Fall 2020/Online Live

IS500

Tiersma Watson

IS500: PRACTICES OF VOCATIONAL FORMATION (4 Units: 160 hours). Jude Tiersma Watson.

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. IS500 teaches students a method for integrating resources of theological method into faithful responses to the human condition. As an integrative course, it explores the identity and practices of Christian vocational formation as a people called, gathered, and sent by God. Together, professor and students study and enact historic Christian disciplines necessitated by this distinctive identity (listening, discernment, lament, rhythms of rest, honoring the body and stewardship) fashioning them into a Rule of Life that shapes and supports the student’s vocation 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 vocational formation. (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 vocational formation. (3) Students will have demonstrated capacities to engage scripture, tradition, and contemporary resources to reflect theologically on historic and personal practices of vocational formation. (4) Students will have articulated how vocational 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 introduce students to one or more strategies for integrating theological and missiological content with life experience and context through engaging a variety of spiritual practices around vocational formation, 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 and vocational formation this course provide introduction to the MAICS learning outcome related to critical thinking and integration and the learning outcome related to vocation (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’sacademic calendar for a total of 40 instructional hours. Students are required to attend the 20 hours of scheduled class times via videoconference each week (see schedule and note for specifications). Students are also 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: 900 pages of required reading and/or the equivalent time in viewing.

Required Textbooks

Barton, Ruth Haley, Sacred Rhythms: Arranging Our Lives for Spiritual Transformation. IVP, 2006.

ISBN:978-0830833337, Pub. Price $22.00. Available as e-book from Fuller Library. [125 pp assigned.]

Placher, William C. Callings: Twenty Centuries of Christian Wisdom on Vocation. Eerdmans, 2005. ISBN: 978-0802829276, Pub. Price $32.00 [125 pp. assigned]. Available as e-book from the Fuller library.

Reyes, Patrick B.Nobody Cries When We Die: God, Community, and Surviving to Adulthood. Chalice Press, 2016. ISBN: 978-0827225312, Pub. Price $19.99 Available as an e-book from the Fuller Library [175 pp.]

Tutu, Desmond, God Has a Dream. Image, 2005. ISBN: 978-0385483711, Pub. Price $16.00 [100 pp. assigned].

50 pages of Bible reading that connect with practices of vocational formation.

B. Core Practices: Discernment, guidance, listening, lament, rhythms of rest, stewardship, honoring the body.

Videos and articles for each practice by a diversity authors will be linked in Canvas for each week of the quarter (125 pp)

C. Integration Resources

Choose one (100 pp):

Brown, Austin Channing. I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness. Convergent Books, 2018. ISBN: 978-1524760854, Pub Price $25.00

Curtice, Kaitlin B., Native: Identity, Belonging and Rediscovering God. Brazos Press, 2020, ISBN:978-1-58743-431-0, Pub Price $17.99.

Jeung, Russell, At Home In Exile: Finding Jesus Among My Ancestors and Refugee Neighbors. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2016. ISBN: 978-0310527831, Pub. Price $17.99.

Labberton, Mark. Called: The Crisis and Promise of Following Jesus Today. IVP Books, 2014. ISBN: 978-0830836833, Pub. Price $16.00. Available as an e-book from the Fuller library

Newell, J. Philip. Listening for the Heartbeat of God: A Celtic Spirituality. Paulist Press, 1997. ISBN: 978-0809137596, Pub. Price $11.95

Parker, Palmer. Let Your Life Speak. Jossey-Bass, 2000. ISBN: 978-0787947354, Pub. Price $18.95 Available as an e-book from the Fuller library.

Romero, Oscar, Violence of Love. Free e-book. http://www.romerotrust.org.uk/sites/default/files/violenceoflove.pdf

Stevenson, Bryan, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption. Spiegal and Grau, 2015.ISBN: 978-0812984965, Pub Price $17.00 [100 pp. assigned]. Available as e-book from Fuller Library.

Thurman, Howard. Disciplines of the Spirit. Friends United Press, 1963. ISBN: 978-0913408353, Pub Price $13.00

D. StrengthsFinders: Students in IS500 are required to take the CliftonStrengths Assessment, and participate in a 45-minute coaching call with a StrengthsBased coach. There will be a $40 charge which will automatically be charged to your student account.

ASSIGNMENTS AND ASSESSMENT:

Attendance at class sessions via videoconference. [12 hours, plus 8 hours in vocation and formation groups, see 5 below].
150-word weekly forum post (10%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1,3] [10 hours].
2 - 100-word weekly forum responses (10%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1,3] [10 hours].
900 pages reading and videos, including at least 50 pages of biblical text (10%) [This assignment is related to learning outcome #3]. [50 hours].
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. (5%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1, #2, #3 and #4]. [8 hours, included in #1 above].
Autobiography: Students will engage in several , including understanding their social location and then create an autobiography (15%). 500-750 words. [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1]. [10 hours].
Integrative Exercises and Reflections – students will engage in critical theological reflection on contextualized experiences. (15%) [20 hours].
Fieldwork – Students will participate and reflect on several exercises outside the classroom related to core practices of the course. These exercises include (but are not limited to) Clifton Strengths Assessment & Core Clarity Coaching Call and two reflections for a total of 700 words. 20% [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1 and #2] [20 hours].
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. 1000 words. (20%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1, #3, and #4]. [20 hours].

(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.)

PREREQUISITES: None. Recommended in first year of study.

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.