Spring 2016/Houston

EV525

Powell

EV525: CONTEMPORARY CULTURE AND EVANGELISM (4 Units: 160 Hours). Matt Powell.

DESCRIPTION: This is a course in practical theology that will explore ways to share the gospel understandably and relevantly with people in our contemporary culture. We will examine the meaning of evangelism and conversion, the relationship between Christianity and culture, ways to analyze popular culture in order to ascertain people's worldview and values, historical and contemporary strategies for evangelism, and ideas for empowering believers to witness more effectively to those around them. There will be a concentration on understanding postmodern culture and discussing ways to contextualize, communicate, and validate the gospel within it because post modernity is becoming the predominant cultural atmosphere in America as well as strongly influencing many other areas of the world.

LEARNING OUTCOMES: Students completing this course will have demonstrated (1) an understanding of the biblical meaning, historical development, and various theological perspectives of evangelism and conversion from a praxis-theory-praxis approach; (2) ability to apply different paradigms, methods and strategies of evangelism within ministry including congregational formation, spiritual formation and missional formation; (3) increased ability to analyze cultural, local, and church or ministry contexts to determine and implement potential outreach activities, strategies, and motivation; (4) an understanding of contemporary culture and its impact on evangelism in culture, church, ministry, and personal relation-ships today; (5) an increased passion for evangelism, exploration of evangelism within my role in Christian ministry, and confidence in personal ability to share about faith in Jesus.

COURSE FORMAT: This class meets once per week for three hour sessions for a total of 30 hours of classroom instruction for lecture, discussion, small groups, media, case studies, and interactive dialogue, plus 10 hours of directed learning activities for a total of 40 instructional hours.

REQUIRED READING: 1137 pages required.

Frost, Michael. Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture. Baker Books, 2006. ISBN: 978-0801046278, Pub. Price $19.99 [352 pp.].

Guder, Darrell L. Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1998. ISBN: 978-0802843500, Pub. Price $29.00 [288 pp.].

Hunter, George G. III. The Celtic Way of Evangelism.Abingdon Press, 2010. ISBN: 978-1426711374, Pub. Price $17.99 [144 pp.].

McKnight, Scot. The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited. Zondervan, 2011. ISBN: 978-0310492986, Pub. Price $21.99 [192 pp.].

Shaw, Daniel, Paul G. Hiebert, and Tite Tienou. Understanding Folk Religion. Baker Academic, 2000. ISBN: 978-0801022197, Pub. Price $36.00 [Selections by Professor: 161 pages].

ASSIGNMENTS AND ASSESSMENT:

It is expected that each student will attend the classes, read the materials, and be prepared to participate in the classroom discussion and exercises.

  1. DLAs – Cultural Observation [This assignment is related to learning outcome #3]. [10 hours].

  2. 1137 pp. of required reading [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1] [40 hours].

  3. Cultural exegesis paper (5 pages) and class presentation/discussion (20%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #4] [20 hours].

  4. Classroom participation in peer presentations/discussions framed by the course's PT method (20%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #3 & #5] [30 hours].

  5. Gospel translation paper (5 pages) (20%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #3] [20 hours].

  6. Signature Assignment: A paper using PT method, describing the application of a culturally relevant approach to evangelism within the chosen context (7 pages) (30%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #2] [20 hours].

  7. Read and produce brief book critiques of required reading (2 pages each) (10%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1] [20 hours].

PREREQUISITES: None.

RELATIONSHIP TO CURRICULUM: Option to meet the C2 or C3 requirement in the 120 MDiv Program. Meets 144 MDiv core requirement in General Ministry (MIN 1) or Evangelism (MIN 3); also meets the MACL in Integrative Studies requirement for an interdisciplinary course (IDPL).

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.

For your convenience, order these texts online through the Archives Bookshop.