Bible Missionally
God is on a mission! God’s mission is narrated in the Bible.  God invites us to join him in mission.  This course is designed to help us read the Scripture as the story of God’s grand mission, which reaches it climax in Jesus Christ, and includes God’s call to us to live in missional improvisation in our post-Christian context.  Priority will be given to communicating the Scriptures relevantly and missionally. 


Seminar 3
903 Missional Leader Formation
God desires to shape the leader after His own heart and with a view toward helping the leader maximizes his/her personality, gifts and natural talents. Using reflection on Jesus’ ministry priorities, missional distinctives, and various assessment profiles, the student will deepen self-understanding of his/her personal story and develop a plan for ongoing personal development addressing spiritual formation issues, ministry team building, and maintenance of a healthy life and ministry balance.


Seminar 4
904 Missional Theology
Missional theology involves continual intellectual and imaginative reflection on the interaction between the gospel and culture and the creative outworking of this activity in socially embodied forms of communal life. This course provides an overview of the central theological commitments that shape this perspective including a consideration of the following topics: the missional God; the missional church; and a missional conception of the nature, task, and purpose of theology.


Seminar 5
905 Cultural Engagement
Every ministry has a missional context. Understanding one’s cultural context and responding with appropriate ministry forms and strategies is critical. Connecting the gospel message with one’s host culture is the goal of missional ministry. Understanding potential cultural barriers is the first step in imagining effective mission-focused ministry. The student will study these issues with a view to effectively contextualizing his/her own ministry. Instruction in development of a missional action plan for one’s ministry and context will wed theory to practice.


Seminar 6
906 Leading Missional Community
Robust pursuit of the Missio Dei requires a fresh approach to cultivating missional communities of Christ followers. The modern models and strategies employed for developing leaders may prove inadequate for emerging church communities and the demands of cultural contextualization. This course will explore emerging models of leader formation and afford the student opportunity to develop an appropriate approach for his/her ministry context. Some attention is also given to defining the issues of necessary ecclesiology, missional culture formation, assessment of congregational readiness for change, change dynamics management, and the establishment of appropriate benchmarks for creation of healthy, reproducing Christian community.


907 Project Formation Course
This course, as a part of each seminar week, helps students develop a practical ministry project that applies the missional principles addressed throughout Biblical’s DMin program to their own ministry context. The focus is on transforming one’s own ministry interests from the conceptual roots into a practical missional project that will enhance one’s personal ministry and the ministry of the Church. The course emphasizes investigative strategies of accessing and assessing available resources, developing a feasible project design, obtaining relevant statistics and sampling, implementing the actual project, and writing the dissertation. The final project is due March 1, prior to graduation in May of the student’s final year. The student will then present their final project in an oral review, during the first two weeks of April, prior to graduation.