Winter 2017/Houston
IS502
Huffman
IS502: PRACTICES OF COMMUNITY (4 Units: 164 hours). Rev. Dr. Kristin Miller Huffman.
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 class meets once per week for three hour sessions for a total of 30 hours of classroom instruction for lecture and discussion (which includes 8 hours of required synchronous and/or asynchronous participation in vocation and formation groups) plus 10 hours of directed learning activities for a total of 40 instructional hours.
REQUIRED READING: 1000 pp. of required reading and/or the equivalent time in viewing.
Pohl, Christine. Living into Community: Cultivating Practices That Sustain Us. Eerdmans, 2011. ISBN: 978-0802849854, Pub. Price $20.00 [178 pp. assigned].
Resource on Israel and church that connect with community practices: Bruggeman, Walter. Mandate to Difference: An Invitation to the Contemporary Church. Westminster John Knox, 2007. ISBN: 978-066423127, Pub. Price $20.00 [204 pp. assigned].
Bible reading (minimum 50 pages) that connects with practices as well (to be specified in the syllabus).
Other resources that engage theology (ecclesiology), contemporary challenges (culture), and practice: Smith, C. Christopher & John Pattison. Slow Church: Cultivating Community in the Patient Way of Jesus. IVP Books, 2014. ISBN: 978-0830841141, Pub. Price $17.00 [226 pp. assigned].
CORE PRACTICES:
Hospitality
Required text: Pohl, Christine. Living into Community.
Conde-Frazier, Elizabeth. “From Hospitality to Shalom” in A Many Colored Kingdom. Baker Academic, 2004. ISBN: 978-0801027437, Pub. Price $24.00 [pp. 167-210]. [available on e-Reserves].
Olds, Jacqueline and Richard S. Schwartz. “The Elephant in the Room” in The Lonely American. Beacon Press, 2010. ISBN: 978-0807000359, Pub. Price $19.00 [pp. 1-12]. [available on e-Reserves].
Wimberly, Anne-Streaty. “Called to Listen: The Imperative Vocation of Listening in Twenty-First Century Faith Communities.” International Review of Mission LXXXVII, No. 346:pp. 331-341 [available on e-Reserves or Moodle].
Truth-Telling
Required text: Pohl, Christine. Living into Community.
Ted Talk: The Danger of Silence. http://www.ted.com/talks/clint_smith_the_danger_of_silence
Buechner, Frederick, “Telling the Truth” (Ch. 1), Telling the Truth. HarperCollins, 1977. [available on e-reserves]
Promise-Keeping
Required text: Pohl, Christine. Living into Community.
Videos on website: http://becauseisaidiwould.com/category/video/
Forgiveness
Augsburger, David: Here is a link to an interview he did several years back that gets to some of the more important issues: http://www.nacronline.com/wordpress/160/the-f-word-forgiveness-and-its-imitations.
Volf, Miroslav. “How Can We Forgive,” in Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a World Stripped of Grace. Zondervan, 2005. ISBN: 978-0310265740, Pub. Price $12.99 [pp. 193-224]. [available on e-Reserves].
Christian Formation
Everist, Norma Cook. “A Community of Teachers & Learners” and “Creating Different Learning Environments to be Different Together,” in The Church as Learning Community. Bingdon Press, 2002. ISBN: 978-0687045006, Pub. Price $31.99 [pp. 21-101]. [available on e-Reserves].
Smith, James K.A.”Introduction: Beyond Perspectives” and “Homo Liturgicus: The Human Person as Lover,” in Desiring the Kingdom. Baker Academic, 2009. ISBN: 978-0801035777, Pub. Price $22.99 [pp. 17-35 and 37-73]. [available on e-Reserves].
Gratitude
Required text: Pohl, Christine. Living into Community.
40 ways to practice gratitude: http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/40-simple-ways-practice-gratitude.html
Testimony
Drury, Amanda Hontz. “Testimony in P Practice,” in Saying is Believing. InterVarsity, 2015. ISBN: 978-0830840656, Pub. Price $22.00 [pp.125-167]. [available on e-Reserves].
ASSIGNMENTS AND ASSESSMENT:
1000 pages reading and videos, including at least 50 pages of biblical text (5%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #3]. [58 hours].
Classroom 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 and through participation in Vocation Formation Groups (15%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1, #2, #3 and #4]. [30 hours total: 22 hours+8 hours].
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].
Autobiography: Students will create an autobiography related to practices of community (5%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1]. [5 hours].
DLA’s (Distributed Learning Activities): The students will interact with one another in groups throughout the weeks of the course. They will participate in eight forums regarding course readings, videos, and scripture, writing initial posts (approx. 250 words) and responding to two of their groupmates (approx. 125 words) (20%). [This assignment is related to learning outcomes #1, #2, #3 & #4]. [15 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 (30%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1, #3, and #4]. [25 hours].
Presentation: Each student will do a 5 minute in-class presentation or video on the practice of Christian Community they plan to develop in their current context. (5%) [This assignment is related to learning outcomes #1,2,3,4] [6 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.