Fall 2019/Pasadena

WS515

Willmington

WS515: WORSHIP LEADERSHIP: FORMATION AND SKILL (4 Units: 160 Hours). Edwin M. Willmington.

DESCRIPTION: This course will be an interactive experience for planning, leading, administering, and evaluating corporate worship, particularly from the standpoint of the musical leader. There will be personal and group experiences, including journaling of worship experiences, creating materials for corporate worship, principles for working with volunteers, all combined with an emphasis on spiritual formation and pastoral and theological principles of worship leading. Students will be encouraged in the use of a wide spectrum of worship styles and resources, in addition to evaluating their use for specific purposes within sacred settings. Maximum benefit for this course will be received by the student who is an active music worship leader in a regular worship setting.

LEARNING OUTCOMES: Students will (1) learn of the broad musical heritage of the Christian church at worship; (2) acquire evaluation skills (musical and theological) for deter­mining appropriate use of music in worship; (3) grow in their musical leadership skills in Christian worship; (4) gain experience in creating musical resources for worship, and (5) be made aware of spiritual challenges and disciplines relating to providing worship leadership.

RELATIONSHIP TO PROGRAM LEARNING OUTCOMES: This course will introduce students to one or more strategies for culturally and contextually appropriate worship ministry in the local church or institutional chaplaincy, which is consistent with the SOT/SIS PLO “Students will have demonstrated capacities to cultivate a theologically reflective practice of Christian discipleship.” (MDiv, MAT, MATM, MAICS). The emphasis on self-care this course provides introduction to the related outcome the students will “(d)esign a set of practices that embody and sustain God’s call.” This course will also contribute to the outcome “Students will have demonstrated capacities for being theologically reflective practitioners for Christian ministries.” (MDiv, MATM).

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 plus 10 hours of directed learning activities for a total of 40 instructional hours. In addition, each student is expected to be involved in musical worship leadership, and/or an active worshiper, in an established worship setting during the quarter. There will be reading assignments, worship planning and evaluation sessions, mentoring concepts for personal skill enhancement, resource discovery and assessment, consideration of tools designed to encourage personal spiritual growth. The grade for the course will be based on understanding of reading materials, participation in discussion and group assignments, written assignments, along with worship leadership, and class attendance.

REQUIRED READING: 1,400 pp. required.

Beach, Nancy. An Hour On Sunday. Zondervan, 2013. ISBN: 978-0310515944, Pub. Price $24.99 [288 pp.].

Costen, Melva Wilson. African American Christian Worship. Abingdon Press; Revised edition, 2007. ISBN: 978-0687646227, Pub. Price $17.50 [150 pp.].

Hicks, Zac. The Worship Pastor. Zondervan 2016. ISBN: 978-0310525196, Pub. Price &17.99 [197 pp.].

Kauflin, Bob. Worship Matters. Crossway Books, 2008. ISBN: 978-1581348248, Pub. Price $18.99 [Chp. 1-7, 60 pp.].

Noland, Rory. The Heart of the Artist. Zondervan, 1999. ISBN: 978-0310224716, Pub. Price $19.99 [352 pp.].

Van Opstal, Sandra. The Next Worship. IVP 2016. ISBN: 978-0830841295, Pub. Price $18.00 [150 pp.].

Course reader including selected reading from J. Oswald Sanders (Spiritual Leadership), Barry Liesch (The New Worship), and Constance Cherry (Worship Architect). [200 pp. assigned].

ASSIGNMENTS AND ASSESSMENT: In addition to the above reading, the following will be required:

  1. Assigned reading, 1,277 pages. (15%) [80 hours].
  2. DLA: Eight 400-500 word journal posts, related to reading materials (15%) [LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4, LO5] [10 hours].
  3. Musical/worship rehearsals related to Fuller Chapel leadership/attendance (dates to be specified). (20%) [LO2, LO3, LO5] [10 hours].
  4. Worship-related scripture memory (10%) [LO3, LO4] [5 hours].
  5. Creative worship music writing project based on a liturgical/theological theme (may be music and/or lyrics). (20%) [LO2, LO3, LO5] [10 hours].
  6. A 6-8 page written assignment, approved by the instructor, expressing the unique of each student in synopsis to reading, discussion, and experiences throughout the course. (20%) [LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4, LO5] [15 hours].

PREREQUISITES: None.

RELATIONSHIP TO CURRICULUM: May be takenin successive quarters for credit.

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. Copyright 2019 Fuller Theological Seminary.