Christian Ministries Studies (CMS)
(Christian Ministries Studies will be discontinued as an academic major for students starting after the 2021 academic year.)
The purpose of an undergraduate Christian Ministries Studies (CMS) major at North Park University is to prepare undergraduates for leadership in Christian ministry. Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s “view from the bottom” captures well the point of view of the CMS’s curriculum. Jesus’ pattern of life and teaching guides disciples to serve the margins of society within the diverse but intersecting social locations: global, city-centered and rural ministry contexts.
CMS majors will be shaped as servant-leaders who:
- Have a progressively clarifying call for Christian ministry
- Have a developing discipline of curiosity fostering Holy Spirit- awareness, self-awareness, and others-awareness
- Have a deepening desire for lifelong development of the changing competencies necessary to lead conventional and unconventional ministry endeavors
CMS seeks to form authentic disciples of Jesus who then make disciples. The work of Christian formation must center on a study of Jesus’ call of discipleship, his teaching on the Kingdom of God, and his preparation of the first disciples for their commission to expand the whole mission of God to the whole earth.
The basic tasks of discipleship and formation nurture emotionally healthy Christian leaders. This emphasis on formation distinguishes the CMS major at North Park University, making it a cutting-edge ministry leadership training program at the undergraduate level.
Designed to train the next generation of Christian leaders to have the agility to adapt to the rapidly shifting and changing cultural and ecclesial terrain of the middle twenty-first century, the CMS major focuses on catalyzing students to grow more Christ-centered, biblically grounded and skilled in the task of practical theology. A formation-focused leadership curriculum is the core of the CMS major at North Park University. Through an interdisciplinary curriculum student become capable to creatively, effectively and empathetically lead both people and organizations in a Christlike posture. Inside and outside the classroom students are personally mentored and nurtured toward deeper self-awareness, clearer vision of vocational call and establishment of spiritual habits that persevere humility, vulnerability and integrity over the span of a ministry career.
Complementing the Christian formation, the CMS major prepares students to be practitioners with a robust biblical-theological ministry philosophy and the prerequisite ministry skill sets. Students will be required to complete a ministry practicum and internship in a ministry specialization (e.g. youth ministry) providing a concrete social location to move from theoretical to the practical.
Mission of Christian Ministries Studies
CMS is a catalyst for vocational discernment, self-awareness, ministry proficiencies and missional vision for future Jesus-centered ministry leaders.