SDBU Intro to Missions Completed!

One of the key ways SDB Missions continues to invest in training and equipping believers across North America is through the SDBU Missions Course. This fall, I taught SDBU 261 Introduction to Missions for the sixth time, and six students successfully completed the course and graduated in December!

This course exists for one clear purpose: to help everyday Christians and local churches engage meaningfully in God’s mission right where they live. Rather than emphasizing passive learning, SDBU 261 invites students to actively participate. Many students entered the class unsure how missions could realistically fit into their already full lives. By the end of the semester, every student had taken concrete, faithful steps to participate in missions in their own contexts.

Throughout the semester, students explored the biblical basis for missions and traced the history of missions, engaged deeply with culture, worldview, and contextualization, and wrestled honestly with the ethics of cross-cultural ministry. The course also challenged students to see North America as a mission field, devoting multiple weeks to diaspora ministry, refugee engagement, and international student outreach. The course consistently moves students from understanding to application and helps them recognize that missions sits at the very center of the Christian calling.

The course culminated in a powerful final project that brought everything together. Each student completed a project requiring at least 20 hours of hands-on mission involvement in their local context. Students intentionally incorporated one or more of the Habits of a Global Christian, including prayer, welcome, going, sending, and mobilizing. These projects emphasized real engagement and faithfulness over polished presentation and invited students to reflect deeply on what God was doing through their obedience.

Students documented their work through creative formats, including presentations, videos, written reflections, and recorded resources. Projects were evaluated based on meaningful involvement in missions, integration of course content, and depth of reflection.

The results speak for themselves. One pastor has already begun integrating prayer for unreached people groups into regular worship services and has started mentoring someone in the congregation who carries a growing passion for missions. Another student continues building relationships between international students at Salem University and the Salem Seventh Day Baptist Church and has begun planning activities that intentionally create space for connection and gospel presence. A third student project video appears below and offers another inspiring example of how learning turned into action.

What makes these projects especially exciting is not only what students accomplished, but how they changed. Students who began the course hesitant and unsure now move forward with clarity, confidence, and a renewed commitment to live missionally in everyday life.

We thank God for the work He continues to do through this class and for the ways these students already shape missions-minded churches and communities. Their stories remind us that when believers step forward in obedience, God meets them there and multiplies their willingness for His purposes. If this is the fruit of one semester, we cannot wait to see what God will do through the next group of students.

-Pastor Miriam Berg

If you're not receiving the monthly newsletter, you can subscribe by going to our homepage at www.sdbmissions.org.