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Master of Arts in Crosscultural Studies

This two-year program is designed to prepare students with less than three years of crosscultural ministry experience for service in multicultural contexts. Combining the resources of the School of Intercultural Studies and the School of Theology, this degree program provides special preparation for future missionaries, pastors, teachers, and other professionals who hope to share their faith and lives in a multicultural world.

The program begins with a broad training in intercultural studies to equip students with competency in seven areas which are vital for crosscultural service: anthropology, communication, church, history, leadership, spirituality, and theology of mission. The program also provides the student with broad training in theology through courses in Old Testament, New Testament, and Theology. Students who have fulfilled equivalent courses in their undergraduate degree can take higher level courses in fulfilling these core competencies. In the second year of the program, students get to delve more deeply into one area of concentration, see Concentrations below. Near the end of the program, students have the opportunity to complete a practicum, a practical crosscultural ministry experience which is either led or overseen by a member of faculty. Students benefit from putting into practice the training they have received while in dialogue with a member of faculty about the questions and issues that arise.

Curriculum

The Master of Arts in Crosscultural Studies (MACCS) requires the successful completion of 96 quarter units. The courses in the curriculum, illustrated in the MACCS Outline, consists of Core Competencies in Missiology (24 units), Foundational Studies in Bible and Theology (28 units), Concentration (24 units), Integration (4 units), Electives (8 units), and Practicum (8 units).  A typical class is 4 units. Students can complete this degree in two years of full-time study, or can pace the program over a longer period of part-time study. 

Learning Outcomes

  • Graduates will participate in the mission of God and the ministries of the global Church from an evangelical missiological perspective.
  • Graduates will demonstrate critical thinking and integration skills in order to foster individual and social transformation.
  • Graduates will demonstrate sensitivity to cultural and ethnic diversity for building relationships and for communicating the Gospel in context.
  • Graduates will have skills and knowledge and networks of relationships to pursue vocations that engage the mission of God globally.
  • Graduates will value the importance of spiritual formation in both its personal and communal dimensions.

Residency Requirements

At least 48 units must be earned at Fuller Seminary on the Pasadena campus.

Transfer Credit

Students may potentially transfer up to 40 units of graduate-level courses in missiology or theology from an accredited institution into the program.

Distance Learning

Up to 50 percent of the Master of Arts in Crosscultural Studies (including transfer credit) may be taken by distance learning. Distance learning includes correspondence courses, online courses, directed study courses, and practicum.

Time Limit 

In order to ensure that a degree, when granted, represents education that is current and reasonably focused (not acquired a little at a time over an unreasonably long period), all credit applied to the degree must be earned within a certain period of time. For the Master of Arts in Crosscultural Studies degree at Fuller, this period has been set at ten years. This includes all credit earned elsewhere and applied to the degree, as well as all credit earned at Fuller.