The Mission of BGU
Bakke Graduate University of Ministry strengthens ministry leaders who steward resources with and for vulnerable people and places, by means of contextual, Christian-based education innovatively delivered throughout the urban world.
The Focus of BGU
Bakke Graduate University of Ministry (BGU) looks beyond itself to embody the commonly-held vision of an international network. BGU serves and is served by a global network of urban leaders and partners and our vision is shaped by this network and our partners. BGU's vision includes the following key components:
1. Emerging and Experienced Transformational Leaders
To strengthen current and future Christian leaders who are rooted in the timeless truths of Scripture, understand context and culture and proactively lead in the midst of today’s global realities.
2. Whole Gospel, Whole Church, Whole World
To connect the work of international Christian leaders through commonly-held, foundational perspectives of Christian theology and practice including: God’s heart for the vulnerable, the call to work for justice, the proclamation of the Gospel, the value of cities, and the necessity to personally live in deepening relational community.
3. Kingdom Sharing
To distribute resources — finances, leadership, authority, and insight — throughout the church worldwide. Many cultures that are financially-rich are relationship-poor. Regardless of economic trade policies, God has created a worldwide Kingdom economy that forces interdependence within the church world-wide. BGU's vision is to create the relationships, common values, and communication needed to stimulate the flow of resources to fuel a new era of sharing partnership.
4. Perspective and Values Education
BGU provides a worldwide model of graduate education that invites students to evaluate and reinvent how they accomplish their work. This model includes education that results in changed values and paradigms, not just added knowledge. It is accomplished through "come and see" experiences that move students outside of comfort zones into new global realities and is committed to not uprooting students from their current ministry locations. BGU is facilitated by global faculty, global communication tools, and student cohorts diverse in church affiliation — gender, experiences and cultures.
5. Accessibility to Life-Long Learning
BGU creates pathways for learning that offer front-line practitioners the hope of life-long, credentialed, high-quality education. Students are given tools to help them learn life-long habits of reflection and theological inquiry in the midst of their leadership action. BGU is not seen as a three to four-year relationship, but a life-long equipping partner, advancing them through degrees and serving them with on-going teaching, networking and platforming opportunities.
6. Virtual Services
BGU utilizes technology, travel and network relationships to provide a high-level of service to students in various world locations. BGU is not only 'high-tech,' but also 'high-touch,' emphasizing relationships and the use of technology to dispense information more efficiently and bring community together.
The Values oF BGU
BGU's values serve as one of the primary distinctives and attractions to students. They create the means for BGU to participate in a larger network of national and international leaders.
1. We Value the Whole Church
In response to Christ's command to seek the unity of the body, BGU celebrates and commits to collaborate with God’s Church, risking organizational, personal and worldview changes that are necessary to see successful partnership and transformation across geographic, ethnic, cultural, denominational, and organizational lines. BGU believes that Christ’s vision for the cities is bigger than any single denomination and will only be achieved through the wholeness of the Church.
2. We Value Cities
For the first time in human history the majority of the world's people live in cities which are God's gift of refuge, hope and common grace for countless millions. In the Bible, there are more than 1,000 passages about cities providing clues regarding how to live as persons and behave as institutions. BGU believes it is essential to value both places and persons and therefore seeks both the spiritual transformation of persons and the social transformation of places, until our Lord comes or calls for us.
3. We Value the Vulnerable
The Gospel is for all people. This includes the rich, the successful and the powerful in our cities, although we especially notice in the Bible God's awesome and unrelenting concern for the poor, widows, migrants, unemployed (and underemployed), sick persons, prisoners, aliens, victims and refugees. BGU commits itself to working with the leadership of the city but always in partnership with the vulnerable who are "equally sinful but most often sinned against."
4. We Value Justice
Ministry in Christ's Spirit and example celebrates the indwelling presence of God, who through His Holy Spirit begins to deliver people from their personal bondage to sin and guilt, and stimulates processes leading to the transformation of and liberation from oppressive and unjust laws and public structures. BGU calls powerful men and women that the Lord has raised up in every city to partner with the vulnerable so that the Gospel may be understood and the power of the Gospel may be demonstrated in the Church and in the world.
5. We Value Community
BGU believes God's Spirit calls and empowers us to community, and that this calling brings both relational and institutional tension. As a result of this tension, ongoing reconciliation is critically important. BGU therefore proposes to be a community of people committed to the vulnerable and committed to a common vision that deals with legitimate conflict in a creative and redemptive manner. For the sake of the Gospel, BGU values diversity and is committed to collaborating with those with whom we may not share total theological agreement.
6. We Value Doing Theology
Theological reflection is powerful, relevant and transformational when conducted in response to injustice and human suffering. This requires bold vision, the ability to adapt to rapid global change and urgent collaborative action from individuals, churches and mission agencies to bring the whole Gospel to these cities.
7. We Value the Local Church
Churches and local ministries are both signs and agents of God’s Kingdom. The goal of BGU is to see God glorified in a transformed city, where both storefront and cathedral, small outreach and large non-profit ministries, embody God's Kingdom purposes. BGU is not only committed to those leaders who develop new ministries, but also to those who believe in and seek the renewal of many historic churches and structures, some centuries old.
8. We Value Leadership
Global, urban realities require competent, compassionate leadership in society. Such leaders have been entrusted with much and need continuous nourishment, appreciation, encouragement and accountability to grow and sustain their work. Jesus is the message, the model and the method. Leaders following Him must be servant leaders, giving away control by empowering and resourcing others who are doing Kingdom work to achieve their mission.
9. We Value Missional Education
Drawing from the strength of effective indigenous leaders, BGU believes that learning is best accomplished when theology is studied and applied in the context of mission. BGU is committed to providing quality education accessible to historically under-represented leaders, provided in the context of new urban realities.
