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THEO 594 - Pastoral Theology in the 21st Century

Teacher Dr. C. Simpson
Semester Fall Duration 158 Weeks
Frequency Every three years
Credits 5 ECTS Workload 150 Hours
Module format Intensive
Applicability In Europe and North America a different set of challenges are facing pastors and denominations.  In many lands, church attendance is declining and Sunday has become a day for leisure activities. This course seeks to explore various responses to these challenges e.g. new forms of church, postmodern ethics and morality and biblical illiteracy.
Course structure See module and courses
Contact time 40 Hours Self-Study 110 Hours
Participation requirement See access to the program
Evaluation
Evaluation Hours Weight
Phase 1 50 25%
Reading - Two Texts and Question & Answer Log 50 25%
Phase 2 40 25%
Participation and interaction with invited guests
 40 25%
Phase 3 60 50%
Research Paper
 60 50%
Total 150 100%
Content of the Module This course will consider the specific challenges facing the Church in the 21st Century, particularly in Western Europe and the USA. In particular the serious decline in attendance and membership of many denominations. The cultural and sociological changes which may have produced this and how the churches have been responding, sometimes in some unusual ways e.g. the emerging churches or ‘Fresh Expressions’.  Further challenges have arisen in the areas of ethics and morality, biblical illiteracy and departures from orthodox beliefs.  In each case pastors are on the front line and are having to respond to new situations without the necessary support of an appropriate pastoral theology.
Learning Objectives

A. General
This course seeks to:

  1. assess the overall impact of a reduction in church attendance
  2. describe the theological trends that are emerging from an increasingly unchurched populace
  3. investigate the social and cultural reasons for a decline in church going
  4. demonstrate the variety of responses to the current situation
  5. suggest future implications for ethics and morality in Pastoral Theology
  6. compare and contrast various proposed methods of reversing the decline in church attendance
  7. analyze the cause of biblical illiteracy and consequent unorthodox doctrines

B. Specific
As a result of the study and activities of this course, the student should be able to:

  1. explain how the decline in church attendance and the causes of this affect Pastoral Theology, its thinking and practice
  2. identify the sociological and cultural changes which have impacted traditional church patterns
  3. compare and contrast various models of emerging churches and "Fresh Expressions"
  4. analyze potential challenges for future change in the Pentecostal and Charismatic churches
  5. appraise the influence of I.T. on current church going
  6. provide a theological reflection on the role of the Pastor in an changing world
  7. write an article suitable for publication in a Pentecostal or Charismatic magazine, which highlights the challenges of church going in the 21st century and what other denominations
Outline
  • The Challenge of Postmodernism on Pastoral Theology
  • The decline of church attendance in Western Europe and the USA
  • A Post-Christian reality?
  • Emerging churches
  • Fresh expressions
  • Missional church
  • New monasticism
  • Biblical illiteracy
  • Orthodox, unorthodox doctrines and heresy
  • Pastoral ethics and morality
  • Communication - use of IT and computer technology
  • Commitment - a 21st Century problem
  • Future trends
Examination See Evaluation
Core Literature Reading List:

Anglican- Methodist Working Party. Fresh Expression in the Mission of the Church,

                London, UK: Church House Publishing, 2012.

Bowen, John. What is a fresh expression of Church? A Beginner’s Guide to a

                Movement that is Changing the Church. Toronto, CN: Wycliffe College, 2015.

Church of England Working Party, Mission Shaped Church – Church planting and Fresh

Expressions of Church in a Changing Context,. London, UK: Church House Publishing, 2004.

Cross, Terry. A People for God’s Presence – An Introduction to Ecclesiology. Grand

                Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2019.

Francis, L.J., J. Clymo and M. Robbins. ‘Fresh Expressions: Reaching Those

                Psychological types Conventional Forms of Church Find it Hard to Reach’.

                Practical Theology. Vol.7, No. 4,.pp. 252-267, 2014.

Goodhew, David, Andrew Roberts, Michael Volland.  Fresh – An Introduction to Fresh

                Expressions of Church and Pioneer Ministry. London, UK: SCM, 2012.

Lewis, Brad and Carl Simmons eds. Pastoral Ministry in the 21st Century – the

                Encyclopedia of Practical Ideas. Loveland, CO: Group, 2006.

Malphurs, Aubrey. A New Kind of Church - Understanding Models of Ministry for the 21st

                Century. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2007.

Mobsby, Ian J. Emerging and Fresh Expressions of Church – How are they

                Authentically Church and Anglican? London, UK: Moot Community Publishing,

                2007

Moynagh, Michael. Being Church, Doing Life. Oxford, UK and Grand Rapids, MI:                                  

                Monarch 2014.

­­­­________. Church for Every Context – An Introduction to Theology and

                Practice. London, UK: SCM, 2012.

­­­­­________. Fresh Expressions of Church. Gießen, DE: Brunnen Verlag, 2016

Müller, Sabrina. Fresh Expressions of Church. Zurich, CH: Theologischer Verlag, 2016.

Nell, Ian A. and Rudolf Grobler. ‘An Exploration of Fresh Expressions as Missional

Church: Some Practical theological Perspectives.’ Stellenbosch Theological Journal.,Volume 55, Numbers 3-4, 1 September 2014, pp. 747-762(22).

Nelstrop, Louise and Martyn Percy eds. Evaluating Fresh Expressions: Explorations in

                Emerging Church. Norwich, UK: Canterbury Press, 2008.

Percy, Martyn. ‘”Fresh Expressions – A Journey into Implicit Theology”’. Implicit

                Religion. Vol. 12, Issue 3, pp. 313-332, November 2009.

Village, Andrew. ‘Who Goes There? Attendance at Fresh Expressions of Church in

Relation to Psychological Type Preferences among Readers of the Church Times’. Practical Theology, 2015.

Walker, John. Testing Fresh Expressions - Identity and Transformation. Abingdon, UK:

                Routledge, 2016.

 

X EXTENDED SUBJECT SPECIFIC BIBLIOGRAPHY

https://directionjournal.org/39/1/emerging-church-select-bibliography.html

 

EMERGENT / EMERGING CHURCHES

Anderson, Ray S. An Emergent Theology for Emerging Churches. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2006.

Bell, Rob. Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005.

Bell, Rob, and Don Golden. Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for the Church in Exile. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2008.

Gibbs, Eddie and Ryan K. Bolger. Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Cultures. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2005.

Jones, Tony. The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2008.

———. The Sacred Way: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Life. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005.

———. The Teaching of the Twelve: Believing and Practicing the Primitive Christianity of the Ancient Didache Community. Brewster, MA: Paraclete, 2009.

Keel, Tim. Intuitive Leadership: Embracing a Paradigm of Narrative, Metaphor, and Chaos. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2007.

Kimball, Dan. The Emerging Church: Vintage Christianity for New Generations. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003.

———. Emerging Worship: Creating Worship Gatherings for New Generations. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2004.

———. They Like Jesus but Not the Church: Insights from Emerging Generations. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2007.

McLaren, Brian. Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2007.

———. Finding Our Way Again: The Return of the Ancient Practices. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2008.

———. A Generous Orthodoxy: Why I am a Missional, Evangelical, Post/Protestant, Liberal/Conservative, Mystical/Poetic, Biblical, Charismatic/Contemplative, Fundamentalist/Calvinist, Anabaptist/Anglican, Methodist, Catholic, Green, Incarnational, Depressed-yet-hopeful, Emergent, Unfinished Christian. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2004.

———. The Last Word and the Word After That: A Tale of Faith, Doubt, and a New Kind of Christianity. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2005.

———. More Ready Than You Realize: Evangelism as Dance in the Postmodern Matrix. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2002.

———. A New Kind of Christian: A Tale of Two Friends on a Spiritual Journey. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2001.

———. A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming the Faith. New York: HarperOne, 2010.

———. The Secret Message of Jesus: Uncovering the Truth that Could Change Everything. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2006.

———. The Story We Find Ourselves In: Further Adventures of a New Kind of Christian. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2003.

Tickle, Phyllis. The Great Emergence: How Christianity is Changing and Why. Grand

                Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2008.

 

MISSIONAL CHURCH

Gibbs, Eddie. ChurchMorph: How Megatrends are Reshaping Christian Communities. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2009.

Hirsch, Alan. The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos, 2006.

Guder, Darrell, ed. Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1998.

Minatrea, Milfred. Shaped By God’s Heart: The Passion and Practices of Missional Churches. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2004.

McNeal, Reggie. Missional Renaissance: Changing the Scorecard for the Church. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2009.

Roxburgh, Alan and M. Scott Boren. Introducing the Missional Church: What It Is, Why It Matters, How to Become One. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2009.

Stetzer, Ed. Planting Missional Churches. Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2006.

Van Gelder, Craig. The Ministry of the Missional Church. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2007.

Van Gelder, Craig, ed. The Missional Church and Denominations: Helping Congregations Develop a Missional Identity. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2008.

 

NEW MONASTICISM

Claiborne, Shane. The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2006.

Claiborne, Shane and Chris Haw. Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2008.

Stock, Jon, Tim Otto, and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove. Inhabiting the Church: Biblical Wisdom for a New Monasticism. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2006.

Wilson-Hartgrove, Jonathan. Living Faithfully in a Fragmented World: From ‘After Virtue’ to a New Monasticism. 2nd ed. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2010.

 

CRITICAL ASSESSMENTS

Belcher, Jim. Deep Church: A Third Way Beyond Emerging and Traditional. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2009.

Carson, D.A. Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005.

Colson, Charles W. and Anne Morse. “Emerging Confusion: Jesus is the Truth Whether We Experience Him or Not.” Christianity Today 50 (June 1, 2006): 72.

Craigen, Trevor P. “Emergent Soteriology: The Dark Side.” Master’s Seminary Journal 17, no. 2 (2006): 177–90.

DeYoung, Kevin and Ted Kluck. Why We’re not Emergent: By Two Guys Who Should Be. Chicago: Moody, 2008.

Dorn, Christopher. “The Emergent Church and Worship.” Reformed Review (Online) 61, no. 3 (September 1, 2008).

Driscoll, Mark. “A Pastoral Perspective on the Emergent Church.” Criswell Theological Review 3 (March 1, 2006): 87–93.

Freswick, Casey. Postmodern Liberalism: Repainting a Non-Christian Faith; a Christian Critique of Rob Bell’s Velvet Elvis and the Emergent Church Movement. Grandville, MI: Reformed Fellowship, 2006.

Henard, William D. and Adam W. Greenway, eds. Evangelicals Engaging Emergent: A Discussion of the Emergent Church Movement. Nashville: B&H Academic, 2009.

Johnson, Gary and Ronald Gleason, eds. Reforming or Conforming? Post-Conservative Evangelicals and the Emerging Church. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2007.

Keuss, Jeffrey F. “The Emergent Church and Neo-Correlational Theology after Tillich, Schleiermacher and Browning.” Scottish Journal of Theology 61 (January 1, 2008): 450–61.

Mayhue, Richard L. “The Emerging Church: Generous Orthodoxy or General Obfuscation?” Master’s Seminary Journal 17 (September 1, 2006): 191–205.

McLaughlin, Brian. “The Ecclesiology of the Emerging Church Movement.” Reformed Review (Online) 61, no. 3 (September 1, 2008).

Miles, Todd L. “A Kingdom Without a King? Evaluating the Kingdom Ethic(s) of the Emerging Church.” Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 12 (March 1, 2008): 88–103.

Mills, David M. “Mountain or Molehill? The Question of Truth and the Emerging Church.” Criswell Theological Review 3 (March 1, 2006): 51–66.

Penner, Myron B., ed. Christianity and the Postmodern Turn: Six Views. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos, 2005.

Smith, James K. A. Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism? Taking Derrida, Lyotard, and Foucault to Church. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2006.

Smith, R. Scott. Truth and the New Kind of Christian: The Emerging Effects of Postmodernism in the Church. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2005.

Webber, Robert, ed. Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches: Five Perspectives. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2007.

Wittmer, Michael Eugene. “Don’t Stop Believing: A Theological Critique of the Emergent Church.” Reformed

Review (Online) 61, no. 3 (September 1, 2008).

ONLINE

http://www.brianmclaren.net — Brian McLaren’s website.

http://www.emergentvillage.com — “Emergent Village is a growing, generative friendship among missional Christians seeking to love our world in the Spirit of Jesus Christ.”

http://www.emergingchurch.info — “A constantly evolving collection of recommended stories and reflections.”

http://www.theooze.com — “A website dedicated to the emerging Church culture.”

http://www.thesimpleway.org — Website for a new monastic community founded by Shane Claiborne and Brooke Sexton.

 

https://www.lausanne.org/content/lga/2019-09/restoring-missional-vision-theological-education?gclid=Cj0KCQiA7qP9BRCLARIsABDaZzgASjaXeezbGNMW81SeVJm_A9Qr9rxThBDTIiiQJS0VAtvZHXohQ1UaApx6EALw_wcB  - Ashish Chrispal ‘Restoring Missional Vision in Theological Education’

 

https://www.psephizo.com/life-ministry/what-are-the-church-attendance-statistics-telling-us/  - Blog by Ian Paul, Adjunct Prof at Fuller Theological Seminary, Assoc Minister at St.Nic’s Nottingham.

 

https://faithsurvey.co.uk/uk-christianity.html

 Useful comparison of church growth and decline.

 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4275107/

When people shed religious identity in Ireland and Austria: Evidence from Censuses.
Other information


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