In my previous post, I attempted to summarize the arguments for and against the emerging Competency Based Education (CBE) phenomenon that is gaining momentum in North American higher education. How should we respond to this phenomenon? In my opinion, we should thoughtfully welcome this development, seeking both to get ahead of the curve and to shape its trajectory. Why? First, because the concerns driving this trend are legitimate and long standing. Second, because infusion of CBE into the higher education landscape is inevitable. And third, because CBE offers great opportunity to collaborate and innovate in ministry formation and leadership development.

It has probably been more than two decades now since I heard these words from a speaker at an accreditation gathering: About the only thing a US high school diploma tells you is that a person has been institutionalized for 12 years. The speaker argued—rather arrestingly, I would say—that this was the inevitable consequence of a primary-secondary educational system in which time is the constant and achievement is the variable. Efforts over the past two decades to restore primary-secondary education to a more achievement-based enterprise, featuring heavy doses of standardized testing, have met entrenched resistance from those invested in the status quo. Meanwhile, even the strongest proponents of testing are beginning to acknowledge the ill effects of an examination glut.

The purpose of this paper is to stimulate discussion about Competency Based Theological Education (CBTE) as a possible solution for meeting the desperate growing need for theological education. The Changed Evangelical World. The demographic spread of evangelical believers worldwide has changed dramatically in the last 50 years or so. Figure 1 below, is an attempt to show the approximate relationship between believers in the so-called Majority and Western Worlds. In 1960 for every 1 believer in the Majority World there were 2 in the Western World. In 1980 it was 1 to 1. In 1992 it changed to 2 in the Majority World for every 1 in the Western World. At present it is more than 4 for every 1 believer in the Western World. Evangelical Christianity has undergone a profound change from being Western to becoming Majority World and this trend is continuing.