DESCRIPTION: Student leaders at Fuller Theological Seminary fulfill a vital role in the mission of the seminary. Their efforts provide extracurricular and co-curricular learning opportunities for the student body. This course provides a structure for better learning over the year that they serve on the student council, with the objectives listed below.

SIGNIFICANCE FOR LIFE AND MINISTRY: This course enables student leaders to enhance existing leadership skills, to build an understanding of leadership that will enhance their abilities to serve and lead in the future, and to gain an understanding of how leadership functions within a Christian organization.

LEARNING OUTCOMES: This course is designed to enable student leaders on Fuller's All-Seminary Council to develop (1) a theology, philosophy, and framework of Christian leadership; (2) vision-casting and execution skills; (3) an increased ability to use human resources, including the recruitment, motivation, and management of volunteers; (4) an understanding of how power works within an organization and how to work within that structure to accomplish results; (5) an ability to examine other leaders to determine what makes them effective; (6) an ability to analyze leadership structures through research and use the results to accomplish change.

COURSE FORMAT: Students will register for this course for three consecutive quarters, beginning in Fall 2009. The Fall and Winter quarters will be registered for zero credits and taken pass/fail; Spring quarter will be registered for four units of credit and taken for a grade based on work over the three quarters. [Students may choose to take the third quarter P/F also, provided that their program allows that option.] Over the three quarters, students will participate in a retreat, theological instruction, biweekly ASC meetings, and 27 class hours in seminar format on leadership topics, including theological reflection and the theology of leadership, meeting 3-6p.m. 10/16, 10/30, 11/13 Fall quarter.

REQUIRED READING: Students will be required to read a minimum of 1200 pages in at least five different books from an extensive leadership bibliography and in the course reader. One book is to be chosen in each of the following categories. NB: An example for each category is provided below, but an extensive bibliography is available in the syllabus.

1. Fuller Theological Seminary history and ethos: e.g., Marsden, George. Reforming Fundamentalism. Eerdmans; or other appropriate Fuller history, as determined by discussion with instructor.

2. Christian leadership biography: e.g., Guelzo, Allen C. Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President. Eerdmans, 1991; or other appropriate biography, as determined by discussion with instructor.

3. A selection from Max DePree's writings: e.g., Leading without Power. Jossey-Bass, 1997.

4. Leadership and management: e.g., Heifetz, Ronald, et al. The Practice of Adaptive Leadership. Harvard Business, 2009; or other appropriate book, as determined by discussion with instructor.

5. Personal growth: e.g., Block, Peter. The Answer to How? Is Yes: Acting on What Matters. Berrett-Koehler, 2001; or other appropriate book, as determined by discussion with instructor.

6. Leadership in Community: Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Life Together.

1. Reading of assigned materials, with a one-page summary of each book (15%)

2. Analytical summary (5 pp.) of the leadership skills of the leader profiled in the biography (10%)

3. Participation in ASC leadership and seminars (15%)

4. Submission of three-page quarterly reports (20%)

5. Final paper (15+ pp.), theologically reflecting on the leadership experience (25%)

6. Final summary of year's activities (5 pp.), with recommendations to successor (15%)