Global Christian Studies (www.gcspathway.org) helps church leaders outside the US to better prepare themselves for ministry.
Levels of Christian Education and Global Christian Studies—Harold Shank
Churches and schools offer different levels of Christian education. Most Churches of Christ provide Bible class education for all ages once or twice per week, year-round without a break. This kind of core education is absolutely critical in preparing mature Christians. Many congregations offer a summer Vacation Bible School to better equip their own children and to attract children from the area. Since I grew up in a home where we did not go to church, Vacation Bible School was my first taste of Christian education. After attending VBS at the East Pike Church of Christ in Indiana, Pennsylvania, a member of that congregation invited me to come to her Sunday morning class. She was teaching from the book of Genesis. I had no idea who Adam or Abraham were, but I soon found out. I learned to value Christian education at this fundamental level.
In that same congregation there was a home builder, named Ralph who took me aside one Sunday after church. Ralph urged me to go to a Christian college. Since we were a poor family, it seemed impossible for my family to send me to college, but Ralph created a dream that I pursued. The jump from the Sunday school level to being an undergraduate Bible major surprised me. I learned about Greek and Hebrew and in the process became well-acquainted with the Bible. Raymond Kelcy, Hugo McCord, Lynn McMillon and others led me into a higher level of biblical study. Many have the same experience at preacher training schools, often under the umbrella of the Sunset Institute for Biblical Studies, or at online schools such as Truth for Today’s World Missions School. Each school provides deeper training in the Bible.
After undergraduate college, I was determined to immediately seek a ministry position. Bailey McBride, one of my college professors took me to lunch, affirmed my desire for ministry, but told me he saw more potential in me than I did in myself. He told me I was a good candidate for graduate study. I followed his recommendation. Graduate school opened to me a whole new level of biblical understanding. I learned the difference between Introduction to the Old Testament with its focus on mastering the material in the Old Testament, and Advanced Introduction to the Old Testament which investigated questions of canon, authorship, purpose. Graduate education allowed me to interact with men and women who had given their whole lives to the study of one biblical book. Just as people who travel internationally discover a whole new world, so graduate studies take one on similar journey. In graduate school, I learned about another level of Christian education.
Global Christian Studies attempts to be a Ralph and a Bailey McBride for leaders in Churches of Christ around the world. We affirm the Sunday school in the local church. We encourage VBS. We believe in preacher training and undergraduate education. Our focus, however, is on helping qualified student obtain graduate training. We believe the church benefits from training at all levels. Our area of concentration is graduate student in Bible and Christian ministry for church leaders outside the US. That’s GCS.