Manna Associates Program

Every Bible student should be exposed to every book of the Bible in his ministerial training. This course exposes the student in study, to the Bible books of Acts, Romans, 1&2 Corinthians. The purpose and argument of each book will be considered. This course will be more like a survey but specific significant books of the Bible will be dealt with in-depth later in this and/or other programs.

Every Bible student should be exposed to every book of the Bible in his ministerial training. This course exposes the student in study, to the Bible books of Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Titus, Philemon, 1&2 Thessalonians, and 1&2 Timothy. The purpose and argument of each book will be considered. This course will be more like a survey but specific significant books of the Bible will be dealt with in-depth later in this and/or other programs.

Every Bible student should be exposed to every book of the Bible in his ministerial training. This course exposes the student in study, to the Bible books of Hebrews, James, 1&2 Peter, 1&2&3 John, Jude, and Revelation. The purpose and argument of each book will be considered. This course will be more like a survey but specific significant books of the Bible will be dealt with in-depth later in this and/or other programs.

Not counting the Psalms, which form a prayer-book of their own, the Bible records nearly 500 definite prayers. In addition, God’s Word contains thousands of other verses to help the Christian who wants to pray.

This course is designed to acquaint each student with Bible facts about prayer. But remember, knowing about prayer is worthless unless you intend to use what you know—unless you pray!

Looking unto Jesus always with a gaze more and more constant, more and more confident, “changed into the same image from glory to glory” (II Corinthians 3:18). Thus, we await the hour when He will call us to pass from earth to heaven and from time to eternity, the promised hour, the blessed hour when at last “we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (I John 3:2).

Looking unto Jesus—just three words, but in those three words is the whole secret of life, and the key to Christian character development and the content of this course.

There are actually 1189 great chapters in the Bible, since every chapter is given by our great God! It would be impossible to single out 500 or even a thousand to distinguish them above the rest, since “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable…”

The selections chosen for this study are those listed in the Thompson Chain Reference Bible as Golden Chapters…not because any chapter is more important than another…but each of these chapters simply represent an important Biblical theme.

These studies are far from exhaustive, but are designed to better acquaint the student with some of the Great Chapters of the Bible.

    Our course is based on Creation Science 101, by Kent Hovind, and is a detailed scientific study with a focus on the age of the earth. Included in this 14-hour educational video series is a detailed examination of the big bang theory. These courses thoroughly address how the environment of the original creation differed from ours today, allowing men to live to be over 900 years old, plants to grow very large, and providing conditions favorable for dinosaurs to live.

The teaching in the Bible concerning the Holy Spirit is revealed in a progressive manner. The work and purposes of God are not disclosed to man all at one time. Truth is added to truth as the need arises.

Moreover, God’s methods of work may change and do change from time to time. He is unchanging in His Person, but He is not bound to do the same thing in one age that He did in another.

This course teaches us about the work of the Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, and what that means to us as Believers.

Every church, at some point in its ministry, makes use of lay speakers.  Laymen frequently lead Bible studies, fill in for the pastor when he is away on a Wednesday or Sunday, and lead the children to worship through a children’s sermon.  These lay speakers are often reluctant to accept speaking responsibilities because of nervousness and a feeling of inadequacy in preparation. 

Bivocational pastors are likewise called to speak publicly and may desire seminary training, but find seminary inaccessible.  Full-time pastors may need refresher courses to upgrade their skills in preaching.  Many pastors have said to me that they had never learned anything in seminary about structuring a sermon.  Professional children’s ministers may not have been taught to write their own children’s sermon materials.

This course can meet a need for a structured approach to preaching and teaching for each of these.  The course will give them the skills they need to prepare a message or Bible study.  While it may not remove all nervousness,  it can help to control it by making the speaker aware that his study is carefully prepared.

Course Learning Goal: After completing a study of this course, you will understand and be able to use the “keyword” approach to sermon preparation.  You will have learned a simple approach to planning a Bible Study and preparing a children’s sermon.

This Course Will Help:

Lay leaders who may be called on to preach in a pastor’s absence

Lay speakers who may be asked to speak at banquets, retreats or camps

Lay teachers who will lead Bible Study classes

Lay or professional children’s sermon directors

Bivocational pastors with no seminary experience who want to learn to structure a sermon

Pastors with seminary experience who need skill upgrading or refresher courses

      Choose one of the “E” courses below based on your Major. You may choose to major in Pastoral Leadership (PL, HO, CS or CL courses), Christian Education (CE or AP courses), Christian Counseling (CC or PC courses), Evangelism and Missions (EV, HO or MI courses), Bible and Theology (BI, NT, OT or TH courses) or General Christian Studies (Any Courses).
     Complete one Elective course for the Associates Diploma and then finish the program by taking the Curriculum Analysis and Graduation course.

E121CE Spiritual Power in Teaching
     If you are to teach truth to others, the Holy Spirit must teach you…then He must teach through you. The Divine Teacher is the only one who can get results that will please God.
     This course deals with vital preparation for those who desire to fulfil God’s will in teaching. And it is God’s will for every believer to be a teacher…some in Christian schools, some in Sunday school, some behind the pulpit, some in special teaching programs. But all Christians are called to teach salvation to the lost, and to teach other believers what God teaches them. And all parents are called to teach God’s Word to their children.

E122BI Key Words
     Some Christians say, “Don’t bother me with doctrine; just give me the beautiful devotional thoughts of the Bible.” But if devotion is not based upon correct doctrine, it is shallow, and it is not going to accomplish anything. It is merely shallow sentiment. This course teaches why it is important for us to understand these key words of the Christian life.

E123PL Leadership Secrets

What makes a leader, a good leader? Is one born with leadership qualities or does one learn how to lead, or both? This course looks at leadership and tries to discern the answers by a character study of one of the most well-known leader of our time.
How is it that among millions of young men of no particular distinction, one ignites and becomes a driving force? How is it that—like a rocket on a launch pad with flame barely visible—one person is slightly lifted, then slowly gains momentum, thrusts upward, engines burning steadily with increasing velocity?
The phenomenon of Billy Graham’s humble beginnings and the ever-increasing velocity of his executive leadership intrigued us. What combination of genes, culture, experience, religion, and internal response created the alchemy?

Leaders must get things done. Communities and organizations are massively needy, and unless we’re chaplains, we can’t spend all our time lifting the broken and encouraging the stricken. Besides, some employees need to be fired, competition must be faced head-on, deadlines met. Stretching ourselves beyond our limits benefits no one.

Those realities will always be with us, and a wealth of leadership and biographical resources can help us meet our obligations. Yet this dynamic of love in leadership intrigues. Wherever we might be on the spiritual spectrum, we may well profit by considering this compelling phenomenon shown in the Graham team.

E124CC Introduction to Biblical Counseling

The purpose of this course is to provide a basic approach, and the tools to
establish a foundation to assist one to deal progressively with his own problems from a biblical perspective. And then to teach and counsel others to live by God’s commandments; thereby, fulfilling our Lord’s directive to make disciples of all nations (Matt. 7:5 ; Matt. 22:36-40 ).

The accompanying free manual is designed to teach you to approach circumstances, relationships, and situations of life from a biblical perspective and to experience victory and contentment in all of life’s trials, testings and problems.

E125EV Personal Evangelism

“Personal Evangelism” refers to everything a believer says and does to introduce and lead others to the good news of salvation made available through faith in Jesus Christ.

“An Alarm to the Unconverted” embodies the substance of Alleine’s message and in so doing provides a true model of Puritan evangelism. Phraseology must differ from age to age and gifts from man to man, but here, we have no hesitation in saying, are the principles which must be present in any true presentation of the Gospel. More than one great evangelist has had his views molded by the following pages. George Whitefield, while still a student at Oxford, tells us in his Journals how Alleine’s Alarm ‘much benefited’ him. Charles Haddon Spurgeon records how, when he was a child, his mother would often read a piece of Alleine’s Alarm to them as they sat around the fire on a Sunday evening, and when brought under conviction of sin it was to this old book he turned. He wrote, “I remember when I used to awake in the morning, the first thing I took up was Alleine’s Alarm, or Baxter’s Call to the Unconverted. Oh those books, those books! I read and devoured them.…” With his heart thus burning with the fire of Puritan divinity, Spurgeon was prepared to follow in the steps of Alleine and Whitefield.

E126PS Public Speaking

We will learn in this class how to be both prepared and practiced in public speaking. We will also study many other perceived “obstacles” to giving a successful speech. The reason I put the word obstacles in parentheses is because there are no such things as true obstacles in the life of a Christian. In the flesh they appear as obstacles but in the spirit they are “opportunities” for Christ to give us the victory through the power of His Spirit that indwells us.
There will also be much material gathered from various other sources. In order to speak effectively, whether in the ministry or in business, you must learn first how to handle people. You must befriend the people to whom you are speaking; i.e., they must like you personally before they will listen to what you have to say. That is why many speakers start with a joke or an anecdote. They do so to win over their audience to themselves; and then they speak on the subject of the hour. Then when you do begin to speak on the subject at hand, know more than anyone else in the audience but never speak down to them or denigrate their opinions on the subject.

E127AP Basic Apologetics

Often Christians actively giving themselves to ministry get so bogged down in the details of their churches and ministries that they fail to see the big picture of what God is doing in the present age. Where has God placed us within his sovereign plan? Within the long-term progress of God’s kingdom, where are we right now?
When we take a step back and look at what God is doing in the world, we come face-to-face with some startling statistics. The Christian faith started with just a handful of disciples following their risen Savior’s calling, but has grown steadily through peace and persecution, alike. While the hottest sellers in any Christian bookstore seem to be the books promising doom and gloom in the immediate future, God’s kingdom is in fact expanding at a remarkable rate.

But while millions of people are coming to faith in Jesus Christ, Christians seem to be having less and less impact upon Western civilization. In America, the secular culture becomes more depraved every year. If premarital sex became okay in the sixties, abortion in the seventies, greed in the eighties, and homosexuality in the nineties, what moral barriers remain? While there are more believers than ever, their culture is becoming less biblical in its thinking.

E128 Typing (FREE)

This Typing course is completely free, but you will not receive any credit hours for it. It is a service to help you learn or better learn the keyboard to help in preparing your sermons, documents, and correspondence for the ministry…as well as life itself.

Analyze and evaluate every course (22 courses) in your program with one paragraph of what you liked and/or disliked and how it helped or could help you further your ministry.

Analyze and evaluate the curriculum as a whole and explain what courses you would add and what courses you would delete from this particular program, if any. Please, explain why.

Assemble an annotated bibliography (regular bibliographical material plus one large paragraph of summary and one large paragraph of evaluation) of at least 1 good book (other than the text(s) that we provided for each course) that would make for a textbook or supplemental reading book for each course in your program.

This graduation course is worth 3 hours credit.

The fee for this course also includes your graduation fee. Once all work is done and all fees are paid you will receive a beautiful Manna Seminary Diploma for this program.

Congratulations on finishing this Manna Seminary Associates program!