What's in a Name? ("Missions" Majors)

[Wilson L. Deaton]

A rose by any other name might smell as sweet, but apparently that doesn't alway apply to academic degrees/majors.

I mentioned in another post that Chelsie (my daughter) is a missions major. However, she just told me that MidAmerica is changing the name of that major to, "Intercultural Studies," or something like that.

NTS has already done so. That is, they changed its, "M.A. in Missiology," to, "M.A. in Intercultural Studies."

Chelsie says the primary reason is that there are a lot of countries that we want to work in that frown on, or forbid, missionaries, so it is easier to get visas and stuff without a degree in "missions."

She also says that for those who will need to be bi-vocational, an, "Intercultural Studies," degree will be more desirable to a secular employer.

Wilson

[Jim Franklin]

I hope that they will be offering a course in Cultural Geography to better understand the varieties of cultures as has been mentioned in the thread on intercultural ministries. I know of a college who offered a major in International Studies without an offering in Geography which to me just does not compute.

[Bob Evans]

As one who makes his living in Urban ministry they also need to teach and help the students understand and even experience a strong understanding of generational poverty. The residual effects of this poverty is vital to understand urban minustry.

It really is another culture as well so it would count as interculteral studies or whatever it is being called.

[Jeremy D. Scott]

I don't know about MNU, but I believe NTS has in the past few years been understanding that what "missions" implies is no longer what the world needs. It's quite evident to many now that the best "missionaries" to other countries are no longer whites from the US.

I recently had someone who knows tell me that the CotN explosion in a certain country is credited to the fact that there have never been foreign (US or otherwise) missionaries to that country, but that all churches started were begun by the people of that country who came to know Christ elsewhere.

So while NTS is committed to preparing ministers to serve internationally (and still oversees the one semester intensive for immediately-departing missionaries), she is preparing those who know they have a call to minister to cultures other than their own. The other side here is that many from the US are called to urban ministry. This in and of itself is a call to the "mission field" and requires a different set of practical skills than a regular M.Div will provide. Another aspect is that I'm happy to report that many in the church are realizing that this "We have a corner on the gospel and we're gonna bring it to you" is not very biblical.

I'm proud of how much of the CotN is shifting in her missional ways.

[Jeremy D. Scott]

As I clicked "submit" to my first post in this thread, I thought of how during most of the time when missions began 75-125 years ago, it was easy to see that the United States and Great Britain were arguably the strongest Christian nations. It's quite evident now that this is not the case. The strongest Christian nations are not even in the West, but are arguably Brazil and China. Imagine that.

And now we see that these countries (and others like them) are sending missionaries around the world...even to the US. Imagine that.

I'm not sure this has much to do with your original question, but it's just an exciting thought to me.

A good book to read along these lines is The Next Christendom by Philip Jenkins.
http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0195146166.01._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg (http://www.amazon.com/Next-Christendom-Coming-Global-Christianity/dp/0195146166)