Winter 2017/Sacramento

IS503

Dougherty

IS503:  PRACTICES OF MISSION (4 Units: 162 hours).  Traver K. Dougherty.

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. IS503 is an integrative course that explores the identity and practices of Christian mission as a people called, gathered, and sent by God. Together, professor and students study and enact historic Christian disciplines necessitated by this distinctive identity (advocacy, creation care, friendship, inculturation, inter-religious dialogue, mercy, reconciliation, and witness) 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 mission. (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 mission (3) Students will have demonstrated capacities to engage scripture, tradition, and contemporary resources to reflect theologically on historic and personal practices of mission. (4) Students will have articulated how practices of mission 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 is a hybrid+ course, meaning that it is a ten-week course with nine weeks of online instruction and one week of classroom instruction during week six of the quarter. The week of classroom instruction will include four hours daily of lecture and discussion, as well as additional lunch meetings and evening sessions, including participation in vocation and formation groups (required in hybrid+ courses). Classroom and online instruction will include lecture and discussion 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: 800 pp. of required reading and/or the equivalent time in viewing.

  1. Required Textbooks
    Bevans, Stephen B., and Roger P. Schroeder. Prophetic Dialogue: Reflections on Christian Mission Today. Orbis, 2011. ISBN: 978-1570759116, $35.00 [208 pp. assigned].

  1. Core Practices

Reconciliation

“Reconciliation as the Mission of God: Faithful Christian Witness in a World of Destructive Conflicts and Divisions.” Presented at the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization, Pattaya, Thailand, Sept 29 to Oct 5, 2004 [pp. 11-21]. Available on eReserves.

Witness

Muck, Terry and Frances S. Adeney. Christianity Encountering World Religions, The Practice of Mission in the Twenty-first Century. Baker Academic, 2009. ISBN: 978-0801026607, Pub. Price $30.00 [pp. 79-215].

Mercy

Grisez, Germain. The Way of the Lord Jesus, Volume 2: Living a Christian Life. Franciscan Pr, 1993. ISBN: 978-0819909619, http://www.twotlj.org/G-2-6-F.html. [15 pp. assigned]. Available on eReserves.

Advocacy

“Introduction to Advocacy,” Advocacy e-lab, last modified Feb 17, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/user/AdvocacyeLab. Available on eReserves.

Inculturation

Hillman, Eugene. “Inculturation & the Leaven of the Gospel.” Commonweal 118, no. 1 (Jan 11, 1991): 21-24 [3 pp. assigned]. Available on eReserves.

Cox, Harvey G. “Inculturation Reconsidered.” Christianity and Crisis 51, no. 7 (May 13, 1991): 140-142 [3 pp. assigned]. Available on eReserves.

Friendship

Fitzgerald, John. "Christian Friendship: John, Paul, and the Philippians." Interpretation 61, no. 3 (07, 2007): 284-296 [13 pp. assigned]. Available on eReserves.

Heuertz, Christopher L., and Christine D. Pohl. Friendship at the Margins: Discovering Mutuality in Service and Mission. IVP Books, 2010. ISBN: 978-0830834549, Pub. Price $16.00 [pp. 119-139]. Available on eReserves

Interreligious Dialogue

“Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World: Recommendations for Conduct.” Presented at the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, Bangkok, Thailand, Jan 25 to 28, 2011 [8 pp. assigned]. Available on eReserves.

Creation Care

Wright, Christopher J.H. The Mission of God’s People. Zondervan, 2010. ISBN: 978-0310291121, Pub Price: $24.99 [pp. 48-62].

OPTIONAL PRACTICE

Healing, Signs, and Wonders

See syllabus

  1. Integration Resources

Roxburgh, Alan. “Practices of a Missional People,” in Journal of Missional Practice. Fall 2013 (online http://themissionalnetwork.com/index.php/alan-j-roxburgh. [10 pp. assigned].

Wright, Christopher J.H. The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative. IVP Academic, 2006. ISBN: 978-0830825714, Pub. Price $45.00 [290 pp. assigned].

Bible Reading: Ex 19-34; Dt 4:44-11:32; Acts 1-28 [50 pp. assigned].

ASSIGNMENTS AND ASSESSMENT:

  1. 800 pages reading and videos, including at least 50 pages of biblical text [This assignment is related to learning outcome #3]. [40 hours].

  2. Classroom, 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 classroom, online and through participation in Vocation Formation Groups. (10%). [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 worship and prayer (5%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1]. [2 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. Includes: (1) four reading response forums, (2) weekly discussion forums, (3) weekly engagement with a mission practice and journal entries (25%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #2 and #3.] [25 hours].

  5. Two fieldwork activities and reflections (10%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #2]. [4 hours + 4 hours = 8 hours].

  6. Respond to Bevans/Schroeder and Wright in two online forum discussions (10%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #2]. [5 hours].

  7. Students will engage a non-Christian person or group in spiritual conversation and report on the experience (5%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #4]. [5 hours].

  8. Students will facilitate shalom/reconciliation via the practice of friendship and report on the experience (5%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #4]. [5 hours].

  9. Observe and describe in 750 words the social and religious landscape of a target community and ask how an existing local church or church plant might effectively engage this context (10%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #2]. [12 hours].

  10. 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]. [20 hours].

PREREQUISITES: None. Recommended in first year of study.

RELATIONSHIP TO CURRICULUM:Meets a core integrative 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.

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