Fall 2016/Pasadena
IS503
Ayers
IS503: PRACTICES OF MISSION (4 Units: 160 hours). Adam D. Ayers.
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. IS503 is an integrative course that explores the identity and practices of Christian mission as a people called, gathered, and sent by God. Together, professor and students study and enact historic Christian disciplines necessitated by this distinctive identity (advocacy, creation care, friendship, inculturation, inter-religious dialogue, mercy, reconciliation, and witness) in order to form students who demonstrate capacities to cultivate a theologically reflective practice of Christian discipleship.
LEARNING OUTCOMES: (1) Students will have demonstrated capacities to critically reflect on their current and past experiences of Christian practices of mission. (2) Students will have demonstrated through participation in local contexts the capacity to engage in activities and exercises related to Christian spiritual disciplines and practices of mission (3) Students will have demonstrated capacities to engage scripture, tradition, and contemporary resources to reflect theologically on historic and personal practices of mission. (4) Students will have articulated how practices of mission 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 hybrid course meets nine weeks online (with at least 12 instructional hours) combined with one week on campus (28 hours which includes 8 hours of required synchronous and/or asynchronous participation in vocation and formation groups) for a total of 40 instructional hours. Students are required to interact with the material, with each other, and with the instructor regularly through online discussions, reading, and other assignments that promote active learning.
REQUIRED READING: 800 pp. of required reading and/or the equivalent time in viewing.
A. Bevans, Stephen B., and Roger P. Schroeder. Prophetic Dialogue: Reflections on Christian Mission Today. Orbis, 2011. ISBN: 978-1570759116, Pub. Price $35.00 [208 pp. assigned].
Wright, Christopher J. H. 2006. The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative. InterVarsity Press, 2006. ISBN: 978-0830825714, Pub. Price $45.00 [120 pp. assigned].
OR:
Glasser, Arthur, Charles Van Engen, Dean Gilliland and Shawn Redford, Announcing the Kingdom: The Story of God’s Mission in the Bible. Baker, 2003. ISBN: 978-0801026263, Pub. Price $30.00 [130 pp. assigned].
Bible Reading: Gen 1-3, 12; Exod 1-3, 12; Josh 1-4; Ps 2, 9; Jonah 1-4; Mt 3-7, 13, 28; Lk 4, 9-10, 13, 15-16, 24; Jn 1, 6, 13, 14, 21; Acts 1-2, 4, 10, 13, 15; Rom 1-3, 9-11, 15; Heb 1, 11-12; Rev 18-21.
B. Hiebert, Paul. Transforming Worldviews: An Anthropological Understanding of How People Change. Baker Academic, 2008. ISBN: 978-0801027055, Pub. Price $28.00 [110 pp. assigned].
Hiebert, Paul. “The Category ‘Christian’ in the Mission Task,” International Review of Mission 72 (287), (July 1983): 421-427 ------ OR Globalizing Theology: Belief and Practice in an Era of World Christianity, edited by C. Ott and H. A. Netland. Baker Academic, 2006. ISBN: 978-0801031120, Pub. Price $30.00 [120 pp. assigned].
Newbigin, Lesslie. Foolishness to the Greeks. Eerdmans, 1986. ISBN: 978-0802801760, Pub. Price $17.00 [125 pp. assigned].
C. Van Engen, Darrell Whiteman and J. Dudley Woodberry, edits. Paradigm Shifts in Christian Witness. Orbis, 2008. ISBN: 978-1570757716, Pub. Price$30.00 [75 pp. assigned].
D. CORE PRACTICES: Witness, Mercy, Reconciliation, Inter-Religious Dialogue, Inculturation, Friendship, Creation Care, Advocacy, Signs and Wonders, Healing.
RECOMMENDED READING:
Sunquist, Scott W., Understanding Christian Mission: Participation in Suffering and Glory. Baker Academic, 2013. ISBN: 978-0801036156, Pub. Price, $34.99.
Bosch, David J. Transforming Mission, Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission. Orbis Books, 2011. ISBN: 978-1570759482, Pub. Price $35.00 [520 pp. assigned].
Newbigin, J.E. Lesslie. The Gospel in a Pluralist Society. Eerdmans, 1989. ISBN: 978-0802804266, Pub. Price $25.00
Documents of Vatican II. http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/
Escobar, Samuel. Changing Tides, Latin America and World Mission Today. Orbis Books, 2002. ISBN: 978-1570754142, Pub. Price $28.00
Lausanne Covenant Documents http://www.lausanne.org/en/documents/all.html
Muck, Terry and Frances S. Adeney. Christianity Encountering World Religions, The Practice of Mission in the Twenty-first Century. Baker Academic, 2009. ISBN: 978-0801026607, Pub. Price $30.00
Robert, Dana L. American Women in Mission, A Social History of Their Thought and Practice. Mercer University Press, 1997. ISBN: 978-0865545496, Pub. Price $40.00
Sanneh, Lamin. Disciples of All Nations, Pillars of World Christianity. Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN: 978-0195189612, Pub. Price $19.95
Shenk, Wilbert R. Changing Frontiers of Mission. Orbis Books, 1999. ISBN: 978-1570752599, Pub. Price $28.00
Walls, Andrew F. The Missionary Movement in Christian History, Studies in the Transmission of Faith. Orbis Books, 1996. ISBN: 978-1570750595, Pub. Price $26.00
Wright, Christopher J.H. The Mission of God, Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative. IVP Academic, 2006. ISBN: 978-0830825714, Pub. Price $40.00
ASSIGNMENTS AND ASSESSMENT:
800 pages reading and videos, including at least 50 pages of biblical text [This assignment is related to learning outcome #3]. [40 hours].
Classroom and Vocation Formation Group (VFG) Participation: Students will participate in active learning to foster understanding of and capacity for engaging in theologically-informed reflection in the classroom and through participation in Vocation Formation Groups. (10%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1, #2, #3 and #4]. [20 hours+8 hours].
Autobiography: Students will create an autobiography related to practices of mission. Self-reflection Papers, A (Week 1) and B (Week 10). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1]. (5% each, 10% total). [2 hours].
Directed Exercises and Integrative Reflection: Student will participate in disciplines and exercises outside of the classroom over the course of the quarter related to the core practices of the course and reflect on these experiences in a way that integrates experience with course content. [This assignment is related to learning outcome #2 and #3.] ]. Local Context Analysis (15%). [8 hours]. Visit to Religious Expression (15%). [8 hours]. (30% total). [16 hours total]. Two directed contemplation exercises with written reflections (500-words, Moodle) from the reading, course experiences, and lecture topics, on how your understanding of mission is changing in both thinking and practice. Choose two of the 10 weeks to write a reflection (5% each, 10% total). [7.5 hours ea.; 15 hours, total including 10 hours of DLAs].
Final Integrative Assignment: Integration paper that reflects theologically on the practices of this course and their implications for the student’s response to the CIQ and the exercises, habits, and disciplines in their current Rule of Life (2,500 words total) (20%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1, #3, and #4]. [25 hours].
Four fieldwork activities and reflections: Witness Exercise A (Group) [8 hours] and B (Single) [8 hours]; Ecclesial Evaluation [8 hours], Para-church Evaluation [8 hours] (5% ea; 20% total). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #2.] [32 hours total].
PREREQUISITES: None. Recommended in first year of study.
RELATIONSHIP TO CURRICULUM: Meets a core integrative requirement in the 120 MDiv Program and the 80 MAT, 80 MATM, 80 MAICS Programs (Fall 2015).
FINAL EXAMINATION: None.