War has ravaged the Ukrainian people and the Ukrainian economy for over a year now. As a result many church leaders can no longer afford to travel long distances to study, yet the need for strong, Biblical, and accessible theological training continues to grow.
People sit inside a bus before the departure, as they flee due to the military conflict, in Debaltseve, Ukraine
Our institute, Church Ministries Institute, has taken on the project of creating a complete online theological training program that will give students a solid Biblical foundation for ministry no matter how remote their location. We believe this model of training to be one of the most effective and beneficial for the local church.
Many students have been displaced from their churches and from their Bible schools. Last year Donetsk Christian University was seized by Russian backed separatists and remains in their hands today! Thus, the need for a theological training program that doesn’t rely on a large building, campus or dorms is vital in Ukraine at this time. Online theological education is particularly well suited for training church leaders despite the political unrest and economic hardship of the past 12 months.
Graduates from our program in Lebedin, Ukraine
Our training allows students to interact with other church leaders, gaining valuable insight and experience from them. They won’t be studying alone, every step of the way they interact with the course facilitator and other students through carefully chosen forum discussion activities. For many students this is the most valuable part of their training.
We are using Moodle as our learning platform. Moodle is an extremely powerful and versatile system, currently it has nearly 70 million enrolled users! It is also open source, so that means it’s completely free to use! It provides the best possible way to deliver course material, without the cost of printing books or finding a suitable classroom.
Church Leaders in Nickolaev, Ukraine
Our courses provide solid Biblical training and are based off of Moody Bible Institutes courses. We are also working with Horizon International Schools who help provide the technical abilities that will allow us to enroll hundreds if not thousands of students. Horizon also helps us in the course creation and installation process.
Our goal is to have our first level program, 6 basic courses, up and running by June 2016.
We have already translated, installed and run two courses that are in addition to the 6 basic courses. The first is a five week course called “Effective Online Teaching.” This course is used to train our online facilitators. The second course is called, “Introduction to Online Learning” This course is for our first time students, it helps them navigate the Moodle platform and introduces them to the key concepts of online learning.
Benefits
- Students stay in their local church contexts.
- Students receive a Biblical foundation for their ministry.
- Students interact with other church leaders from all over the world.
Characteristics
- Each course is 8 weeks long
- Reading assignments
- Writing assignments
- Discussion forums
- Focus on interaction between students
- Qualified facilitators
Courses and Funding
Bible Study Methods
- Total needed -2,500$
- Already given -2,500$
- Still needed -0$
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Old Testament Survey
- Total needed -2,500$
- Already given -2,500$
- Still needed -0$
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Spiritual Life
- Total needed -2,500$
- Already given -1,500$
- Still needed -2,000$
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New Testament Survey
- Total needed -2,500$
- Already given -0$
- Still needed -2,500$
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Basic Theology
- Total needed -2,500$
- Already given -0$
- Still needed -2,500$
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Evangelism/Discipleship
- Total needed -2,500$
- Already given -0$
- Still needed -2,500$
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