An innovative approach to religious and theological education, Missional University helps Christian believers make a greater impact in their churches, organizations and communities through education that is rooted in the mission of God in this world. This university is redefining how Christian lay people and clergy professionals learn through an engaging online classroom where volunteer missional leaders can maximize their giftedness and professional ministers can update their craft while preparing for the next steps in their calling. Students connect with expert faculty members from around the world who are ministry practitioners with missional experience and expertise. You might say, Missional University is a 21st century missional ministry tech school to equip Christian believers to serve in the mission of God. Missional University offers two types of programs: 1) those programs that equip Christian believers to serve in faith-based organizations including Christian social ministries, churches, denominational groups, mission agencies and other para-church organizations in various missional capacities; and 2) those programs that equip Christian believers to live out their sacred missional calling in secular arenas where their missional ministry brings them into contact with people at their point of need.
Who We Are
Missional University is the division of the Intercultural Institute for Contextual Ministry that provides grassroots missional and theological training. The schools within the university work together to share faculty, courses, and programs to offer a greater breadth of training to church leaders and members at large.
Missional University trains Christian believers to serve as volunteer, bivocational and vocational leaders in faith-based organizations. They will serve in various capacities as communication specialists, community missionaries, missional strategists, missional coaches, church planters, and lay and clergy leaders.
While a large number of seminaries and bible colleges exist to train people for institutional church positions, there is very little ministry training that places the mission of God and our role in that mission in the community as a central focus.
Missional University provides online training for missional leaders.
Mission of Missional University
To prepare biblically-grounded, missional leaders who will join the mission of God in diverse communities by:
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incarnating the gospel with culturally-appropriate ministry skills
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seeking the transformation of people and communities
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connecting all peoples to God in worship in their own heart language
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Missionally-Driven Curriculum
At Missional University, missionality — the quality of living life from a missional perspective — is core to everything that we teach. The curriculum at Missional University equips Christian believers for roles in missional ministry — Christian ministry that is based on missiology. In Christianity, ministry is an activity carried out by Christians to express or spread their faith. This is distinguished from the “office of minister” who serves in a clergy role in the institutional church. “Missiology” has been defined as:
Missiology is the area of practical theology that investigates the mandate, message, and mission of the Christian church, especially the nature of missionary work.[1] Missiology is a multi-disciplinary and cross-cultural field of study incorporating theology, anthropology, history, geography, theories and methods of communication, comparative religion, Christian apologetics, education methodology, and interdenominational relations.[2]
Each of the schools/colleges at MU builds upon the missional, intercultural, contextual framework of our core values to create courses designed to equip Christian believers for missional ministry. We offer degrees in Intercultural Studies, World Religions, Ministry Practice, Community Ministry, Communication, Ecomissiology and Theological Studies.
[1] Dictionary.com [2] Wikipedia.com
Missionally-Driven Faculty
with about 30% of Faculty with Mission Related Degrees
While not every faculty person can be trained in missiology — the study of the mission of God in this world and the Christian believer’s role in it — we endeavor to incorporate as many people as we can with this training and expertise. Below is a list of faculty with degrees in missions, missiology, intercultural studies, or closely related areas.
More than 75% of our professors have international experience doing mission work in various countries around the world. Our faculty teach online and are geographically distributed across the US, Canada, South America, Africa, Europe and Asia.