Grace Communion Seminary, in partnership with Grace Communion International, is happy to announce new diploma options designed for GCI members who lead the ministry avenues of faith (discipleship), hope (worship), and love (witness). We plan to develop new courses for each of the three avenues.
The GCS Diploma of Christian Ministry involves seven classes. For this new diploma, six of the requirements are the same no matter which ministry a person is involved in; one class will be different based on the avenue of focus. The courses may be taken in any order, and at any pace, as fast as one course each semester, or only one course per year. Students are welcome to take one course without a commitment to take any others.
Here is a basic sketch of the package:
- One Bible course, either Hermeneutics (Biblical Interpretation) or New Testament Survey (both taught by Mike Morrison)
- One theology course: The Holy Spirit, the Church, and Last Things (Gary Deddo)
- Either an additional course in Bible or an additional course in theology
- Three ministry courses: Practice of Ministry (Ted Johnston), Church Planting and Development (Randy Bloom), and Polity of GCI (Greg Williams and Mike Rasmussen)
- An additional ministry course chosen based on the ministry avenue:
- For the faith avenue (discipleship): Pastoral Leadership, Trinitarian Youth Ministry, or a new course already designed and pending approval
- For the hope avenue (worship): Trinitarian Youth Ministry or another applicable future elective
- For the love avenue (witness and outreach): either Pastoral Leadership or another applicable future elective
All courses are taught at a graduate level, and students are required to read several textbooks and to write papers. Each course will entail about 140 hours of work – about 12 hours each week for twelve weeks. Students who want to audit (to sit in on the class, but without academic credit) are still expected to read the textbooks and participate in the discussions.
Since the courses are at a graduate level, applicants should have a bachelor’s degree. For an application, see https://www.gcs.edu/admissions/. To talk with our Registrar, Georgia McKinnon, phone (980) 495-3978 or email registrar@gcs.edu.
We cannot publish the names of the new courses until they are fully developed and approved by our accrediting agency. When each is approved, we’ll announce it in the Update. We hope to see you soon!
