Graduate Certificate in Church Planting

The Graduate Certificate in Church Planting equips Christians to start churches that engage missionally within local communities.

The calling to start new churches is as old as the book of Acts and as varied as the communities churches serve. The Graduate Certificate in Church Planting will equip you with the tools needed to foster healthy, mission-minded churches. You will be trained to think theologically about church planting as you learn strategies to navigate local cultures faithfully, lead new congregations sensitively, and foster a vibrant gospel witness corporately. Helpful for pastors, elders, deacons, missionaries, and other leaders and team members within church-planting movements, the courses within this certificate can also be applied toward a master’s degree.

This certificate program is ideal for:

Founding Pastors
Church Planters
Church Planting Team Members

Elders
Deacons
Missionaries

Courses

Six courses (18 credits)

Pick One Course

Foundations for Leadership

Develop the knowledge and skills to serve effectively as leaders, agents of change, facilitators of mission, and administrators in parish and related vocational settings. Examine systems theory as the primary theoretical and theological foundation for leadership.

Spiritual Formation for Ministry

Develop a foundational working knowledge of spiritual formation as an introduction to theological seminary and a basis for lifelong continuing education. Practice spiritual exercises and small-group engagement for personal application and leadership in the church.

Pick One Course

Managing Conflict

Develop the knowledge and skills to facilitate organizational change and resolve the conflict associated with that change in a healthy manner. Examine and apply key strategies and practices for effective conflict resolution.

Conflict Management in Life and Ministry

Examine the dynamics of interpersonal conflict management and apply conflict resolution principles within church, family, and ministry contexts. Analyze biblical and case-study conflict scenarios, evaluate effective and ineffective conflict strategies, and explore systems theory, church discipline strategies, and the emotional health of the leader through an interdisciplinary approach.

Required: Four Courses

Evangelism & Discipleship in the Local Church

Examine the practical theological foundations of evangelism and evangelistic leadership in the church, including the content and communication of the gospel within cultural contexts at home and abroad. Integrate classroom preparation, community experience, and prayer in the practice of evangelism and discipleship through the local church.

Church Planting and Growth

Examine church planting ministries through theological, spiritual, and practical perspectives to develop a vision for planting a new missional church that is theologically and biblically sound, practically feasible, and appropriately contextualized for a local community. Analyze the strengths and limitations of common approaches to church planting, considering their underlying theology and practical impact on church planters, congregations, and local communities.

Introduction to Pastoral Counseling

Develop the knowledge and skills to offer pastoral care and short-term counseling in a variety of ministry and church settings through principles and techniques grounded in a biblical-theological framework and informed by historical and psychological perspectives. Examine biblical foundations for pastoral care, pastoral care and counseling in church history, listening and empathy, counseling and community, multicultural competence, basic counseling problems in ministry, the church as an agent of healing and mental health, self-care, and the lifelong practice of a hermeneutics of charity within personal, spiritual, and pastoral formation.

Understanding Culture

Examine culture through cultural anthropological and missiological perspectives to develop cultural awareness and cross-cultural competence for building healthy and God-honoring relationships within diverse communities. Analyze biblical, anthropological, and missiological insights to create environments that reflect God’s reconciling work in church life and missional engagement and to express the gospel in ways that celebrate differences and foster unity in Jesus Christ.

Further Study

Our Graduate Certificates are intentionally modular, allowing you to stack certificates together to build towards (or even complete) a master’s degree.

Christian Studies

Church Planting

MACM

MA in Christian Ministry

Combining the Christian Studies Certificate fulfills 75% of the requirements for the MACM (12/16 courses or 36/48 credit hours).

*The MACM is a “professional degree,” which primarily means it is weighted toward developing practical ministry skills. As such, six of the concentration electives in the MACM should be drawn from practical theology or counseling courses.