Equipping for Global Impact

Our Missionary Development Program is designed to provide both new and experienced missionaries with a holistic framework for engaging in effective ministry across diverse cultural contexts. Through a carefully curated series of courses, this program offers the theological, missiological, and practical tools necessary to engage cultures, understand worldviews, and participate in movemental ecclesiology—equipping you to make a lasting impact.

  • Comprehensive missionary training that provides a well-rounded education in theology, missiology, and cultural engagement, preparing you for diverse mission fields.

  • Learn practical storytelling and narrative communication techniques essential for effective ministry in oral cultures, ensuring your message reaches non-literate communities.

  • Develop expertise in missional movement dynamics and adaptive church structures that foster disciple-making movements and sustainable church growth.

  • Benefit from ongoing mentorship and guidance from global experts with decades of international mission experience, offering practical insights tailored to your unique context.

  • Gain critical knowledge of world religions and worldview apologetics, equipping you to engage with cultural and religious differences respectfully and effectively.

Empowering Movemental Missionaries

This program equips missionaries with essential skills for cross-cultural ministry. Participants will learn movement dynamics, storytelling for oral cultures, worldview engagement, and church planting strategies. Taught by experienced global mission experts, the program provides practical training and ongoing mentorship to ensure long-term impact in diverse contexts.

Study with Leading Missiologists

They bring their collective wisdom, having pioneered movements in diverse contexts such as Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. Their expertise and mentorship ensure that you are not only equipped with academic knowledge but also the practical insights necessary to thrive in your unique mission context.

Author and Missiologist Tom Steffen

Dr. Steffen served 20 years with New Tribes Mission, 15 of those in the Philippines. He is Professor Emeritus of Intercultural Studies in the Cook School of Intercultural Studies at Biola University in La Mirada, California. He specializes in church multiplication, orality, honor and shame, and business as mission. Some of his books include: Reconnecting God’s Story to Ministry: Cross-Cultural Storytelling at Home and Abroad, Worldview-based Storying: The Integration of Symbol, Story, and Ritual in the Orality Movement, and The Return of Oral Hermeneutic: As Good Today as It Was for the Hebrew Bible and First Century Christianity.

Assistant Professor of Missiology Warrick Farah

Dr. Farah earned a DMiss from Fuller and is currently working towards a PhD from the Oxford Center of Mission Studies. He is co-editor of Margins of Islam: Ministry in Diverse Muslim Contexts (2018) and editor of Motus Dei: The Movement of God and the Discipleship of Nations (forthcoming in 2021). As a missiologist with One Collective, he currently serves in theological education in the Middle East, training Arab world leaders for ministry in the region. His research topics include Muslim Studies, Frontier Missiology, Theology of Mission, and Movements. Warrick has published in journals such as Evangelical Missions Quarterly, International Journal of Frontier Missiology, and Global Missiology.

Professor of Missiological Theology Michael T. Cooper

Dr. Cooper earned a PhD in Intercultural Studies with a focus on religious movements and a minor in theology from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He currently serves as a missiologist for a missions agency where he focuses on missiological research and equipping missionaries for effective cultural engagement. He has thirty years of missions experience, including ten years as a pioneer church planter in Romania after the fall of communism and has equipped church planters and leaders in Africa, Europe, North America, South America, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. He is a guest faculty at Torch Trinity Graduate University, adjunct faculty at Mission India Theological Seminary, Asia Graduate School of Theology Nepal, and Ebenezer Bible College in Katmandu, and affiliate faculty at Kairos University. He has written and contributed to more than 30 books and academic articles and has presented conference lectures at the London School of Economics, University of Bordeaux, Loyola University, Baylor University, and many others. His recent book, Ephesiology: A Study of the Ephesian Movement is a best seller at William Carey Publishing.

President and CEO, To Every Tribe Stephen Leston

Dr. Stephen Leston is the President of To Every Tribe, a mission training and sending agency. Prior to this role, Stephen served as the pastor of Kishwaukee Bible Church in DeKalb Illinois. He has been involved in ministry for over 20 years. He loves preaching, teaching, and equipping the next generation of leaders how to do the same. In addition to being the Author of The Bible in World History, He is also the author of The Illustrated Guide to Bible Battles and has contributed to several volumes of the Layman's Commentary Series. Steve's heart is to see people understand how to read, understand and apply the Christian Bible to their lives.

Associate Professor of World Religions Amit Bhatia

Dr. Amit Bhatia (PhD, Intercultural Studies), serves as the director of Corban University’s Bachelor of Science program for Adults In Custody through the Oregon state prison system. He is the author of Engaging Muslims & Islam: Lessons for 21st-Century American Evangelicals (2017). Amit has spent more than 20 years bridging the gap between academia and the church, serving as a pastor in several different multi-ethnic congregations during his years in seminary at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Fully committed to training Christians for ministry and to engaging people from other faiths with the gospel of Jesus Christ, he specializes in courses on missions, world religions, and culture. He is married to Kathryn Richards Bhatia, MDiv, BCC, with whom he shares a love for Indian food, international travel and hiking in the beauty of the Pacific Northwest.

Seminary Degree Opportunities

Completing the Missionary Development Program provides you with advance standing credit toward a graduate degree. Our graduate degrees are offered in partnership with Kairos University. Kairos University is a global collaborative that provides opportunities for students to build entirely customized educational journeys that are affordable, accessible, and accredited.