Course Description

This course is a study of the patterns and structures of community life that influence the task of confession and proclamation of the gospel among diverse audiences. Resources in the cultural and social sciences and philosophy are explored for theologically interpreting persons, institutions, and locations for the sake of confessing and communicating the gospel. Attention is given to the use of these resources in Christian interpretation of Western culture and the early 21^st century North American situation.

Course Goal

The goal of this course is to help students imagine what it means to be a missional leader by entering first into the power of Word and story: God’s creative, redeeming and sanctifying Word as it creates, encounters and moves through the world.

This course aims to teach students how to become “detectives of divinity” and storytellers, equipping students with the skills to name God’s ongoing work in the world and to name the intersections between God’s story of creation and redemption and the life of the world outside the congregation, within the congregation, and through its leadership. These things will happen as students simultaneously dwell in God’s Word and listen for God’s preferred and promised future for that local church.

Approach

The seminary curriculum is built around three moves – story, interpreting and confessing, and mission. This course is also based on those three moves, with an emphasis, as in all the first-year classes, on the story. To do that, we will engage in detecting local theology – we will listen to God by dwelling in the Word; we will listen to tradition and history; to personal and communal experiences; to culture and society. We will assert, decide and act with the intention of answering one underlying question: What is God calling us to do in mission in the world in this particular time and in this particular place?

Students and instructors will be co-learners and conversation partners in a process of discovery and ongoing transformation. Therefore, students will be expected to bring their own experiences, knowledge and informed insights to the conversation. New material – and resources, which include theology, philosophy, congregational studies, cultural anthropology, history, ethnography, sociology, systems theory, psychology, literature and pop culture – will be presented by the instructors in a combination of assigned readings and interactive presentations. A valuable part of this course will be the life and history of the students’ contextual ed congregations. Using a combination of projects, papers and exams, students will be given the opportunity to develop their own theological imaginations; to acquire and use demographic and sociological tools for the sake of mission; and to begin articulating their own understanding of what it means to be a leader in a missional church in this new day.

Format and Requirements

Each student is expected to complete the assigned readings and come to each class prepared to engage the texts and his/her fellow learners in conversation. Each three-hour class session will offer core material that will focus learners on the theological and strategic challenges related to faith and mission in a congregation and community. Weekly questions regarding the readings will be posted on My Luther Net, and students are required to post a short reply.

Students will work in teams of four-to-six throughout the semester as they apply the questions and materials in this course to a particular congregation chosen from among the team’s contextual education sites. Students will imagine that they are the ministry leadership team at this congregation and follow a process of discovery and imagination for mission on the Church FutureFinder website, www.churchinnovations.org/ChurchFutureFinder.

Each team will spend time together in prayer and text study. During the first two weeks, teams will meet to decide which congregational site they will study. Thereafter, teams will meet to assemble the interpretive report and plan their encounter with a team from the church.

Each member of the team will use the Church FutureFinder online tool and complete his/her portions of the online congregational and community report regarding her/his team’s congregation. The team will prepare a report and reflective questions to share with a group from the congregation, creating a conversation about the church and its surrounding community, asking the questions “What is God up to here?” and “What might God’s preferred and promised future be for this local church?”

Each team will produce, as a FINAL PROJECT presented to the class, what they learned from producing the report and sharing it with the group of church leaders.

Each team member will write a 5-page reflection paper on the process, including a paragraph highlighting the gifts that each member of the team brought to the table. What did you learn from this experience? What worked well and what didn’t work so well? How did your group use Church FutureFinder and other resources? What did you learn about researching congregation and community and interpreting that information theologically with the goal of leading a congregation in mission?

Each student will write a 10- to 15-page personal narrative, engaging the assigned readings and class presentations, on her/his understanding (at this point) of these key questions: What in the world is God up to? What is the church’s role in missio Dei? What is your role as a missional church leader? How has your experience of Jesus equipped and empowered you to answer that call?

Mid-term Exam: There will be a mid-term exam that will cover all of the readings, class presentations (not student projects), and discussions up to that point. It will consist of:

Brief identification of key terms/concepts
Several essay questions

A study sheet will be handed out early in the semester, which will contain all the possible questions from which those on the exam will be selected. Students are encouraged to use their ministry leadership teams to prepare for this exam.

DEADLINES

Project 1: Online Church FutureFinder congregation and community report, printed out and handed in. DUE: October 26 (20%)
Mid-term Examination: (Take home or online) DUE: November 2 (Exam: 20%)
Project 2 and reflection papers: (with handouts) in class DUE: November 30 & December 7 (Class projects and papers: 30%)
Final Paper: DUE December 16 by 4 p.m. (Final paper: 30%)

Course Grading

Students should review current policy in the Luther Seminary catalogue. The “Pass-Marginal-Fail” system will be in effect for all M.Div., MA, MRE, and MSM students. Students who desire a letter grade should provide the appropriate form to Professor Ellison within the first two weeks of the course. Forms are available in the Registrar’s Office. Grades will be determined by successful completion of all aspects of the course, including lectures, readings, fieldwork, presentations, exam and papers.

Be sure to note the seminary’s policy regarding incomplete grades. A request for an incomplete must be made by the final regular class period. There are only two reasons for faculty to give incompletes: 1). An unexpected hardship in the student’s life; or 2). The instructor asks for some aspect of the student’s work to be redone within the normal “Incomplete” time limit (two weeks after grades are normally due.) Incompletes that are not finished within the two-week grace period automatically turn to Fails.

Course Management

The best way to manage this course is to keep current with assignments and readings. The seminary catalogue suggests that students can expect a minimum of 2 hours of work outside of class each week for each hour in class. For this class, that is at least an additional six hours of work or reading each week beyond the three-hour class period. Students are strongly encouraged to stay up on the weekly readings. Materials from the readings will be woven into class lectures, be expected to inform the required class project, expected to be referenced in the final paper, and will appear on the course mid-term exam.

Reading the Audiences Bibliography

Required Readings

N. Ammerman, et al., Studying Congregations

D. Guder, et al., Missional Church

P. Keifert, Welcoming the Stranger

*Testing the Spirits: Readings for Reading the Audience – a bound compilation of articles for this class

Church FutureFinder User Guide

Stark, Keifert, Stack-Nelson The Small Church Small Group Guide

Handouts and assorted articles

BECOMING DETECTIVES OF DIVINITY

Discover, uncover, look for clues, deep listening
What’s there? What’s missing?
What’s culture? How do we discover it? Ethnography; Hands-on interviewing experience

Readings:

Ammerman, pp. 23-39

Guder, pp. 46-76

*Ellison, “Text-Dwelling, Deep Listening and Faith-based Moral Conversation”

*Ellison, Keifert, “Capacities,” from new book on mission

CFF User Guide

Week 4:

Sept. 28

LIVING WORD, LIVING STORY

Box, Triangle, and Pyramid - the congregation as hermeneutic of the Gospel
Conflict and Mission - the dynamic of change

Readings:

*Hess, “Moral Conversation”

Gustav Wingren, Credo or Creation and Law

CFF User Guide

Week 5: Oct. 5

GOD’S STORY – HOW WE HEAR AND LIVE IT

Theo-logic of Creation; Jesus and Trinitarian Theology
Group work on the nine cases of theology in practice

Readings:

Ammerman, pp. 40-77

CFF User Guide

Part II: Interpreting & Confessing

Week 6:

Oct. 12

THE CONGREGATION AS A LENS

Intimate Society; Congregations as Organizations
The Family Home Congregation
A Systems Approach: principles, closed & open systems, relationships
Denominationalism

Readings:

*Simpson, “God, Civil Society, and Congregations as Moral Companions”

Reminder: take-home midterm posted 10/26, due 11/2

*Marty, “Public and Private”

Keifert, pp. 1-56

Guder, pp. 18-45; pp. 221-268

Week 7:

Oct. 19

No Class

Week 8:

Oct. 26

WHAT DOES THE STORY MEAN?

Dances of Interpretation: Modernity and Postmodernity

§ Fact/value split: open brain, insert knowledge

Midterm posted

Readings:
Guder, pp. 110-141

Ammerman, pp. 132-166 ** Church FutureFinder Report due

Week 9:

Nov. 2

ACQUIRING NEW LENSES

From modernity to Mature Modernity
Guder’s Alternative Church as Apostle
Treasure in Clay Jars
Alternative church – public church – public worship
How flourishing churches today manifest their public nature

Midterm due

Readings:

Guder, pp. 77-109; 142-182

Keifert, pp. 57-94

*Duty, “Christian Imagination in Congregational Deliberation and Discernment”

Week 10:

Nov. 9

TELLING THE STORY – A REHEARSAL

Time for teams to work on presentations during class

Part III: Leading in Mission

Week 11:

Nov. 16

LEADERSHIP - PART 1

Trustees of the vision: the secret to stability and thriving in change
Keys to finding and empowering lay leadership

Readings:

*Ellison, “Doing Faith-based Conversations”

Keifert, pp. 95-127

Guder, pp. 183-220

Week 12:

Nov. 23

No Class – Thanksgiving Break

Week 13:

Nov. 30

RETELLING THE STORY – DAY 1

Presentations

& Reflection papers

Week 14:

Dec. 7

RETELLING THE STORY – DAY 2

Presentations &

Reflection papers

Week 15:

Dec. 14

LEADERSHIP - PART 2

Sharing an understanding of the congregation as a cultural system
Terry’s Action Wheel and Managing Polarities
Launching leaders

Readings:

Ammerman, pp. 167-195

Keifert, pp. 128-153

*Graff, “Notes on Discernment”

Dec. 16

FINAL PAPER DUE by 4 p.m.

Luther Seminary

Instructors

Course Goal

Approach

DEADLINES

Course Grading

Course Management

Reading the Audiences Bibliography

Required Readings

Suggested Reading/Additional Resources on Library Reserve

INTRODUCTION

BECOMING DETECTIVES OF DIVINITY

Part II: Interpreting & Confessing

Week 6:

Oct. 12

Week 7:

Oct. 19

Week 8:

Oct. 26

Week 10:

Nov. 9

TELLING THE STORY – A REHEARSAL

Week 11:

Nov. 16

Week 12:

Nov. 23

Week 13:

Nov. 30

Week 14:

Dec. 7

Week 15:

Dec. 14

Dec. 16