3-Year Certificate Program: Preliminary, Intermediate and Advanced Certificates
Worldview Apologetics Certificate
Christian Education Certificate
Theatre Arts Production Certificate
Institute for Biblical Leadership Certificate
General Certificate Requirements - for all Certificates
3-Year Certificate Program
NYSB's three-year certificate program is a foundational curriculum of 24 courses that provides a systematic and progressive plan to study God's Word. New students are encouraged to register for the Preliminary certificate courses. The Preliminary certificate curriculum provides courses in Bible study methods, Bible survey, theological basics, and Christian living that will form a firm foundation for further studies at NYSB. The Intermediate and Advance Certificates continue to expand the student's knowledge of Bible content and theory as well as equipping them for ministry opportunities. All courses, both those required for earning a certificate as well as courses courses not required for the certificates, are open to all students. Although students need not take certificate courses in any specific order, the Intermediate Certificate will not be awarded until the student has completed all the course requirements for the Intermediate Certificate and the Preliminary Certificate has been awarded. Similarly, the Advanced Certificate will not be awarded until the student has completed the Intermediate and Preliminary Certificates as well as the course requirements for the Advanced Certificate.
Track Your Progress! - Printable Checklist of Required Courses*
*To view and print this file you will need the program Adobe Reader, which is already installed on most computers. If you have trouble downloading this file you may download the latest Adobe Reader for free from Adobe's website. Download Adobe Reader
The Preliminary, Intermediate and Advanced certificates may each be earned in one year if the students follows a suggested schedule.
Schedule of Preliminary, Intermediate and Advanced Certificate Courses
Worldview Apologetics Certificate Program
Believers in Jesus Christ face a formidable task in life. We are to "always be ready to make a defense to everyone who asks us to give an account for the hope that is in us" (1 Peter 3:15). We are instructed to do this with "gentleness and reverence." Unfortunately, most Christians feel ill-equipped for such an assignment. Apologetics is a field of study and interaction that seeks to defend the truth of the Christian faith. It is about giving an answer to what we believe and why we believe it. Rather than "apologizing" for our beliefs, we seek to engage unbelievers in credible dialog about the faith.
The Worldview Apologetics Certificate program aims to train students in a positive Biblical approach to defend the truth of the Christian faith. The goal is not to be defensive but rather to gently and reverently defend. Biblical examples of such apologetics are found in Stephen as he stood before the Jewish Sanhedrin and in Paul as he stood before the Greek philosophers on Mars Hill. Just as they went on the offensive with regards to their faith, so must we.
The overall objectives of this program will be:
- to strengthen us in our own faith, seeing we have effective answers to the challenges.
- to understand how the Christian worldview best accords with logic and reality.
- to understand and critique other worldviews and religions.
- to identify and to begin to use the best apologetic tools/methods to promote the Christian faith.
- to provide experiences where the students can see and experience apologetics in action.
This program has been upgraded back to a eight-course program in a two-year schedule. 260A-D will be offered in the first year, 260E-H, the next.
Required Courses*:
260H Worldview Apologetics: Ethics and Moral questions
*Course 260A is recommended as a first course before all the other courses. Courses B-H may be taken in any order, but it is preferable if they are taken in sequence.
Christian Education Certificate Program
Christian Education plays a unique role in the disciple-making process for the church today. Therefore, the church needs trained workers who can facilitate spiritual growth that follows Jesus' example. In 3+ years, Jesus won people to Himself, built them up in the faith, equipped these followers for ministry, and unleashed them to make disciples (Matthew 28:19-20). As a result, the church multiplied and continues to thrive today throughout the world. Each student who completes this certificate program will be better equipped to serve Jesus in the disciple-making ministry of the local church. The program develops skills for teaching, leadership, and administration, as well as nurturing a sense of professional commitment to Christian Education. Special attention is given to relational disciple-making, conflict resolution, and intentional leadership development as essential tools for effective ministry. This certificate is especially suited to persons who are engaged in secular careers, but wish to be equipped to aid in church ministry.
The overall objectives of this program will be:
- study teaching and learning ministries in the church
- learn a Biblical basis for teaching children
- be equipped to grow youth ministry in the local church
- study church ministry with adults
- examine personal leadership development and administration
- grow in personal spiritual formation towards discipling others
Required Courses*:
330 Leadership and Administration in the Church
As well as any two elective courses from the following list:
436 Sharpening Your People Skills
*Any courses taken in past years, which qualify as electives or required courses, may be applied towards the certificate requirements.
This certificate may be earned in one year if the students follows a suggested schedule.
Schedule of Christian Education Certificate Courses
Children's Ministry Certificate Program
George Barna, in his book Transforming Children Into Spiritual Champions makes the following observations:
- There are 31 million 5 to 12 year olds in the USA today and it is during these 8 years that lifelong habits, values, beliefs, and attitudes are formed.
- Moral foundations are generally determined by the time a child reaches 9 years of age.
- By the age of 13, spiritual identity is largely set in place.
- 66% of all people who come to Christ as Savior do so before adulthood.
- Most every church has a children's minsitry, but children are not necessarily a high ministry priority.
This certificate program is designed to encourage, educate, and equip children's ministry leaders, teachers, and support staff. The courses will help the student develop new children's ministry skills and to sharpen existing ones. It will also enable the student to establish and/or strengthen the children's ministry in the local church as well as recruit and train others to join the staff.
This certificate has eight required courses which will offered in a two-year schedule. The required courses offered this academic year, 2008-09, are scheduled at 6 pm, one each quarter. These courses are:
Other children's ministry courses will be offered in the other quarters at 7:35 pm. These courses are:
Theater Arts Production
Shakespeare hit on the power of drama when he said, "The play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king." The English poet, Shelley, called artists "the unacknowledged legislators of the world." The power of the entertainment industry cannot be overestimated. Much of its strength lies in its ability to bypass our intellectual objections and impact our emotional and spiritual core. As our culture continues to deteriorate, the entertainment industry's negative influence is something Christians can no longer ignore. The question remains: to what extent should the church harness this power for the purposes of the Great Commission? How are we to respond to Jesus' criticism that we are not as wise as the children of Mammon, and how does His strategy to be "wise as serpents, harmless as doves" (Matthew 10:16) answer this question?
Drama has always been done by God's people: the enactments of Old Testament prophets, the parables of Jesus, the plays of medieval Christendom. These can and must be done again in a timely way for a new generation. How do we do it? The answer has always been there: servanthood. The Church is strongest when it serves, not when it merely preaches to our own in their comfortable pews. By empowering the "starving artist" in our community, we can begin to regain the platform from which to proclaim the spiritual values upon which our culture is built. There is no better way to reassert a sane influence over our society.
The overall objectives of this program will be:
- to equip and inspire students to operate such a ministry to the performers in their community based on a successful self-supporting theater model developed in downtown Toronto, Canada and also tested in St. Louis and Los Angeles.
- to enable Christian leadership to work closely with hundreds of performers each year through a theatre arts ministry and touch audience members with an array of Biblically inspired dramatic productions
This program is being reorganized in a more practical direction, teaching everything from production to performance skills in both theater and film. We hope to inspire future filmmakers to create entertaining and edifying projects. We intend to jumpstart worthy theater and film projects, including documentaries, film shorts, and full-length films.
This program will function as a theater and film company devoted to helping Christians in theater and film. It will integrate various levels of students from novices to apprentice to advance level students.
See www.cubecity.org/school.htm for more details.
Required Courses:
820 Christian Theater and Film: Script Development
821 Christian Theater and Film: Acting
822 Christian Theater and Film: The Technical Dimension
823 Christian Theater and Film: Production
Institute for Biblical Leadership
Strong (well-established) local churches are central to God's design for "making disciples of all nations." Strong (well-established) leaders are central to God's design for strong local churches. The New York School of the Bible now offers a Personal & Church Development Program for Local Church Leaders with the goal of helping local church leaders ground their church ministries in the way of Christ and His apostles.
The overall objectives of this program will be:
- to receive training in the use of basic discipleship tools, as well as, an opportunity to implement the tools with your congregation and evaluate the experience.
- to introduce leadership training resources and use these tools practically, with students? church leaders, assessing their effectiveness.
- to design a basic, church-wide training program that integrates missions, church development, basic discipleship, leadership development, and personal life development.
- to rethink your own personal development as a church leader and design a lifelong plan that will keep you energized and effective in ministry.
- to have an opportunity to further your development beyond this initial phase and to join in a mission effort with worldwide impact.
Required Courses:
Registration Note:
This program track will not be available during the 2008-09 academic year. Lord willing, these courses will be offered in 2009-10.
Church History Certificate Program
The Church History Certificate Program seeks to give the student an understanding of the people, issues, and advancements of the Church from the time immediately following the death of the Apostles until today. The focus will be on how the issues we now face have been dealth with over two millennia of struggle and blessing. As God raised up Esther for her time, so He has continued in the ensuing ages to raise up men and women who have stood unyielding in the face of torture, persecution, and even death.
We live in a post-Christian world where our culture not only ignores Christianity but is antagonistic towards it. Books and movies like the "The DaVinci Code" proliferate as attacks are made on Christian teaching, philosophy, and history. Unfortunately, few Christians know how to respond to such attacks because few Christians have a basis of understanding what actually happened during the course of Church history. A student who completes the Church History Certificate will gain the foundation for defending the faith against these growing attacks.
This certificate has eight required courses which will offered in a two-year schedule. The required courses offered this academic year, 2008-09, are scheduled at 7:35 pm, one each quarter. These courses are:
