Week 1: January 5-9, 2009
Week 2: January 12-16, 2009

Elective offered week 1, January 5-9, 2009

DM-953 "Ministry in a Technological Age" taught by Dr. Joseph Conte, Director of Church Relations and Instructional Technology

An exploration of the use of technology in the ministry of the local church.  Applications for worship, Christian education and effective communications. Space design, computer and projector equipment, software options, and the use of Adobe Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements for image capture, editing, and video production with specific examples from churches currently engaged in the use of technology.    

Elective offered week 2, January 12-16, 2009

DM-954 "Practicing the Presence of God in Ministry" taught by Dr. Bruce Epperly, Director of Continuing Education and Professor of Practical Theology at Lancaster Theological Seminary

This course explores the spiritual dimensions of ministry through the integration of theology, spiritual formation, autobiography, and healing practices.  Participants will reflect on how the ordinary practices of ministry - preaching, worship, pastoral care, spiritual direction, administration, and social action - can be pathways to personal transformation and healthy ministry.

Practical Theology for Pastors, Chaplains, and Clinicians

Week 1: DM-P311 "Foundations and New Directions in Practical Theology" taught by Dr. Mary Moschella, Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology and Congregational Care, and Dr. Michael Koppel, Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology and Congregational Care

An overview of current theory and best practices with a strong emphasis on biblical and theological foundations.

Week 2: DM-P312 "Theological Foundations for Practical Theology" taught by Dr. Beverly Mitchell, Professor of Historical Theology

A conversation with classical, modern, liberation, and post-modern theologians about contemporary pastoral practices.

The Arts and Theology

Week 1: DM-A311 "Spirituality and Creativity" taught by Catherine Kapikian, Director of the Henry Luce III Center for the Arts and Religion

The phenomena of creativity; the mixed story of the church's relating to the arts; creativity as a theological theme; best practices of theologizing through the arts.

Week 2: DM-A312 "Tools for Drama in Ministry" taught by Deryl Davis, Associate Faculty in Religion and Drama

Equipping the congregation to experience and to proclaim the written word of the Scriptures through the arts of rhetoric, mime, and drama.  

Life Together: Spirituality for Transforming Community

Week 1: DM-S912 "Exodus, Covenant, Exile: Formation and Transformation of God's People" taught by Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt, Instructor in Jewish Studies

The church as a community of released captives, believers in community, and aliens far from home.

Week 2: DM-S922 "God's Welcome: Hospitality for a Gospel Hungry World" taught by Dr. Amy Oden, Professor of History of Christianity

Hospitality as virtue and practice; emphasis on biblical, theological, ethical, and ecclesiological aspects; recover of hospitality in congregational life today.

Missional Evangelism

Week 1: DM-E221 "Salvation in the New Testament" taught by Dr. Michael Gorman, Dean of the Ecumenical Institute of Theology of St. Mary's Seminary and University

Finding our place in the story of God's attempts to recover that which is lost in the inescapable background of the Hebrew Bible, in the nuances of salvation in the various New Testament books, and above all in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Week 2: DM-E222 "Preaching to those on the Edge of Faith" taught by Dr. William B. McClain, Mary Elizabeth McGehee Joyce Professor of Preaching

The course will consider how we can preach effectively and faithfully to the sympathetic "outsiders" or "seekers" while still proclaiming the "whole counsel of God." Two presuppositions of the course are: 1) the line between belief and unbelief is often blurred and runs throughout any given congregation - and even through the consciousness of those gathered for worship; and 2) "the whole counsel of God" is a gospel distinctive from the so-called "full gospel," and is therefore at the same time prophetic and evangelical.

The course offers an opportunity for students to raise to consciousness and acquire perspectives upon their own interpretive strategies for preaching the Gospel in these times of a secularized society which claims to be "spiritual" rather than "religious." The students will seek to sharpen their practice of preaching and interpretation in dialogue with recent critical thought and with one another.

Wesley and the Poor: Study Trip January 8-15, 2009 in Houston, Texas

DM-W131 "St. John's Downtown: A Case Study of Ministry to and with the Poor" taught by Dr. Fred Smith, Associate Director of Practice in Ministry and Mission and Associate Professor of Urban Ministry, with Rev. Rudy Rasmus and Rev. Juanita Rasmus, Pastors of St. John's Downtown Church

A case study of a church revitalized by turning to the constituency camped on its doorsteps: destitute families and homeless men and women.  

Campus Ministries

Week 1: DM-C321 "Education for Stability and Change: Biblical Perspectives" taught by Dr. Denise Dombkowski Hopkins, Professor of Hebrew Bible

New perspectives on the wisdom literature of the Bible; the voice of the Teacher and the walk of the disciple; questions that engage and answers that require commitment; the wisdom literature as experience.

Week 2: DM-C332 "Moral Discernment in the Context of Pluralism" taught by Dr. Sondra Wheeler, Martha Ashby Carr Professor of Christian Ethics

Pluralism as fact and as exaggeration; why moral discernment still matters; starting where you are, starting where they are; the role of the campus minister and of the campus ministry in the moral formation of students.

Church Leadership Excellence; open only to students in this track

Week 1: DM-L641 "Project Seminar" taught by Dr. Lewis Parks, Professor of Theology, Ministry and Congregational Development and Director of the Doctor of Ministry Program

Naming and planning a DMin project, options in the end product of the project, elements of a project proposal, and the disciplines for writing the project paper.

Week 2: DM-L642 "The Leader as Communicator" taught by Dr. Lovett H. Weems, Jr., Distinguished Professor of Church Leadership and Director of the G. Douglass Lewis Center for Church Leadership

The evidence that the ability to articulate is crucial to effective leadership, the possibilities for improvement, and the unique opportunities afforded the church leader who also occupies a pulpit.

Spirituality and Story

Week 1: DM-S842 "Narrative Collapse and Restoration" taught by Dr. Bruce Epperly, Director of Continuing Education and Professor of Practical Theology at Lancaster Theological Seminary

A cross disciplinary study of the phenomena of the self-narratives of persons and congregations and what happens when those narratives suffer serious disruption; work in the therapies and strategies for addressing personal and corporate narrative collapse.

Week 2: DM-S832 "A Word of Silence: Narrative, Spirituality and Preaching" taught by Rev. Michael Williams, Pastor of First United Methodist Church in Hendersonville, Tennessee and General Editor of The Storyteller's Companion to the Bible

The preaching task as spiritual journey. The depth encounter with God and neighbor at the intersection of the Bible's narratives, the preacher's life, and the larger community's issues.

Spiritual Leadership for the Global Church: the Asian Track, in Seoul, Korea

Week 1: DM-G221 "Bible, Old Testament" taught by Dr. Bruce Birch, Dean and Woodrow W. and Mildred B. Miller Professor of Biblical Theology

Recent trends in biblical scholarship and the expanded circle of global dialogue partners with attention to implications for the practice of ministry.

Week 2: DM-G222 "Mission of the Global Church" taught by Dr. Sathianathan Clarke, Professor of Theology, Culture and Mission

A study of the emerging issues, new approaches, important voices from other continents, and key theological breakthroughs in the contemporary theology of mission for the global church.