• Theological foundations for ministry with children
• Ethical considerations for evangelization and contextual ministry with children
• Christian engagement with the international child rights conversation
• Child participation in project planning, program monitoring and implementation
• Emerging topics in clinical child development theory, including ecological and asset-based perspectives

In addition to the Children at Risk focus, students will be introduced to a core body of missiological literature. Missiology is multidisciplinary and integrative of the cognate disciplines within the field, broadly including theology, history, the state of the Church, leadership and the social sciences. This Seminar introduces students to missiological concepts appropriate to broadly understanding the discipline and applying that awareness to research design appropriate for such student’s study program.

This Seminar serves as the first Module in the DMiss cohort format. It serves as an introduction to the SIS Doctor in Missiology (DMiss) program, and enables students to develop a Program Design (PD) paper that is both flexible and focused while providing a tool for communicating effectively with professors, other members of the cohort and the student’s constituency.

• the Anabaptist Vision as a missional vision
• the Anabaptist missional vision in context
• the place of strategy in an Anabaptist missional vision
• appropriate criteria for evaluating missional effectiveness
• missional lessons learned from experiments since 1900

Each student will prepare a research proposal to address an issue of focal concern in her/his ministry. These research proposals will be tested and refined through group process. The goal is to arrive at new insights that will result in new and improved ministry practices.

In the process of deepening and clarifying what it means to work within the Anabaptist missional vision, the Cohort will read and reflect on the core body of missiological literature. Missiology is multidisciplinary and draws on history, theology, biblical studies, leadership and the social sciences in order to understand the issues that we face in today's world and make effective response.

(To be decided)

This cohort is concerned with the issues involved in developing missiological approaches that engage each context effectively. Each student will focus on one area of particular interest and importance in their context, sharing their research and insights with others in the group. Together the students and instructor will work to develop better practices of leadership for their particular context. In addition to the Contextual focus, students will be introduced to a core body of missiological literature.