MN526: Urban
Ministry/Mission Models (4 units)
Jude Tiersma Watson, Assistant Professor of Urban Mission
Summer 2004 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 stories, 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,
re-neighboring, incarnational ministries, urban church planting, renewing older
churches in transitional neighborhoods, partnering between suburban and inner
city churches, and transformational models, justice advocacy.
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
· Students will recognize and demonstrate basic
knowledge of various approaches to urban mission.
· Students
will learn to evaluate the effectiveness of various models.
COURSE FORMAT:
This is a traveling seminar course which meets in Los Angeles as well as the Pasadena campus (including one day of site visits in Pasadena). Carpools for field visits will be arranged in class. The course will have a limited enrollment due to the traveling nature of the course, and will include at least one evening. Class sessions will feature 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. (total of 1500 pages)
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
Vanier, Jean. Becoming Human. Paulist Press, 1998.
Reader compiled by the professor, including a diversity of authors and
approaches.
RECOMMENDED READING:
Conn, Harvie. Planting and
Growing Urban Churches. MI: Baker, 1996.
Nile Harper. Urban Churches, Vital Signs: Beyond Charity Toward Justice.
Eerdmans, 1999.
Duncan, Michael. Costly Mission. Monrovia: MARC, 1996.
Freedman, Samuel G. Upon this Rock: The Miracles of a Black Church.
HarperPerennial 1993.
Grigg, Viv. Cry of the Urban Poor. Monrovia: MARC, 1992.
Linthicum, Robert. Empowering the Poor. Monrovia: MARC, 1991.
McKnight, John and John Kretzmann. Building Communities from the Inside Out.
ACTA Publications, 1993.
Ortiz, Manuel. One New People: Models for Developing a Multiethnic
Church. InterVarsity Press, 1996.
Perkins, John, ed. Beyond Charity: The Call to Christian Community
Development. Baker Book House, 1993.
Silvoso, Ed. Prayer Evangelism. Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1994.
ASSIGNMENTS:
1. Students will keep a journal
of field visits, Keep an annotated bibliography of the readings, and write a
final paper (12-15 pages) evaluating a particular urban ministry model.
2. ThM Students: One additional book and report. Additional five pages and
deeper analysis for final project.
PREREQUISITES: None. AUDITORS — if space allows, by
permission of instructor only.
RELATIONSHIP TO CURRICULUM:
Counts as 4
units of practicum credit for MA CCS program if taken with MI530.
FINAL EXAMINATION: None.