Courses

• STH TI 814: In-Service Seminar: Pastor as Spiritual Guide, Counselor, Coach
  This course will introduce students to several key aspects of the role and work of a pastor. Coaching by the pastor helps members of a faith community grow, so that all are empowered to share their full range of gifts and graces with the congregation and the world. The counseling dimensions of a pastor's work are critical, and special attention will be given to strengthening referral skills. Finally, the role of pastor as spiritual guide will be interpreted and practiced in this course as integral to the pastor's ongoing work in preaching, teaching and pastoral care.
• STH TI 815: Leading From Within: Nurturing Spiritual Leadership in Self and Congregation
  Leadership in faith-based settings in the 21st century requires the intersection of self- awareness and organizational understanding. This course will focus on both of those areas: exploring leadership as a spiritual practice that requires attention to the leader's own spiritual formation, and exploring the challenges of leadership in changing times. (MDiv Inservice Degree Seminar.) Online course
• STH TI 816: Conflict Trans
  
• STH TI 819: Mnstry Admnistr
  
• STH TJ 876: Church and Theology in the Contemporary World
  Church and Theology in the Contemporary World is an advanced research seminar in practical theology. The course enables students to design and carry out a research project in practical theology under the guidance of the instructor and with constructive feedback from fellow students. Assignments are designed to help students to articulate a clear, significant, and manageable research question; to design a practical theological approach to the question; to develop relevant bibliographies and other research sources; and, ultimately, to complete a final project in practical theology. Through this work and additional readings, including careful reading of and theological reflection on daily newspapers, we will together identify and address a range of issues facing the church in diverse cultures and contexts. Students gain skills in identifying practical theological questions and interpreting contexts; critically incorporating social scientific research in a theological project; making normative judgments; and thinking through strategic practical theological responses to guide faithful Christian practice. The course is a required core course for all doctoral students majoring in Practical Theology.
• STH TJ 910: Proseminar in Practical Theology
  This doctoral seminar for practical theology majors introduces the primary changes that are under way in practical theology as a discipline, reviews the methodologies upon which these changes are based, and examines the implications of these changes.
• STH TJ 940: Ecclesiology
  This course asks the question, "What is the church?" in dialogue with Christian theological figures and schools representing Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox Christian traditions. While one of the aims of this course is that students be conversant with those voices, it ultimately aims at the student's ability to articulate the ecclesiology of his or her own community and to bring that to bear on the contemporary situation and particular problems of Christian practice in church and society.
• STH TJ 976: Advanced Research in Practical Theology
  In this advanced research seminar, students will explore a range of practical theology research to map the field. They will analyze the purposes, practices, and significance of this research for the field of practical theology and for the larger human community. Students will have opportunities to develop expertise with selected research tools; develop a significant research question of high personal interest; and conduct a research project that contributes to the literature and some part of the human or ecological community.
• STH TM 801: Christian Mission in a Religiously Plural World
  This course is focused on constructing a theology of mission that is appropriate, adequate, and relevant for the 21st century's religious plurality. The aim of the course is to enable students to 1) recall a quick critical survey of the history of Christian mission, 2) grapple with the varied biblical understandings of mission, and 3) begin to frame and articulate a theology of mission that addresses the challenges posed by the religiously plural world
• STH TM 815: Christian Mission
  Exploration of biblical, historical, theological, political, and cultural perspectives on the world mission of the church. This course is a requirement for United Methodist MDiv students pursuing ordination in the United Methodist Church.
• STH TM 835: Asian Christianity
  This course explores the dynamism, co-option, stagnation and renewal of East Asian Christianity throughout its history--from the 7th century to the 21st. Special attention is given to Christianity's complex interaction with the religious, political, and social realities of Japan, China, and Korea. Students are introduced to important Christian leaders and movements across the centuries, and they investigate the implications of East Asian Christianity's recent expansion both at home and abroad.
• STH TM 853: NGOs & FBOs
  Explores theoretical and practical issues related to cross-cultural non-governmental and faith-based service work.
• STH TM 856: Women in World Christianity: Histories, Lives, Issues
  This course explores the history of women in the Christian movement from the early centuries to the present, with particular focus on women in global context from the 19th to 21st centuries. Starting with the reality that women make up the majority of Christians in the world, the course explores texts and sources for researching women's history, including hagiographies and biographies, spiritual and theological writings by women, women's mission literature, and gender analysis. The historic leadership roles of women as sisters, deaconesses, evangelists, missionaries, pastors, and social reformers will be examined. Selected issues for contemporary reflection include church controversies over women's leadership, women in evangelical/Pentecostal churches, and gendered social movements.
• STH TM 857: Global Development and Faith
  The academic study of development often overlaps with the practical application of mission and outreach activities (Churches may participate in efforts to reduce malaria mortality, for example.). Along the way, though, keen theological analysis and critical cultural perspectives may get lost, resulting in misunderstandings and missed opportunities. This course aims to equip reflective practitioners with background and insights they will need to effect more holistic social transformation.
• STH TM 858: Creating Resilience Amidst Resource Scarcity
  Since the mid-1980s, humans have been consuming more of earth's resources than the planet can replenish; the United States alone uses one quarter of the world's energy. This situation, known as "overshoot," has largely arisen from hyper-development. If nothing is done, in several decades there will be vast species extinction, food and fuel shortages, and social unrest. Today's young children could also expect to grow old in a catastrophically degraded world. Many analysts say a cultural and spiritual awakening, including a major rethink of humanity's mission and purpose, is needed to alter this future scenario. So the purpose of this course is to prepare students who can help bring about such an awakening. We will engage Christian theological viewpoints with those of concerned economists, philosophers, and organizational behaviorists. And we will experiment with practical applications of key concepts necessary to positive change.
• STH TM 859: The Future of Ecumenism
  This course focuses on "The Future of Ecumenism and the Transformation of World Christianity in the 21stCentury: Tracking the WCC General Assembly Theme; 'God of Life, lead us to Justice and Peace.'" As such, it juxtaposes the interests of the ecumenical movement even as it verges with evangelical and interfaith interests together with the Just Peace initiatives as defined at the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation in Jamaica (2011). This course is also a part of the World Council of Churches' Global Ecumenical Theological Institute (GETI) as facilitated internationally and at Busan, Republic of Korea, location of the 10th General Assembly of the WCC. Participants in this course will have immediate or digital connection with this assembly.
• STH TM 863: African Christianity: Narratives, Beliefs, and Practices
  This course examines the history of Christianity in Africa, with focus on the 19th-21st centuries. It pays particular attention to themes in African theology, gender and social action, environmentalism, Pentecostal spiritualities, African missions, and church/state relations--including issues of colonialism and democratization. A highlight of the course will be a conference on African Christian Biography with leading scholars, in late October.
• STH TM 909: Mission and Outreach: Foundations for Transformation
  Online Course: This course surveys the biblical, historical, theological, and contextual foundations of transformational Christian mission, and introduces contemporary missional issues and practices. Participants will analyze the mission potential of their ministry site and community. The final project of the course is the development of a leadership plan for mission and outreach.
• STH TM 910: Seminar in World Christianity and Mission History
  A seminar in the history of Christian missions, from the early church to the present. Issues of historiography, method, and the emergence of non-western church history. Required course for doctoral students in mission studies.
• STH TM 930: History of Missiology
  Seminar on the classic Protestant mission theorists of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Required for doctoral students in mission studies.

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