Summer 2020/Online

IS501

J. James

IS501: PRACTICES OF WORSHIP (4 Units: 160 hours). Joshua James, PhD.

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. IS501 is an integrative course that explores the identity and practices of Christian worship and prayer as a people called, gathered, and sent by God. Together, professor and students study and enact historic Christian disciplines necessitated by this distinctive identity (Sabbath-keeping, confession, reading & proclaiming the word, praise, prayer, communion, gathering & sending) 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 worship. (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 worship. (3) Students will have demonstrated capacities to engage scripture, tradition, and contemporary resources to reflect theologically on historic and personal practices of worship. (4) Students will have articulated how worship 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.

RELATIONSHIP TO PROGRAM LEARNING OUTCOMES: This course will provide students with further opportunity to develop and/or master skills in integrating theological and missiological content with life experience and context through engaging a variety of spiritual practices related to the practice of worship, which is consistent with the SOT/SIS PLO “Students will have demonstrated capacities to cultivate a theologically reflective practice of Christian discipleship.” (MDiv, MAT, MATM, MAICS). The emphases on integration in this course provides introduction to the MAICS learning outcome related to critical thinking and integration (MAICS). This course may also contribute to various learning outcomes in the MAGL related to integrating theology and praxis in ministry and mission, and related to spiritual formation (MAGL).

COURSE FORMAT: This course will be conducted online on a ten-week schedule aligned with Fuller’s academic calendar 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. This course may include required synchronous and/or asynchronous participation in vocation and formation groups.

REQUIRED READING: Approximately 900 pp. of required reading

A. Required Textbooks

Costen, Melva W. African American Christian Worship. Exp. ed. Abingdon Press, 2007.

Available as an e-book from the Fuller Library. ISBN: 978-0687646227, Pub. Price $19.99 [128

pp. assigned]

Smith, James K. A. You are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit. Brazos Press, 2016. Available as an e-book from the Fuller Library. ISBN: 978-1587433801, Price $21.99 [190 pp. assigned]

Warren, Tish Harrison. Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life. IVP Books, 2016. ISBN: 978-0830846238, Pub. Price $16.00 [153 pp. assigned]

Bible Reading: 50 pp. assigned. [CEB, NIV, or NRSV]

B. Core Practices

Communion

Wright, NT. “Part 1: How it All Began” in The Meal Jesus Gave Us. 2nd edition. Westminster John Knox, 2015. ISBN: 978-0664261290, Pub. Price $14.00 [36 pp. assigned; eReserves]

Confession

Bonhoeffer, “Confession and Community” in Life Together. HarperOne, 2009. ISBN: 978-0060608521, Pub. Price $14.99 [12 pp. assigned; eReserves]

Foster, Richard. Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth. HarperCollins, 1998 (originally 1978). ISBN: 978-0060628390, Pub. Price $25.99 [Ch. 10; 14 pp. assigned; eReserves]

Enacting the Prophetic

Brueggemann, Walter. The Prophetic Imagination 2nd ed. Fortress, 2001. Available as an e-book from the Fuller Library. ISBN: 978-0800632878, Pub. Price $19.00 [Chs. 1-3, 7; 64 pp. assigned]

Choice of One:

Cone, James H. A Black Theology of Liberation 40th Anniversary ed., 2016. Available as an e-book from the Fuller Library. ISBN: 978-1570758959, Pub. Price $21.00 [Ch. 1; 21 pp.]

King, Martin Luther, Jr. “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” https://swap.stanford.edu/20141218230016/http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/kingweb/popular%5Frequests/frequentdocs/birmingham.pdf

Thurman, Howard. Jesus and the Disinherited. Beacon Press, 1996. Available as an e-book from the Fuller Library. ISBN: 978-0807010297, Pub. Price $16.00 [Ch. 1; 25 pp.]

Gathering & Sending

Katongole, Emmanuel. “Greeting: Beyond Racial Reconciliation” in The Blackwell Companion to Christian Ethics, eds. Stanley Hauerwas and Samuel Wells. 2nd ed. Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. Available as an e-book from the Fuller Library. ISBN: 978-1444331349, Pub. Price $233.00 [Ch. 6; 13 pp. assigned]

Schmit, Clayton J. “The Sending” and “The Gathering” in Sent and Gathered: A Worship Manual for the Missional Church. Baker Academic, 2009. Available as an e-book from the Fuller Library. ISBN: 978-0801031656, Pub. Price $25.00 [19 pp. assigned]

Praise

Brueggemann, Walter. “Praise and the Psalms: The Politics of Glad Abandonment” in The Psalms & the Life of Faith. Augsburg Fortress Press, 1995. ISBN: 978-0800627331, Pub. Price $26.00 [20 pp. assigned; eReserves]

Yong, Amos. “The Power of Language: The Implications of Pentecost for Global Worship,” Reformed Worship 119 (March 2016): 28-33 [5 pp. assigned; eReserves.]

Prayer

Barton, Ruth Haley. Sacred Rhythms: Arranging Our Lives for Spiritual Transformation. IVP Books, 2006. Available as an e-book from the Fuller Library. ISBN: 978-0830833337, Pub. Price $22.00 [Ch. 3; 15 pp. assigned]

Foster, Richard. Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth. HarperCollins, 1998 (originally 1978). ISBN: 978-0060628390, Pub. Price $25.99 [Ch. 3; 14 pp. assigned; eReserves.]

Jones, Tony. The Sacred Way: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Life. Zondervan, 2005. Available as an e-book from the Fuller Library. ISBN: 978-0310258100, Pub. Price $12.99 [Chs. 5–8; 38 pp. assigned]

Reading & Proclaiming the Word

Fodor, Jim. “Reading the Scriptures: Rehearsing Identity, Practicing Character” in The Blackwell Companion to Christian Ethics, eds. Stanley Hauerwas and Samuel Wells. 2nd ed. Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. Available as an e-book from the Fuller Library. ISBN: 978-1444331349, Pub. Price $233.00 [Ch. 12; 14 pp. assigned]

Peterson, Eugene. Eat This Book: A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual Reading. Eerdmans, 2009. ISBN: 978-0802864901, Pub. Price $18.00 [Chs. 4-5; 55 pp. assigned; eReserves.]

Sabbath-Keeping

Jones, Tony. The Sacred Way: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Life. Zondervan, 2005. Available as an e-book from the Fuller Library. ISBN: 978-0310258100, Pub. Price $12.99 [Ch. 17; 8 pp. assigned]

Optional: Brueggemann, Walter. Sabbath as Resistance: Saying No to the Culture of Now. Westminster John Knox Press, 2014. Available as an e-book from the Fuller Library. ISBN: 978-0664239282, Pub. Price $14.00 [89 pp. assigned]

ASSIGNMENTS AND ASSESSMENT: This course includes fieldwork and embodied assignments of various kinds. If you have a disability, chronic illness, or other condition that makes these activities inaccessible for you, please let the instructor know. Together you can figure out some alternative ways of completing the assignments that will preserve the learning objectives while making the coursework accessible.

Reading: Approximately 900 pages of assigned reading including biblical text [This assignment is related to learning outcome #3]. [60 hours].
Online 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 online classroom and through participation in a Vocation Formation Group (which will be facilitated by a Vocation Formation Group Leader). (10%) [This assignment is related to learning outcome #2, #4]. [32+8 hours].
Autobiographical Reflection (related to practices of worship and prayer): Presentation in forum-based small groups which will provide a description and assessment of one’s own ecclesial tradition’s practices of personal and corporate worship (10%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1]. [3 hours].
Directed Exercises and Integrative Reflection: Student will participate in disciplines and exercises related to the core practices that are explored in the course and reflect on these experiences in a way that integrates their experience with the course content. (35%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #2 and #3]. [25 hours].
Two fieldwork activities and reflections: Student will visit services in two worshiping congregations outside of one’s own church tradition, then prepare and submit a 500-word participant-observation report based upon each of those worship services. (15%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1, #2, and #3]. [12 hours].
Final Integrative Paper (2500 words): Students will write an integration paper that reflects on their vocational formation to date, integrates key points of learning and/or transformation from the course, and identifies a plan for further spiritual and vocational development. (30%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1, #2, #3, #4]. [20 hours].

PREREQUISITES: None. IS500 strongly recommended.

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

FINAL EXAMINATION: None.