Explores the communal nature of the theological process and identifies the role and necessity of the local faith community in theological education. The student will identify basic skills for cultivating healthy learning environments within the local, missional community and discover that this is the essential theological process.
This course identifies the necessity for the missional leader to have the skills necessary to cultivate spaces for healthy and generative theological education to occur. It also recognizes that the local missional community is a theological space in which, by its very nature, theological learning takes place through missional praxis. It is important for the missional leader to have the skills necessary to facilitate this space and these processes.
The local missional community is a central focus of the missional imagination. It is also the primary context for theological training. Therefore, this course offers a vital framework for the missional leader to develop the skills necessary for cultivating healthy, generative learning environments in which the missional community can grown in a theological understanding and participation in the mission of God.
The study of scripture in community is the core of learning theology, as the community dwells in the Word and in the World. This, too, is the biblical model of learning that we see in the early church.
The local missional community is the center for theological training and is core to the missional imagination.
When theological education is located within the local missional community it must be contextualized, since each local community is a unique set of individuals with a particular context.
Learning theologically together does not only mean together within the local community, but also reaches to the together of neighboring cultures. This course will also explore how the local community can learn from the neighbor.
This course looks at the practical process of cultivating learning environments within the daily rhythm of the local missional community.
The learning process is a communal dialogue that can only be pursued with the experience of the local community.
