mountain masala

New Diploma Pathways in Discipleship

Last week, the Adelaide College of Divinity Academic Board approved two new Diploma pathways, one in Children, Youth & Family ministry, and one in Discipling Adults. One of my final tasks at College has been to propose these new Diploma 'pathways' for approval within our Bachelor of Ministry. These are one-year full-time (equivalent) tertiary diplomas; students can continue towards a BMin if they wish. The pathways require studying at least one unit across all four areas of the degree, but then allow for specialisation within the total 8 units.

When the new BMin was created, the "Pastoral Studies" stream was split into a "Leadership" stream and a "Christian Education & Discipleship" stream. The latter stream is the one that I headed up briefly after the change. It allows for a range of units that are broader than the usual ordination requirements, so that we can provide for lay workers and members of the church who want to be better equipped in faith and ministry. This is an open path for following your call.

The new BMin allowed for some quite different subjects in the first year - a stronger focus on mission and culture, and seeking to engage learners whose focus was more on the practice of ministry that formal study of theology. So, for example, the two first year core units in our CE&D stream are "Spirituality for 21st Century Disciples"  and "Media and Communication in Contemporary Culture". Not your usual first year BTh subjects.

Lay Education through the Years

Last night I hosted and spoke at an evening organised by the Uniting Church Historical Society, South Australia and hosted by Uniting College where I teach. It was part of a project of theirs to document the history of lay education in this state.

A small gathering attended by about 15 people, half of whom were speakers or organisers, and almost all retired folks (yes, Deidre Palmer and I felt quite spritely).

Despite the fact that I thought it might be deadly dull, I was quite pleased to be asked to be part of it. Our time in SA in the mid-80's was profoundly important for me, and lay education was entering a new and important phase then. I've been well aware of developments here in the ensuing years, and of course, quite involved since moving back here in 2003, and it was my main focus at the College from 2005-2010.

Though there was a lot of history, the evening was anything but dreary for me. I was able to hear from (and reconnect with) some of the legends of the past. David Houston's history of lay education since the late 1800's was really a dot point summary, but I was struck again and again by how my great grandparents' generation had been pioneers. We are SUCH a young country (in terms of European settlement!) and in that sense have barely put down roots. I kept hearing South Australian surnames whose descendents are my peers our our students. And although I spent the first 20 years of my life in Queensland, the stories from that era had direct parallels with my own.

the future of theological education

some rumblings going on in the US. tectonic shifts perhaps...

The Future of Seminary Education

Tuition-free degrees for US Presbyterians

 

Access to learning about practice

Lave and Wenger (Situated Learning) are great at questioning traditional assumptions about learning. They suggest that there is a "folk epistemology of dichotomies" (have to remember to slip that phrase into conversation....). eg. "between 'abstract' and 'concrete' knowledge. These categories do not reside in the world as distinct forms of knowledge, nor do they reflect some putative hierarchy of forms of knowledge among practicioners. Rather, they derive from the nature of the new practice generated by sequestration. Abstraction in this sense stems from the disconnectedness of a particular cultural practice. Participation in that practice is neither more nor less abstract or concrete, experiential or cerebral, than in any other. Thus, legitimate peripheral participation as the core concept of relations of learning places the explanatory burden for issues such as 'understanding' and 'levels' of abstraction or conceptualisation not on one type of learning as opposed to another, but on the cultural practice in which the learning is taking place, on issues of access, and on the transparency of the cultural environment with respect to the meaning of what is being learned." (p104).

Great, hey! So it's not that the classroom deals in abstract theory (or cognition) and the field setting in concrete practice (or experience). Rather, the classroom is abstracted from the field setting because what happens there is in fact a different set of cultural practices. So its not that there's a burden on the classroom to the transmit the theory correctly and on the field setting to inculcate people with the right experiences. Rather BOTH settings involve learning new understandings and practices that are designed to replicate the kinds of communities in which they take place!

But more than that, the classroom teaching may be designed to withhold certain kinds of information or experience on the assumption that "theory" must be learned before "practice". The issue here is that the control of information may have more to do with the institution's ways of replicating itself than with a sound theory of learning for effective practice in a field setting.

I do like this stuff!

Launch of UnitingLeaders website

This week sees the launch of Uniting Leaders, a portal for learning and community among UCA leaders. Hosted by Uniting Church SA, this site is offered as a resource to the church nationally.The aim is to enable all kinds of leaders to connect -  from Ministers and lay preachers to chaplains, youth workers, ministry leaders and others.

There are two sections to the Uniting Leaders site: Courses and Community. Information in the Courses section is for students undertaking accredited courses through the Adelaide College of Divinity. Occasionally information about non-accredited courses will also be available. The aim is to enhance distance learning; students can learn at their own pace with the benefit of interactivity and multimedia.

The Community section is where anyone can be involved. It’s a bit like Facebook – you register and create a profile for yourself. As well as providing a space for discussion and encouragement, the groups enable users to upload resources that can be shared with the wider community, such as prayers, songs they’ve written, service orders, photos, sermon material and helpful links.

Initial group topics include preaching from the lectionary, fresh expressions, youth ministry, Christian education and discipleship. Often lay leaders, ministers, chaplains or youth workers will find themselves trawling the internet for ideas and advice.  However it’s easy to get lost or find material that’s
unhelpful or doesn’t quite suit our Australian Uniting Church context.

If you’re involved in ministry and leadership in the Uniting Church, log on to unitingleaders.org.au today to create your profile and see what the buzz is about.

(part of the above adapted from New Times, April 2010. Download it here (7.7 mb PDF).

Dr Andrew Root in Adelaide

We're delighted to be hosting Dr Andrew Root, Associate Professor of Youth & Family Ministry at Luther Seminary, St Paul, Minnesota USA here in Adelaide 15-18 June. We're partnering with folks in NSW to have him in Oz. Download a flyer here. Download Andrew Root Flyer (300kb PDF)

Andrew will be leading three days of sessions and then speaking at our Presbytery/Synod meeting. People can also udnertake this as part of a 2 week intensive for BMin, MMin or DMin credit. Details on the form.

Andy is an impressive thinker and writer, and grounded in practical youth ministry experience. It was a pleasure to meet him at Luther Seminary in 2008.

graduation

tonight was the annual graduation service for the Adelaide College of Divinity, and it was wonderful to see several of our students (with whom I'd worked) graduate with certificates and diplomas! so congratulations to charlie, sylvia, merawyn and jan, as well as all of the others, including doctor phil!

and a worthwhile reminder of the call to Christians to become one, as a sign, foretaste and instrument of the human community that God seeks. and thus ti do so inclusively.

may we live in the light of the knowledge that we are one and see what transpires.

"Grow & Go" weekend 2010

Here's the flyer for our annual training weekend coming up next May 14-16. We've taken the theme of Being a Mission-Shaped Church" and are delighted to have Rev Dr Stephen Burns as our keynote speaker and one of the leaders of the nine learning streams.

Download Grow and Go 2010 Brochure (754 kb PDF)

(It felt wrong to announce that steve had already left his church when in fact he's still there, but its meant to last into 2010.)

college book club launched

we've just launched our college book club - whereby groups can borrow a number of copies of a book for 2 months to study.

details here.

over the last year I've been going into koorong books about once a month and going straight to the sale tables at the back. there are often multiple copies of great books - I'm sure that koorong decide that they're heresy or something. I'm trying to get stuff that has depth or edge or both - theology & culture & spirituality and mission, etc.

we have 6-12 copies of each of the titles.

if you're in SA, we'd love to have churches give $200 or so which would let us buy another 2 titles for the library.

some news....

it's finally public...

our new Missiology Director/Lecturer