Bethany College of Missions
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| Bethany College of Missions | |
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| Motto: | Living with eternity in view |
| Established: | 1949 |
| Type: | Private, interdenominational Evangelical Christian[1] |
| Students: | 76 [2] |
| Location: | Bloomington, Minnesota, United States |
| Website: | http://bcom.org/ |
Bethany College of Missions, or BCOM, is a non-accredited private evangelical Christian college that has been training missionaries since 1949. Bethany College of Missions offers three-year bachelor of arts and one-year certificate programs in missions/cross-cultural studies, with learning taking place on the Bloomington, Minnesota campus and around the world through the Global Internship program.
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[edit] History
Bethany was originally founded by a core group of five families. Beginning in 1945 these young Christians sold their homes, pooled their resources, and started a Christian community known as Bethany Fellowship, with a focus on teaching the biblical message of salvation and redemption through Jesus Christ and the biblical mandate of taking that message to all the world. By 1946 Bethany outgrew its 30 room house in Minneapolis and moved to a 62 acres farm in the then-undeveloped area of south Bloomington, MN, near the Minnesota River. With cross-cultural missions in mind, they began BCOM with a freshman class of 10 students in 1948. In the early days Bethany continued to function as a Christian community, funding its operations with a variety of manufacturing enterprises, including wooden toys, lefse plates, pop-up campers, a book publisher, Bethany House Publishers and a printing operation Bethany Press International. Today, Bethany College of Missions, together with a mission sending agency, Bethany International Ministries, and Bethany Press International comprise the organization Bethany International.
[edit] Purpose
The purpose of Bethany College of Missions is to prepare workers for effective cross-cultural ministry.
[edit] Programs
The unique design of BCOM's program is built on a 1-year intensive (12 months) program focused on biblical and theological studies, discipleship and introductory courses to missions and cross-cultural studies. Students finishing this year receive a Certificate in Cross-Cultural Studies and then may opt to pursue a Bachelor of Arts in Cross-cultural Studies through a program called Global Internship.
Global Internship is a field-based experiential and academic learning design. Students are placed in learning teams of 10-12 in various countries around the world where they continue to take courses taught by local ministry leaders while participating in local ministries within the country and engage in language and cultural learning. The Global Internship program is 16 months long.
[edit] Accreditation
While not philosophically opposed to accreditation, Bethany realizes that conforming to the traditional accreditation model could interfere with its ability to adapt the program to the learning needs of missionaries. In spite of its lack of accreditation, some colleges accept Bethany's credits for transfer and several schools accept its students for graduate level degrees.
