Our Mission
PURPOSE BUILT FOR REPRESENTING CHRIST IN COMMUNITY
Training has almost always been core to Christian ministry. Most of that training assumes a variety of roles within the institutional structures of churches. HOPE College is designed to equip & provide tools for people who see their major calling is to be a missionary in their current or future spheres of influence e.g. neighbourhood, workplace, community involvement, church or ministry organization etc. All the training will presuppose students who want to see the community transformed & who want to be agents of that transformation. It is a ‘vocational’ training enterprise for advancing “Heaven On Planet Earth” (Matt. 6: 9-15; Jn. 1:14-17)
FOCUSING ON THE PROCESS AND THE OUTCOMES
This training experience will attempt to be driven by the task of seeing the kingdom of God advance through community engagement, resulting in churches (Communities of HOPE) being established in community spheres. In that sense it will combine research, experimentation, field projects & partnerships with individuals & groups with the same heart & soul. We are seeking grace from heaven that will empower ordinary people to produce effective forms of ‘common-unity’ (church) in “their own back yards.” The missionaries we want to equip will be trained for the cross cultural ministry experience represented by the spheres where they live, work and play – in this country as much as any other.
MISSION AND VOCATION – TOGETHER
Unfortunately, we have allowed people to separate full time Christian ministry from regular lifestyle. As a result, God’s people generally associate their Christian identity with some kind of ‘organized church’ activity. We would like to influence the way people, young & old, see their primary ministry calling. It is the other end of the spectrum that assumed full time ministry as either a pastor or a missionary overseas. We simply can’t see why people shouldn’t have the opportunity to pursue this kind of missionary training alongside their regular vocational training. We are working to produce models that could assume elective status in a senior high school course as well as tertiary courses.
RECOGNIZED STANDARDS IN A CONTEXT OF MISSION
We are committed to enabling people to do the work. That is primary & supreme. By the grace & extreme effort of our partners, we have established a course that satisfies government standards for the awarding of a (minimum) Certificate IV in Leadership & Management.
We will in no way sacrifice the primary objective in order to prioritize the accreditation, but we believe in providing training which makes it possible for students to articulate from one training opportunity to another with little or no penalty for their whole life of being equipped for the mission God calls them to – whatever that IS. The current paradigm of government endorsed training enables this.
The Training will be designed to give students the opportunity of achieving Certificate IV Level in as close to one year as is possible for them in a delivery style akin to distance education with the added benefits of face to face tutoring & mentoring.
HOPE COLLEGE EQUIPS WITH RECOGNIZED PRACTITIONERS
Graeme Hush: (Director/Tutor)
Senior Minister of the facilitating leadership team at Corrimal Community Church and Founder/CSO at Heartland Ministries Inc., Graeme has been a “lifer” firing up ordinary Aussies to become agents in the transformation of our community and its culture. Graeme is a fellow worker in the cause of seeding the church in Australia to become more and more like Jesus and the way of the Cross and is guilty of an “incurable addiction” to the idea that we should equip followers of Jesus to represent and demonstrate the compassion and power of the Kingdom of God right where we are planted and trust Jesus when He says, “I will build my church”.
Others:
We are building a training experience that makes use of the growing number of Christians who are leaders because they are practitioners of community transforming ministry.
THE SHAPE OF HOPE COLLEGE EQUIPPING
To achieve the nationally recognized HOPE College Certificate IV in Leadership and Management, the student will need to be deemed competent in 12 units of Competency. The actual hours of study will be determined in the context of the relationship that HOPE College establishes with EACH student and will be adjusted to fit the circumstances within which the student is functioning.
The modes of learning will include but not be limited to:-
- Face to Face sessions
- Prescribed Reading & Personal Study
- Supervised Praxis
- Intensives
- Personal Mentoring
- Cert IV Full Time in 1 year or Part Time up to 3 years
- Diploma Full Time in 2 years or Part Time up to 5-6 years neg.COST:Individual Fee Schedules and payment plans for students who apply to HOPE College will be determined by College Admin IN CONSULTATION with the student before the commencement of the first term of study. The following is a general guide ONLY …
Full Time: Cert IV in Leadership and Management is $2400 complete. (OR $350 per subject studied = $200 per competency)This includes all materials, tutoring and IN HOUSE intensives.
It does not include extra text books which students may purchase.
Students can pay their fees before commencement, or by an agreed payment plan to be negotiated at application.
Part Time: Part time students will be charged an individual fee for each subject they enrol in at a cost of $350 per subject.
Recognized Prior Learning (RPL): Students applying for RPL for subjects from the Cert IV OR Diploma program will be charged a fee of $180 per Unit of Competency.
Application for Credit: Applications for credit from other accredited study do not attract any fees.
Student Payments / Allowances: This study program is eligible for student financial support for FULL TIME students in the form of Youth Allowance (16-24yrs), Austudy (25yrs +) and ABSTUDY (all Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander students)
ACCREDITATION
The HOPE College delivered Christian Leaders’ Vocational Education program is an initiative of the Australian Centre for Community Leadership (AusCCL). AusCCL is registered to teach these qualifications through Parasol RTO #2551.
More information on the AusCCL Training Network is available at www.christianleaders.com.au
For more information about anything related to the course, (including FULL Student Guide and Application Process) contact Heather on 02 4285 5014 or by Email hopecollege@heartland.org.au