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About the Author:
Ralph D. Winter is a senior mission thinker who has been actively involved from the beginning of the massive mission transition from simply thinking in terms of countries or individuals to thinking in terms of peoples. He is founder of the
U.S. Center for World Mission,
and is currently chancellor of
William Carey
International University. |
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Executive Summary—2002
At the US Center for World Mission we have been for more than ten years deeply involved in the toughest, most extensive project we have ever tackled. We have been literally re-writing, enriching and restructuring the entire college and seminary curriculum. Why would a mission center undertake that kind of a project?
The problem
The university tradition which now blankets the earth tears into tiny course-sized fragments the reality of God and His Creation and even the human story. Thus, the average believer never sees the whole picture. We felt there were many reasons to put that picture back together and make sure the result properly reflects the Biblical emphasis upon God and His mission to all the world.
While are pleased that our Perspectives Study Program has now encompassed over 50,000 students, we have been chagrined to realize that a single course is merely a bandaid in comparison to what we ought to do. Thus, we got tired of merely trying to add to, "patch up" and reintegrate the college and seminary courses which people had already studied. What was needed could not be done in a single additional course like Perspectives.
So we decided we would invade the mainstream curriculum, the legendary "liberal arts" curriculum, and invest it at every point with what we feel is the proper content and perspective, teaching everything people would normally learn in college and seminary
(aside from vocational specialties) and doing so with a broad, 4,000-year global, mission perspective.
What can one school do? (Very little!)
But our one small university (even though owned by missionaries) could hardly make a dent in the torrent of students daily emerging from all other schools. What good would it do for one new, specialized university to offer a new mix of basic education? Other schools would have to be enlisted. That is, could we sell this new boldly rebuilt curriculum to existing Christian colleges-so they could enroll really large numbers of students?
Early on we received the unexpected request from Wycliffe's new Language Survey department to employ a modified version of our graduate curriculum for those mission candidates who have only two years of college. Since the material we have prepared is strong on linguistics and cultural anthropology compared to seminary curricula, it would seem to be an ideal bridge to a college degree for such candidates-especially if they can complete this study on the field!
That "Degree Completion" program is now in place and will undoubtedly impact not only Wycliffe but other mission agencies as well. It opens the door to tens of thousands of mission minded believers in their late 20s and early 30s who are working in local churches for the mission cause but are hampered by the lack of a college degree-and the lack of the solid knowledge that would enable them to become missionaries or mission mobilizers on a higher level.
But would enough Christian colleges take up this new curriculum and thus make any kind of a real difference to the mission world? Would this kind of study program be available to field missionaries, Third World missionaries, and national pastors? Could this also substitute for seminary in many fields where very few pastors have adequate training of any kind? Could it be simplified for first-year college use?
Yes, some striking new, incredible events can now be discussed and are actually in the offing. And we are happy that IFMA and EFMA executives also have joined in the discussions of the World Christian Foundations study program.
--Ralph D. Winter, USCWM |
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