UM discusses missions major
Jeremy Hunt
Issue date: 5/6/09 Section: News
University Ministries (UM) is leading the initiative to create an innovative missions major at Samford in response to increasing student interest.
Matt Kerlin, minister to the university, said he has students come to him with the issue of a non-existent missions major on a regular basis.
"We have prospective students all the time who ask us, 'What do you have for students interested in missions?'" Kerlin said.
For the past two years, UM has conducted a spiritual assessment that surveys all undergraduate students with approximately 1,000 responses each time. The study showed that more than 10 percent of students said that they plan to pursue a vocation in international missions while another 25 percent said they remain undecided.
Renee Pitts, Samford's global involvement minister, said that the survey's results are reason enough to create a new major.
"The efforts that UM is doing to try to develop students vocationally are not sufficient to really prepare students for a missions vocation," she said.
While other universities have majors that focus completely on biblical training and evangelism, Pitts said she believes something more is needed.
"We wanted to create something that would be useful to students who were wanting to do cross-cultural ministry, not necessarily missions in the more traditional sense," Pitts said.
This innovative proposal is called the intercultural studies major. Kerlin said this would be an interdisciplinary major involving classes of history, politics, languages, geography, communication, business and religion.
"It will also involve co-curricular components such as cadres and international immersion experiences ... to take what you're learning in the classroom and give you a practical place to utilize what you've learned," Kerlin said.
Samford students have even transferred to other universities looking for this kind of an education. Ben Landis, now a sophomore at Georgia State University, said he transferred from Samford this spring for a few reasons, one being the lack of this type of major at Samford.
Matt Kerlin, minister to the university, said he has students come to him with the issue of a non-existent missions major on a regular basis.
"We have prospective students all the time who ask us, 'What do you have for students interested in missions?'" Kerlin said.
For the past two years, UM has conducted a spiritual assessment that surveys all undergraduate students with approximately 1,000 responses each time. The study showed that more than 10 percent of students said that they plan to pursue a vocation in international missions while another 25 percent said they remain undecided.
Renee Pitts, Samford's global involvement minister, said that the survey's results are reason enough to create a new major.
"The efforts that UM is doing to try to develop students vocationally are not sufficient to really prepare students for a missions vocation," she said.
While other universities have majors that focus completely on biblical training and evangelism, Pitts said she believes something more is needed.
"We wanted to create something that would be useful to students who were wanting to do cross-cultural ministry, not necessarily missions in the more traditional sense," Pitts said.
This innovative proposal is called the intercultural studies major. Kerlin said this would be an interdisciplinary major involving classes of history, politics, languages, geography, communication, business and religion.
"It will also involve co-curricular components such as cadres and international immersion experiences ... to take what you're learning in the classroom and give you a practical place to utilize what you've learned," Kerlin said.
Samford students have even transferred to other universities looking for this kind of an education. Ben Landis, now a sophomore at Georgia State University, said he transferred from Samford this spring for a few reasons, one being the lack of this type of major at Samford.
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 3
Matt Kerlin
posted 5/08/09 @ 6:35 AM CST
The quotations attributed to me in this story were taken from a much longer conversation. Without that context, my comments seem critical of the Religion Department, which was not my intent. (Continued…)
Aaron Carr
posted 5/08/09 @ 2:23 PM CST
Okay, three questions here.
1. Ben Landis leaves Samford and credits one of the factors as a lack of a missions program, but then ends up at Georgia State, which doesn't have single missions or even ministry related course in the catalog?
2. (Continued…)
Mike Ledgerwood
posted 5/08/09 @ 7:48 PM CST
I want to thank our University Minister, Matt Kerlin, for his clarifying comments on the article. I also feel obliged to say something about World Languages and Cultures in relation to this article. (Continued…)
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