Diaspora Missions and the Global Church

Program Overview

The Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Diaspora Missions and the Global Church addresses one of the largest facts of the present century: hundreds of millions of people living outside the country of their birth. Migration has redrawn the religious map of every major city. Communities once reachable only by career missionaries now worship, work, and study a bus ride away, and diaspora congregations have become mission bases in their own right. Students study migration itself — its drivers, its legal categories, and the difference between a refugee, an asylum seeker, a labour migrant, and an internally displaced person — alongside the biblical theology of sojourn, exile, and hospitality. The missiological core examines diaspora congregations and their formation, first- and second-generation identity and the losses that accompany assimilation, language and worship in multigenerational immigrant churches, the sending capacity of diaspora communities, ministry among international students, refugee resettlement partnership, trafficking and exploitation, and the ethics of evangelism among people in precarious legal circumstances. Students also examine how receiving churches fail: paternalism, building-sharing arrangements that never become partnership, and advocacy that speaks for migrants rather than with them. The dissertation makes an original contribution on a diaspora community, a congregation, or a question of diaspora mission. Graduates teach missiology, lead diaspora and refugee ministries, advise agencies and denominations, and pastor multicultural congregations.

Core Courses

• DSP 801 — Theology of Sojourn, Exile, and Hospitality (6 credits)
• DSP 812 — Migration: Drivers, Law, and Demography (6 credits)
• DSP 824 — Diaspora Congregations and Generations (6 credits)
• DSP 836 — Diaspora Mission Strategy (6 credits)
• DSP 848 — Vulnerability, Advocacy, and Ethics (5 credits)
• DSP 860 — Ethnographic and Migration Research Design (4 credits)
• DSP 899 — Doctoral Dissertation in Diaspora Missions (24 credits)

Admission Requirements

• Master's degree in theology, missiology, world Christianity, worship, or a related field
• Cross-cultural ministry, mission, or ecumenical experience, or equivalent research preparation
• Statement of purpose naming the region, movement, or question your research will address
• Academic writing sample
• Current curriculum vitae or ministry profile
• Official transcripts from prior institutions when available