I am a teaching assistant for Ken Carder's Spring 2010 course at Duke Divinity School entitled Local Church in Mission to God's World (PARISH 175). Here is the latest version of the syllabus. Below are the required texts.
Ken Carder, Ruth W. and A. Morris Williams Professor of the Practice of Christian Ministry at Duke Divinity School, is a veteran pastor and retired Bishop in the United Methodist Church. 50 students signed up for the course.
I first learned about Bishop Carder from reading Resurrecting Excellence: Shaping Faithful Christian Ministry
by Greg Jones and Kevin Armstrong (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006)
when his insights jumped off the page for their wisdom. For example, see this definition of excellence from Carder.
Excellence, then, is being a sign and instrument by which creation is healed, reconciliation is experienced, and justice is practiced. Excellence in the pursuit of healing, reconciliation, and justice requires explicit theological vision, Christ-formed character, and skills that shape persons and institutions that approximate God’s reign of compassion, generosity, and joy. Pastoral excellence includes announcing in word and deed God’s telos, inviting persons and communities to an identity and purpose rooted in God’s new creation, and leading congregations on their journey toward the new creation.
Kenneth L. Carder, "What does God have to do with excellence?" Faith & Leadership website (9 January 2009) partially quoted in Greg Jones and Kevin Armstrong, Resurrecting Excellence: Shaping Faithful Christian Ministry (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006), 49.
See also Bishop Carder's other articles at Duke Divinity School's Faith & Leadership website.
Kevin Baker, the lead pastor at Reconciliation United Methodist Church in Durham, NC, is the other teaching assistant. Kevin and I are Bishop Carder's regular preceptors for his courses: Introduction to Christian Ministry and Local Church in Mission. It should be a great course.
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Charles H. Bayer: A Resurrected Church: Christianity After the Death of Christendom
St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2001. I haven't read this one yet.
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David J. Bosch: Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission
Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2005. "Bosch" is the classic missiology textbook with a dizzying range from New Testament to history to theology. It is dense, rich, almost comprehensive, controversial, and worth discussing.
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Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2008. Katongole and Rice direct the Center for Reconciliation at Duke. Chris is also blogging.
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Lesslie Newbigin: The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission
Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing, 1978, 1995. I was just the teaching assistant for Geoffrey Wainwright's course on Newbigin. See my Lesslie Newbigin category for more posts on Newbigin. The Open Secret was crafted from lectures on missiology Newbigin gave in the UK after retiring from being a missionary and bishop in India. It's all here–election, authority, Trinitarian thinking, eschatology, capitalism, Marxism, resurrection, liberation theology, church growth, science, interreligious dialogue–classic Newbigin. "The church lives in the midst of history as a sign, instrument, and foretaste of the reign of God" (p. 110).
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Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2006. Sample helps students think through what it means to live and minister in rural contexts. Light bulbs went on for many students as they read this book–"Oh, now I get it. It is a different culture. I had no idea."
Last year I was the teaching assistant for the course and posted the syllabus and books. Spring 2009 Ken Carder's course The Local Church in Mission to God's World books