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Bakke Graduate University

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Coordinates: 32°53′39″N 96°45′14″W / 32.8943°N 96.7539°W / 32.8943; -96.7539
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Bakke Graduate University
File:Bgulogo.jpg
TypeGraduate school
Established1990 (1990)
PresidentBrad Smith
DeanMartine Audéoud
Location
Dallas
,
Texas
,
United States

32°53′39″N 96°45′14″W / 32.8943°N 96.7539°W / 32.8943; -96.7539
Websitewww.bgu.edu

Bakke Graduate University BGU is a USA accredited graduate school that has students, faculty, alumni and courses in over 50 countries focused on urban studies, sustainable business, and Christian theology.

Distinctives expressed in BGU descriptions and marketing materials [1] include:

  1. City immersion courses in large cities on five continents, and online courses with other students often from eight or more time zones
  2. Lifelong learning and relationships with people in other continents.
  3. Transformational leadership which requires leaders to commit to ongoing personal change before they attempt to transform others.
  4. Discovering personal giftedness[2], motivations, skills and calling (vocation) to help students focus in their area of strength and create healthy reliance upon team members for areas where they have personal limits.
  5. Practical application in course assignments, capstone and dissertation projects often resulting in published books, business plans, or new organizations.
  6. Synergistic studies between the colleges of business, urban studies and Christian theology integrating biblical understanding into all subjects studied.
  7. Customized degree paths utilizing regional mentors and global experts.
  8. Peer learning as graduates are engaged in the education of students who follow them and each other as alumni.

The university is composed of three colleges:

  • a college of Christian theology focusing on global Christian movements;
  • a college of urban studies studying relief, development and advocacy in cities;
  • a college of business, including a global MBA for sustainable business entrepreneurship.

Most students are currently serving as business, government, NGO, church or mission leaders; pastors, consultants, authors, urban ministers, professors or activists. Over 70% of BGU's faculty, students and alumni are located outside of North America with concentrations in Africa, Asia, Central America, the Caribbean, Europe, and South America but only a few graduates in Australia. Students are not required to relocate from their home cities except for the two weeks when they may join an urban immersion.

History

BGU was founded by a global network originally started by Billy Graham in the early 1970s called the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization (LCWE)[3]. As a result, BGU begin in the early 2000s with an already globally distributed student body and faculty network in over 50 countries. A value statement BGU adapted from LCWE is “The Whole World, the Whole City, the Whole Church, the Whole Gospel and the Whole Person”[4]. The mission statement of BGU is: “Bakke Graduate University strengthens leaders who steward resources with and for vulnerable people and places, by means of contextual, Christian-based education innovatively delivered throughout the urban world.”

The original name proposed for BGU in 2003 by naming consultants [5] was “Paradox University” reflecting the difficulty of having pastors, business leaders, and urban ministers in the same courses with different mindsets and viewpoints. Instead the school was named “Bakke Graduate University” to reflect the story of a family that was part of the founding group which had four siblings with prominent careers that mirrored the paradox of the school’s vision:

Ray Bakke is an urban leader who pioneered innovative community development approaches and was part of the LCWE Urban Associates who held 250 city consultations [6] in large global cities between 1983 and 2003.

Dennis Bakke is cofounder of AES Corporation, an electricity company that had 40,000 employees in 36 countries; providing electricity to 100 million people especially in developing nations. Dennis’ book Joy at Work: A Revolutionary Approach to Fun on the Job was on the New York Times Bestseller list in 2005.

Lowell Bakke was a longtime pastor in Puyallup Washington that emphasized the role of his church to serve in the community and marketplace. Lowell current serves as a member of the BGU faculty.

Marilyn Bakke Pearson is a Bible teacher pioneering women’s leadership in Christian mission.

BGU’s founders also included leaders from the World Evangelical Alliance, Leadership Foundations[7], World Vision and local Seattle and Tacoma urban leaders. BGU’s main campus was located in the Seattle First Presbyterian Church[8] until 2012.

BGU added its business college in 2006. In 2012 BGU started a significant and difficult transition to more distributed global leadership. BGU’s main campus is currently located in Dallas, TX but serves more as a hub to support global activities. BGU’s academic dean lives in France and many of BGU’s regents, faculty and staff are globally dispersed in locations where the majority of BGU students also reside. Students are not required to relocate from their home countries to earn a BGU degree.

Academic Programs

BGU courses are conducted using four methods:

  1. City Immersions – 12-15 day city immersions in large global cities often led by BGU graduates who live in those cities. These immersions often include meetings with city mayors and key business leaders as well as opportunities for student to join the work of those who live with the poor and underserved. City immersions are preceded by online preparation and reading and often include groups of students from three or more continents participating.
  2. On-line assisted – online courses with weekly video conference sessions, local mentoring, and specific application projects.
  3. Local small groups in areas where there are enough students to meet face-to-face.
  4. Mentoring from subject-matter experts in the students area of specialized study either on location or through online connections.

BGU offers five degrees:

Doctor of Transformational Leadership (DTL) - a 40-hour (4-year) professional doctorate. The DTL has three specializations:

  1. Urban Leadership – for leaders desiring to conduct an in-depth study of their city resulting in a dissertation project that includes an urban immersion event for city leaders focused on “signs of hope” in addressing poverty, injustice, and systematic problems in their city.
  2. Entrepreneurial Organizational Leadership – for leaders in non-profit, for-profit or government organizations who want to use their studies to move their organizations toward more socially responsible, missional, or vision/values approaches.
  3. Cultural Transformational Leadership – for authors, consultants, speakers, NGO, church government and business leaders who desire to increase their capacity to create transformation in their sphere of influence.

Doctor of Ministry (DMin) is a 40-hour (4-year) professional doctorate for church or denominational leaders. The BGU DMin is centered on Biblical studies, in the context of historical and current Christian mission with application to community involvement and ministry to the urban poor. BGU and this degree is interdenominational with students and faculty from Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, who emphasize biblical authority along with the call to relational and cultural engagement.

Master of Arts in Global Urban Leadership (MAGUL) - a 36-hour (3-year) course of study that helps students understand the work of relief, development and advocacy in urban settings. Students study whole city systems and have opportunities to focus in specialty areas such as poverty, injustice, affordable housing, racial inequality, marketplace solutions, urban planning or governmental policy making.

Master of Social and Civic Entrepreneurship (MASCE) – a 36-hour (3-year) course of study for leaders in for-profit (business), non-profit (NGOs, NPOs and churches) and government. The focus of the degree is helping the student select a specific entrepreneurship project such as creating a business plan, a funding plan, starting a new organization or revitalizing an existing organization. Students take a series of four “toolkit” courses that build their project as they learn core business and organizational principles.

Master of Business Administration(MBA ) – a 36-hour (2-year) degree program for business and NGO leaders. The program equips students with business and entrepreneurial proficiency with a focus on sustainable business for social benefit.

Certificate Programs – From 2008 to 2018, BGU trained over 50,000 people in over 50 countries partnering with over 100 organizations to provide non-degree seminars and certificates. Primary topics of this training include leadership development, giftedness and calling, cross-cultural worldviews, human dignity economics, joy at work, and urban development. BGU served the Mustard Seed Foundation by finding and administrating their theology of work grant program.

BGU is currently researching the addition of a PhD in Transformational Leadership for students pursuing academic leadership or positions in global NGOs, diplomacy, or government service requiring a practical research degree.

Subject Areas

Content areas that occur frequently in BGU’s course catalog include:

  • Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) – urban development that focuses on empowering leadership in areas of poverty to decide where and how resources will be applied.
  • Giftedness & Calling – using narrative interviews to discern a person’s motivated abilities as evidenced from their earliest age as well as how life circumstances have shaped their calling.
  • Church Gathered and Church Scattered[9] – the understanding of the church as a community of believers and not just a Sunday morning program or building. This community gathers often on Sunday for corporate worship, then scatters into the community and workplace to worship God through their work and calling.
  • Relief, Development and Advocacy – addressing poverty, injustice, racism, disease, crises and other social problems at various levels from immediate solutions, long-term solutions and and systematic, economic or policy changes.
  • Sustainable business – business that understands its purpose is to provide social good, and profit is a means but not an end to that purpose.
  • Quadruple Bottom Line for Business[10] – measuring the goal of business by the bottom lines of purpose, people, planet and profit.
  • Human Dignity Economics – economic systems built on an understanding that humans are made in God’s image with the purpose to steward God’s creation.
  • Transformational leadership – leadership that focuses on the leader committing to a lifetime of personal change as they attempt to change their sphere of influence not through only transactional processes, but transformational process that focus on higher purposes than each individuals self-interest.
  • Servant Leadership – leadership where the leader gives up personal rights and privileges in order to lead others to higher goals than self-interest.
  • Joy at Work – principles from the NYT bestseller Joy at Work: A Revolutionary Approach to Fun on the Job by Dennis Bakke. The approach includes working in a company where:
  1. employees value the organizational purpose as creating social good
  2. employees see their job fit aligned well with their gifts and motivations
  3. employees have authority to make decisions that affect their work, along with responsibility and accountability for their decisions
  4. corporate values are clear and consistently measured creating improving corporate cultures
  • Theology of Work – a range of topics that study work from a biblical framework including helping people understand that people not in “vocational ministry” are not second-class; work has the possibility for intentional worship, work is a means of demonstrating God’s plan to redeem people and society.
  • Spiritual Formation – individual and community disciplines that focus on learning to trust God more.
  • Narrative Theology[11]– understanding the larger story of the Bible and God’s work in the world through the natural and cross-cultural lens of biblical, historical, community and personal narrative rather than just applying systematic outlines as the primary means of understanding the Bible. This is pursued while honoring the unique role and authority of the Bible narrative in its historical and grammatical context.

Accreditation

BGU is accredited by the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS), which is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). BGU is also authorized by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements. BGU students in the US can utilize FAFSA to access the Federal Direct Student Loan Program and qualified US military veterans can access education benefits from the Veterans Benefits Administration.

BGU is accredited as a residential university that uses a variety of modes including city immersions and online courses.

University officers

President: Dr. Brad Smith formerly served as the President of Leadership Network, helped start The Center for Christian Leadership at Dallas Theological Seminary and served on the staff of US Senators Howard Baker and John Tower.

Academic Dean: Dr. Martine Audéoud has served in a variety of mission and higher education leadership roles in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), and Haiti and currently lives in France.

BGU’s Board of Directors serves as the legal and financial governing board

BGU’s globally dispersed Board of Regents serves as an active advisory board to ensure BGU responds to global needs.

Alumni & Faculty

A sample of alumni and faculty at BGU include:

  • Tabor Gebremedhin Wordofa (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) Speaker, Addis Ababa City Council
  • Jeremy Gwee (Singapore) Chief Operations Officer and Country Director, HSBC, the 7th largest bank in the world
  • Noah Manyika (Harare, Zimbabwe) Zimbabwe Presidential candidate and Leader of the Political Party Build Zimbabwe
  • Willy Kotiuga (Montreal, Canada) Sr. Director, Strategic Studies SNC Lavalin, the largest engineering firm in Canada with operations in 160 nations.
  • Rodney Robinson-Rogers (Philadelphia, PA) Senior pastor of Christ of Calvary Covenant Church
  • Alex Gee (Madison, WI) Sr. Pastor of Fountain of Life Covenant Church
  • Glenn Smith (Montreal, Canada) Executive Director of Christian Direction global francophone urban network
  • Ali Zhankabayev (Almaty, Kazakhstan) city leader and pastor
  • Andrew Sears (Boston, MA) President of City Vision University
  • Bekele Shanko (Orlando, FL) former director of Africa for Campus Crusade, currently Vice President for Global Church Movements, Cru
  • Charles Barber (Washington DC) Senior Human Capital Advisor at Defense Security Service
  • Dave Hillis (Tacoma, WA) President of Leadership Foundations
  • Eric Swanson (Boulder CO) author of the Externally Focused Church and facilitator at Tango /
  • Gea Gort-Bakker (Rotterdam, The Netherlands) author, speaker, consultant specializing in urban mission and business as mission
  • H. Spees (Fresno, CA) author, activists, former Fresno mayoral candidate
  • Jerry Edmonson (Houston, TX) Sr. Pastor, The Fellowship at Cinco Ranch
  • Jack Drennan (Belfast, Ireland) Crumlin Road Presbyterian Church Pastor and peace facilitator
  • Joseph Mattera (New York) Pastor and leader in the United Coalition of Apostolic Leaders
  • Joycelyne Fadojutimi (Longview, TX) Newspaper owner and community developer
  • Kathy Dudley (Dallas, TX) Founder of Voice of Hope Ministries and Imani Bridges
  • Keith Webb (Seattle, WA) Entrepreneur coach, trainer and author
  • Kris Rocke (Tacoma, WA) Founder of Street Psalms and the Urban Training Collaborative training leaders in 65 global cities
  • Maria Pompea (Colorado Springs, CO) Founder of Flourish to utilize the arts for city healing
  • Kit Danley (Phoenix, AZ) Founder and President of Neighborhood Ministries
  • Nancy Murphy (Seattle, WA) Executive Director of Northwest Family Life Learning and Counseling Center
  • Patience Hove (Harare, Zimbabwe) Founder of Elshaddai Ministries International
  • Rolando Aguirre, (McAllen, TX) President of the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas, and founding pastor of Calvary en Español
  • Samson Gandhi (Chennai, India) – Founder of Person to Person Institute for Christian Counseling
  • Samuel Kargbo (Sierra Leone) – pastor, president of a Bible school, and orphanage
  • Stephen Thompson (WA/NY) Super Bowl III football champion with the New York Jets, Pastor
  • Tyler Johnson (Phoenix, AZ) Lead Pastor of Redemption Church and founder of the SURGE Network
  • Virginia Juan (Manila, the Philippines) – CEO and President of APPEND microfinance bank and training corporation
  • Zhi-Guo Zhu, (Wuhan, China) President of the Hubei Christian Counsel, TSPM,
  • Zenet Maramara, (Manila, the Philippines) former MBA director, Asian Theological Seminary
  • James Fadel (Dallas, TX) Chairman of the Redeemed Christian Church, North America which has planted 800 churches in the US over the past 10 years
  • Randy White (Fresno, CA) Executive Director of the Center for Community Transformation, Fresno Pacific University

Footnotes

1. * ^ 2017-18 Bakke Graduate University Strategic Plan

2. * ^ http://www.thegiftednesscenter.com Hendricks, Bill. The Person Called You: Why You're Here, Why You Matter & What You Should Do With Your Life Moody Publishers 2014

3. * ^ LCWE – Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization Urban Associates which became the International Urban Associates in the mid 1990s

4. * ^ https://www.lausanne.org/content/whole-gospel-whole-church-whole-world

5. * ^ Kn Moy and Steve Brock recommended this descriptive name after conducting interview with over 70 leaders involved in the start-up of BGU.

6. * ^ city consultations included months of research into the history of the city, invitations to key city leaders, followed by 5-10 days of meetings with the mayor, police chief, etc as well as trips to slums in order to see the best practices of people and policies addressing challenges of poverty and injustice.

7. * ^ http://leadershipfoundations.org/

8. * ^ http://firstpres.org/

9. * ^ the origin of the phrase church gathered and scattered is sometimes attributed to Ray Stedman. Current books on this topic include Halter, Hugh, Matt Smay AND: The Gathered and Scattered Church Zondervan; Exponential Series edition (May 1, 2010)

10. * ^ https://www.forbes.com/sites/edwardlawler/2014/05/07/the-quadruple-bottom-line-its-time-has-come/#7f0f2be60123 http://www.seechangemagazine.com/?p=772

11. *^ BGU's approach to narrative theology is connected to a historical-grammatical method and not the post-liberal theology that is sometimes used to describe one specific approach to narrative theology.

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