Summer 2020/Online

IS503

Maros

IS503: PRACTICES OF MISSION (4 Units: 160 hours). Susan L. Maros.

DESCRIPTION: This course explores the distinctive nature of the mission of God as boundary-crossing engagement with “the other” as part of seeking God’s shalom. Participants will engage in historically and theologically-rooted Christian practices of mission—focusing on the practices of witness, interreligious dialogue, inculturation and reconciliation—as they reflect on their call to participate in God’s work in the world in distinct social-cultural locations. Participants will have opportunity to explore exercises and activities related to advocacy; creation care; intercultural friendship; acts of mercy; and healing, signs & wonders.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

1. Students will identify habits and patterns of their previous engagement with practices of Christian mission.
2. Students will engage Scripture, tradition, and contemporary resources to analyze and assess their faith community’s past and current engagement with mission.
3. Students will consider barriers to engaging in God’s mission, including reflection on the impact of their gender, ethnicity, race, class, and/or other social identities on enacting practices of mission.
4. Students will experiment with embodied and embedded exercises that develop skills and habits necessary for Christian practices of mission.
5. Students will identify specific steps to enact and deepen spiritual practices as a response to God’s invitation to continued formation for the sake of participation in mission.
6. Students will demonstrate the capacity to integrate course learning into a plan for participating with God’s shalom-making work in the world.
   

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 mission, 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). Content in this course contributes to all MAICS learning outcomes (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 and a course total of 160 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: Approximately 1,000 pp. of required reading.

A. Core Texts

Bevans, Stephen B., and Roger P. Schroeder. Prophetic Dialogue: Reflections on Christian Mission Today. Orbis, 2011. ISBN: 978-1570759111, $35.00 [137 pp. assigned]. Available as an e-book from the Fuller Library. witness, reconciliation, inculturation, interreligious dialogue

Reisacher, Evelyne A.Joyful Witness in the Muslim World : Sharing the Gospel in Everyday Encounters. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2016. ISBN: 978-0801030840, Pub Price $25.00 [182 pp. assigned] Available as an e-book from the Fuller Library. witness, inculturation, interreligious dialogue, intercultural friendship, creation care, acts of mercy

Katongole, Emmanuel and Chris Rice. Reconciling All Things: A Christian Vision for Justice, Peace and Healing. IVP, 2008. ISBN: 978-0830834518, Pub. Price $18.00. [140 pp. assigned] Available as an e-book from the Fuller Library. reconciliation, intercultural friendship

OR

McNeil, Brenda Salter. Roadmap to Reconciliation: Moving Communities into Unity, Wholeness and Justice. IVP, 2015. ISBN: 978-0830844425, Pub. Price $18.00. [142 pp.]. Available as an e-book from the Fuller Library. reconciliation, advocacy

Choice Book - pick one of the following

Boyle, Greg.Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion. Simon and Schuster, 2011. ISBN: 978-1439153154, Pub. Price $16.99 [240 pp.] Available as an e-book from the Fuller Library in English and Spanish.

Clairborne, Shane and John Perkins. Follow Me to Freedom: Leading As an Ordinary Radical. Ventura, CA: Regal, 2009. ISBN: 978-0830751204, Pub. Price $14.99. [224 pp.]

Gonzalez, Karen.The God Who Sees: Immigrants, the Bible, and the Journey to Belong. Newburyport: Herald Press, 2019. ISBN: 978-1513804125, Pub. Price $16.99 [200 pp.] Available as an e-book from the Fuller Library.

Jeung, Russell. At Home In Exile: Finding Jesus Among My Ancestors and Refugee Neighbors. Zondervan, 2016. ISBN: 978-0310527831, Pub. Price $17.99 [224 pp.]

Krieg, Shabrae Jackson, and Janet Balasiri Singeleterry, eds.Voices Rising : Women of Color Finding and Restoring Hope in the City. Pomona, CA: Servant Partners Press, 2018. ISBN: ​​​​​​​ISBN:978-0998366500, Pub. Price $15.95 [200 pp. assigned]

Thurman, Howard.Jesus and the Disinherited. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1996. ISBN: 978-0807010297, Pub. Price $16.00 [128 pp.] Available as an e-book from the Fuller Library.

Twiss, Richard.Rescuing the Gospel from the Cowboys: A Native American Expression of the Jesus Way. InterVarsity Press, 2015. ISBN: 978-0830844234, Pub. Price $23.00 [215 pp. assigned] Available as an e-book from the Fuller Library.

B. Mission Practices Reader (available online) [approx. 150 pp.]

C. Biblical text—Book of Acts [approx. 50 pp.]

RECOMMENDED READING:

Salvatierra, Alexia.Faith-Rooted Organizing: Mobilizing the Church in Service to the World. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2014.ISBN: 978-0830836611, Pub. Price $18.00 [208 pp.] Available as an e-book from the Fuller Library.

ASSIGNMENTS:

Note: 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.

1. Approximately 1,000 pages reading, online resources (video, audio, and text), and weekly video lectures. [This assignment is related to learning outcomes #2 and 3] [70 hours].
2. Integrative Reflections: Students will participate in active learning to foster understanding of and capacity for engaging in theologically-informed reflection through online discussion of course content and through short written assignments including, but not limited to, a mission autobiography. Integrative reflections will focus on mission and the practices of witness, interreligious dialogue, inculturation and reconciliation. SIS students who have completed MT502 will have additional or alternative options for some assignments. (20%) [This assignment is related to learning outcomes #1, #2, and #3]. [20 hours]
3. Vocation Formation Group (VFG): Students will engage in small group facilitated by a Vocation Formation Group Leader. In this group, students will participate in the spiritual discipline of intercessory prayer and reflect together on their experience of spiritual practices that facilitate their capacity to develop and sustain a lifetime of participation in God’s work in the world. VF Groups will meet asynchronously in online discussion and synchronously in four (4), one-hour online video conferences in Weeks 3, 5, 7, and 9. (20%) [This assignment is related to learning outcomes #1, 4, and 5]. [10 hours].
4. Rhythm of Life Reflection: In a short (1,000 word) paper, students will articulate their sense of call to participate in God’s mission in the world and outline the rhythm of life—practices, exercises, disciplines—needed to develop and sustain that call. Students who have taken at least two previous IS courses will have alternative options to fulfill this assignment. (10%) [This assignment is related to learning outcomes #4 and #5]. [10 hours].
5. Fieldwork: Mission Practice Observation: Students will choose one practice— advocacy; creation care; intercultural friendship; acts of mercy; or healing, signs & wonders—to investigate more deeply. They will identify and visit a ministry or individual engaged with this practice. In a short (1,000 word) paper, students will define the practice, describe their visit, assess what they observed utilizing historical, biblical, and theological content, and identify potential means to creatively and practically engage with the practice in their own church or ministry context. (10%). [This assignment is related to learning outcomes #2, #3 and #4]. [10 hours].
6. Fieldwork: Engage another World Religion: Students will visit a formal religious expression of another World Religion, observe and describe what is happening, and analyze the experience in light of mission practices, integrating course content into a short (750-1,000 word) paper (10%). Students who are currently inservice missionaries will have alternative options to fulfill this assignment. [This assignment is related to learning outcomes #3 and #4]. [10 hours].
7. Fieldwork: Community Context Analysis: Students will observe and describe the social and religious landscape of their neighborhood or the community around their church and reflect critically on how they and their church engage this context missionally in a short (1,000 word) Integration Paper. (10%). Students who are currently inservice missionaries will have alternative options to fulfill this assignment. [This assignment is related to learning outcomes #2 and #3]. [10 hours].
8. Mission Project: Students will develop a mission project related to their understanding of God’s call on their lives. The project will engage at least two of the practices of the course. Students will create a presentation meant to be shared with an organization, small group, church etc., that might participate in or facilitate the project. The development of the project is the requirement for the course but it is hoped that the student will be motivated to implement the project in the future. (20%) [This assignment is related to learning outcome #6]. [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.