Salem, Ore. - Starting in the fall of 2014, Corban University of Salem, Ore. and Mars Hill Church will offer a 24-credit Bible certificate at the Mars Hill Bellevue, Wash. location. Classes are slated to begin in the fall of 2014.

The curriculum will include Bible and Theology Foundation, Ministry Skills Foundation, Introduction to Bible, Introduction to Theology, Christian Worldview and Apologetics, Biblical Spiritual Formation, Gospels, Bible Study Methods.

“We are anticipating a great, ongoing relationship with Mars Hill Church, pending approval of the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities,” said Corban Provost Matt Lucas. “This certificate is not included under Corban University’s accreditation until NWCCU approves the program.”

Mars Hill Church began in 1996 as a Bible study in the Wallingford, Wash. home of Mark and Grace Driscoll just north of Seattle. Today, the congregation is distributed across 15 locations in five different states, reaching millions around the world through a robust outward-facing ministry that includes podcasts, music, events, and websites like theResurgence.com. Mars Hill has been named one of the largest and fastest-growing churches in America, as well as one of the most innovative. Driscoll’s sermons are viewed millions of times per year online and regularly rank number 1 on iTunes podcast charts.

“I am enthusiastic and optimistic about Corban University’s partnership with Mars Hill Church,” said Sheldon C. Nord, president of Corban University.  “It is consistent with our strong desire to be ‘Christian thought leaders’—a leading voice on cultural, philosophical and academic issues, with a commitment to raise up future leaders who will champion the cause of Christ in their respective disciplines.”

Corban University is an independent Christian university with two campuses and international partnerships in Indonesia, Australia, Germany and Cameroon. It offers more than 50 majors and programs of study including professional, liberal arts, and ministries. Along with traditional and adult degree completion programs at the undergraduate level, Corban offers graduate teacher licensure programs and graduate degrees in education, business, ministry and counseling.

Contacts:

Steve Hunt, Vice President for Marketing

Email: shunt@corban.edu

Phone: 503-375-7591

Matt Lucas, Provost/Executive Vice President

Phone: 503-589-8166

Email: mlucas@corban.edu

Creating Disciple Making Movements: How the Making of Holistic Disciples Is Central to the Mission of Christ

By Paul E. Johnson (Independent, 2012)

Review by David Sanford

Director of Institutional Marketing

Corban University

www.corban.edu

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Paul E. Johnson, D.Min. (Western Seminary), hasn’t always served the Lord within a Christian university context. For a decade he and his wife labored as Bible teachers and church planters in urban central Mexico.  Concurrently Johnson worked to ignite a mission vision among believers and with church leaders. As a Great Commission vision grew, Johnson worked with key leaders to launch a mission agency among the Bible Churches of central Mexico.

Today, Johnson is passionate about effectively mobilizing young adults to go and make disciples—and to plant churches among all peoples, everywhere. How passionate? Johnson himself went back to school.

In his new book, Johnson demonstrates that the core of Christ’s mission is the making of mature disciples who are transformed into Christ’s likeness and reproduce other holistic disciples to form disciple-making movements. Beginning next year, Johnson’s book will become recommended or required reading in his intercultural classes at Corban University.

Johnson’s book, Creating Disciple Making Movements, offers four benefits to readers.  The fourth benefit also offers some unexpected and controversial surprises.

First, his book provides thorough biblical analysis. “As obedient followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is vital to understand how Jesus Christ defined his mission for his followers in the world.”

Second, Johnson presents four examples from church history “of groups or individuals who pursued the fulfillment of the mission of Christ through the making of holistic disciples and, to some degree, disciple-making movements.”

Third, he provides insight into effective methods to create disciple-making movements within the Church today.

Fourth, Johnson’s book presents the results of three questions answered by 20 scholars who have significantly influenced the dialogue and development of the “missional church” in Western evangelical thought.

• Glenn McDonald
• Craig Ott
• Darrell Guder
• Ron Kincaid
• Chris Adsit
• Robert Lewis
• Greg Ogden
• Alan Hirsch
• Michael Frost
• Alan Roxburgh
• Steve Strauss
• Dennis McCallum
• Jim Smith
• Aubrey Malphurs
• Craig Van Gelder
• David Sills
• Dallas Willard
• Keith Matthews
• David J. Hesselgrave
• Ed Stetzer

So, what was the focus of Johnson’s three questions? #1 explores how the respondents define the mission of Jesus Christ. #2 seeks to determine the priority that the respondent place on the disciple-making mandate from their understanding of the mission of Christ. #3 probes the concept of missional movements to discover if the authors promote a disciple-making focus as a reproducing movement.

While Johnson’s questions seem “safe” enough, the spectrum of answers proves provocative and controversial. Johnson’s most surprising finding? The “missional church” has divided into two distinct camps.

Creating Disciple Making Movements is available through Amazon and other major online book retailers. It's also available at https://www.createspace.com/4065510. 

Do my questions have any bearing, any weight, on the core of orthodox Christianity?

In my book, If God Disappears, I talk about my experiences traversing a massive and very steep glacier. It took 12 hours to carve out hand and foot holds to go up. It took 5 minutes of glissading to come back down. Did my boots and gloves make any difference to that glacier while I was climbing up? And, did my boots make any difference on the way down? No. Why not? That glacier very well could have been on that steep mountain side for thousands of years. It was immensely thick and mainly consisted of very hard packed snow turned to ice. What’s more, the glacier stretched for 2 miles. My presence no more impacted that glacier than an ant does while walking up and down the bark of the massive 125-year-old pine tree in my front yard.

Again, do my questions have any bearing, any weight, on the core of orthodox Christianity? No. Why not? By definition, the core of orthodox Christianity was established nearly two thousand years ago. It was intensely forged and mainly consists of a reiteration of the core Gospel truths espoused by Jesus Christ and His apostles. What’s more, every branch of Christianity down through the centuries and around the world has borne witness to those truths. My questions have no more impact on the core of Christian orthodoxy than an ant does walking on the massive pine tree in my front yard.

For this very reason, I should not be afraid to ask questions. Tough questions. Skeptical questions. Doubting questions. Even angry questions. The very kinds of questions that the biblical David asked some three thousand years ago, fully confident that God was pleased to hear his psalms. All of his psalms. Even the ones we’d rather skip reading in the middle of our Bibles.

For all these reasons and more, I also should not be afraid to hear the questions of others. Questions from fellow believers, from struggling saints, from doubters, from skeptics, from agnostics, and even from atheists. Why? Because their questions — even the ones that shock, shake and stump me — cannot damage, diminish, harm or shake the core of orthodox Christianity.