Four areas (biblical, theological, cultural and communicative) that are foundational to Christian ministry/missions are to be laid for the subsequent modules in the D.Miss. Program
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
General:
surveying the biblical, theological, cultural and communicative dimensions of
Christian ministry/mission.
Specific:
After surveying the four dimensions of
Christian ministry/mission, contemporary phenomena/issues will be the foci of
seminar and interactive discussion/debate, e.g. pluralism, postmodernism,
nominalism, secularisation, globalization, contextualization, etc.
REQUIRED & COLLATERAL TEXT:
R. Daniel Shaw and Charles E. Van Engen
2003 Communicating
God’s Word in a Complex World: God’s Truth or
Hocus Pocus?
Don A. Pittman, Ruben L.F. Habito & Terry C. Muck (eds.)
1996
Ministry
and Theology I Global Perspective: Contemporary Challenges for
the Church.
MI:
HELPFUL WEBSITES
2001 Christian Resource Index - A
comprehensive listing of Christian sites in a startling number of categories
for both the average surfer and those looking to do research.
Acts Christian Directory - Directory with links to Christian sites including chat, singles,
entertainment, churches, theology, teens, music, and Bible study.
CrossSearch - A searchable directory of
Christian Web sites, CrossSearch aims to provide quick, easy access to all
manner of Christian resources and information on the Web.
Crosswalk Christian Search Engine and
Directory - Daily devotionals, Bible study tools, Christian messageboards,
classified ads, and daily religion news coverage of church-state issues,
religious freedom, missions, persecution, evangelism, and revival.
FishNet - Over 1400 web sites of interest to Christians, categorized and
searchable.
Global Christian
Network - Directory of Christian sites and businesses.
Virtual Christianity
- Catalogue of major Christian resource web pages including: Bible resources, commentaries, devotionals, Christian
literature and other pages devoted to Christianity.
http://www.refdesk.com/factrel.html
with 138 related websites
http://www.religionreview.com/ Religion News provides up to date
information and latest Arab country headlines with global coverage.
http://www.interfaith.org/links.html A
not-for-profit cooperative association of religious and spiritual
organizations. This site helps bring local spiritual organizations to the
attention of the world community.
http://www.GlobalMissiology.net
Global Missiology is a
quarterly publication and a venue for electronic, interactive exchanges among researchers, practitioners and scholars with
international scope and global concerns.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
Therefore, it is
highly recommended that you carefully identify a specific aspect of Christian
mission or missiological study to be your tentative “program focus.” Use this tentative “program
focus” to be the theme for your following assignments for this course.
As evangelical, the Scripture is the guide for
living and ministry. Therefore, your
choice of an aspect of Christian mission or missiological study should be grounded
in the Scripture. List
out the biblical basis to support scripturally your theme. Use a detailed outline to present your
findings in class.
1.2
THEOLOGICAL
FOUNDATION (15%)
Provide a theologically coherent presentation
for your theme. This theological
foundation will provide a convincing support for your tentative program focus.
Use a detailed outline to present your findings in class, preferably submit
with a list of selected references..
1.3
CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING (15%)
Effective ministry/mission requires a comprehensive understanding of the climate of
the time and the landscape of ministry context in terms of pluralism, multiculturalism,
nominalism, securlarization, globalization, contextualization, etc. (sign up with your
choice)
Use a detailed outline to present in class the summary of your reading/research/
reflection on one of the topics, with the approval of the instructor. Your report
should show your familiarity with the material and can be instructive and informative
to classmates.
1.4 COMMUNICATIVE STRATEGY
Basic grasp of communication theory,
principle and process, added with a good understanding of the worldview and
value system of the target group will provide the communicative foundation in
formulating communicative strategy for effective ministry.
II. RESEARCH PAPER (40%)
Improve and refine your four class report by conducting further research, engaging in extensive reflection, incorporating input from class mates, etc. in the writing of a comprehensive research paper that will be foundational to your final choice of “program focus” for subsequent studies in the D. Miss. Program.
SEQUENCE OF PRESENTATION: (tentative, subject to future change)
I. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Course
design & objectives; course requirements & logistics; course content
& outline
1.2 The
importance of foundational understanding of Christian mission
1.3 Preliminary
understanding of key-terms for foundational understanding:
Missions,
missiology, biblical, theological, cultural and communicative, etc.
II. BIBLICAL
FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIAN
2.1 O.T.
2.2 N.T.
2.3 Biblical
and scriptural foundation
III. THEOLOGICAL FOUNDATION
OF CHRISTIAN
3.1
“What?” – mandate and meaning
3.2
“Why?” – motivation
3.3
“How?” “Where?” “When?” “To whom?” “Till when?” etc. - method
4.1
Understanding
the external dimension of the climate of the
time and the landscape of
ministry context externally, in terms of
pluralism, multiculturalism, globalization, etc.
4.2 Internally in terms of nominalism, secularization, etc.
4.3
The principle and practice of contextualization.
V. COMMUNICATIVE
FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIAN
5.1
Survey of communication theory
5.2
Principle,
practice and process of communication: foundational communication, framework of
communication, functional communication, etc.
5.3
Strategic
planning in communication: understanding and reaching genX, postmodernist, etc.