This course is designed as continued preparation for people who are called to Christian ministry, particularly people from the Pentecostal/Charismatic sectors of the Church. These sectors are the fastest growing sectors of the Church in Australia, Asia and the world as a whole. No one particular denominational perspective is presented in this course. Teachers come from various mainline and Pentecostal denominations. Tabor College serves churches of many denominations and is steadily gaining recognition as a provider of sound ministry education.

The College has given serious consideration to input from various external Assessment/Review Panels, national course review Working Parties, denominational groups, individual Christian ministers and various educators in the development of the Graduate Diploma in Ministry program to date. Accordingly the course is designed to equip trainees in ministry to best serve the wider church.

Therefore the structure of the course includes broad philosophical and theoretical approaches to ministry practice as well as the development of task specific skills and outcomes. Further, the course encompasses both traditional church ministry training models as well as contemporary missional and cross-cultural integration.

The course has been designed so that students gain a foundational knowledge and skills in biblical interpretation, a philosophical understanding of the church in its cultural setting, and principles of leadership in the first section of the course. This knowledge and skills are built upon as the course progresses culminating in their application in a practical ministry setting through an internship placement.

The course allows a student to pursue an area of ministry interest such as preaching, church management, pastoral care and youth ministry through selection of appropriate electives.

The need for this course is assessed on the place of the contemporary church and its practical and long-term ministry needs. Such an approach considers the influence of historic Christian traditions and sees the need to extend its design to include perspectives of post-modernity, contextualisation and the appropriation of current ethical standards. These examples of ministry needs exist both within current church organisations and in a range of contexts through the wider mission of the church. Tabor College is in a unique position to offer such a design as there is the scope and exposure across the range of denominations and an involvement and understanding of relevant mission ministry that comes from a large crosssection of students and staff.

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