ASSEMBLIES OF GOD THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. PTH 551 Effective Evangelism and Assimilation. Dr. Steve Lim Fall 2014 COURSE SYLLABUS

Transcription

1 ASSEMBLIES OF GOD THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY PTH 551 Effective Evangelism and Assimilation Dr. Steve Lim Fall 2014 COURSE SYLLABUS COURSE DESCRIPTION This course examines our changing cultural landscape and the challenges facing the Church s response to the Great Commission in this context. Emphasis is placed on: becoming missional Christians and churches; understanding the unreached in a given community; discerning effective, contextualized strategies and methods of evangelism for engaging them; and communicating the relevance of the gospel to their lives. COURSE OBJECTIVES 1. Appreciate the priority and process of evangelism in the New Testament. 2. Recognize the hindrances to evangelism today, including the cultural challenges, and the means to overcome them. 3. Embrace the qualities of missional Christians and churches. 4. Discern relevant characteristics of the unreached in a given community. 5. Determine appropriate strategies and methods of evangelism for a given context. 6. Communicate the relevance of the gospel for individual and societal needs. 7. Identify means for assimilating people into the local church. 8. Design an outreach strategy for a specific ministry context. TEXTBOOKS Required: George Hunter, The Apostolic Congregation: Church Growth Reconceived for a New Generation. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, ISBN Gabe Lyons, The Next Christians: Seven Ways You Can Live the Gospel and Restore the World. Colorado Springs, CO: Multnomah Books, ISBN

2 PTH 551 Evangelism 2 Ed Stetzer & David Putnam. Breaking the Missional Code: Your Church Can Become a Missionary in Your Community. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman, ISBN If you have read any of the required books, please read one of the recommended books listed below instead. Recommended: Bryan Stone. Evangelism after Christendom: The Theology and Practice of Christian Witness. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, ISBN Francis S. Adeney. Graceful Evangelism: Christian Witness in a Complex World. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, ISBN Timothy Keller. Center Church: Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing, (Choose 200 pages of your choice.) COURSE OUTLINE I. Biblical Evangelism: Priority and Process 1. Jesus 2. Early Church II. III. IV. Becoming a Missional Christian and Church Understanding Our Changing Culture 1. Understanding contemporary culture 2. Understanding worldviews and religions (PTH 622) 3. Understanding a community Hindrances to Spiritual Harvest 1. Identifying hindrances in the Church 2. Identifying hindrances in our culture 3. Overcoming hindrances V. Relevance of the Gospel 1. Universal Felt-Needs of Individuals 2. Universal Felt-Needs of Societies VI. VII. Strategies for Evangelism Methods of Evangelism VIII. Assimilation

3 PTH 551 Evangelism 3 METHODOLOGY Class and small group discussions, student presentations, supplementary readings, and lectures will be used to facilitate learning. A project will be assigned which requires students to integrate the concepts that they learned. COURSE REQUIREMENTS Note: All written assignments are due as indicated. 1. Read the three required textbooks. Submit a three page typewritten summary and critique for each of them. a. A brief summaries of essential points should total not more than one page in each of the papers. b. Your primary task is to analyze and evaluate. Be concise and engage as much of the book s content as possible whether parts, chapters, themes, major points, or some combination of these. How much of the content you engage and how well you do so will determine the largest portion of your grade. State the overall value of the book to you and assess its strengths and limitations, if any. (Minimum one-and-a-half pages) c. Indicate those points that were of most value to you and why. Also state the areas, if any, that were not clear to you or which you question and explain why. d. If you include short quotes from the book, simply put page number in parenthesis following the quote e.g. (45) in lieu of complete source information. Hunter, The Apostolic Congregation Friday, August pp. Due at beginning of class Stetzer & Putnam, Breaking the Missional Code Friday, October pp. Due at beginning of class Lyons, The Next Christians Friday, November pp. Send to: slim@agts.edu 2. Attend all class sessions punctually, and participate in discussions and small groups. On the day a book critique is due, bring the book and be prepared to discuss it. Short readings may be provided prior to a class for discussion during that class. Chapel may be scheduled as part of the class on a day to be announced.

4 PTH 551 Evangelism 4 3. Final Exam: This will be a closed book, take-home exam. You will receive it by attachment on Monday, November 17. It must be submitted no later than Friday, November 21. Please submit it in person to Deb Gehris, Faculty Secretary by 4:30 p.m. or to me by attachment by midnight: slim@agts.edu. 4. Course paper: Choose option A or B below. In either case, the length of paper should be 10 to 12 pages. If needed, one or two extra pages will not incur a penalty. The grade, however, will be reduced for papers that fall short of minimum length. This paper is due Monday, December 1. Please submit to Janice Brueggemann, Faculty Administrative Assistant, or send to slim@agts.edu. Option A: Design a comprehensive outreach strategy for a specific ministry context and community. This may be a church or ministry and community with which you have had past or present involvement, or it may be an anticipated ministry and community in your future. This project should integrate the insights gained through your reading, class participation, and experiences in outreach. a. Describe the ministry (church or organization) which will reach out to the community in terms of its members, leadership, history, present means of evangelism, hindrances to evangelism, and any other relevant characteristics. Also, describe the community which the ministry seeks to reach in terms of: people groups (ethnicity, language, nationality), population segments (common language and experience which creates long-term bonds and impact values, beliefs, and lifestyles), and geographic environments (if distinctive). Also indicate worldviews, cultural and demographic distinctives, and any other applicable characteristics. Elaborate on the issues and factors which pose special challenges or to which you would need to be especially sensitive. (Approximately 2 to 3 pages) b. Describe comprehensively the strategies and means of evangelism which you would employ. Explain how they fit the community context. (Approximately 7 to 9 pages, this is the heart of your paper.) c. Based on: 1) the present state of readiness of the church or ministry to pursue the strategies and methods you have indicated, and 2) a realistic understanding of the community, develop a realistic time table for implementing your plan of evangelism. (Approximately 1 to 2 pages) Option B: Choose a topic from the 19 areas of the relevance of the gospel and write a 10 to 12 page research paper. For some topics, you will need to focus on a specific aspect of the topic in order to have enough depth for a graduate paper. In general, a) the presentation of the need, b) exploration of alternative solutions, c) the biblical response, and d) support material for the biblical response should each comprise approximately one-fourth of the paper. Do not use more than 2 items from the illustrative material given in class.

5 PTH 551 Evangelism 5 Meaningfully engage a minimum of 5 academic or professional works. This means more than simply quoting from them. Credible academic and professional references should be cited with endnotes, with a minimum average of 1.5 citations per page. Do not cite the Bible or a dictionary in these references. You may cite a popular source if the author says something in a unique way which you desire to capture. However, these citations do not count toward the number of academic and professional sources needed. For All Papers: Due: Your paper should be submitted to Dr. Steve Lim or the Faculty Secretary no later than Friday, December 5, by 4:30 p.m. Or send by attachment to the professor at: slim@agts.edu by midnight, December 5. Format: Use Times-New Roman font, 12 point type and Turabian formatting. Make all margins 1 and place page numbers in the upper right hand corner. Quotes longer than two lines should be single-spaced and indented 5 spaces as a block quote. Be sure to cite your sources through an attached bibliography and endnotes. If used, lists and summaries longer than a quarter of a page in length should be placed in appendices. Recommendations: Strive to write at a graduate level, realizing that what may have been acceptable in undergraduate work may not meet the standard for master s degree papers. While the quality of your content is the most important, the use of poor grammar, punctuation, spelling, and style detracts from understanding it. Deficiencies in these areas will result in a lower grade. (After graduation, they will reflect poorly on your ministry.) Avoid simply listing facts; rather analyze, synthesize, and evaluate research materials. Be concise, yet thorough, aiming to be clear and logical in your writing. Also avoid unnecessary words and repetitions. Use Grammarly.com to identify and correct weaknesses in your writing and to avoid plagiarism. It is available on your Student Portal on the AGTS website. AGTS students are licensed to use this tool as often as they want. Thoroughly edit your work, and have knowledgeable individuals review it as well. Recognize, as all good writers do, that editing and rewriting is a normal part of writing well. Allow time for the process of revision, which may require several drafts.

6 PTH 551 Evangelism 6 GRADING PROCEDURE Reading analyses 15.5% 45 points (@ 15 per book) Class participation, including class 5.2% 15 points Examination 34.5% 100 points Post-session paper 34.5% 100 points TOTAL 100% 260 points SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY This will be distributed during the course. SPECIFIC DATA Revised by Dr. Steve Lim, August 15, 2014