Distance Learning Online at EMS

Eastern Mennonite Seminary has offered online courses for over a decade in the areas of Anabaptist theology, church history, and the practice of ministry (pastoral care, missional church, and leadership). More than a dozen online courses are offered on a two-year cycle, with several course offerings each semester as well as during the summer.

Tuition

Tuition for online courses is the same tuition as courses on EMS main campus in Harrisonburg, Va. Online courses may be available for participation audit. To learn more about our audit policy for online classes email

Fall 2013

New Testament: Text in Context

The New Testament: Text in Context course is a basic introduction to the New Testament. The first part of the course will focus on the world of the New Testament period noting the historical, political, social and cultural setting into which Christ came and the New Testament scriptures were written. The second part of the course is a study of the New Testament itself. Students will read and do inductive study of the various NT books.

• Instructor: Dr. Dorothy Jean Weaver
• Credit Hours: 3
• Dates: August 27- December 13, 2013

Leadership and Administration

This course engages leadership and administration in both traditional and emerging congregations as well as missional involvement in the broader community. Initial attention will focus on the leadership formation of the student from a wholistic perspective. An exploration of biblical and spiritual perspectives will prepare the way for an examination of transformational leadership through both a contextual and cultural lens. Finally, students will have the opportunity to practice and reflect on leadership and administration via the exploration of a variety of specific topics including planning, budgeting, communication, team building, and conflict transformation.

• Instructor: Dr. David Boshart
• Credit Hours: 3
• Dates: August 27-December 13, 2013

Interpreting the Biblical Text

This course is concerned with the question of how biblical authority is made effective in the church today through proper interpretation. Such interpretation attempts both to uncover the inherent meaning of the text and to contextualize that meaning in contemporary life. The course gives attention to reading the biblical texts in their original context while attending to the way interpreters read from the perspective of their own cultural context. Methods are learned that preserve the normativity of Scripture in the process of relevant application to the life of particular cultures.

• Instructor: Dr. Joni Sancken
• Credit Hours: 3
• Dates: August 27-December 13, 2013

Spring 2014

More spring courses are in development

Pastoral Care

This course explores the simplicity and complexity of caregiving ministries in both the church and broader community from an Anabaptist missional perspective. Basic skills for caregiving are introduced as well as an examination of the many contextual issues inherent in good pastoral care (culture, method, models, and assumptions). Students will also have the opportunity to engage good self-care practices. The breadth of caregiving will be examined from birth through death with specific attention to major life events and challenges.

• Instructor: Dr. Lonnie Yoder
• Credit Hours: 3
• Dates: January 6-April 25, 2014

The Church and Contextual Witness

This course addresses the development of two competencies (contextual awareness and transformational leadership) for pastors, mission leaders, and anyone interested in the mission of the church. Increasingly, we recognize that each congregation and ministry functions within a culture or sub-culture wherever they exist in the world. Much has been written on the importance of understanding the context of mission for international missionaries. As western societies move increasingly toward a post-Christendom milieu and the church seeks a missional identity new leadership skills for contextual awareness are needed. This is particularly true in communities where declining church participation is normalizing. This course will help participants gain theologically informed and scientifically reliable skills for leading congregations/ministries to develop relevant witness for transforming impact in the local context of ministry.

• Instructor: Dr. David Boshart
• Credit Hours: 3
• Dates: January 6-April 25, 2014

Missio Dei in Cultural Context

This course calls and equips participants to join in the drama of God’s mission in the world, as ambassadors of the New Community forming in response to the work and teaching of Jesus Christ. Every human culture is a context for this awareness of God’s activity. We review the many diverse shapes the Gospel has taken in order to be intelligible across many social settings and historical epochs. The God who becomes incarnate among us is passionate about engaging human cultures.

• Instructor: Dr. James Krabill
• Credit Hours: 3
• Dates: January 6-April 25, 2014

Cross-Cultural Discipleship

Designed to be taken in conjunction with a mission or service assignment, students in “Cross-Cultural Discipleship” will learn as Jesus’ disciples by participating in the biblical story as they follow Jesus in the world in mission and service. Extensive reading, personal reflections, on-line conversation with others in the class, on-site mentoring, and individual learning projects will enhance this experiential learning.

• Instructor: Linford Stutzman
• Credit Hours: 3
• Dates: January-December, 2014