This course examines the dynamics and models of bridging change. Based on our historical, theological, and missiological understandings, students will explore change dynamics, roles of change agents and participants, strategic planning, and discerning the operational forces within a change situation. Each student will evaluate a change situation in which they have personal interest

Students will develop a bridging approach to change within the framework of a sociological, theological, and missiological understanding of the purpose of organizational change. It provides an analytic approach to change that examines the development of people and structures that are vital to the mission of God.

This is a one-week intensive.

If already read; select other books from a supplementary reading list or book approved by instructor.
Kotter, J. Leading Change. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1996.
Schaller, L.E. The Interventionist. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1997.

Anderson, L. Leadership that works. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1999.
Ficken, J.E. Change: Learning to lead it and living to tell about it. Lima, OH: Fairway Press, 1999.
O’Toole, J. Leading Change: Overcoming the Ideology of Comfort and the Tyranny of Custom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1995.

1. A major change strategy paper of 3,750 to 6,250 words.
2. Daily exercises based on the perspectives introduced.
3. Reading 1,000 pages of additional change literature (along reading continuum—suggested bibliography given in syllabus).
4. Th.M. Students: An additional 1,000-word paper examining either a biblical example of change or a theological reflection on one aspect of change dynamics.

No curricular prerequisites. However, you must have ministry experience from which you can derive needs for change and to which the major project can be addressed. Consult instructor. This is an intensive course with numerous exercises daily. Reading done ahead of time eases the load considerably. Auditors permitted by permission of instructor only.

Elective. Important course in the leadership concentration in the School of World Mission.