DESCRIPTION: The widespread prevalence of media in contemporary culture deeply
impacts people's receptivity to the good news of Jesus, both in terms of its
content and our means of sharing. This course will examine the various ways
that media pervades our culture and churches today, such as learning styles,
life goals and values, and expectations for communication. We will explore the
meaning of evangelism and conversion, the relationship between Christianity and
culture, ways to analyze popular culture in order to ascertain people's
worldview and values, historical and contemporary strategies for evangelism,
secular reactions to Christian evangelism, and ideas for empowering believers
to witness more effectively to those around them. We will seek to creatively
learn from and selectively appropriate contemporary media and to respond to the
needs and questions created by a media culture in order to share Jesus
understandably and relevantly to the people around us.
SIGNIFICANCE FOR LIFE AND MINISTRY: All Christian ministry should incorporate
sharing the good news of Christ and encouraging people to commit to following
him. Awareness of contemporary culture and the influence of media helps us
increase our ability to share the good news of Jesus through means of
communication which connect with people today and to better understand how to
explain the content of the gospel and to identify and respond to challenges.
LEARNING OUTCOMES: Students completing this course will have demonstrated (1)
an understanding of the biblical meaning of evangelism and conversion; the
development of evangelism in church history and today; various theological
perspectives on evangelism and conversion; and various perspectives on and
implications of the relationship between God, culture, theology, and
evangelism; (2) an understanding of different aspects of evangelism and of
different paradigms, methods, and strategies; discussion of application; (3) a
grasp of the importance of understanding cultural context and an ability to
analyze cultural processes and to interpret, appreciate, and evaluate cultural
artifacts in their local and global contexts; (4) an understanding of the
multiple impacts of the predominance of media in contemporary culture, the
relationship between media and content, and the impact of media on evangelism
and ministry today; (5) increased ability to critically analyze cultural
context and processes in relationship to local church and ministry contexts in
order to understand one's own culture and the surrounding culture, and to
determine and implement potential outreach activities, strategies, and
motivation; and (6) an increased passion for evangelism and confidence in
personal ability to share about faith in Jesus as the good news for people in
all cultural contexts.
COURSE FORMAT: The class will meet daily for four-hour sessions for two weeks.
The classes will include lecture, interactive class discussion, and guided
small group discussions.
REQUIRED READING: 1500 pages (the required texts below plus one from
recommended list in syllabus)