Spring 2017/Fuller Online

IS502

Gutenson

IS502: PRACTICE OF CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY (4 Units: 160 hours). Charles Gutenson.

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 vocation coherence of a Christian leader through reflection, relationships, and practices. IS502 is an integrative course that explores the identity and practices of Christian community as a people called, gathered, and sent by God. Together, professor and students study and enact historic Christian disciplines necessitated by this distinctive identity (hospitality, forgiveness, promise-keeping, truth-telling, gratitude, and testimony) 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 community. (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 community. (3) Students will have demonstrated capacities to engage scripture, tradition, and contemporary resources to reflect theologically on historic and personal practices of community. (4) Students will have articulated how community 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.

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 weekly YouTube mini-lectures, online discussions, reading, and other assignments that promote active learning.

REQUIRED READING: 800 pp. of required reading

A. Pohl, Christine. Living into Community: Cultivating Practices That Sustain Us. Eerdmans, 2011. ISBN: 978-0802849854, Pub. Price $20.00 [178 pp. assigned].

B. Wright, Christopher. The Mission of God. InterVarsity, 2006. ISBN: 978-0830825714, Pub. Price $45.00 [101 pp. assigned].

C. Bolsinger, Tod. It Takes a Church to Raise a Christian. Brazos Presss, 2004. ISBN: 978-1587430893, Pub. Price: $22.00 [81 pp. assigned].

D. REQUIRED CORE PRACTICES: (available in e-reserves)

i. Testimony/Story-telling:

Daniel, Lillian. Tell It Like It Is: Reclaiming the Practice of Testimony. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2005. ISBN: 978-1566993180, Pub. Price $20.00 [55-95, 101-109, 123-162].

ii. Hospitality/Inclusion

Pohl, Christine. Living into Community: Cultivating Practices That Sustain Us. Eerdmans, 2011. ISBN: 978-0802849854, Pub. Price $20.00 [pp. 1-16, 158-176 assigned].

Conde-Frazier, Elizabeth. “From Hospitality to Shalom” in A Many Colored Kingdom. Baker, 2004. ISBN: 978-0801027437, Pub. Price $24.00 [pp. 167-210 assigned].

iii. Truth Telling

Pohl, Christine. Living into Community: Cultivating Practices That Sustain Us. Eerdmans, 2011. ISBN: 978-0802849854, Pub. Price $20.00 [pp. 110-157 assigned].

The Danger of Silence (https://www.ted.com/talks/clint_smith_the_danger_of_silence)

Empire: Tell the Truth (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYybTaTBdHs)

iv. Gratitude

Pohl, Christine. Living into Community: Cultivating Practices That Sustain Us. Eerdmans, 2011. ISBN: 978-0802849854, Pub. Price $20.00 [pp. 17-60 assigned].

40 Simple Ways to…. (http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/40-simple-ways-practice-gratitude.html)

v. Promise Keeping

Pohl, Christine. Living into Community: Cultivating Practices That Sustain Us. Eerdmans, 2011. ISBN: 978-0802849854, Pub. Price $20.00 [pp. 61-110 assigned].

vi. Christian Education / Formation

Smith, James K.A. ”Introduction: Beyond Perspectives” and “Homo Liturgicus: The Human Person as Lover,” in Desiring the Kingdom. Baker, 2009. ISBN: 978-0801035777, Pub. Price $22.99 [pp. 17-35, 37-73 assigned].

vii. Forgiveness/Reconciliation:

Volf, Miroslav. “How Can We Forgive,” in Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a World Stripped of Grace. Zondervan, 2006. ISBN: 978-0310265740, Pub. Price $15.99 [pp. 193-224 assigned].

Tutu, Desmond, No Future without Forgiveness (https://jonastravelstories.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/desmond-tutu-no-future-without-forgiveness.pdf)

viii. Group Spiritual Discernment

Smith, Gordon. Listening to God in Time of Choice: The Art of Discerning God’s Will. IVP, 1997. ISBN: 978-0830813674, Pub. Price $16.00 [pp. 42-147 assigned].

Biblical Texts: Deuteronomy [25 pp. assigned], Matthew [25 pp. assigned].

ASSIGNMENTS AND ASSESSMENT:

1. 800 pages reading and videos (for example, weekly YouTube mini lectures), including at least 50 pages of biblical text (10%) [This assignment is related to learning outcome #3]. [40 hours].
2. 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 Vocation Formation Groups. (20%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1, #2, #3 and #4]. [32 hours+8 hours].  
3. Autobiography: Students will create an autobiography related to practices of community (15%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1]. [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. (20%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #2 and #3] [25 hours].
5. Four fieldwork activities and reflections. Details included in syllabus. (15%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #2.] [20 hours].
6. 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. (20%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1, #3, and #4]. [25 hours].

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.