Summer 2020/Fuller Online

IS501

Smith

IS501: PRACTICES OF WORSHIP (4 Units: 160 hours). Joshua Robert Smith.

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, praise, communion, enacting the prophetic, gathering & sending, prayer, and reading & proclaiming the Word) 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 meets ten weeks online (which includes 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: 1000 pp. of required reading and/or the equivalent time in viewing.

A. Required Textbooks

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Life Together. Harper One, 2009. ISBN: 978-0060608521, Pub. Price $14.99 [122 pp.]

Bradshaw, Paul. Two Ways of Praying. OSL Publications; revised edition (June 12, 2008). ISBN: 978-1878009593, Pub. Price $19.95 [104pp.]

Meyers, Ruth. Missional Worship, Worshipful Mission. Eerdmans, 2014. ISBN: 978-0802868008, Pub. Price $26.00 [200 pp. assigned]

Schmemann, Alexander. For the Life of the World. 2nd ed. St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1973. ISBN: 978-0913836088, Pub. Price $18.00 [116 pp.]

Smith, James K. A. You are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit. Brazos Press, 2016. ISBN: 978-1587433801, Pub. Price $21.99 [224 pp.]

Thurman, Howard. Jesus and the Disinherited. Beacon Press; Reprint edition November 30, 1996. ISBN: 978-0807010297, Pub. Price $16.00 [112 pp.]

B. Core Practices

Sabbath-keeping

Olson, Dennis, “Sacred Time: The Sabbath and Christian Worship,” in Carol Bechtel, ed. Touching the Altar. Eerdmans, 2008, pp. 2-32. In eReserves.

Schmemann, Alexander. For the Life of the World

Confession

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Life Together.

Meyers, Ruth. Missional Worship, Worshipful Mission.

Praise

Brueggemann, Walter. “Praise as a Constitutive Act” in Israel’s Praise: Doxology against Idolatry and Ideology. Augsburg Fortress Press, 1988. ISBN: 978-0800620448, Pub. Price $19.00 [pp. 1-28]. In eReserves.

Communion

Schmemann, Alexander. For the Life of the World (See above)

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Life Together.

Meyers, Ruth. Missional Worship, Worshipful Mission.

Enacting the prophetic

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Life Together.

Thurman, Howard. Jesus and the Disinherited.

Gathering & sending

Schmemann, Alexander. For the Life of the World. (See above)

Meyers, Ruth. Missional Worship, Worshipful Mission.

West, Traci C.“Liturgy: Church Worship and White Superiority” in Disruptive Christian Ethics: When Racism and Women’s Lives Matter. Westminster John Knox Press, 2006. ISBN: 978-0664229597.

Prayer

Bradshaw, Paul. Two Ways of Praying.

Meyers, Ruth. Missional Worship, Worshipful Mission.

Reading & proclaiming the Word

Meyers, Ruth. Missional Worship, Worshipful Mission.

ASSIGNMENTS AND ASSESSMENT:

1. 1000 pages reading, including 60 pages of biblical text. (10%) [This assignment is related to learning outcome #3]. [60 hours]
2. 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. (25%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1, #2, #3 and #4]. [22 hours+8 hours].
3. Liturgical Group Project (Directed Learning Activities): Using course materials as well as influences from their own traditions, students will work in their Vocation Formation Groups to envision, design, organize, and lead a liturgy that the class will enact. (5%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1, #2, #3]. [10 hours].
4. 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. (5%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #2 and #3] [15 hours].
5. Attend at least 3 worship gatherings at the same church plus four fieldwork activities and reflections (20%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #2]. [20 hours].
6. Autobiography: Students will create an autobiography related to practices of worship and prayer (10%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1]. [5 hours].
7. 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. (25%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1, #3, and #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.

NOTE: This ECD is a reliable guide to the course design but is subject to modification. Textbook prices are set by publishers and are subject to change. Copyright 2019 Fuller Theological Seminary.