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Launching OMSC’s New Online Learning Modules in World Christianity, Mission Studies, and Intercultural Theology

By Byung-Ho Choi, OMSC@PTS Digital Learning & Design Specialist

 

OMSC@PTS is excited to invite the world church to join our new Online Learning Modules featuring mini-lectures and articles from top scholars in the fields of World Christianity, Mission Studies, and Intercultural Theology!  For a limited time, we are offering free access to these modules over the summer of 2023 as a pilot to elicit feedback for improvement.

These new Online Learning Modules are built upon the legacy of our flagship Residential Study Program, advancing our vision to “Embrace the Future and Amplify the Voices of the World Christian Movement.” A major part of our Residential Study Program is the hosting of academic seminars to enrich the knowledge and skills of our visiting global partners and the general public to strengthen the church’s participation in God’s mission.

Unfortunately, due to the global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, OMSC had to pause its Residential Study Program. Like much of academia and everyday life, OMSC transitioned fully online during the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 academic years. During those two long years, under the leadership of Executive Director Thomas Hastings, OMSC evolved and adapted, successfully launching its Online Study Program, an online version of the Residential Study Program seminars that would have been held had we been able to host our global partners in person.

Through our Online Study Program, OMSC continued its legacy of providing seminars and workshops remotely.  We hosted over twenty events with reputable scholars who shared their research and insight with students, scholars, artists, church leaders, and laypeople, around the world. I have been very fortunate to work for OMSC as the Online Study Program Manager during 2021-2022 academic year, where I witnessed speakers and participants actively engaging the three overarching discourses of Mission Studies, World Christianity, and Intercultural Theology.

As we head towards the post-pandemic era and with OMSC re-opening its Residential Study Program, it is natural to ask: What’s next for OMSC’s Online Study Program?

In working closely with Easten Law, OMSC’s Assistant Director for Academic Programs, I was invited to continue collaborating with OMSC as the Digital Learning & Design Specialist, brainstorming ways to best utilize the resources OMSC had accumulated during the past two years. With many academic institutions shifting to online degrees and providing programs and resources online, it was also natural to envision an online curriculum centered on the three discourses we had explored: “What is World Christianity?” “What is Mission Studies?” and “What is Intercultural Theology?”

As a doctoral candidate at Princeton Theological Seminary who situates himself in World Christianity, I shared the sentiment that the recorded lectures from these prominent scholars should not go to waste and that it would greatly benefit students and scholars interested in learning more about the state of the ways these topics are engaged within Western academia. From editing videos and designing banners to formulating discussion questions, it has been an exciting journey to make this vision a reality.

We have repurposed these incredible resources to address a critical call: to provide expanded access to resources for graduate and doctoral students, both in the global south and the global north, to explore the academic study of World Christianity, Mission Studies, and Intercultural Theology.

Our new Online Learning Modules in World Christianity, Mission Studies, and Intercultural Theology provide three units: (1) What is World Christianity? (2) What is Mission Studies? (3) What is Intercultural Theology? Within each unit, five mini-lectures by the who’s who of the three distinct approaches introduce their understanding of the field of study. Here is the exciting lineup:

Unit 1: What is World Christianity?

  • Dana Robert (Boston University)
  • Brian Stanely (University of Edinburgh)
  • Afe Adogame (Princeton Theological Seminary)
  • Emma Wild-Wood (University of Edinburgh)
  • Alexander Chow (University of Edinburgh)
  • *Books on World Christianity #1 (Schism by Christie Chui-Shan Chow)
  • *Books on World Christianity #2 (A Spirit of Revitalization by Kyama Mugambi)

Unit 2: What is Mission Studies?

  • Ruth Padilla Deborst (Western Theological Seminary)
  • Hunter Farrell (Pittsburgh Theological Seminary)
  • Kirsteen Kim (Fuller Theological Seminary)
  • Roger Schroeder (Catholic Theological Union)
  • Darrell Whiteman (Seattle Pacific University)
  • *Books on Mission Studies #1 (Freeing Congregational Mission by B. Hunter Farrell and S. Balajiedlang Khyllep)
  • *Books on Mission Studies #2 (A Public Missiology by Greg Okesson)

Unit 3: What is Intercultural Theology?

  • Henning Wrogemann (Protestant University Wuppertal/Bethel)
  • Dorottya Nagy (Protestant Theological University)
  • Benno van den Toren (Protestant Theological University)
  • Kajsa Ahlstrand (Uppsala University)
  • Jude Lal Fernando (Trinity College Dublin)

After listening to each mini-lecture, learners will be asked to engage more with what the lecturers discussed through various discussion questions and be provided with further reading materials including journal articles by the scholars themselves.  At the end of each unit, learners will have a general understanding of the field and be able to identify various concepts, methods, and themes within that field of study.

As part of our pilot program, we are providing access to these Online Learning Modules for FREE!  Just register with the link below.  We only ask those that register to provide constructive feedback to help us continue to develop and improve these modules.  (Important note: The Online Learning Modules are conditioned so that in order to proceed to the following lecture, you will be required to provide brief feedback)

While the video lectures we repurposed for the Online Learning Modules were not specifically made for this exact purpose, we hope this incredible resource will become a window into the state of each field, allowing learners to orient themselves to current questions and research agendas.

I strongly encourage you to take advantage of this exciting and FREE resource!

Important Details to Note:

  1. Registration period is currently open until May 15, 2023.
  2. The pilot program will run from June 1 – Sept 1, 2023.
  3. Please register using the following link:  https://ptsem.formstack.com/forms/omsc_online_learning_module_registration

After registering, you will receive a confirmation and information for accessing the modules by June 1st, 2023.

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