Overview

The Ministry Scholars program is Bethel University's bachelors to master's degree program that reduces cost and time-to-completion by streamlining undergraduate and graduate education. Graduates receive a bachelor's degree from Bethel University's College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) and a master's from Bethel Seminary. This program is well suited for a variety of majors who want to become equipped to lead churches, parachurch organizations, and other ministries. It is also a good fit for ministry-minded students who want to pursue bi-vocational ministry or work outside of professional ministry. Students learn from successful ministry leaders and experts in Biblical and Theological Studies, Spiritual and Personal Formation, and Transformational Leadership. This program offers supplemental training resources, developmental activities, and discipleship opportunities to prepare ministry-minded students for effective ministry leadership. Students also gain valuable field experience in local churches and ministry settings.

The objectives of the program are that graduates will demonstrate age-appropriate growth and ultimately ministry leadership preparedness in the following domains:

1. Spiritual life: Students will grow spiritually, deepening their love for, commitment to, and dependence on God, and develop an instinct to trust in God and to connect intimately with God.
2. Discernment of call: They will clarify and reaffirm their sense of calling to vocational ministry and what that looks like in a changing world.
3. Emotional maturity: They will become emotionally mature adults, possessing the ability to sense and manage emotions, to see others’ perspectives, to sympathize and empathize, to follow and lead as appropriate and to foster healthy relationships.
4. Cultural competence: They will become culturally aware, gaining a perspective that all cultures possess strengths and vulnerabilities, an ability to work across cultural lines and an appreciation that diverse teams are stronger teams.
5. Bible knowledge: They will gain a clear understanding of the Bible’s content and a deep and abiding passion for the truth of the Gospel.
6. Spiritual wisdom: They will grow in wisdom, possessing a capacity to apply the Bible so that others are inspired by their teaching and preaching to live out biblical truth and experience human flourishing.
7. Intellectual virtues: They will develop virtues such as critical thinking, respect for data, intellectual humility, and thirst for learning, combined with the skill to interpret and teach the Bible accurately.
8. Leadership capacity: They will learn to follow leaders and to lead followers—enlisting people, building teams, leading change and achieving results.
9. Godly character: They will become virtuous people—individuals who love others, speak truth, live humbly, sacrifice their own interests, live justly, express joy and show compassion.

What is Bethel looking for in a Ministry Scholar?

• Ability to maintain a minimum of 3.0 GPA (cumulative college grade point average or unweighted high school GPA if the student has less than one year of college experience) throughout the duration of the Ministry Scholars program while enrolled at CAS and Seminary.

• Ability to provide a pastoral and ministry leader reference that speaks to the student’s character and call to ministry.

• Commitment to prioritizing activities, discipleship opportunities, and retreats offered to Ministry Scholars, designed to enable the individual to develop a strong sense of community.

General Criteria for Participation in the Ministry Scholars Program

This is a rigorous program which streamlines undergraduate and graduate education while providing robust discipleship and co-curricular experiences to prepare students for effective ministry. Throughout the program, students are expected to meet and maintain certain academic standards and demonstrate a commitment to their spiritual and professional growth related to their calling to vocational ministry.

Students must maintain a 3.0 minimum GPA throughout the duration of their undergraduate degree program at Bethel University's College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) and while enrolled in the master's program at the Seminary.

Prior to Seminary enrollment, students will be evaluated by the Ministry Scholars Program Director for their readiness to transition to graduate level education. The evaluation will be based primarily on academic ability, spiritual maturity, character, and the continued discovery of the student's calling. This evaluation will take place before the student enrolls in graduate-level seminary courses. In order for students to begin taking seminary courses, they must complete 60 credits counting towards their bachelor's degree and must take the two prerequisite courses: Introduction to the Bible (BIB 101) and Christian Theology (THE 201) .

Admission to the Seminary is conditional on earning a Bachelor's degree from CAS with an undergraduate GPA of 3.0 and obtaining approval from the Ministry Scholars Program Director.  

Ministry Scholars will be able to take courses offered at Bethel Seminary as part of their baccalaureate program (totaling a minimum of 122 credits). While the program is meant for those interested in ministry, any bachelor's degree can participate in taking seminary courses. In each major, seminary courses can be taken with elective undergraduate credit.

Courses that are taken at the seminary as part of the undergraduate degree will count towards both undergraduate and seminary credit. These courses will be offered through the seminary and students will be able to take them in-person (when offered) or online.

In order for students to begin taking seminary courses, they will need to have completed 60 credits counting towards their bachelor’s degree and have taken the two prerequisite courses: BIB 101 Introduction to the Bible and THE 201 Christian Theology (passing each with a 3.0 GPA or better).

Students will be allowed to take seminary courses totaling up to less than half of the total for the seminary degree that they are pursuing. The greater amount of credits for a graduate degree must be taken while a graduate student. The seminary degree options that students can take courses in will be limited by the seminary advisors.