A contextualized practical theology curriculum for character formation for Assemblies of God Bible School, Quetta

Doctor of Ministry (DMin)
This project aims to design a comprehensive and contextualized practical theology curriculum for Assemblies of God Bible School, Quetta. The objective of this curriculum is to equip future ministers with a basic understanding of concepts in Christian theology relevant to their community, i.e. poor and marginalized Christians in Pakistan. The thesis has been tested on a group to verify its applicability and practicality in the Pakistani context. Assemblies of God Bible School (AGBS) is located in the beautiful city of Quetta within the Baluchistan province of Pakistan. The institute’s vision is to train future Christian ministers and equip them with theological and biblical knowledge for better ministry in their respective areas. This low-cost institution is affordable for those who want to learn and then step into a ministry context. This contextually designed practical theology curriculum will help students who want to be leaders equip themselves with ministry skills that will help them in their ministry context. The first part of this dissertation explores the geographical, cultural, and historical context of ministry among the marginalized poor community in Quetta. This section includes cultural background about the people of Baluchistan and why AGBS was established in Quetta. Then, in the second part, a literature review highlights the need for this project. After theological reflection about how the Holy Spirit works in lives for the transformation of mind and heart, this section presents the design basis for the contextualized practical theology curriculum. Lastly, conclusions are presented about the effectiveness of the curriculum in the Pakistani context based on a small-scale administrative group experience. The complete practical theology curriculum, developed as part of this project, is presented in Appendix A.