MA: Missional Leadership
Apply Online »Master of Arts: Missional Leadership
Like it or not, the world is changing. As technology expands our options and connects the world in a matter of keystrokes, we think about the world differently. As a result, ministry today often requires additional tools for effectiveness in reaching our communities.
Northwest Nazarene University’s Missional Leadership programs equip men and women with a Wesleyan-Arminian approach to engaging twenty-first century cultures. Our programs empower students to enroll in either a 32-hour Master of Arts degree in Missional Leadership or a 74-hour Master of Divinity degree with an emphasis in Missional Leadership. MDIVML students can earn a Master of Divinity degree is as little as 50 months, while MAML students can earn their Master of Arts degree in as little as 21 months. In either case, our classes are fully online, with no residential requirements. Our MDIVML program has been validated as meeting the education requirements for ordination as elders in the Church of the Nazarene*.
Our Missional Leadership program emphasizes the need for Christ followers to live out the gospel so that it is seen and experienced in community. By challenging students to empower others to take ministry outside the walls of the church, the program marries mission with the wholeness of life, both personally and culturally. This program advances missional leadership as both incarnational and holistic: missional leaders recognize the value of tradition and both the opportunities and pitfalls within culture; they lead through servanthood; and they seek to ground their ministries biblically and theologically.
Students in NNU’s MDIVML program complete an online orientation, 42 credits in their pastoral ministry core, and 32 hours of emphasis in Missional Leadership. After completing an online orientation, MAML students focus their studies strictly around the same eight Missional Leadership courses in which MDIVML students take as their emphasis, as shown in the comparison to the right.
Financial aid is available for those who qualify, or students may take advantage of a zero interest monthly payment plan. Avoid expensive travel costs associated with modular programs at other seminaries, not to mention costly time away from home and your workplace. Tuition discounts are also available to assigned Nazarene clergy.
*Nazarene Clergy Services has not validated NNU’s MAML program as meeting all of the denomination's educational requirements for ordination. Districts may determine that some courses in this program fulfill particular competencies, however. Students who desire to study in the area of Missional Leadership and seek to complete their educational requirements for ordination should enroll in NNU's Master of Divinity track in Missional Leadership, which has been validated by Nazarene Clergy Services.
Course Descriptions
BIBL6540. Gospel & Culture (4 credits): This course approaches the biblical texts from a Christocentric narrative with special attention given to the role of culture on the biblical writers, as well as those who have interpreted Scripture in the past and present.
CHIS6540. Wesleyan Tradition in Context (4 credits): This course explores how John Wesley’s historic vision for the practice of Christian ministry engaged his cultural context. Students will also assess how Wesley’s approach to theology and practice may serve as a foundation for missional ministry engagement today.
PHIL7540. Premodern, Modern & Postmodern Philosophies (4 credits): This course examines the breadth of human thought across the history of philosophy. Special attention will be given to the ways in which these philosophical perspectives have shaped or been shaped by the Christian message.
PRTH6000. Program Orientation (0 credit): This course will orient the student to the resources, procedures, electronic operations, and expectations of the program.
PRTH6140. Introduction to Ministry & Culture (4 credits): This course introduces students to the discipline and challenge of missional leadership today. As the first course in the program, this course offers extensive examination of the nature and scope of missional leadership, and deeper understanding of the cultural contexts in which students live and serve.
PRTH6940. Communicating Visually (4 credits): This course focuses on a leader’s need to develop a broader communications palette for communicating in an increasingly postliterate world. Special emphasis will be placed on the development of visual metaphors from Scripture in leadership, teaching, worship, and preaching.
PRTH7540. Missional Practicum (4 credits): This course at the beginning of a student’s second year of study centers on a five-day on-site practicum with his or her colleagues through interactions with a variety of leading edge missional pastors and churches in the Pacific Northwest. Students who cannot attend the practicum personally may also participate online through webcasting technologies.
PRTH7940. Community, Context & Transition (4 credits): In this course, students develop a ministry project from their own cultural context, assessing their own leadership, church structures, and community needs and developing strategies for more effective missional ministry implementation.
THEO7940. Theology of Leadership (4 credits): This course explores the implications of how a missional understanding of God shapes followers of Christ and faith communities, as well as how various theologies relate to our understanding of God. Special attention will be given to evangelism, church structure, and ecclesiology.
Program Outcomes
- The graduate understands the historical interplay between cultural, philosophical, and theological shifts that inform Christian ministry practice.
- The graduate utilizes insights of missional leadership to evaluate and assess congregational contexts and move persons and congregations toward practices consistent with a Wesleyan-Holiness theology.
- The graduate understands and is able to explain God's mission in the midst of a dynamic and changing world.
- The graduate engages the social context from the perspective of Christian mission to articulate and embody the gospel of Christ.
