Course Description/Content What is the mission of the church? Behind this question is a cluster of related questions, the most important focused on the nature of God’s creative and redemptive purpose, its ongoing expression in the world, and its consummation in the eschaton. Participants in this course will explore how the church might discern, embrace, and participate in God’s own mission.https://place.asburyseminary.edu/syllabi/3415/thumbnail.jp

Mills, Mark R.

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Asbury Theological Seminary

Asbury Theological SeminaryePLACE: preserving, learning, and creative exchangeSyllabi eCommons1-1-2008IS 501 Christian Formation: Kingdom, Church,and WorldMark R. MillsFollow this and additional works at: http://place.asburyseminary.edu/syllabiThis Document is brought to you for free and open access by the eCommons at ePLACE: preserving, learning, and creative exchange. It has beenaccepted for inclusion in Syllabi by an authorized administrator of ePLACE: preserving, learning, and creative exchange. For more information, pleasecontact thad.horner@asburyseminary.edu.Recommended CitationMills, Mark R., "IS 501 Christian Formation: Kingdom, Church, and World" (2008). Syllabi. Book 2311.http://place.asburyseminary.edu/syllabi/2311THE WEEKLY COURSE SCHEDULE OUTLINE IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE AND WILL BE ANNOUNCED ON THE FIRST DAY OF CLASS.  ALL OTHER INFORMATION, INCLUDING REQUIRED READINGS AND GRADING, WILL REMAIN THE SAME.   Mark Mills 1.11.08    Asbury Theological Seminary-Orlando Campus IS501 Christian Formation: Kingdom, Church, and World Spring 08   Tuesday  2:30 p.m. – 5:15 p.m.  Mark R. Mills      407-540-9339 Adjunct Instructor of Church in Society       E-mail: Mark_Mills@asburyseminary.edu                       Office Hours:  by appointment   Course Description/Content What is the mission of the church?  Behind this question is a cluster of related questions, the most important focused on the nature of God’s creative and redemptive purpose, its ongoing expression in the world, and its consummation in the eschaton.  Participants in this course will explore how the church might discern, embrace, and participate in God’s own mission.  Course Objectives Having successfully completed this course, students should be able to: 1. Articulate their understanding of the biblical metanarrative that comes to focus for us best in Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom of God; 2. Identify the particular contribution of the Wesleyan tradition to our understanding of this metanarrative; 3. Draw out major theological, moral, and philosophical implications of this metanarrative, especially as these are related to the nature and mission of the people of God;  4. Evaluate cultural products (e.g., literature, television, movies, advertisements, print media, music) in light of major theological, moral, and philosophical implications of this metanarrative; 5. Exercise criticism with respect to one’s own cultural context and discernment with respect to the context of others vis-à-vis major theological, moral, and philosophical implications of this metanarrative; 6. Articulate the ecclesial and missional implications of this metanarrative – specifically for one’s own context and generally for our shared global context; and 7. Exhibit a heightened sense of commitment to serving the kingdom of God in mission in the world.   Required Reading: PLEASE BRING YOUR BIBLE TO CLASS.  Clapp, Rodney. A Peculiar People.  InterVarsity Press, 1996.   Hauerwas, Stanley and William Willimon.  Resident Aliens. Abingdon, 1989. McClaren, Brian D. A New Kind of Christian.  Jossey-Bass, 2001.  Snyder, Howard. A Kingdom Manifesto.  Wipf and Stock, 1997  Wright, Tom.  The Challenge of Jesus.  InterVarsity, 1999.  A Weekly Guide for Small Groups (packet available at Cokesbury bookstore.  This may  be under the name of Dr. Hugo Magallanes)   Recommended Reading:  Clapp, Rodney.  Border Crossings.  Brazos Press Hauerwas, Stanley.  A Community of Character.  University of Notre Dame Newbigin, Leslie.  The Open Secret:  An Introduction to the Theology of Mission.                                      Eerdmans Stackhouse, Max.  The Church in a Global Era.  Eerdmans  Evaluation: • Active and Substantive Participation in Small Groups. (10 %) The small group will meet in the last hour or so of class to reflect, discuss, and fulfill assignments given in class.  Each person in the group is expected to lead the group’s work at least once during the semester.  The group’s participants will also alternate as “scribes” to record small group attendance that will be sent via email to the instructor.  • Active and Substantive Participation in On-Line Conferences. (10%)  In order to participate in the On-Line Conferences it is IMPERATIVE to have full access and basic knowledge of Asbury’s Moodle system.    • Kingdom Project (a small group project) and Presentation (15 %) Each student in each group is required to spend 12 hours of personal work/involvement in a “Kingdom Project” and prepare a presentation before the class toward the end of the semester. (See guidelines for Kingdom Project)   • Personal reflection (written): Kingdom Project (5%) Each member of each group will write a personal reflection of his/her experience in the project in the light of class readings and lectures and what it means to advancing the Kingdom of God. The goal of this paper is to integrate your experience of doing the kingdom project with the theological reading and work done in class.  Please write no less than 3 (three) and no more than 5 (five) pages and the reflection must be typed or printed with 12 point type, one inch margins on all four sides, and true double spacing. Due Week 13 (one week before the final exam.)  • Book review (10%)  Choose any of the required or recommended readings and prepare a four-page report that is based on this format:  Comprehension (what does the work say about the Kingdom of God), Connection (what does the work say to me personally – how do I connect or question the work), Community (what does the work say about my community and world and what the Kingdom of God should look like) and Call (what is the Spirit calling me to do as a result of this work to advance the Kingdom of God).   Due by Final Exam day, but can be turned in anytime during the semester.    • Module One in-class exam (15%) … objective and essay questions, primarily covering NT Wright’s The Challenge of Jesus,  Wesley readings and class lessons to that point.   • Module Two take-home integrative essay exam (15%)    • Final-Exam:  In-class exam including objective and short-essay questions that will primarily cover Module 3, but also include some questions from the entire semester. (20 %)   GUIDELINES FOR THE KINGDOM PROJECT:   Each group will agree to participate in a project outside of class that involves a ministry connection through churches, social service agencies, para-church organizations and the like.  Past projects have included Habitat for Humanity, feeding the homeless, volunteering at a ministry for special needs children, working at a service agency for recovering drug addicts…the list is unlimited, but must be approved by the instructor.    Each member is required to spend 12 hours of active participation time in the group’s project, but because of the nature of the ATS-Florida student body that pulls from a large geographic range, each member may participate (12 hrs) at a different time and date than the rest of the group in a similar project closer to home.  This 12-hour commitment does not include “prep time” for your presentation.    After completion of the Kingdom Project, each group will share its experience with the class.  Thus the Kingdom Project, group and individual participation, should be completed beforehand.   The project will be graded by presentation (5%-creativity is encouraged but no one expects Hollywood), participation (5%) and integration of class lessons. (5%)   Notes on Small Groups: The first week of class you will be assigned to a small group of five persons.  This group will be an essential part of the class.  With these five people you will work on assigned material, process readings and class material and work together on a Kingdom project.  A minimum of 50 minutes of each week will be devoted to working with your small group.  This same small group will also be responsible for organizing and completing together a Kingdom Project.   Small Group Guidelines  1. During the first week of class, you will be placed in a KCW Group of 5 persons.  Because Christian living and witness are important aspects of this course, we have set aside 50 minutes of class time for you to meet.  We hope that your schedules may permit you to meet longer in order to facilitate group cohesion and trust.  We have built this group experience into our weekly class time so that no one has to juggle his or her schedule to find time for an additional meeting outside of class. 2. Please note that if you miss more than three sessions (for whatever reasons), you will not receive credit for this component of the course. 3. The purpose of this group is to meet together to share insights from the weekly disciplines, to hold each other accountable, and to encourage each other toward living faithfully as witnesses to the Kingdom and the lordship of Christ in our lives. 4. Each group will be student-led and all group members will share leadership.   5. On a rotating basis, one student in each group will take attendance and send the instructor a brief email after each class that lists participants and a brief synopsis of what was discussed.   6. Each group should covenant to keep group conversations confidential among group members.  Online Discussion Guidelines: 1. You will be given online assignments throughout the semester and be asked to respond to two of your classmates’ submissions during each session.  The assignments will usually pertain to the required Wesley readings in your small groups and be announced during class.  2. This class feature calls for good “e-manners.”  Please limit each posting to 50 words or less [unless instructed to do otherwise].  Remember that your team members do not benefit from hearing your tone of voice or seeing your body language, so be careful how you put things in writing!  You may be perceived as shouting, when you only meant to add an emphasis. 3. The instructor will monitor and grade the team interaction and discussion assignments that occur via e-conference.   Some examples of evaluative criteria may include: 1. Did you give a succinct, understandable statement that reflected your understanding of the course material and its relationship to the question posed? 2. Did you reflect critically on the interface between course content and personal experience? 3. Did you post your own answers/responses in a timely way, so as to promote conversation among the members of your team? 4. How effective were you in generating ideas/proposals for group interaction? 5. How effective were you in your engagement with the ideas/proposals generated by others on your Team? 6. Did you respond to your classmates as per the instructions for the exercise? 7. Did you attend to issues of form and style appropriate to academic writing?   Grade Range: Work for IS501 will be evaluated at a graduate/professional school level.  A  = 95-100% Unusually high quality, exceptional work      D+ = 67-69%  Minimal work A- = 90-94%  Far above average, fine work                          D   = 63-66%  barely acceptable B+= 87-89%   Above average for graduate work                  D-  = 60-62% for specific assignment B  = 83-86%  Very good, average for graduate work            F   =  59% or below Failure.      B- = 80-82%  Slightly below average for graduate work       C+ = 77-79%  Meets requirements, but noticeable inadequacies for graduate work C   = 73-76%  Meets requirements, but with significant gaps for graduate work C-  = 70-72%  Meets requirements, but serious gaps  Incomplete Work: “A grade of ‘I’ denotes that the work of a course has not been completed due to an unavoidable emergency, which does not include delinquency or attending to church work or other employment. If the work of the course is incomplete at the end of a term without an emergency, a letter grade will be given based on the grades of work done, with incomplete work counted as ‘F.’ ” From ATS 2001-03 Catalog p. 29 (emphasis added)  Attendance Policy: One class may be missed without makeup.  After this (one class missed), extra reading is required (50 pages per day missed: from the recommended reading list) and a one page single-spaced paper summarizing the extra reading.  If three classes are missed—serious conversation between student and professors is needed and reduction of grade might be required.  Course Schedule:  Introduction  Feb 12 – Introductions and Organization of the Course • Introductions and General Overview • Course Objectives • Course Procedures • Small Groups: Selection, Process, Leadership, and Expectations • Conferences: Selection, Process and Expectations  Required Reading for next week: Clapp, pp. 9-75; Wright, pp. 13-33  Module One: Kingdom – Living the Biblical Story  Module Objectives Having completed this module, students should be able to: 1. Articulate the importance of “story;” 2. Discern how cultural products participate in inviting us into certain stories; 3. Articulate the basis for the unity of Scripture in the overarching plan of God, from Creation to New Creation; 4. Articulate the hermeneutical importance of the incarnation for understanding the biblical story; 5. Articulate how Wesley’s understanding of the soteriological journey serves as a hermeneutical compass for reading the biblical story;  Feb 19 –Narrative, Post Modernism, and the Biblical Story  Required Reading for next week: Wright, pp. 34-73; Snyder, pp. 9-76  Feb 26–Old Testament  Required Reading for next week: Wright, pp. 74-149    March 4-New Testament  Required Reading for next week: Wright, pp. 150-197; Clapp, pp. 76-93.  March 11 –Thematic integration of Scripture and Wesley's Order of Salvation  Required Reading for next week: McLaren, pp. 1-53; Clapp, pp. 94-125.  March 18 –Who are the People of God?  Module One in-class exam (15%)  Required Reading for next week: McClaren, pp. 54-93; Clapp, pp. 140-157.  Module Two: Kingdom and Church  Particular Objectives Having completed this module, students should be able to: 1. Enumerate significant ways in which the ongoing life of the people of God participates in and extends the biblical story; 2. Articulate how kingdom-living relates to a community of believers; 3. Articulate an ecclesiology oriented around participation in the kingdom; Articulate basic forms of ecclesial practice (e.g., hospitality, mission) that are a necessary outgrowth of an ecclesial commitment to performing the kingdom.  March 25 – The People of God Through History  Required Reading for next week: Clapp 158-171; McLaren, pp. 94-165  Week 8 – Easter/Spring Reading Week    April 8 –  The People of God in Contemporary Context  Required Reading for next week: Clapp, pp. 172-212; Snyder, pp. 79-120   Module Two integrative exam distributed to be returned next week (15%)  Module Three:  Kingdom, Church, and World  Particular Objectives Having completed this module, students should be able to: 1. Articulate the significance of the kingdom in terms of its cosmological and eschatological significance (rather than in individual and subjective terms); 2. Demonstrate that they have begun the process of thinking theologically – i.e., situating life within the interpretive and critical horizons of a theological vision of the purpose of God for creation that comes into focus best in Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom; 3. Draw out inferences of this view of the kingdom with respect to a range of social-ethical issues (e.g., racial reconciliation, environmental ethics, gender issues);  Demonstrate the importance of understanding one’s world in performing the kingdom;    April 15 –Listening to the World  Module Two integrative exam due today  Required Reading for next week: Clapp, pp. 126-139; Hauerwas & Willimon, pp. 1-48  April 22 —Acting in the World  Required Reading for next week: Hauerwas & Willimon, pp. 49-111  Assignment: Work on Kingdom Project Presentations  April 29 –Speaking to the World:   Required Reading for next week: Hauerwas & Willimon , pp. 112-172  Assignment: Work on Kingdom Project Presentations  May 6 Thy Kingdom Come: Kingdom Project Class Presentations  Required Reading for next week: NO Reading, prepare for Final Exam  Kingdom Reflection Papers due   INSTRUCTOR WILL ANNOUNCE REMAINING CLASS SCHEDULE …    

IS 501 Christian Formation: Kingdom, Church, and World

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IS 501 Christian Formation: Kingdom, Church, and World

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