MN526: Urban Ministry/Mission Models (4 units)

Fletcher Tink, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Urban Ministries
Fletcher L. Tink, currently professor of urban and compassionate ministries at Nazarene Theological Seminary, of Kansas City, MO. is the director of the newly organized Bresee Institute for Metro Ministries also located there, modeled after the Bresee Institute for Urban Ministry in Los Angeles which he co-founded in 1983. He has served with Peace Corps in urban community development in Brasilia, Brazil, and has pastored in La Paz, Bolivia, Washington, DC., Cambridge, MA., Los Angeles, and Minneapolis. He has taught graduate courses in 25 nations, including in cities as diverse as Havana, Manila, Tokyo and Nairobi, and given urban seminars in many more. A lover of cities, both as they are, and as they witness to God's love and care, he has conducted urban immersion seminars in Boston, Baltimore, Washington, Philadelphia, Kansas City and Los Angeles. He has written many articles on urban and compassionate ministry themes, and has co-taught with Ray Bakke, Roger Greenway, and Harvie Conn.
Winter 2003 Pasadena

DESCRIPTION:

The course is designed as a field-based traveling seminar in central Los Angeles that examines (through visits as well as readings) a variety of ministry approaches. Although Los Angeles is our "lab," we will be looking for models, concepts and metaphors that are transferable to other contexts. We will consider a variety of contextual dynamics as well as models responding to those dynamics.

Some types of models include: community organizing, community development, reneighboring, incarnational ministries, urban church planting, renewing older churches in transitional neighborhoods, partnering between suburban and inner city churches, and transformational models.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

• Develop a holistic view of serving cross-culturally.

COURSE FORMAT:

This is a traveling seminar course which meets at the First Church of the Nazarene, 3401 W. 3rd Street, Los Angeles, at 9:00am daily. Carpools from Fuller's campus will be arranged. The schedule of classes will be from 9:00 to 5:00 daily, with one evening, Thursday, additionally involved. The course will be limited to 15 credit students only because of the traveling nature of the course. Class sessions will include Biblical reflection, debriefing, lectures, and field visits used as case studies for learning. We will examine the various models in light of their motivation for mission, means of mission, goal of mission.

REQUIRED READING:

If already read, select other books from the recommended reading list or books approved by instructor.
Conn, Harvey and Manuel Ortiz. The Urban Face of Mission: Ministering the Gospel in a Diverse and Changing World. Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 2002.
Greenway, Roger, Timothy Monsma. Cities: Mission's New Frontier. (2nd edition). Baker House Books, 2000.
McKnight, John. The Careless Society: Community and its Counterfeits. Basic Books, 1995
Reader compiled by the professor, including a diversity of authors and approaches.

RECOMMENDED READING:

Campolo, Tony and Bruce Main. Revolution and Renewal: How Churches Are Saving Our Cities. John Knox Pr., 2000.
Freedman, Samuel. Upon This Rock: The Miracles of a Black Church. HarperCollins, 1994.
Grigg, Viv. Cry of the Urban Poor. Monrovia: MARC, 1992.
McKnight, John and John Kretzmann. Building Communities from the Inside Out. Chicago: ACTA Publications, 1993.
McLaren, Brian. The Church on the Other Side. Zondervan Publishing House, 2000.
Ortiz, Manuel. One New People: Models for Developing a Multiethnic Church. Downers Grove, Il: InterVarsity Press, 1996.
Perkins, John. Restoring At Risk Communities: Doing it Together and Doing it Right. Baker Book House, 1996.
White, Randy. Journey to the Center of the City: Making a Difference in an Urban Neighborhood. Intervarsity Press, 1997.

ASSIGNMENTS:

1. Students will keep a journal of field visits, write book reports on three of the readings, and write a final paper (12-15 pages) evaluating a particular urban ministry model using grid presented in class (see class format above).
2. ThM Students: One additional book and report. Additional five pages and deeper analysis for final project.
3. The textbook, The Urban Face of Mission: Ministering the Gospel in a Diverse and Changing World, is to be read before the first class.

PREREQUISITES: None. AUDITORS — if space allows, by permission of instructor only.

RELATIONSHIP TO CURRICULUM: Elective.

FINAL EXAMINATION: None.

Last Date Edited: September 26, 2002