How the BCS Works  •   Course Descriptions  •   Additional Info

The Bachelor of Christian Studies program is a joint venture between three educational institutions. First, the content of the courses has been developed through Vineyard Biblical Institute (VBI). Second, St. Stephen's University (SSU) has agreed to grant the Bachelor of Christian Studies degree to those Trinity Learning Community students who complete SSU's requirements for graduation. Third, Trinity Learning Community has agreed to provide the infrastructure, oversight, and professors for the Bachelor of Christian Studies. Trinity Learning Community is currently providing undergraduate classes in three different locations in Southern California with other sites in the U.S. coming online soon.

St. Stephen's University

St. Stephen's University is a trans-denominational Christian university located in the border town of St. Stephen, New Brunswick, across the St. Croix River from Calais, Maine. Since 1975, SSU has offered a high quality Bachelor of Arts degree. They excel in developing Christian community within a strong, academic program that values the arts and the classics. Students have done graduate studies or have transferred credit to prestigious universities in the United Kingdom (Oxford, St. Andrews, Wales), the United States (Universities of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Maine; St. John's College, Regent University, etc.), and Canada (Universities of New Brunswick, Manitoba, Carleton, Dalhousie, Regent College, etc.). In 1998, SSU received a charter from the Province of New Brunswick to grant legally-recognized Bachelor and Master degrees. In the late 1990's they began to offer the Master in Ministry (MMin) degree to prepare people for a life of ministry and to give further training to those engaged in full-time ministry. In 2006 St. Stephen's, Trinity Learning Community, and Vineyard Biblical Institute formed an alliance with the goal of providing high quality degrees to assist in preparing men and women to make a difference for Christ and his kingdom in the world.

Vineyard Biblical Institute

Vineyard Biblical Institute was created as an online, global training program for those students in ministry wanting to be mentored within an empowered evangelical framework. All students who want to understand the details of the VBI program should refer to the Instruction Manual located under Essential Downloads on the home page of the VBI website (http://www.vineyardbi.org). Here we give a basic outline. The courses have been designed to be taken at three different levels.

Audit Level

The Audit level has been designed for those who are not necessarily interested in degrees or homework but who do have a desire to sit in on high caliber classes to gain information and to grow in their personal lives by being a part of a Trinitarian learning community. There are no exams or papers for auditors and the only commitment would be to attend the weekly classes.

The Discipleship Level

The Discipleship level has been developed for those students wanting to be trained for ministry but who are not interested in getting a degree. The course work will consist of attending the weekly class, reading the course text thoroughly, and doing a take-home test called the Discipleship Exam, which the student downloads to their computers from VBI's virtual campus on their website. Once the student has finished the test it is uploaded back onto the virtual campus where it will be graded by the VBI professors. Once it is marked it can be downloaded by the student for their permanent records.

In addition, Discipleship students will join with the other students in their cohort (a cohort is a group of students), no matter what VBI level they are in, to teach two of the courses from their current diploma in a live setting. The specific courses that will be taught live will be selected by Trinity Learning Community. The course could be taught at church, at small group, in a Sunday School class, or a special event created by the students. The language VBI uses for this teaching experience is Applied (the students are "applying" what they are learning) and Verified (someone can "verify" that the students have taught the course live).

The Bachelor of Christian Studies Level

Students wanting to pursue the Bachelor of Christian Studies through Trinity Learning Community will work through the Discipleship requirements as described above. In addition, they will complete four other layers of accountability.

First, during each course Bachelor of Christian Studies students will be required to buy and read two extra books per month from a reading list downloaded from the home page on VBI's website.

Second, the student will download an Academic Essay prompt from the VBI website that they will respond to in about five pages demonstrating all the reading they have done through the month in references, footnotes, and bibliography. Once the Academic Essay is completed it will be uploaded to the VBI website for grading.

Third, at the completion of their ten months of courses, Bachelor of Christian Studies students will be given one week to prepare for an Oral Exam with their professor(s) to see if they have grasped the big ideas from the year.

Fourth, upon successful completion of their Oral Exams, students will have a month to research and write a significant academic essay on a topic of their choosing relevant to the year's subject matter. Instructions for writing this paper can be found in VBI's Instruction Manual. Each paper should include a significant bibliography comprised of not only the year's course material but of at least five scholarly books pertaining to the paper topic. These books will be referenced throughout the paper through references and footnotes. Credible internet sites, the links which are on the VBI website, should also be used to pad the student's research. Once completed, the papers will be uploaded to VBI for grading.

Trinity Learning Community will mentor students through two years of their undergraduate degree in the context of a cohort of students all working through the program together. If students bring two years worth of college credits into the Trinity Learning Community program, they can finish in two more years with their Bachelor of Christian Studies awarded at distance from SSU. If students bring less than two years into the program, once the two years with Trinity Learning Community is finished they can complete their degree online through courses available through VBI.

If a student wants to pursue his/her Masters of Ministry (MMin) through Trinity Learning Community's graduate program all that is required is a bachelors degree. In some cases, it will be possible to be admitted to the master's program with a bachelor's equivalency. This would be achieved through the completion of a significant amount of undergraduate coursework combined with a number of years of formal ministry or life experience.

VBI has four, year-long diplomas recognized through SSU:

   • Biblical Theology
   • Kingdom Theology
   • Practical Theology
   • Liberal Arts

A description of the first two of these diplomas appears in the Course Description sections below.

Trinity Learning Community professors will mentor students through the first two of these modules, Biblical Theology and Kingdom Theology. Students will work through their two years of Trinity Learning Community classes and assignments with the same cohort of students. Once the two live years are completed, the student who wants to do his/her entire Bachelor's degree through VBI/SSU, can complete the last two years at their own pace through VBI's online course system. While not teaching weekly classes during this period, Trinity Learning Community professors will remain available as a resource for the student.

The two-year cohort will work together through ten courses each year by doing one course per month taught live by one of the Trinity Learning Community professors. Once the student has paid his/her tuition online through Trinity Learning Community's web site, Trinity Learning Community will register the student with VBI for each month covered by their tuition. The following will immediately be available for download from VBI's web site:

   • The Course Text, which will need to be printed out.
   • A Discipleship Exam
   • An Academic Essay
   • A Reading List (from which one or two books are to be selected and purchased)

Applied and Verified Courses

Two core courses will be selected from among the ten as courses to be "applied" by teaching them as a cohort and "verified" by the professor as having been taught. The students will first prepare their class notes and power point presentations to be taught in trial form before the professor, who will give them feedback. The students will then take responsibility for scheduling and teaching their course in either a church, a Sunday School class, a small group, or a seminar designed specifically for the class.

Applied and Verified courses are designed to be taught by the cohort at the end of each semester (a semester = five months of classes).

Oral Exams

At the end of every ten-month period of ten classes the students will be given an Oral Exam by their professor, scheduled at an amenable time. Orals can be done with a Trinity Learning Community professor either one on one, over the phone, or through other electronic means, such as Skype. Upon completion of the tenth course the student will have one week to prepare for their Orals. In effect the student will have been preparing for this exam all year through their Discipleship Exams and Academic Essays. All that should be necessary, therefore, should be a review of the year's material and an attempt to understand the flow of the classes; they were designed to go in a certain order. The reasoning behind this order will be one of the topics explored during the exam.

Research Paper

Upon completion of the Oral Exam the student will have one month to write an academic research paper of 10,000 words on a topic of their choosing pertinent to the overall flow of the year's subjects. It is highly advised that the student choose this topic early in order to develop a game plan as the courses progress, as well as to select books from the reading list that will be useful for citation in the paper. The student's work should seek to integrate all the course material into the topic and include at least five extra books as bibliographic references as well as material from various academic websites whose links are listed under the Essential Downloads link on the VBI homepage.

Each student will need to make a formal proposal for his/her topic as specified in VBI's Instruction Manual before going ahead with the paper. Upon completion the paper will be uploaded to VBI for grading.

The following charts show the courses that will be taken during this two-year period and designate which ones are Applied and Verified.

Biblical Theology Diploma

Applied / Verified	Ten Courses
Biblical Overview II	Biblical Overview II
	The Pentateuch
	Introduction to the Gospels
	Luke / Acts
	Christology I
Romans	Hermeneutics
	Romans
	Hebrews
	The Spiritual Spider Web (Gnosticism)
	Revelation

Kingdom Theology Diploma

Applied / Verified	Ten Courses
Kingdom I	Kingdom I
	Kingdom III
	Kingdom IV
	Kingdom V
	Kingdom VI
Authority to Heal	Authority to Heal
	Empowered Evangelicals
	Wimber Letters
	Doing Church
	The Church and Its Leaders

Biblical Overview II

Many people have studied various Bible stories over the years but have no idea how the stories join together to make a whole. Biblical Overview II shows the students how the key biblical events interlock to form one grand narrative.

The Pentateuch

The Pentateuch (Genesis - Deuteronomy) introduces the student to the critical events that form the foundation for the biblical story.

Introduction to the Gospels

Introduction to the Gospels begins with an overview of the story line of the Old Testament and then traverses the unfamiliar territory of the Intertestimental Period to set the stage for understanding Jesus within his ancient Palestinian context. On this foundation the content, structure, and contribution of each of the four Gospels will be explored.

Luke/Acts

Luke/Acts dives into Luke's unique contribution to the picture of Jesus, the early apostles, and the churches that were planted. Special attention will be paid to Luke's theme of salvation and its relationship to the kingdom of God.

Christology I

With the essential narrative now under the student's belt, an interlude is introduced where the student can reflect on the biblical promise of the Christ as seen throughout the Scriptures. Christology I serves this purpose by using the outline of the Christian creeds to tell the Christ story. The creeds take the student back through the Old Testament to focus on passages that point toward Jesus and then through the New Testament to introduce and develop the person of Jesus as the God/Man.

Introduction to Interpretation

The student now experiences one more interlude before the courses take a theological turn. In every course thus far, VBI authors have been doing what is called hermeneutics i.e., using literary tools that enable the interpreter to ascertain the author's original meaning in the text. The student will now be introduced to these skills so they too can interpret Scripture in such a way as to be true to the author's intent, the meaning inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Romans

The next two courses delve into the theological core of the New Testament. A study of Paul's epistle to the Romans takes the student deep into Pauline thought and his development of the doctrines of grace and justification by faith. Also explored is Paul's answer to the role of the Jewish nation in God's plan for the Gentiles.

Hebrews

A study of the book of Hebrews shows the student how Christians can revert back to legalism if they have not encountered the grace of God as so artistically displayed in the book of Romans. Through this study the student will encounter the author's stern warning to those who would want to revert back to taking credit for some portion of their salvation. In its place Jesus, the great high priest of our confession, alone makes atonement for us. It will also describe Hebrews as the literary high point of the NT, with its prophetic, rhetorical, and midrashic features.

The Spiritual Spider Web

Besides the danger of legalism, portrayed so well in our studies in Romans and Hebrews, the Christians living at the end of the New Testament period encountered another grave and destructive heresy known as Gnosticism. The repudiation of Gnosticism is the subject of a surprising number of NT books, including: John, 1, 2, and 3 John, Revelation 1-3, Colossians, the Corinthian letters, 2 Peter and Jude. This course shows how Gnosticism entangles the people of God like a spiritual spider web spread out over the Church. The author shows not only how this deception first infiltrated the New Testament church but also exposes some of its modern day disguises rampant within the church today.

Revelation

The Biblical Theology diploma concludes with a study of the book of Revelation, which portrays the ending of the great war between Satan's kingdom of darkness and God's kingdom of light. Revelation will be set in its historical and cultural context to gain perspective on its relevant application for today. Various views of eschatology (the doctrine of the end) will also be discussed.

Kingdom I

Kingdom I focuses the student on the heart of the biblical message-that God's rule has broken into the present evil age through the coming of Christ. God's people have now been called to follow the ongoing ministry of Jesus through the Spirit as he continues to bring holistic salvation to the lost, the poor, the sick, and the demonized.

Kingdom III

Kingdom III introduces the subject of spiritual gifts. The student will examine the key New Testament passages that deal with the gifts and see how they relate to the advent of the kingdom.

Kingdom IV

Kingdom IV follows the previous courses by working out the broader theology of the kingdom. It deals with the kingdom and the church, the kingdom and Israel, the kingdom and the millennium, and the shattering implications of kingdom theology for cessationism and dispensationalism, two modern theological systems that teach that the kingdom is not coming in the present age as it did during the ministry of Jesus and the apostles.

Kingdom V

Kingdom V relates kingdom theology to Christian creeds and confessions. It shows how this theology informed and shaped the Vineyard statement of faith. It shows how we make our confession of faith in two contexts: ancient (kingdom theology and classic Christian creeds) and modern, placing the genesis of the Vineyard statement in its modern and post-modern social context.

Kingdom VI

Kingdom VI is written by a reformed systematic theologian who operates in the kingdom paradigm. It places kingdom theology on its broadest canvas, showing how the person and ministry of Jesus culminate in eschatology. It shows how God realizes his goal in creation for us, in us, and with us through the eschatological Christ, the one who inaugurated the great Day of the Lord.

Authority to Heal

The re-discovery of kingdom theology lies at the historic roots of the Vineyard movement. Healing, signs and wonders and demonic deliverance invaded the Fuller Seminary classroom in the 1980s with historic results. Authority to Heal was the first piece of theological formulation written from this genesis. It equips the church with a biblical basis for healing and then works that out into praxis.

Empowered Evangelicals

Most of the courses in the Kingdom Theology diploma articulate kingdom theology positively. The message and praxis of the kingdom, however, inevitably causes spiritual warfare, not least in the various competing theologies and reactions to its message. Empowered Evangelicals deals with all the apologetic issues that arise from a clear articulation of kingdom theology.

Wimber Letters

Once we have learned the kingdom message of Jesus, received its power, and modeled on his mission, we have to work it out in the local church. John Wimber, the founding father of the Vineyard movement, gave his whole life to this process. The Wimber Letters take the student through all of his documented letters and policy statements, showing how the message and ministry of Jesus can be translated into values and practices.

Doing Church

Doing Church shows how to translate the theology of the kingdom into the life of the local church. It teaches the student how to develop a mission and vision statement and then how to articulate them in values, priorities, practices and personnel.

The Church and its Leaders

Working kingdom life into the church finally leads to issues of leadership and church government. The Church and its Leaders dialogues with the three classic approaches to church government: Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Congregational and shows how one can incorporate the best of all three into a local church. In doing so, it addresses a number of related issues: the priesthood of every believer, one's calling, and the role and ministry of women in the church.

Schedule

Trinity Learning Community/VBI cohorts can begin at any point during the year and the program is based on a twelve month system. A year's schedule, therefore, will be determined by Trinity Learning Community along with the adjunct faculty member in charge of a particular site. The schedule will be computed by counting 52 weeks from whenever the start date might be. The schedule will essentially be comprised of a weekly, three hour class for ten months, not counting breaks. Using the example of a typical September start date, there will be breaks at Thanksgiving, Christmas, in-between winter and spring quarters, and at the beginning and end of summer. In the event that a cohort would start at another time during the year the same number of breaks would need to be inserted in the appropriate seasonal time slots. In addition, dates for the Applied and Verified courses will need to be determined.

Course Philosophy

The courses in the Trinity Learning Community/Bachelor of Christian Studies introduce the narrative of Scripture through the study of important books in the Bible, each serving as a case study representing either important events in the biblical story line or critical theological reflection on the meaning of the story for the lives of God's people.

Appointments

Appointments can be made with our staff to answer any questions about the Bachelor of Christian Studies.

Graduation

All students who fulfill the requirements for graduation will receive a Bachelor of Christian Studies degree from St. Stephen's University in conjunction with Trinity Learning Community.