Fall 2015/Pasadena

IS502

Branson

IS502: PRACTICES OF COMMUNITY (4 Units: 160 hours). Mark Lau Branson.

DESCRIPTION: Christian practices constitute the Christian life. The combined Christian practices of vocational formation, worship, community, and mission facilitate the integration of personal, spiritual, academic, and global formation into the vocational coherence of a Christian leader through reflection, relationships, and practices. IS502 is an integrative course that explores the identity and practices of Christian community, as a people called, gathered, and sent by God. Together, professor and students study and enact historic Christian disciplines necessitated by this distinctive identity (Hospitality, Truth-telling, Promise-keeping, Forgiveness, Christian Formation, Gratitude, Testimony, and Group Spiritual Direction).

LEARNING OUTCOMES: (1) Students will reflect on their current and past experiences of Christian practices of community. (2) Students will participate in local contexts and demonstrate the capacity to engage in activities and exercises related to Christian spiritual disciplines and practices of community. (3) Students will demonstrate the capacity to engage scripture, tradition, and contemporary resources to reflect theologically on historic practices of community. (4) Students will articulate how community practices impact their response to the Central Integration Question (CIQ) and will identify exercises, habits, and disciplines to embody these practices within their sociocultural context.

COURSE FORMAT: This class meets twice weekly for two hour sessions for a total of 40 instructional hours in the classroom for lecture and discussion (which includes 8 hours of participation in vocation and formation groups).

REQUIRED READING: 1020 total number of pages required.

Lohfink, Gerhard. Jesus and Community. Fortress, 1984. ISBN: 978-0800618025, Pub. Price $29.00 [187 pp. assigned]

Pohl, Christine. Living into Community: Cultivating Practices That Sustain Us. Eerdmans, 2011. ISBN: 978-0802849854, Pub. Price $20.00 [178 pp. assigned].

Smith, C. Christopher & John Pattison. Slow Church. InterVarsity, 2014. ISBN: 978-0830841141, Pub. Price $16.00 [226 pp. assigned].

Biblical Texts: Exodus [55 pp.] and Matthew [50 pp.].

Reading for Practices: (all articles below will be available via eReserves)

Hospitality

Required text: Pohl, Christine. Living into Community.

Conde-Frazier, Elizabeth. “From Hospitality to Shalom” in A Many Colored Kingdom. Baker, 2004. ISBN:  978-0801027437, Pub. Price $24.00 [pp. 167-210].

Wimberly, Anne Streaty. “Called to Listen: The Imperative Vocation of Listening in Twenty-First Century Faith Communities.” International Review of Mission LXXXVII, No. 346:331-341.

Truth-Telling

Required text: Pohl, Christine. Living into Community.

Promise-Keeping

Required text: Pohl, Christine. Living into Community.

Forgiveness

Volf, Miroslav. “How Can We Forgive,” in Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a World Stripped of Grace. Zondervan, 2005. ISBN: 978-0310265740, Pub. Price $15.99 [pp. 193-224].

David Augsburger: Here is a link to an interview he did several years back that gets to some of the more important issues: http://www.nacronline.com/wordpress/160/the-f-word-forgiveness-and-its-imitations. [=14 pp]

Gratitude

Required text: Pohl, Christine. Living into Community.

Christian Formation

Everist, Norma Cook. “A Community of Teachers & Learners” and “Creating Different Learning Environments to be Different Together,” in The Church as Learning Community. Abingdon, 2002. ISBN: 978-0687045006, Pub. Price $31.99 [pp. 21-101].

Smith, James K.A. ”Introduction: Beyond Perspectives” and “Homo Liturgicus: The Human Person as Lover,” in Desiring the Kingdom. Baker, 2009. ISBN: 978-0801035777, Pub. Price $22.99 [pp. 17-35 and 37-73].

Testimony

Drury, Amanda Hontz. “Testimony in Practice,” in Saying is Believing. InterVarsity, 2015. ISBN: 978-0830840656, Pub. Price $22.00 [pp.125-167].

Group Spiritual Direction

Bedford, Nancy. “Little Moves Against Destructiveness,”in Practicing Theology, Miroslav Volf and Dorothy Bass, eds.Eerdmans, 2001.  ISBN: 978-0802849311, Pub. Price $24.99 [pp. 157-183].

Accountability

Wadell, Paul. “Not Going It Alone: Friendship and Community in the Christian Moral Life,” in Happiness and the Christian Moral Life: An Introduction to Christian Ethics, 2^nd ed. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2012. ISBN: 978-1442209732, Pub. Price $33.00 [pp. 23-44].

Plus other videos and articles on Moodle

ASSIGNMENTS AND ASSESSMENT:

1. 1020 pages reading and videos, including 105 pages of biblical text. [This assignment is related to learning outcome #3] [55 hours].
2. Classroom: for each practice, students will engage, reflect, create (utilizing instruction, participation, presentation, discussion, engaging practice-based theology cycle for theological reflection, case studies). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1, 2, 3] [32 hours].
3. Vocation Formation Group (VFG) - In a Vocation Formation Group, students will engage spiritual disciplines, practices, and discussion. Students will study the Bible, and share and listen to stories related to the practices. (Vocation Formation Group Leader (VFGL) will let professor know if students have been present and engaged). (10%) [This assignment is related to learning outcomes #1, 2, 4] [8 hours].
4. Students will participate in directed practices and disciplines over the course of the quarter. [This assignment is related to learning outcome #2] [15 hours].
5. Attend at least 3 worship gatherings at the same church, plus four fieldwork activities and reflections, which can be at the same or different churches. [This assignment is related to learning outcome #2] [6 + 8 hours + 9 hours].
6. Autobiography related to core course concept of Christian Community. [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1] [2 hours].      
7. Signature Assignment: 100-word CIQ response, research paper related to course practices, and Rule of Life (2,500 words total). (20%) [This assignment is related to learning outcomes #1, 3, 4] [25 hours].

PREREQUISITES: None. Recommended in the first year of study.

RELATIONSHIP TO CURRICULUM: Meets a core integrative requirement in the 120 MDiv and the 80 MAT, 80 MATM, 80 MAICS Programs (Fall 2015).

FINAL EXAMINATION: None.