We are academic practitioners

Our international team of experts are engaged in church planting, evangelism, and discipleship around the world. They address social justice issues and catalyze movements. They know ministry because they are not just academics; they are practitioners. This is the ultimate intersection of the academy and the field where we bring current and relevant research and make it applicable so that you are the most effective you can be.

  • We have more than 300 years of collective cultural engagement in the Post-Christian West, the Muslim, Hindu, Shinto, Buddhist, and Jewish worlds, as well as in former and current communist worlds.

  • We've equipped and trained Christian leaders on six continents and speak Arabic, Czech, English, Hebrew, French, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Romanian, and Spanish. Plus, we read the biblical manuscripts in their original languages.

  • We have seven PhDs, two professional doctorates, and six masters degree instructors from prestigious evangelical seminaries.

What some of our expert faculty are saying

Ephesiology Master Classes is full of cutting-edge resources to meet the training needs of today’s missional worker. Combining academic rigor with practical insights and real time application, the Master Classes uses online technology in the virtual classroom to give relevant, biblical content for the missiological challenges of our ever changing, ever needy world.

Gary Fujino, Professor of Diaspora, Missional University


The idea of having a fully accredited online degree focusing on movements and movement dynamics has been a long-term dream. Here is one that is led by very thoughtful practitioners in missional ecclesiology. What’s not to like?

Alan Hirsch, Author and Founder of Movement Leaders Collective and Forge Missional Training Network 


Ephesiology could prove to be a trendsetter which fills an important gap for many organizations as the future of missiological education may likely involve the development and curation of online resources and courses. I commend you for your vision and creativity.

Warrick Farah, Missiologist, One Collective


Ephesiology Master Classes give you the access to high level input from experts in their field. It is presented in an accessible format and an engaging style, equipping everyday leaders and every leader to be able to grow in particular areas, as well as generally in the character and competency of leadership and to become more Christ-like.

Rich Robinson, Director of CREO Ventures


Ephesiology Master Classes fills a gap that no group or no idea is filling. I love the idea of an academically rigorous and immensely practical digital equipping of leaders toward kingdom ministry. That’s a powerful combination.

Jeff Christopherson, Author, Co-Founder, and Missiologist, Send Institute


Ephesiology Master Classes is valuable because it allows the student to connect with a wide array of theologians who are also practitioners. Learning from those who are also doing allows the student to not only understand the facts of missiology, but also gain the insight that comes from wisdom of the instructors who are applying what they know to the mission. Truth, saturated in practice that yields wisdom is the best well to drink from when training for ministry.

Steve Leston, President and CEO, To Every Tribe

We've been where you are . . .

so we focus on content that we know will help you succeed in multiplying disciples, planting churches, crossing cultures, and addressing social justice issues

Our master classes will challenge you to develop a holistic approach to changing your world so that you are appropriately equipped for effective ministry. You'll learn from an international team of experts who are engaged in disciple making, apologetics, and social justice. They cross cultures, engage thought leaders, and catalyze movements on six continents. Their master classes help you develop a solid foundation in missiological theology and framework in leadership based upon Eph 4:11-12. We'll help guide you in effective church planting and social justice ministries as well as in engaging the marketplace. While solidly evangelical, our instructors come from different ecclesiastical backgrounds and work for various evangelical organizations. They have been where you are and know how to equip you to get to where you want to be.


Meet Our Team of Experts

Our team of subject matter experts are hard at work designing more classes to ensure you have the most relevant training available.

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.

She is Safe, Regional Director Kathryn Richards Bhatia

Kathryn Richards Bhatia, MDiv, BCC, has served since 2014 with She Is Safe, a non-profit ministry working with women and girls at extreme risk of abuse and slavery, particularly among war refugees and outcast people groups. A board-certified chaplain with a focus on trauma and resilience, she has developed a paradigm for healing called The Three Healing Friends: Laughter, Tears and Silence and recently co-edited Social Injustice, Volume 2: Evangelical Voices in Tumultuous Times. Born and raised in the Middle East, she’s a third-culture kid, a fourth-generation minister of the Gospel, and mother of five adult children. She is married to Dr. Amit Bhatia, with whom she shares a love of Indian food, international travel, and hiking in the beauty of the Pacific Northwest.

Co-Founder, The Send Institute Jeff Christopherson

Jeff is Chief Missiologist and Co-Founder of the Send Institute. Author of several books including Kingdom Matrix: Designing a Church for the Kingdom of God, and Kingdom First: Starting Churches that Shape Movements. His weekly column ‘Missio Mondays’ is featured in Christianity Today. Jeff serves as a Co-Vocational pastor of The Sanctuary in Oakville, Ontario. He is married to Laura and has two children.

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.

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 Missiology Gary Fujino

Dr. Fujino earned a PhD in Intercultural Studies from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School focusing on how biblical forgiveness is appropriated differently among expat and Japanese Christians in an intercultural context. He is currently Professor of Diaspora Studies for the online Missional University with a focus on diaspora theory and practice for mission. He is a member of the Global Diaspora Institute, Global Diaspora Network and the North American Diaspora Educators Forum. He formerly served as an evangelist and church planter in Japan and among the Japanese diaspora with the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. Dr. Fujino has written extensively on diaspora both generally and specific to the Japanese context, as well as on church planting and issues of identity, race and ethnicity.

Director, Renewal Project Africa Gideon Banda

Dr. Banda holds a Bachelor of Theology, a Masters of Biblical Studies, a Doctor of Apologetics and is currently pursuing a Masters of Arts in Development. Since 2007, Gideon has served in various capacities in the church and academy. He left his last assignment as Executive Pastor of Crossroads Fellowship in 2020 to launch Renewal Project Africa (RPA). In joining God’s mission, Renewal Project Africa seeks transformation and empowerment of communities by planting, establishing, and multiplying holistically missional churches to make the gospel explicit in marginalized places in Africa. Gideon is also the chaplain of The University of Nairobi, Mombasa Campus, the Kenya Field Leader for East West Ministries, founder and coach at Naviza Consutancy and Global Liaison for The Times12. He is husband to Joy and a father of three boys: Jotham, Joshua and Jason.

Founder, Movement Leaders Collective Alan Hirsch

Alan Hirsch is the founding director of Forge Mission Training Network, 100Movements, The 5Q Collective, and Future Travelers. All these are focussed on developing missional leadership and movemental organization. Known for his innovative approach to mission, Alan is considered to be a thought-leader and key mission strategist for churches across the Western world. Hirsch is the author of The Forgotten Ways; 5Q; The Shaping of Things to Come, ReJesus, and The Faith of Leap (with Michael Frost); Untamed (with Debra Hirsch); Right Here, Right Now (with Lance Ford), and On the Verge (with Dave Ferguson).

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.

Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies Seung Min Hong

Dr. Hong earned his PhD from the University of Iowa and a MA in Communication and Culture from Trinity Graduate School. He is professor of film and media studies at Fresno Pacific University.

Associate Pastor, Neartown Church Andrew Johnson

Andrew is a proud husband, father and pastor in the Bayou City, Houston, TX. Previously, he’s ministered in Chicago, Flagstaff and Tempe in a variety of church contexts. Andrew as a BA in Christian Ministry from Trinity International University. After graduating Phoenix Seminary, he, his wife, and three kids moved to Houston join the growing ministry at Neartown Church, a church geared towards starting and supporting other strong local churches through church planting. He is currently a Doctor of Ministry student at Kairos University. When not at work, he’s an avid disc golfing, ultimate playing, Spider-Man following/collecting fellow. Go Pacers.

Senior Fellow, C.S. Lewis Institute Randy Newman

Dr. Newman is the Senior Fellow for Evangelism and Apologetics at The C. S. Lewis Institute in the Washington, DC area. He has also taught at numerous theological seminaries and colleges. After serving for over 30 years with Campus Crusade for Christ, he established Connection Points, a ministry to help Christians engage people’s hearts the way Jesus did. He has written a number of books and articles about evangelism and other ways our lives intertwine with God’s creation. He is also the host of Questions That Matter, a podcast of the C. S. Lewis Institute. He and his wife Pam live in Annandale, VA and are grateful for their children and a growing number of grandchildren.

Professor of New Testament Sylvie Raquel

Dr. Raquel has twenty-five years of academic experience in teaching biblical studies. She is committed to using her knowledge for building the Kingdom of God. Her heart is for missions. She is fluent in three spoken languages (English, French, and Spanish) besides the biblical languages (Koine Greek, Hebrew) and has a working knowledge of German and Latin. She also has ministerial experience. She worked in three different international churches in the area of youth ministry, discipleship ministry, prison ministry, and ESL ministry. She participated to or led missions’ trips to Kazakhstan, France, Mexico, Ecuador, Brazil, Zambia, and India, as well as within the U.S.A. She is now looking into teaching online English, Spanish, and French theological studies.

Director, CREO Ventures Rich Robinson

Rich Robinson pioneered training work with multiple churches, charities, denominations and organizations across Europe, America, Australasia, Africa and Asia. Focused on disciple-making, leadership development, strategic and cultural change and scalable multiplication.

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.

President, Mission India Theological Seminary Saji Lukos

Dr. Saji Lukos is the founder of Reaching Indians Ministries International (RIMI-USA), and Mission India (MI-India). His education background includes a Master's degree in business, a Master of Divinity in Missions from Trinity International University in Deerfield, IL, and a Doctorate in Ministry from Bethel University in St. Paul, MN. Today RIMI/MI has become a major mission in India reaching people in every state of India with the message of Christ through three programs: Evangelism & Church Planting, Leadership, and Compassion. Over 1500 missionaries are serving with Mission India. In addition, there is a leading seminary in Nagpur, Maharashtra and 29 Bible schools. Saji's passion is to raise up 100,000 Christ-like leaders withing the next twenty years. Thus he is intentionally raising up 1,000 pastors/leaders who will develop 100 leaders within the next 10-20 years.

Jana Sundene

Professor Jana Sundene has been preparing students in the area of Christian Ministries at Trinity International University since 1990. She has a BA from Wheaton College and a master's in communication studies from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School with an emphasis in interpersonal and group communication theory. She also holds an MA in communication theory from Northern Illinois University. Before coming to Trinity, Jana spent 10 years doing Youth Ministry at churches in Illinois and California. Most of her time has been spent teaching and mentoring youth and emerging adults and serving at her local church. She is the co-author of Shaping the Journey of Emerging Adults.

Professor of Spiritual Formation Donald Patrick Harris

Don is, first and foremost, a Christian thinker and practitioner. But he is also a spiritual friend-director and missiologist. Don and his wife, Ellen, invested twenty-five years of their lives as missionaries—most of them in the former Czechoslovakia. While living there his primary focus was facilitative church planting, functioning as a trainer, coach and mentor with Czech church planters. He also provided spiritual friendship and direction for expatriate missionaries and other spiritual leaders. Don earned a professional doctorate from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, specializing in Spiritual Formation for Ministry Leaders. However, his highest academic credential is the Th.M. in New Testament. He continues to bring his experience and education to bear on his ministry passion: Christian ministry leaders, congregations and organizations who struggle and seek help. Don and Ellen make their home in Palm City on South Florida’s Treasure Coast.

Loré Kaylor Cooper

Loré graduated from Towson State University with a BA in International Relations, and joined the staff of Cru at the University of New Hampshire as preparation for ministry in Eastern Europe. After the Berlin Wall fell and Romania executed their communist leader on Christmas day in 1989, she joined a small church planting team to help build up a local body of new believers in Craiova, Romania. She married Michael after her first year there and stayed on for 9 years working on church plants in Slatina, Pitesti, and Bucuresti. Loré loved being a stay home mom and working part time as Michael continued his degrees and ministry efforts. She has spent the last 25 years working with children in various contexts such as substitute teaching, children’s ministry worker, and tutor which inspired her to focus her Master of Arts degree at Kairos University on the effects of trauma and neglect.

Neil Cole

Neil Cole was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. While studying at CSULB he encountered the Good News of Jesus Christ and turned his life over to Him, never looking back. His journey in God's kingdom brought him to serve in a mega church, a local community church and now small rapidly multiplying organic churches that meet in homes, campuses and places of business across the globe. Neil travels around the world sowing the seeds of God's kingdom, catalyzing the development of organic church networks and coaching leaders. He has been married for over 37 years to Dana and has three adult children and five grandchildren.

Lance Ford

With over three decades experience as a pastor and church planter, Lance is a writer, coach, and consultant who has designed unique training systems currently being used by networks, seminaries, and leaders throughout the world. His books include UnLeader and, The Starfish and The Spirit. His newest book, The Atlas Factor: Shifting leadership onto the shoulders of Jesus will be released February 2024.

Are you a majority world church or mission agency?

We would love to serve you. Our team of instructors are available to travel and teach where you are. Contact us for more information.

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