Spring 2008/Pasadema
CF554
Jensen

CF554: SPIRITUAL FORMATION IN COLLEGE & YOUNG ADULT SETTINGS. L. Paul Jensen.


DESCRIPTION: This course helps seminarians to deepen their intimacy with God and to disciple students and young adults in the spiritual life. It addresses how students and young adults are formed into the image of Christ for the sake of others as they approach and pass through the critical college years. Theological, historical, developmental, generational, and cultural perspectives are considered.

LEARNING OUTCOMES: As a result of taking this course, students will: (1) Cognitive: Understand a biblical philosophy of discipleship rooted in spiritual formation; learn a historical overview of spiritual disciplines and spiritual awakenings especially among students and young adults; and understand generational, developmental, and cultural issues related to the spiritual formation of college students and young adults. (2) Affective: Desire to be spiritual guides for and serve their families, the postmodern generations, and those who have suffered abuse, oppression or who are caught in addictions. (3) Behavioral: Practice graced rhythms of spiritual discipline in both daily and extended times of fellowship with Jesus Christ. (4) Existential: Be non-compulsive servant leaders whose service to others increasingly derives from love for God, for others, and for themselves.

RELEVANCE FOR MINISTRY: Proven approaches to spiritual formation for the sake of others will be applied to the seminarian's life and current or future ministry.

COURSE FORMAT: The class will meet eight times on Thursdays for three hours and will also participate in two one-day prayer retreats (April 11, 9:00am - 3:00pm and May 9, 9:00am - 4:00pm) for two times of extended personal communion with God. (Class will not meet on Thursday, April 10 and May 8.) The retreats will involve no additional charge to students. Instruction methods include lecture, media, discussion, experiential learning, and small groups.

REQUIRED READING:

Carroll, Colleen. The New Faithful: Why Young Adults Are Embracing Christian Orthodoxy. Loyola Press, 2002.

Clinton, J. R. The Making of a Leader. NavPress, 1988.

Lovelace, Richard. Dynamics of Spiritual Life: An Evangelical Theology of Renewal. IVP, 1979.

Miller, Keith. Hunger for Healing. HarperSanFrancisco, 1991.

Nouwen, Henri. The Way of the Heart. Ballantine, 1975.

Parks, Sharon. Big Questions, Worthy Dreams. Jossey-Bass, 2000.

Syllabus, notes, & course reader including chapters from Paul Jensen's "Subversive Spirituality, Transforming Mission, and the Collapse of Space and Time" (2007) and Dallas Willard's Spirit of the Disciplines (1988).

Choose one of the following:
Beaudoin, T. Virtual Faith: The Irreverent Spiritual Quest of Generation X. Jossey-Bass, 1998.

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Life Together. HarperSanFrancisco, 1992.

Pagitt, Doug. Reimagining Spiritual Formation. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004.

Smith, Christian, and Melinda Denton. Soul Searching. Oxford University Press, 2005.

ASSIGNMENTS: Reading (28%): seven reading logs; Inner spiritual disciplines (32%): a one-page reflection paper on each of the three periods of extended personal communion with God and four weeks of daily journaling-four days/week; Outward spiritual disciplines (16%): participation in a small group of class members involving six one-hour sessions outside of class, visit a ministry of compassion and do a ministry exercise based on listening prayer; Final project (24%): a 4,000-word (seventeen page) essay on an issue addressed in the course or a two-day spiritual retreat with a 2,500-word paper (ten pages).

PREREQUISITES: None.

RELATIONSHIP TO CURRICULUM: Meets MA requirement in Foundational Spirituality (FSP).

FINAL EXAMINATION: None.

This ECD is a reliable guide to the course design but is subject to modification. (2/08)