Mission Matters

Your vision…? Disciples in all nations,….Gospel to every one,….to serve God in a cross-cultural Mission? Wherever God may call us to be, we need to learn to love Him and His people.
You might well expect to work in a team of diverse individuals, serving through ‘Word and Deed’ – ‘holistic mission’ in situations very different from our own.  Mission is the outworking of biblical discipleship. How can we remain rooted in His ways and purposes for the world?
The changing face of mission-- from every where to every where-- provides great challenges and opportunities. Today every society throws up opportunities for mission.

Our response…
BBC is totally committed to God’s mission in God’s ways through God’s people everywhere.
We want to seize God’s opportunities for mission. The challenges of overseas mission as well as mission to the ‘nations coming to us’- the multi- racial neighbourhoods of our society reinforce our theological commitment and focus.
All of our courses at different levels-college diploma, degree, and postgraduate as well as the reflections that take place at the Centre for Theological Education and other community activities like World Focus referred to later, have a distinct objective- passion for mission with an interdisciplinary approach. To God be the glory! - BBC past students are presently working for God in over 70 different countries in the world.
The multi-national and interdenominational setting of BBC training, with students from 35 countries and staff with overseas experiences provide the major impetus for the mission approach to ministry. Several of our students, experienced missionaries, having served overseas, return for further training and reflection. This facilitates the much needed integration and the flexibility in our range of programmes- from certificate to doctoral levels, making ongoing missiological reflection possible and truly rewarding.

It is different for all of us… 
Studying and worshipping together in a multi-cultural environment is different; it is challenging, enriching, at times even provoking and certainly inspirational.  Such a learning environment is unique and we at BBC are grateful for the community of the ‘rainbow people of God’, earnestly seeking their roles in the transforming mission of God.
Read further regarding the wonderful placement experiences of several of our present students including the women as well as the stories of our graduates in mission. Anna Wright for instance, worked among children in Bosnia for six weeks during Christmas and New Year, she is ever grateful for the experience! It is a privilege for BBC to work alongside missionary societies, churches and home and overseas mission organizations. We cherish the partnership with mission groups for student placements.
Why not consider being part of the work of the Spirit of God - nothing is more fulfilling than being used for transforming lives and societies. We value your partnership and prayers.
Join us. Together we can further strengthen our commitment to the creative and all transforming mission of God to a needy, disunited and broken world. Mission matters.

       An International Community                                                                                                                            
We are a welcoming and diverse community of Christians from over thirty different countries from around the world and thirty different church denominations. “To study, pray, train, laugh and cry with brothers and sisters from all over the world and every major church group is the very best preparation for serving God in a diverse and broken world.’

Certificate  and Diploma Mission Modules
These core mission modules are offered as part of the One Year Certificate and Two or Three Year Diploma courses of the College:

Mission in the Bible, History and Today
A foundational course exploring, what is mission, why do we do it and how do we do it?
1. The biblical basis and the broad sweep of history of missions.
2. A reflection on key mission issues such as culture, partnership, pluralism and the globalization of mission.
3. An integration of the issues to the practice of mission. Patterns of mission practice - including a close look at the pioneers in Asia, Africa and Latin America bring indepth insights and lessons from the past.
Along with the lectures, interactive sessions with veteran mission partners/agencies and mission leaders with local and global mission experience make the course stimulating and inspirational. Special focus is given to the legacy of women in missions. The course is facilitated by a team of tutors (men and women) with mission experiences. 

Mission in Context and Culture
This module building on the foundation course, goes further into mission practice. Special emphasis is given to the challenges of urban mission as well as issues related to culture and society. Interdisciplinary insights on mission that emerge from cultural anthropology, sociology and the critical issues of poverty, development and transformation are looked into. The psychological dimensions of mission such as ‘Member care’- the care of those involved in cross-cultural mission also form an important component. The integration of the theory and practice of local and global mission is facilitated by the team of tutors with actual mission experience through real life mission ‘stories’ and  case studies.

Christianity and Other Religions
How do we communicate the gospel in a pluralistic society?   We grapple with this contemporary reality. As the challenges posed by the world religions such as Hinduism, Islam as well as the New Religious movements are studied, the intent of the course is to equip students of mission to share the truth in love as they are encouraged to relate to neighbours of other faiths or no faiths both locally and globally. The real challenges of other faiths are focused upon as students are introduced to the self understandings of other faiths and their resurgence alongside Post modern world views and the Christian response to them. The objective is to help students to enable the student to dialogue with other faiths and to communicate the absolute uniqueness and the beauty of the message of Jesus.

Other associated modules
Apart from the mission modules other modules such as Interpreting and Communicating the Bible, Biblical Discipleship as well as modules in the Biblical Studies,  Historical and Theological Studies and Practical Studies also attempt to highlight the missiological perspectives.
BBC emphasizes a distinct interdisciplinary approach since staff members teaching other modules have cross-cultural experience.