MI530:
Missiological Integration in Context (Los Angeles) (4 units)
Jude Tiersma Watson, Assistant
Professor of Urban Mission
Summer 2004 Pasadena
DESCRIPTION:
This course will be focused on a practical learning
experience. The students will experience the urban context, living in a poor
Latin immigrant neighborhood. Students will have the opportunity to learn first
hand from those who are involved in grass-roots ministry as well as being
directly involved themselves. There will be regular reflection sessions among
members of the group and specific inputs by the missionary team as well as the
internship supervisor.
LEARNING
OUTCOMES:
The student will acquire a first hand understanding and
experience of the joys and challenges of urban ministry among the poor. The
student will learn to integrate classroom theory with hands on experience.
COURSE
FORMAT:
This is an intensive four-week integration practicum.
Students will live in the Westlake/Pico Union neighborhood and do a variety of
activities including: exegeting the neighborhood, the use of public space,
children/youth ministry, action-reflection exercises and a concluding two-day
retreat.
REQUIRED
READING:
Nouwen, Henri J.M. The Only Necessary Thing. Crossroad
Publishing. 1999.
Martinez, Rueben. Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail.
Henry Holt & Co., 2001.
*Tiersma, Judith. Reading the Writing on
the Wall: Missional Transformation Through Narrative in Post-Modern Los
Angeles. Fuller dissertation, pp. 39-91, 1999.
RECOMMENDED READING:
Anderson,
Elijah. Code of the Streets.
Foster, Richard J. Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home. HarperSan
Francisco, 1992.
Gornik, Mark. To Live In Peace. Eerdmans,
2002.
Van Engen, Charles and Jude Tiersma. God
So Loves The City. MARC, 1994.
Lupton, Robert D. Theirs
Is The Kingdom: Celebrating the Gospel in Urban America. HarperSan
Francisco, 1989.
*A book on Los Angeles.
*Available on-site for interns to read.
ASSIGNMENTS:
The student must read 800-1,000 pages drawn from the
required reading list, and supplemented by the recommended reading list or
approved substitutes. Participation will be required at two informational
meetings. An ongoing journal will be written throughout the practicum
experience. As a final project, each student will prepare a 3,000 word paper
that integrates the practicum experience with their coursework at Fuller. An
alternative project will be creating an integrative art project with a written
explanation (750 words).
PREREQUISITES: Students must
have taken MN526 Urban Mission Models.
RELATIONSHIP TO CURRICULUM:
Meets practicum requirement in the MA CCS program.
FINAL EXAM: None.