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Theology & Practice of Urban Poor Discipling Movements Course

COURSE DESCRIPTION
    In this course, we will develop a story-based theological framework around the theme of the Kingdom of God as a basis for developing poor peoples' discipling movments and churches. This includes reflections on Kingdom mission, urban poor evangelism, the Holy Spirit among the poor, cooperative economics, land rights, poverty, justice, oppression, class and racial conflict resolution, incarnation, suffering, poor peoples' churches / movements in two-third world cities, leadership from among the poor, etc.

COURSE OBJECTIVES
By the end of this course each student will:

1. Cognitive (Head): Have developed an integrated theological framework for the multiple aspects of urban poor ministry.  Demonstrated in a written project.

2. Cognitive (Head): Be able to relate the complex issues of urban poor mission practice to the Kingdom of God as a wider framework than evangelism and church growth. Demonstrated in a written project.

3. Affective (Heart):  Have an enthusiasm for entering in to the needs of poor communities.  Have developed a heart for the global urban poor.

4. Affective (Heart): Where past experiences in urban poor ministry have caused emotional damage, some elements of healing within the context of the class dynamics will have been initiated.

5. Praxis (Hands): Within six months to have implemented action steps from the class that extend one area of expansion of a slum church.  Evaluated in a written project report.

GENERAL STATEMENT OF PURPOSE :

People credited with competency in this course will be able to critically analyze the relationship of the Kingdom of God to holistic elements of entrance and each season of growth of a viable discipleship community among the poor. The person seeking credit should be able to clearly present their critical analysis in writing.

They will be able to critically analyse holistic processes at each phase of development of entrance and growth of a viable discipleship community among the urban poor. The person seeking credit should be able to clearly present their critical analysis in writing.and oral presentations based on practical ministry experiences in a given situation.

Measurable Objectives

Outcome 1.

Critical analysis of the relationship of the Kingdom of God to holistic elements of entrance and each season of growth of a viable discipleship community among the poor in a contextual situation the student is familiar with.

Outcome 2.

The person seeking credit is able to clearly present a critical analysis of their practical ministry among the urban poor in writing and/or oral presentations. This evidence must be  accompanied by a log and overview of the practicums undertaken under supervision with evidence of validation by other people in community leadership.

Summary of Assessment Tasks

ASSESSMENT TASK

MAXIMUM MARK

WEIGHTING

CP606/1 (estimated time = 22 hours)

1.1 Critically analyze the relationship of the Kingdom of God to holistic elements of entrance and each season of growth of a viable discipleship community among the poor in a contextual situation the student is familiar with in an essay of no more than 2,500 words.

1.1.1 Present their critical analysis of appropriate elements of the Kingdom of God which may include:

  • a definition of the Kingdom

  • its relationship in the scriptures to social , economic, spiritual and political dimesnions of life

  • its relationship to socio-economic-political-social discipleship

  • its relationship to growth of discipling movements and communities of faith

1.1.2 Elucidate the relationship to holistic elements of entrance and each season of growth of a viable discipleship community among the poor in a contextual situation the student is familiar with through diagrams and explanations that include evidence of mastery of the readings covering:

  • mission goals and objectives for a particular community

  • identification of the community contextual factors

  • an understanding of what an indigenous urban poor church or discipling movement is

  • a biblical understanding and practical strategies for each season of growth

  • their preferred leadership style at each season of growth

  • a framework for a plan for the team at each season of growth of the movement

  • viable community development or advocacy ideas, that meet social, economic and justice needs at each season of growth

  • church governance for each season of growth.

  • core values and personal spirituality needed to sustain their involvment in such processes.

1.2 In a one hour exam setting give evidence of mastery of readings in a diagram and explanation of the theme of the Kingdom of God as it relates to practical phases of growth of an urban poor discipling movement.

1.3 Provide a reading log from the required and recommended readings  Ideally develop it in the computer as a database of author, title, no of pages etc, and comments.  Else on a single page. From each book chapter or reading develop at least one paragraph for final papers, either a quote or summary of a key idea. 500 pages of reading (count 3 pages as 1 for browsing) are expected.

100%

 

 

 

(40% of the total)

 

 

 

 

(50% of total)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(10% of total)

60%

CP606/2 (estimated time = 21 hours)

2.1 Critically analyze a practical ministry of discipling/church-planting and community development activities undertaken by the person seeking credit using written and oral  or video or Power Point presentations.

2.2 This evidence must be accompanied by a daily log as an appendix to a report to the course facilitator on the practicums undertaken under supervision.

2.3 The report must include a further appendix containing evidence of the validity of the work of the person seeking credit provided by two third parties in community leadership.

2.4 Within six months to have implemented action steps from the class that extend one area of expansion of a slum church.  Evaluated in a simple written project report.  

100                  

(70% of total) 

 

(20% of total)

 

(10% of total)

 

(not assessed for a grade)

40%

 

B. LEARNING OUTCOMES BY MODULE

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1. Organizational: To familiarize each worker with the goals, methodology, measurement of outcomes and personnel in the course
1.2. Motivational: To motivate with the history of God's works, and vision for what God can do among the urban poor.

2. SPIRITUAL FORMATION (SF)

1. URBAN SPIRITUALITY

2.1.1.Understanding: Trainees will understand a diversity of strands of Christian spirituality.
2.1.2. Understanding: Trainees will understand the relationship of the three main traditions of spiritual growth to urban poor ministry.
2.1.3. Skill: Trainees will evaluate the effectiveness of their spiritual disciplines in enabling them to cope with the pressures of urban life.
2.1.4. Character: Trainees will understand the effect of stress on spirituality and family by identifying three major stressors and determining changes of lifestyle or spiritual practices to cope with them.

2. WORKS OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD

2.2.1.Knowledge: To understand the relationship of the anointing of the Spirit and ministry among the poor.
 2.2.2. Character: To have opportunity in a supportive context for prayer that breaks barriers to the work of the Holy Spirit in each others lives.

3. THE LIFESTYLE AND VALUES OF SERVANTS
   

2.3.1. Skill: To observe the nature of a yearly renewable set of lifestyle, value and ministry commitments.
2.3.2. Skill: To develop a framework for evaluating spirituality in relationship to wealth, poverty and simplicity.

3. THEOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK (TH)

1. THE KINGDOM OF GOD   

3.1.1. Understanding: Trainees will be able to describe by drawings and words the relationship of the Kingdom of God to creation, and humanity during different epochs of redemption history and a diversity of covenantal relationships.
3.1.2. Understanding: Trainees will be able to describe the relationship of the Kingdom to holistic discipleship, proclamation and mission, and the Holy Spirit.

2. THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND THE POOR     

3.2.1. Understanding: Trainees will be able to relate six types of the poor in scriptures with clusters of poverty in their society.
3.2.2. Understanding: Trainees will be able to trace Biblical themes from Leviticus through Isaiah's servant Psalms to Jesus and Paul's teaching in Luke-Acts.

3. THEOLOGY OF CHURCH-PLANTING

3.3.1 Understanding: Trainees will be able to explain the relationship of discipleship, discipling movements, and church planting to underlying Biblical themes of the nature of the trinity and the Kingdom of God

4. URBAN THEOLOGICAL PROCESS

3.4.1. Understanding: Trainees will be able to describe core elements of the nature of urban theological process.
3.4.2. Understanding: Trainees will be able to explain the diversity of theologies for ministering among the poor from examination of emphases in the scriptures.

4. SLUM CONTEXT (CX)

4.1. Understanding: Trainees will be able to differentiate the causes of poverty in various urban contexts, relating these to social theories.
4.2. Understanding: Trainees will be able to identify characteristics of an urban poor church from reflections on Oscar Lewis' "Culture of Poverty" thesis.
4.3. Understanding: Trainees will be able to identify global and national factors contributing to slum poverty.
4.4. Skill: Trainees will be able to apply these contextual analytical tools to pockets of poverty in their own city.

5. ENTRANCE AND EVANGELISM (EV)

1. REACHING SEMI-LITERATE PEOPLE
     5.1.1. Trainees will understand the difference between story-telling and holistic truth processes and Western or tertiary education linear logical truth processes and be able to frame their teaching in story-telling modes.

2. EVANGELISM
    5.2.1. Skill: Trainees will have experimented with processes of finding a person of peace in a community.
    5.2.2. Skill: Trainees will have been part of a team in a public preaching context.
    5.2.3. Understanding: Trainees will understand the difference between a fast approach and slow approaches to evangelism and when it is appropriate to use these.
    5.2.4. Character: Trainees will have a biblical foundation for withstanding opposition when evangelising.

3. THE HOLY SPIRIT & MINISTRY
     5.3.1.Knowledge: To understand the relationship of the anointing of the Spirit and ministry among the poor.
    5.3.2. Character: To have opportunity for prayer that breaks barriers to the work of the Holy Spirit in each others lives.

4. INCARNATIONAL MODELS
    5.4.1. Values: Trainees will come to highly value incarnational and identificational approaches to ministry among the poor, being able to differentiate the positive and negative elements of ministry from the outside, and ministry from within poor areas.
    5.4.2. Understanding: Trainees will be able to identify 5 effective roles in entrance to a community
    5.4.3. Understanding: Trainees will be able to identify lifestyle and physical issues that enable viability of long-term incarnation among the poor.
    5.4.4. Understanding: Trainees will be able to identify limits to incarnational living and differentiate between lack of commitment and wise discernment of personal limitations.

5. RESEARCHING COMMUNITIES
5.5.1 Skill: Trainees will develop a framework of ten elements they need to discern about a community before entrance and a process for unobtrusively gaining that information.

 

6. DISCIPLESHIP (CG)

6.1.Skill: Trainees will be able to evaluate a ministry, its teaching, group dynamics and culture, according to its season of growth.
6.2. Character: Trainees will evaluate their own maturity of character and ministry experience in the light of the four seasons of growth.
6.3. Skill: Trainees will have developed a work plan for each season of growth for an urban poor context they are familiar with.
 6.4. Skill: Trainees will write up a strategy for caring for 10% of your congregation who have AIDS or have been drug addicts, prostitutes or street children.

 

7. CHURCH GROWTH (CG)

7. 1. Skill: Trainees will evaluate their ministry experiences in each of the seven skill areas of developing a poor people's church or discipling movement, relating these to the four seasons of growth.
7.2. Skill: Trainees will develop a work plan for evangelism, and one of the seven skill areas.
7.3. Understanding: Trainees will be able to identify the differences between a mindset and styles of developing a ministry and initiating a movement.
7.4. Skill: Trainees will identify a progression of funding needs and resources for an urban poor ministry they are familiar with.
7.5. Skill: Trainees will be able to differentiate the nature of urban poor worship patterns and middle class patterns.

 

8. LEADERSHIP (CL)

8.1.Character: Trainees will identify their primary leadership gifting and pray for God's anoint in these areas
8.2. Knowledge: Trainees will be able to identify the nature, strengths and weaknesses of the five leadership gifts of Eph 4:11,12.
8.3. Character: Trainees will identify the primary stresses their families experience because of their ministry involvement and as a class determine significant responses.
8.4. Skill: Trainees will identify the different bases for authority in leading a churchplanting team through each of the four seasons
8.5. Knowledge: Trainees will be able to identify the impact of networking on the effectiveness of ministry of an urban poor worker.

 

9.COMMUNITY TRANSFORMATION (CT)

9.1. Understanding: The trainees will be able to document differences between push and pull factors causing urban poverty; theories of causation of slum poverty; the nature of land and land rights issues; the difference between first and third world poverty: and other endemic social and environmental problems of the slums.
9.2. Understanding: The trainee will be able to demonstrate from the scriptures how social work and community development are a reflection of the nature of God in his relationship to humanity and the God-human-land relationships.
9.3. Understanding: The trainee will be familiar with basic concepts of four of the following in the slums: social work, project design, developing vocational education, primary education, micro-enterprise, credit coops, primary health care and their relationship to churchplanting in the slums.

10.ADVOCACY (AD)

10.1. Understanding: Trainees will understand a Biblical framework for engagement with seeking land rights for the poor.
10.2. Understanding: Trainees will understand the difference between community development and community organisational approaches.
10.3. Understanding: Trainees will develop a Biblical understanding for involvement in appropriate issues and levels of justice.
10.4. Understanding: Trainees will understand the diversity of roles of rich churches in relationship to the poor.
10.5. Understanding: Trainees will discuss the Biblical and practical relationship of spiritual powers and structures of sin.

11. MISSION STRUCTURES AND STRATEGY (MI)

11.1. Understanding: Trainees will debate the nature of specialist mission structures for incarnational ministry among the urban poor in contrast with programmatic development agency structures.

12. FINALE (FL)

12.1. Trainees will integrate themes from the course through internalising the story of the poor wise man, and through writing both a theology of the Kingdom of God and its relationship to urban poverty and diagramming the relationship of the Kingdom of God and the four seasons of growth.

© Viv Grigg & Urban Leadership Foundationand other materials © by various contributors & Urban Leadership Foundation,  for The Encarnacao Training Commission.  Last modified: July 2010