Quick Program Facts
Credit Hours: 36
Total Cost: $5,400.00
Prerequisites: Bachelor's Degree
Are you called to heal the brokenhearted, strengthen couples and families, and walk people through life's challenges? Earn your Master of Arts in Christian Counseling and become a competent, church-based religious counselor.
The Master of Arts in Christian Counseling degree is designed to prepare the student for a specialized ministry in the counseling of individuals, couples, families and special focus groups within the context of the local church, para-church ministries, church-related agencies, or other religious settings. The program enables the student to employ integrative therapies: integrating proven, effective counseling methods, models and modalities, with sound biblical and theological principles. The vision of the church is to be a healing community. Hope for hurting individuals and families is an essential element of the Christian message. The MA program equips the student to help people realize personhood wholeness in every area of human life – spirit, mind, and body – and to facilitate marriage and family harmony and enrichment.
Courses You'll Complete to Earn Your Degree
The twelve courses listed comprise the Master’s degree in Christian Counseling. Changes or substitutions are subject to the approval of the Academic Dean. Substitutions may be made if some of the above courses have already been taken.
Our Goals for the Master of Arts in Christian Counseling Degree
1 ) To prepare students for the specialized ministry of individual, marriage and family, and issue focused group counseling within the church, para-church ministries, church-related agencies, and other religious settings, and to provide the educational foundation for further study in Christian Counseling.
2 ) To enable students to help people realize personhood wholeness in every area of human life — spirit, mind, and body.
3 ) To equip students to recruit and train knowledgeable lay persons as peer counselors and para-counselors to provide supportive counseling services to and within the local congregation and community.
4 ) To assist students in the formulation of an integrative counseling approach, incorporating proven counseling techniques with a sound biblical and theological understanding of the ministry of counseling.
5 ) To offer a program curricula for those students who desire to learn more about applying professional methods and modalities within a Christian counseling framework.
6 ) What You'll Be Able To Do When You Earn Your MA in Christian Counseling
7 ) Develop a personal philosophy of counseling, which integrates the latest theories, trends, and techniques of professional counseling with sound biblical principles, in a Christian Counseling modality.
8 ) Effectively work with people in the local church and Christian Counseling ministry setting.
9 ) Promote an awareness of the integrative compatibility between the behavioral sciences and the ministry of the Holy Spirit as they relate to the counseling process.
10) Develop the therapeutic, preventive, educative, and facilitative skills of Christian Counseling.
11 ) Demonstrate an understanding of methods of assessing and evaluating individual psychological functions, such as intelligence and personality and the dysfunctions thereof evidenced in psychological distress and personality disorders.
12 ) Strengthen competency in data collection, analysis, assessment and evaluation in Christian Counseling.
14 ) Promote an understanding of human nature and development based on a Christian theological perspective.
15 ) Develop research capabilities designed to foster and expand knowledge about the current practice of Counseling within a Christian context.
