Religion

A calling in pastoral ministry often requires preparation. The religion courses and concentrations offered by the Department of Religion at Southwestern Adventist University focuses on Biblical understanding, personal application, evangelism, church leadership, and administration to prepare religion students for excellence in ministry.

We use real-world application to balance our classroom work through our School of Evangelism, student pastoring, and the mission field around the world. Education from the Department of Religion at SWAU facilitates the understanding, appreciation, and application of:

• The Bible
• A Christian worldview
• Seventh-day Adventism

More specifically, our theological training involves:

• A Christ-centered and Bible-based education on campus, in the classroom, and in the community.
• Our Pastoral Internship Program, which assigns each student to a local church as a student pastor under the guidance of an experienced pastor. This opportunity is for students in their junior and senior years.
• Our Field School of Evangelism, which trains students to perform a 5-week-long evangelism campaign in one of the Southwestern Union Conferences. 
• Academic performance, which helps most of our students pass the placement exams for the Master of Divinity Program at Andrews University.
• Bible interpretation, Greek and Hebrew languages, Biblical preaching, exegesis, and Systematic Theology, which are some of the expertise that we strive to equip our students with by the end of this program.

Freshmen and sophomores are invited to participate in volunteer roles at churches in the surrounding area. These churches will welcome them and assign them to different ministries, such as the Pathfinder club, Sabbath school classes, praise team, sound, and media, or as Bible workers or canvassers. This will help students to confirm their calling as ministers of the gospel.