What is the church to do in a society marked by religious pluralism, ethnic diversity, and cultural relativism? This course will explore the problems and complexities of planting missional churches within the reality of competing belief systems. Students will examine past and present challenges of monotheistic faith models, universal marks of the Church and contextual analysis for best practices.
One of the largest challenges for church planters within the postmodern context is the reality of multiple and competing belief systems. Students will research how the Church has responded to this challenge in history, define the marks of the Church universally and do cultural analysis of their own context. Special attention will be focused on 20th century church planting movements in India that closely resemble the present postmodern context in the West. Students will draw their own conclusions for best practices in their context while using Leslie Newbiggin’s work base work of “The Gospel in a Pluralistic Society”. The undergraduate course will focus on examining given past and present models and defining marks for the church universal through the book of Acts. The graduate course will build off of that knowledge base but allow students to draw their own conclusions of best practices for their context based on cultural analysis and their own researched models.
In the West, church planting in the 20th century was like playing ‘home’ games. The ministry context was largely familiar and friendly. Within the reality of the postmodern context, cultural relativism has challenged the church to be more akin to playing ‘away’ games in it’s ministry strategies. This course will help students evaluate both the challenges and opportunities for the Gospel in pluralistic societies.
This course will build upon the Old Testament narratives of the nation of Israel as a monotheistic mission amongst pluralism, the New Testament mandate for church planting and the model of church planting in Acts.
Church planting is a part of being the Missio Dei in the world and join what God is already doing in communities
Students will analyze the pluralistic models specific to their context and identify both the challenges and Gospel opportunities residing there
While faith pluralism is a largely a given in many parts of the world, the specific challenges are not. Students will be exposed through research and each other what diversity exists and how it can inform their own context.
This course will provide the student opportunity to learn from historical, biblical and missional attempts in the past and then apply their own analysis for their ministry context.
Students will utilize personal interview within their ministry context for cultural analysis and engagement with their missional community context.
