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Ministry and Leadership

Bachelor of Science

Top-quality academics built on the absolute truth of God’s Word

Overview

One of the ways God builds our faith and grows us in grace is through the reading and studying of His Word. At BJU, God’s Word is foundational to everything we do—from academics to chapel to athletics and more.

If you desire to ground yourself in the Scripture and prepare for future lay ministry, then BJU’s ministry and leadership program is for you. In this program, you’ll learn how each part of Scripture fits within the whole, how to incorporate God’s truth into your worldview and daily life, and—ultimately—how to grow in your love for Jesus Christ.

Student Outreach

Program

BJU’s ministry and leadership program lays a solid foundation in God’s Word through exploring key doctrines, developing study methods for Scripture and exploring practical applications of God’s Word.

You’ll trace God’s plan of redemption and the theme of His glory through courses in both the Old and New Testaments. What’s more, these courses help you to understand the absolute truth of the Bible and to identify and refute deviations from Truth. Each course is designed to inspire you to love God more by knowing Him, imitating Him and serving Him wherever He leads.

BJU Core

As you study the Bible, the BJU Core—a comprehensive range of liberal arts courses—will broaden your perspective in order to understand the intricacies of the world in which you live. You will learn how to better relate to a diverse group of people who come from a variety of life situations and vocations. You’ll improve your ability to reason and gain insight into how the world works so you can, like Paul in Athens, more effectively speak to those who have not accepted God’s way of salvation.

Electives

The ministry and leadership program offers a wide array of electives that allow you to tailor your program to meet your interests, whether additional Bible, literature, communication or fine arts courses. These courses give you the opportunity to gain valuable knowledge and strengthen your skills in the areas you want to improve.

Success

Your Future

The ministry and leadership program equips you to be an effective disciple in whatever God calls you to be. Our graduates use what they’ve learned at BJU in their churches and communities—as mentors, deacons, homemakers, camp counselors and lay people.

Career Support

BJU offers students a variety of ways to network with employers and organizations. A multitude of job opportunities are posted each year on Career Central, our online job board. In addition, more than 60 businesses and 150 Christian schools/mission boards/Christian organizations come on campus to recruit students through on-campus interviews and job/ministry fairs. The Career Services office also helps students by holding seminars on resume preparation and interview techniques.

Learning Experience

Photo student on outreach ministry

Weekly Outreach Ministries

Our students put into practice what they are learning by participating in weekly outreach ministries where they preach, teach and visit with people. Bible students also intern in local churches where they study under experienced leaders. An evangelist founded BJU and this emphasis remains to this day. Every week a variety of outreaches take place in the local community and beyond. From sports evangelism to nursing home outreaches, children’s ministries to music ministries, prison outreaches to church ministries, you will have opportunities for practical education within a ministry that fits your gifts and desires. Many of these ministries connect you with local believers in need of spiritual encouragement or short-term partnering to share the good news to those in need of Christ.

Missions Advance

Missions Advance is a student-led group whose purpose is to stimulate missionary zeal and vision on campus. Their goal is to cultivate the student body’s passion for God’s glory, resulting in greater participation in world missions through learning, praying and mobilizing.

  • Learning: by inviting speakers, giving presentations, and providing missionary letters to better inform students’ prayers
  • Praying: by spending a majority of the meetings interceding for God’s work around the world and for God to send laborers into His harvest
  • Mobilizing: by offering avenues through which the student body can be involved in mission work while in school

Missions Advance meets every Monday and Thursday night.

Student Leadership Development

You can take advantage of the support offered in the Student Leadership Initiative. Several times each semester you will meet with fellow student leaders to learn more about being a servant-leader during panel discussions, guest speaker presentations and more.

Mack Library

You have a great number of resources available to you at BJU’s library, including thousands of articles, sermons and books, among other things. The Fundamentalism File has more than 115,000 items of information concerning the “history of religion in our time,” as described by Dr. Bob Jones Jr. Also included are our Children’s Ministry Resources and our Sermon Index.

Faculty

Nathan Crockett
Nathan Crockett

Division of Ministries

View Faculty

Our outstanding faculty has more than 218 years of combined teaching experience in preaching and other pastoral and evangelistic roles.

Many of our faculty hold either terminal degrees in their fields or have extensive practical ministry and teaching experience.

Our faculty’s sound, exegetical teaching is combined with their desire to mentor you, as you prepare to serve Jesus Christ in ministry.

Photo of student on mission team

Summer mission teams

A summer ministry opens your eyes to Jesus’ church around the globe and to the needs people have. During this concentrated period of service in the field, you will experience the sweetness of communion with saints from other lands, and grow in your love for God’s people and for those who have not yet encountered hope through Jesus Christ.

Photo of student in church

Local Churches

The Greenville area is uniquely blessed with more than 50 Bible-believing, Bible-preaching churches, which provide a broad spectrum of opportunities for students to gain practical ministry experience. These churches are great places to get involved in preaching, singing and ministering to others. Some churches even offer associate memberships for students who want to become more involved or have additional accountability. Whether you connect to a large church or a small church, there is a place for you here.

Courses & Objectives

Sample Course Outline

1st Year

2nd Year

3rd Year

  • Bible Doctrines
  • Ministry Outreach
  • Preaching/Teaching Elective (3 credits)
  • Leadership Elective (3 credits)
  • NT Elective (300/400-level) (3 credits)
  • Apologetics & Worldview Elective (3 credits)

4th Year

  • Program
  • BJU Core
  • Elective

    Program Objectives

    Each student will:

    • Communicate and apply the major themes and content of the Bible.
    • Prepare teaching/preaching outlines.
    • Develop skills to disciple or evangelize others.

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