Christian Education
Arts and Humanities

Christian Education is a major for those who:

• respond in concrete and specific ways to the needs of the world
• need to do, not just talk about. . .
• probably had an incredible youth group experience and want to continue that type of involvement
• want to help young people find their motivation to improve the world
• want the world to be a perfect place and see the church as an instrument for helping that happen
• like to organize events, socialize, and offer service to others
• see learning as a way to share with others
  
  
  

Description
Professors in the Christian Education major encourage student growth within a biblically and historically grounded ecumenical Christian tradition. They encourage open inquiry, dialogue, and sharing and merge theory with practice. They engage students in learning about ministry experiences that involve children, youth, and adults. They get excited about both analytical and practical approaches to the development of spirituality. Students engage in hands-on learning experiences that help them build skills to work with children, youth and adults in many kinds of educational ministries.

Defiance College offers two majors in religion: Christian Education and Religious Studies. Additionally, the Design for Leadership, which has a separate catalog, is a distance learning program in Christian Education. Complete information is available separately about the Religious Studies major and the Design for Leadership distance learning program in Christian Education.

Courses required for the Christian Education major

The Christian Education major prepares the student to immediately enter a professional role as Director of Christian or Religious Education in a local church. It includes 12 hours of field placement as well as solid academic preparation in Bible, theology, church history, developmental psychology, educational and group work theory, curriculum design, and the administration of Christian Education programs.

The Christian Education major also furnishes an excellent preparation for further study. Seminaries and graduate schools attended by our graduates include Eden, Lancaster, Andover-Newton, United of the Twin Cities, Chicago Theological Seminary, The University of Chicago, Yale Divinity School, The University of Dayton, United of Dayton, The University of Denver, Loyola University, and the Methodist School of Theology in Ohio.

Professors
Dr. Marian R. Plant and Ken Christiansen
Adjunct professors J. Fritz-Bergman, L.M. Spath, and D. Plant; Campus Minister J. Bechtel.