ICAS-Accredited Degree Program
Master of Arts in Great Commission Missions
M.A. credential
Explore the call to share the gospel across cultures, build relationships, and serve alongside Christians around the world.
Master of Arts in Great Commission Missions: Your Grant Price
Applications are free. Eligible applicants receive their admission and Grant decision before any one-time program fee is requested.
Published tuition
$14,900.00
$599.00 Registry & Assessment Fee
$99
Master's Degree
2026 Life in Christ Grant is active
Ministry Experience, Evaluated Against Academic Standards.
Documented prior learning may be considered when it aligns with program outcomes; every credit decision follows academic review.
Program Overview
About this program
The M.A. in Great Commission Missions works on contextualisation, planting and partnership across inequality. Mission has a history that includes genuine sacrifice and genuine complicity with empire, and a present in which the sending churches are increasingly not Western. This ICAS-accredited Kingdom of Life University program covers the biblical theology, that history honestly, intercultural communication, contextualisation with actual criteria, and the handover to indigenous leadership that is so often postponed.
Competency-Based Ministry Assessment
Recognition of demonstrated learning in theology and ministry
Experienced ministry practitioners demonstrate competencies developed through years of service, theological study, and continuing learning. The assessment connects that learning with the published outcomes of the Master of Arts in Great Commission Missions through biblical understanding, theological reflection, research, and ministry judgment.
70
Audited questions in this pathway bank
30
Questions drawn for each sitting
60 minutes
Time available for the knowledge component
24 hours
Interval before reassessment
Theological knowledge and degree outcomes
- Published bank title
- Great Commission Missions - Master Competency-Based Ministry Assessment
- Credential
- Master of Arts (M.A.) in Great Commission Missions
- Question construction
- 14 pathway subject-bank sources contribute 5 questions each, producing the complete 70-question bank.
How completion is reported
- The knowledge component contributes 40% and assessed ministry experience contributes 60% to one weighted result.
- The reported result is no lower than 80%, matching the 80% degree pass mark.
- Reassessment draws a fresh question set and is included in program access, with no additional fee or limit on sittings.
- The integrated assessment covers the published degree plan; separate course assessments, a capstone paper, and a dissertation defense are not required.
Program Objectives
What you will achieve
Integrate advanced theological study, spiritual maturity, and ministry wisdom for Christian leadership
Ground mission practice in the biblical narrative rather than in a few commission texts
Communicate across cultural distance with an accurate reading of the other worldview
Apply criteria for faithful contextualisation to concrete decisions
Plan for indigenous leadership and self-support from the beginning
Learning Outcomes
Skills and competencies you will develop
Synthesize advanced biblical and theological evidence for clear teaching, leadership, and ministry judgment
Produce a biblical theology of mission that goes beyond proof-texting
Analyse a cultural context and its implications for communication
Assess a contextualisation decision against explicit criteria
Design a church planting plan with a stated handover timeline
Career Opportunities
Where this degree can take you
Missionary
Missions pastor
Intercultural ministry leader
Church planting strategist
Major Subject Areas
The fourteen subjects you study, and the ones the ministry assessment draws on
Foundational and Major-Core Subjects
Four foundations every pathway shares, then four that belong to this field.
Advanced Biblical Interpretation
Interpreting for people whose worldview differs from yours at the level of what counts as evidence, not merely what is believed.
Advanced Old Testament Theology
The Old Testament's account of God's purpose toward the nations, which is where mission theology properly begins.
Advanced New Testament Theology
Acts and the Pauline letters as the church's first cross-cultural crisis, and what Jerusalem actually decided about Gentile converts.
Advanced Christian Doctrine
Doctrine that must survive translation into a culture with different assumptions about God, community, guilt and the dead.
Advanced Biblical Theology of Mission
Mission in the biblical narrative, covering election and blessing, the prophets' vision of the nations, and the commission texts in their contexts.
Advanced History of Christian Mission
The history of Christian mission, including its achievements, its entanglement with empire, and the critiques that have reshaped practice.
Advanced Intercultural Communication
Communicating across cultural distance, covering worldview, high and low context, honour and shame, and the misreadings that recur.
Advanced World Christianity
The present shape of world Christianity, covering its demographic centre, its leadership, and the implications for who sends whom.
Specialization Subjects
Six more that take the field into the places it actually gets used.
Advanced Contextual Theology
Contextual theology, covering the models available, the criteria for faithfulness, and the difference between contextualisation and accommodation.
Advanced Evangelism and Discipleship
Evangelism and discipleship in cross-cultural settings, covering group decision-making, the pace of change, and dependency in early discipleship.
Advanced Church Planting
Church planting across cultures, covering leadership emergence, indigenous forms, financial self-support, and the handover that is often deferred.
Advanced Mission Strategy and Partnership
Strategy, partnership, and accountability, covering agency structures, funding flows, measurement, and the power asymmetries partnership has to address.
Advanced Spiritual Formation and Christian Vocation
Spiritual sustainability on the field, where isolation, language failure and slow results are the normal conditions.
Advanced Integrative Theology and Ministry
A field project with contextual analysis, intervention, and evaluation including a stated handover plan.
Admission Requirements
What you need to apply
- Bachelor's degree from an accredited or recognized institution
- Official transcripts showing preparation appropriate to graduate theological study
- Statement of theological, academic, and ministry goals
- Current resume or curriculum vitae
- Two ministry, professional, or academic recommendations
Degree Completion Requirements
Requirements for the Master of Arts
Graduation Requirements
- Complete at least 36 graduate semester credits in the approved degree plan
- Pass the Competency-Based Ministry Assessment for the degree
- Satisfy every graduate-core, specialization, elective, and comprehensive requirement group
- Integrate theological knowledge with assessed ministry experience under the published result-weighting policy
- Recognize demonstrated learning against every published degree-plan requirement
Culminating Experience
Demonstrate graduate theological understanding and ministry judgment through Competency-Based Ministry Assessment, recognizing advanced learning developed through prior study and service.
Credit Distribution
| Requirement Area | Credits | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Graduate Core | 21 | 7 courses. Required advanced theory, methods, and professional competencies of the discipline. |
| Graduate Specialization | 9 | 3 courses. Focused graduate study in an approved concentration or practice area. |
| Graduate Elective | 3 | 1 course. Any master-level major course from any school that is not already part of this degree plan. |
| Competency-Based Ministry Assessment | 3 | 1 course. Integrated graduate theological knowledge and assessed ministry experience, recognizing demonstrated learning across the published degree plan. |
| Total Degree Credits | 36 | All requirements must be completed within the approved degree plan. |
Program Details
Program Length
Self-Paced
Self-Paced Learning
Total Credits
36 credit hours
Up to 18 Transfer Credits
Published Degree Plan
12 courses
Across 4 required curriculum groups
Format
Flexible Study
Assessment Format
Competency-Based Ministry Assessment
Selected Degree
Master
School
School of Theology and Ministry
Institutional Status
ICAS Accredited
Ready to Begin Your Accredited Great Commission Missions Degree?
Applying costs nothing, and the work you have already done may count. Have a look at what this pathway asks for before you decide.