What do ministry leaders need to know about the city in order to be effective? Exegeting the City is a course to expand your understanding of the city. This will aid you in the process of contextualization as you discern how to embody, teach, and proclaim the gospel in the city.
Students will be given practical tools and skills on how to better understand and study their cities and neighborhoods. This skillset and tools are taught to urban planners as well as church planters alike and are useful to both. Whether the student is a ministry leader or involved in community development or a local school teacher this course will enhance their involvement in the city.
As the tide has turned and a wave of church planters and ministry leaders have washed up on the shorelines of city centers many are learning to navigate the intricacies of urban life for the first time. Many of today's church planters are migrating in from the suburbs, smaller cities, and rural towns as they are confronted with a culture, lifestyle, and built environment that is more foreign than they thought ... or would admit. What do church planters need to know about the city in order to be effective? Throughout the course students will be exposed to different trends that are reshaping the city both in culture and urban form. This in turn influences how people experience and live in the city which then has direct bearing in how you plant a church. Exegeting the city today is of critical importance.
Contextualization is rooted in the Incarnation of Christ who "added humanity to His deity." As Jesus sends us into the world in small ways we're to incarnate ourselves in culture which means most often the city. As a result we need to understand cities and how they work.
The deep-seated premise behind this course is to assist ministry and church leaders, pastors and church planters, and missionaries to better understand the city to effectively create strategies for missional engagement.
This course is all about understanding and exegeting the context of the city.
Cities are the landing place for new residents, immigrants, refugees, and the like. They are inherently multicultural and it is then this context where we seek to understand the city whether migration patterns, how the built environment reveals as far as a cultural value system, and more.
This is a highly practical class where students will learn how to map and exegete their cities and immediate neighborhoods.
This course is experientially-based and hands-on as we combine theory and practice "on the streets."
