The Certificate in Global Christian Worship provides individuals in mission and ministry with missiological training for making Jesus Christ known among the nations through a people’s music system. It may also serve as post-degree training to supplement and enhance the student’s training for mission and ministry.
Description
- A six course (24 units) certificate program designed to equip and empower missionaries and ministers to effectively employ cultural music in making Jesus Christ known and worshiped.
- Serves not only as an introductory set of courses but also allows students and the mission/ministry professional to do additional work to enhance their area of service.
The Certificate in Global Christian Worship is a stand-alone certificate that fosters the development of a full-complement of ministry skills. It is designed to equip leaders to do holistic mission that draws on communication modes within a given society. Thus, it provides professional certification of training geared towards cross-cultural ministry and/or consultancy.
The Certificate in Global Christian Worship requires the successful completion of 24 quarter units and an integrative essay. The courses in the curriculum are illustrated in the Certificate of Global Christian Worship Outline. Certificate courses may be applied to master's level degree programs, students can utilize their time as certificate students to explore the possibility of a School of Intercultural Studies master’s degree.
Learning Outcomes
- Graduates will participate in the mission of God and the ministries of the global Church from an evangelical missiological perspective.
- Graduates will demonstrate critical thinking and integration skills in order to foster individual and social transformation.
- Graduates will demonstrate sensitivity to cultural and ethnic diversity for building relationships and for communicating the Gospel in context.
- Graduates will have skills and knowledge and networks of relationships to pursue vocations that engage the mission of God globally.
- Graduates will value the importance of spiritual formation in both its personal and communal dimensions.
Recipients of Fuller’s Certificate of Certificate of Global Christian Worship are equipped for enhanced ministries as missionaries, church leaders, incarnational disciples in their communities and abroad, and professionals in the marketplace. They are also well-prepared to support others in ministry, both theologically and practically.
Admission Requirements
Admission standards for the Certificate of Global Christian Worship are basically the same as for admission to master’s degree programs. The Certificate of Global Christian Worship requires the completion of 24 units of master’s-level courses and an integrative essay. A certificate may be awarded with a particular focus if at least four courses (16 units) are taken in any one of a number of established above concentrations.
Global Christian Worship Focus Course Descriptions
ME 506 Communicating the Gospel Cross-Culturally (4 units)
Roberta King, Associate Professor of Communication and Ethnomusicology
Principles and processes of communicating from one culture to another. Focus on the relevance of incarnation as the model for intercultural communication of the gospel.
ME 510 Christian Communication through Music (4 units)
Roberta King, Associate Professor of Communication and Ethnomusicology
Past, present and prospective uses of music in communicating the gospel, in Christian worship, and as a means of instruction in Christian life and belief. Focus on receptor-oriented use of music cross-culturally.
ME 513 Perspectives in Global Christian Worship (4 units)
Roberta King, Associate Professor of Communication and Ethnomusicology
Leads students through an in-depth theological study of Christian worship, with reference to cross-cultural worship forms. The course focuses on the role, influence, and importance of worship in Christian witness, spiritual formation, and church growth.
ME 514 Leading Global Worship (4 units)
Roberta King, Associate Professor of Communication and Ethnomusicology
Focuses on four major aspects crucial to dynamic worship. 1) the building of positive relationships within church leadership, i.e. – pastors and worship leaders/musicians and 2) the nurturing and mentoring of worship leaders. In addition, we will study 3) working together as a team in designing, planning, and leading worship, and 4) discerning worship formats that facilitate authentic worship for varying cultural and multi-cultural contexts.
ME 515 Communicating Christ through Narrative and Song (4 units)
Roberta King, Associate Professor of Communication and Ethnomusicology
Investigates oral communication technologies, including storytelling, songs, and proverbs, with four goals in mind: to seek to understand our audience and how they perceive their world; to discover effective ways to communicate to oral cultures; to create/develop oral resources for communicating the Gospel; to design strategies for doing oral communication in Christian witness.
ME 518 Exegeting a Musical Culture (4 units)
Roberta King, Associate Professor of Communication and Ethnomusicology
Develops the introductory essential steps to understanding a musical culture. Includes a survey of world musics, the basics of organology, the role of song, the study of song texts, and researching the function and use of music in a particular culture.
ME 519 Ethnomusicology II: Theory and Analysis (4 units)
Roberta King, Associate Professor of Communication and Ethnomusicology
A study of issues and theories including the study of music as culture, introduction to transcription and analysis, models, field methods, and approaches for doing ethnomusicology in cross-cultural contexts.
ME530 Theology in Song (4 units)
James Krabill, Adjunct Associate Professor of Global Christian Worship
Many people sing the songs of the church with little thought to there meaning and theological import. Yet it might be argued that nothing shapes the faith and practice of the church more than its music. Any person training for ministry today needs to take seriously the music of the church, reflecting on its origins, its relationship to the surrounding culture, its role in nurturing faith, its ability to mobilize God’s people to action, its capacity to reach those outside the community of faith. This course will equip students to think more critically about the church’s theology as composed, preserved and transmitted in musical form by and for God’s people throughout the ages.
UNDER DEVEOPMENT: MEXXX Gospel Music in the Global Church (4 units)
Jean Kidula, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Global Christian Worship