FAQs about Global Evangelism Communicating the Gospel in a Pluralistic World

Frequently Aked Questions -- world missions course

Does submitting our brief autobiography and responding to our classmates personal stories in Week 1 count toward the attendance requirement of being present 5 days each week?

Yes

I do tend to be a bit of a night owl. However, in terms of the cut-off time each "day," should we aim for what time it is in the Mountain Time Zone where NBC is located?

Some professors go by the date on the time stamp on the actual submission. I do not. I know there are night owls out there. So, I figure that anything in by 3 or 4 a.m. was actually written at the end of someone's day rather than at the beginning.

I guess you could say I use a modified Jewish definition of day. Whereas the Jews calculate days from sundown to sundown, I tend to count from sunup to sunup!

Is it OK to submit assignments a little early? There are times when I might have to submit the reading report by late Monday since I am often away on Tuesdays. Some facilitators are OK with it and some are not.

Yes, the reading reports can come in early. In fact, having some in early helps discussion get going.

The only thing I don't really like coming in early is the end-of-the-week summary. The problem with it being done that early is that it's not really an end-of-the-week. So, I'd prefer that those not come in until at least late Friday afternoon.

Will postings made this week under last week count or do they need to be responses to material in the current week for them to count?

I count postings by the date they are posted. So, a conversation that began last week can continue into this week with your contributions being counted for this week.

Why are we required to read every single posting in Scribe? Posts by other students are sometimes repetitive and just take up my time.

Scribe is a classroom. In the classroom you are expected to listen attentively to what other students say -- even if you disagree or even if you think they're saying "dumb" things. Each intervention does add to and carry forward a discussion. To not read all the posts would be like your coming to a classroom with a book or cell phone in which you bury your head and only emerge occasionally to say something before turning back to your book or cell phone. That wouldn't be good traditional classroom etiquette; it's not good online classroom etiquette.

It is not considered proper classroom behavior to speak one's peace and then "check out" by putting on headphones or getting out a book to read. For this reason I ask that you not post your end-of-the-week summary until AFTER you have read everything submitted by other students and the professor that week. I started asking students to be completely up-to-date in their reading of other students' posts by the time they post their end-of-the-week summary when a student openly said he wasn't bothering to read any of the contributions of several of his classmates because they never had anything significant to say.

How does the Reading Response differ from the Weekly Summary?

The reading summary is due early in the week prior to much class discussion. It focuses upon the reflection of the required reading (text, professor's lecture, and other articles). The weekly summary can cover the text, class discussion, and even insights gained from doing the special project assignments. Thus, the Weekly Summary is much broader-based than the Wednesday reading reflection.

Among other things, having you do one at the end of the week gets you to: (1) Delving back into the textbook (sometimes class discussion strays away from the central topic of the week) and (2) Addressing more than one topic in the textbook.

Does the mission book report in week 3 have to be over a Nazarene book? Can it be any book about missions?

One objective of the assignment is for you to look at material available for promoting missions in local Churches of the Nazarene. Therefore, if you are part of the Church of the Nazarene, the book needs to be one of the NMI mission books (from any year). Local churches often purchase copies for members to read. They are also available in pdf and electronic format from The Foundry. If you are a member of another denomination, you may choose a book published about your own denominational missionary work (or you can look at an evaluate what the Nazarenes are doing).

Does the missionary we interview for the Week 6 assignment have to have served as a Nazarene missionary?

No. Someone who has served with another mission board will enable you to fulfill the objectives of this assignment.

As I understand it, day seven is on Sunday and we can post any five out of the seven days Monday - Sunday. Is this correct?

That's correct, the "5 out of 7" can include Sunday.

If we have until Sunday to submit all of our responses, how can we read all responses/postings before we submit our reflection?

What I was trying to ask is that you have read all the posts submitted up to that point in time. For instance, the first person to post their end-of-the-week summary will not have read any other person's end-of-the-week summary while the last person to post that assignment will have had the opportunity to read everybody else's end-of-the-week summary.

I haven't been able to get a copy of the Basic Bible Studies for the Week 1 end-of-the-week assignment. What shall I do?

Here's an online pdf copy of that material. Remember that the object of doing this is not to learn the material. The object is for you to evaluate this as a discipleship tool for churches to use with new converts

How thoroughly would you like us to investigate the links you supply in your lectures? For example, devotional studies on Jonah, Mrs. Fitkin, biblical examples of world evangelism, and so on.

Think of those resources as additional if-you-have-the-time enrichment material. How thoroughly you investigate them will depend on the time available and the level of interest you have in deepening your understanding of course content.

The instructions for the weekly reading reflections say that our submission must contain at least 250 words. Is that for each of the two parts of the reflection or just one part or a total of the two parts?

Good question. It's an overall number. However, students usually go beyond that number since they must answer one question of their choosing from the textbook in addition to their reactions to the material they read that week. I also recognize that some of us are wordier than others. Some can give meaty, thoughtful and succinct responses in 250 words. Others may take 400 or more words to say basically the same thing.

More important than the number of words is that your reading reflection -- whether it contains 250 or 500 words -- indicates you are grappling with the ideas expressed in the reading rather than it being something off the top of your head that could have been written before the reading was ever done.

Will an "incomplete" in a course affect my Grade Point Average (GPA)?

An "incomplete" grade means you are not getting any academic credit for that class. So, it so is not included in any way in the grade point average. However, if you do not meet the agreed-upon deadline for turning in missing work, then the "I" will turn into whatever default grade you had at the end o the course. That grade will be included in your GPA.

Are "incomplete" grades bad?

No. They give you a chance to recover from unforeseen issues that stymied your ability to complete some assignments on time. They are, in a sense, a kind of "grace" extended to you. If, on the other hand, you fail to complete the missing assignments then you have only postponed the inevitable and will get the letter grade that was in the grade book at the end of the course. The two times they might be "bad" are: (1) if your impending graduation from NBC depends on your successfully completing that particular course. In that case, it will delay your graduation. (2) If your financial aid is dependent on your completing all the courses in which you are enrolled in that quarter, then your aid will be held up until the "I" grade is removed.

What kind of online student are you? Do others think of you as Busy or Wordy or Disconnected Dan? Do you sometimes come off to others as Oblivious or Trite-ly or even End-times Edith? . . [ more ]

    -- Howard Culbertson

Global evangelism course resources:   Attendance policy    Internet problems    Incomplete policy   Learning habits   Time requirements

Lectures:   1. Biblical foundations   2. History   3. Culture    4. Strategy, part I   5. Strategy, part II   6. Nazarene missions

Videos   "Welcome to course"   Calculating grades   Reading reflections   Response posts   End-of-Week reflection   "All posts read" affirmation   Sermon ideas    NMI mission book    Sermon illustration   My church's involvement in global outreach     Face-to-face mobilization     Missionary interview   Final exam

World missions songs    Getting better grades    Are the "heathen" lost? Answers to an oft-asked question    10/40 Window explanation and map     Do you have a call to missions?     Praying for missionaries     Nazarene Missions International resources