Training at Bethany International University
BIU provides cutting-edge and strategic missionary training to penetrate the last frontiers of the Greater 10/40 Window nations.
BIU’s aim is to produce:
- Missionary Practitioners for cross-cultural and non-traditional missionary settings
- Trainers of Missionary Practitioners to multiply the process across the 10/40 window
- Tentmakers to multiple disciples
BIU’s Philosophy of Training
Introduction:
Bethany International University (a.k.a. Bethany School of Missions) as the training arm of Asia Pacific Mission ( Singapore) came into being in 1988 under the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Then in 1993 when a small group of men and women came together and waited upon the Lord for a new direction, the Holy Spirit directed a vision expansion to take place. This led Bethany to start a new level of training Trainer's by inviting national leaders from different parts of the world for specialized training of starting relevant and contextual Schools of training after they returned to their own contexts for multiplying workers for the harvest among their own unreached.
Therefore, the need for a carefully planned comprehensive, strategic, cutting-edge training has been emphasized through reports from research findings that attrition of Asian missionaries is quite high. This is very damaging to the cause of Christ, and very costly to the sending church, the receiving church, and to the missionary through the emotional, spiritual, and often physical damage sustained. Bethany's training is needed by Asian and African, north American and Latin American missionaries to reduce the likelihood of premature failure in their high calling to Intercultural evangelism and church-planting.
Philosophy of Missiological Education
A. Educational Philosophy: Vision and Focus:
Bethany's training is primarily developed to enable Asians, Africans, and Latin Americans, to reach the greater 10/40 Window nations (though Westerners are also accepted if their calling is to this "Window").
1. It is determined then that this region will be the primary focus of all prayer, planning, training concern, and challenge.
2. It is essential that training be creative, flexible, and context-sensitive because many of these missionaries will be primarily pioneers, going into new and often difficult situations.
3. Training must go beyond the academic and even experiential to train students in total dependance on the Spirit of God, hearing His voice and following His guidance and direction to live by faith. This calls for unique and specialized components.
4. Missiological Education for Trainer students will be taught on how to develop new training programs to accomplish the goal of reaching the 10/40 Window nations for starting contextual and relevant missionary training centers. We will utilize all components of our missionary training as a framework and model to augment the lectures and experiential aspects of their training as educators.
B. Educational Philosophy: Training for Competent Ministry
Bethany's purpose is to produce Christ-like competent field missionaries, mission leaders, and mission educators who in obedience to God and filled by the Spirit of God fulfill the will of God in seeing the Kingdom of God extend through the planting and development of churches by bringing the eternal love of God across Asia, Africa, and worldwide (the unreached groups). We recognize that it is God who makes us competent in ministry (II Cor. 3:5-6). Bethany emphasizes developing missionary competence on the foundations of Christ-like character. The following is a general description of some dimensions of missionary competence.
A competent missionary has a biblically-sound and psychologically-healthy self-perception and world-view, dynamic growing spirituality (expressed in total dependence on and obedience to God, a Spirit-controlled Christ-like life and ministry, growing knowledge of the Word of God, and concern and compassion for the lost), and positive personality characteristics which are oriented to active learning, to effective action, and to be sensitive interpersonal interaction.
He or she has adaptive skills (enabling behavioural flexibility to changes required by physical, interpersonal, and cultural demands as well as the requirements of the Task); has functional skills (ability to learn, process, and use cultural data, facts, and information in conjunction with previously learned missiological data, and ability to relate to people in the culture in socially and individually meaningful ways), and cross-cultural ministry skills for church-planting and church development (both basic professional ministry competence and acculturated ministry skills).
Since all of this occurs within a context, this competent missionary has contextual sensitivity to and ability to effectively relate to
1) the structures, meanings, values, ethos, etc. of the culture,
2) to national people and their individual real and felt-needs and interests,
3) to the church (local, regional, and national) as corporate bodies, and to individuals, and
4) to spiritual realities (both the visible religious context and the invisible spiritual dimension).
The missionary has a determination to be competent and so works at developing and maintaining positive and satisfactory marital life and family relationships, continues to grow and learn in all areas of life and ministry, and has a sense of progress in ministry as total dependence on the Spirit of God is maintained.
C. Educational Philosophy: Androgogical and Experiential
Because of the strengths and weaknesses inherent in both pedagogical (the most common form of education) and androgogical training and because the purpose of our training is to prepare competent missionaries for pioneer ministry, both types of education will be included in the planning and structure of our curriculum. Formal (academic), nonformal (experiential), and informal (spontaneous interactive-discipleship) approaches will all be included in balance.
