Rev. Tom Barlow; email tbarlow@iliff.edu; cell phone 719-640-6726 (I take Mondays as a Sabbath day with my wife; usually available other days)
This course offers critical and practical engagement with why and how Christian faith can be shared while honoring the distinctiveness of others. We will explore the theologies and practices that guide evangelism in modern/postmodern contexts. This course includes practical tools for thinking about who an organization is trying to reach, how to determine the makeup of a given geographic area, and what sorts of engagement will work with them. We will also explore the theological heritage of Methodism as it pertains to the overall aims of the course (other options will be considered for students of other faith traditions - please contact Tom for more information). This course is designed to meet Iliff's revised interpretation of requirements for UM ordination.
First, if you haven't read the Overview and Objectives page, this would be a good time to do that. You'll get a sense of what we are trying to accomplish.
Now, having read that, here is how we are going to move forward:
Since we have a large class, we are subdivided (randomly) into two Discussion Groups. Some weeks, we will have specific readings that provide the basis for fulfilling some of the course objectives. For example, the first week, we start developing a definition of the term evangelism; so, we have specific readings and a sound file which help us to think about that. We will respond to (and unpack) those readings, videos, and/or lectures in the Discussion Groups.
Everyone will also be involved in a Project Work Group. This is a small group of colleagues who will support each other during our demographic work, and our narrative testimony projects; you sign up for these by visiting the Course Groups page, and dragging yourself into a group, by the end of Week 2 (you may need to go to People on the left side of your screen, then select the Project Groups tab). You are encouraged to connect with people you know, or people whose ministry contexts are similar to yours, for the project. Two resources for finding partners would be: 1) reading through the Introduce Yourself discussion, looking for similarities, and 2) posting in the Coffee Shop. Starting in Week 3, anyone who is not yet in a group will be assigned to one.
As mentioned in the Overview and Objectives page, this course has two threads.
Thread 1 - The Message
During the first couple of weeks of the course, we are going to primarily focus the nature of, and reasons for, evangelism, as well as the ways in which we can start to frame our own experiences of faith in ways that can be communicated to others. Here, we will be looking at the stories we have to share - both organizationally and personally - which (we hope) send us out into the world with some sort of Good News. Each person will think about the contents of their personal and organizational stories, and how those stories can be told in different contexts (we will come back to this toward the end of the course, too). We will share these within our smaller Project Groups.
Thread 2 - The Approach
The second thread will dominate the middle portion of our course, from around Week 3 through Week 7. Here, we will consider the ways in which different groups of people in our current society think about faith, what kinds of ministry approaches resonate with them, and how we can identify the ministry context in which we are serving. All Annual Conferences of the United Methodist Church have access to the same demographic data source, MissionInsite, so we will gain some practical experience using that; more importantly, however, this will allow us to think in real-world terms about how to connect with the communities we serve. Please note: you should have access to this tool by the fourth week of the term at the latest.
Each week, there will be some sort of course content - either readings, outside videos, online lectures, or a combination of those. Each Monday, you'll receive an email with an overview of the assignments for the week, and links to relevant resources, discussions, etc. Think of this as a ten-minute sit-down with the instructor, where you are told about the goals for the week.
Each week, we will also have some some sort of interaction. If readings/videos/lectures were the dominant content for that week, there will be a guided discussion; each student will post their response to one or more questions (by Friday evening), and then re-visit the discussion later to read the postings of fellow students, and respond to some of them (by Monday evening). If it's a week when we are focused on project work, there will be a discussion within your project group, and you will be expected to participate in it.
And, yes, you might have just noted that our weeks overlap by a day. For example, Week 1 kicks off on Monday, with the final discussions due the following Monday (when Week 2 has already started). We could make those final discussions due Sunday evening (in the past, that was the schedule), but that just makes it more challenging for those who are serving churches and have a full Sunday (and, usually, a pretty full Saturday, as they prepare for Sunday). Monday evening works fine...
This is a four-credit course. If we were operating in a classroom setting, we would meet face-to-face for four hours each week. In addition, students are typically expected to do an additional eight hours of course-related work each week (two hours of outside work for each hour of in-class time), for a total of twelve hours of engagement per week. Some weeks will be heavier than others, but we try to keep things relatively even: if there are more readings, there will be less lecture; if it's a project week, readings will be shorter, and determined by your needs; if there is a lengthy lecture (or, really, a set of them), readings will be either shorter or less complex. During the first couple of weeks of the term, we factor in a few hours of time for you to obtain access to the MissionInsite tool.
There is no final project for this course - the closest thing we will have is the demographics project, but it will be due before the end of the term (and we will work through that together).
Grades will be determined by:
Information about grading rubrics (i.e. the metrics I use to determine assignment grades) will be included in each assignment and discussion.
If you desire to take the course Pass/Fail, please notify Tom by the end of the first week. Make sure that your denomination will approve this as a Pass/Fail course!
Incompletes
If you experience a crisis which might end up impacting your ability to complete the course and all of the assignments, please notify Tom immediately.
See, Know & Serve the People Within Your Reach, Abingdon Press, 2013, ISBN 978-1426774171 Worship Ways for the People Within Your Reach by Thomas Bandy and Lucinda Holmes, Abingdon Press, 2014, ISBN 978-1426788079 Additional readings will be posted as pdf files on the Canvas course site. Required:
This course offers critical and practical engagement with why and how Christian faith can be shared while honoring the distinctiveness of others. We will explore the theologies and practices that guide evangelism in modern/postmodern contexts. This course includes practical tools for thinking about who an organization is trying to reach, how to determine the makeup of a given geographic area, and what sorts of engagement will work with them. We will also explore the theological heritage of Methodism as it pertains to the overall aims of the course (other options will be considered for students of other faith traditions). The United Methodist Church requires that all candidates "achieve basic competence in the following areas:" In essence, this course will have two simultaneous threads running through the ten week term. While our primary framework is Methodist/Wesleyan, the essence of our work here crosses denominational lines and theological approaches. The idea of "evangelism" involves the sharing of good news - and that, one hopes, is the aim of all faith traditions represented at Iliff. As we will discuss the first week of the term, evangelism is a problematic word and concept, but if we allow the language to get in the way of our ability to share, we are depriving others of the faith discoveries we have made. The first thread of this course focuses on the message that we have to share - that is, the good news itself. Here, we will think theologically about the task, and think - again in practical terms - about the reasons we share. This portion of the course is quite reflective in nature, as we everyone will be invited to think about their personal stories (narratives) and, in doing so, construct an understanding of the reasons we share faith. This thread will be our focus during the early and late stages of the course, but it will persist throughout. The second thread we are examining is intensely practical, and focuses on ways in which we can understand and engage the needs of geographically-defined communities. The goal in this thread is to identify the groups of people present in the regions which we serve, and explore the ways in which those groups can be reached effectively with the faith message we carry. Course Overview
Course Objectives
Course Approach
Collegial Discourse: You are becoming a colleague in a denominational culture that is very divided right now. It is essential for every leader (including you!) to cultivate skills for talking about matters that raise strong feelings in ways that allow one to keep listening and speaking with respect and with accuracy. Each of us will practice those skills in every interaction we have in this course. The online environment makes this commitment to skilled engagement even more important because misunderstandings are easier.
Incompletes: If you think that you may require an Incomplete for this course, please contact Tom immediately. See the Master's Student Handbook (Links to an external site.) for Policies and Procedures.
Pass/Fail: Masters students wishing to take the class pass/fail should discuss this with the instructor by the end of the day on the first Friday of the term. Before selecting this option, please be in conversation with your conference District Committee on Ordained Ministry and/or your Board of Ordained Ministry - some will accept pass/fail and others will not.
Participation: Active participation in the online discussions is required. Two or more weeks of non-participation will usually result in the student being dropped from the class.
Academic Integrity and Community Covenant: All students are expected to abide by Iliff’s statement on Academic Integrity, as published in the Masters Student Handbook (Links to an external site.). All participants in this class are expected to be familiar with Iliff’s Community Covenant (Links to an external site.).
Accommodations: Iliff engages in a collaborative effort with students with disabilities to reasonably accommodate student needs. Students are encouraged to contact their assigned adviser to initiate the process of requesting accommodations. The advising center can be contacted at advising@iliff.edu or by phone at 303-765-1146.
Writing Lab: Grammar and organization are important for all written assignments; this is particularly true for assignments at the graduate school level. Additional help is available from the Iliff Writing Lab, which is available for students of any level who need help beginning an assignment, organizing thoughts, or reviewing a final draft. The writing lab can provide support both on-campus and online.
Inclusive Language: It is expected that all course participants will use inclusive language in speaking and writing, and will use terms that do not create barriers to classroom community.
How can you be successful in taking an online class? It can be more than a little challenging - after all, in a face-to-face class, you meet once or twice a week, and, in that time, the instructor can make sure you are on-track in terms of course progress and your understanding of the material. Online, though, is different in some key ways, and your success in the course hinges on understanding those differences.
You can't participate if you don't know what's going on! In your Canvas Profile (which you can access using the Profile link at the top right of every page), you can specify how you should be contacted. Make sure that your preferred email address is properly set on that page.
From that page, you also have the ability to change your notifications (that is an option on the left menu on that page). Make sure that your notification settings are set so that you are kept reasonably informed of events related to the class.
As each week progresses, you need to pay attention to class-related activities! Keep an eye on whatever notifications you have chosen to receive. If you choose to ignore them, you can quickly find yourself way behind (and, remember, after two weeks of non-involvement, you may be removed from the class).
Finally, if you have a personal emergency (i.e. family crisis, illness, or even the burdens of life just getting in the way of completing the assignments) please (please please please) contact Tom immediately. The final week of the class is not the right time to initiate a conversation with your instructor about incomplete assignments from earlier in the course!
Online classes are, by their very nature, highly collaborative in terms of learning. That means that the majority of your learning will take place as you engage other students regarding the material that everyone is reading.
Collaborative learning is a common approach at Iliff, both in online and face-to-face classes. The discussions and other activities that you participate in here are similar to in-class discussions in the face-to-face session. It is a little harder to "hide" in the online classes than it is in the face-to-face, but, otherwise, the approach is the same. And yes, the readings are the same in the the online and face-to-face classes - the load is no heavier in the online class, although the 3.5 hours of "face time" in the face-to-face class is replaced by reading, thinking about what other students have said and responding online.
As with any class, your commitment to learning will greatly impact your success (both in terms of grades and in terms of actually mastering new information). In this class, we don't all meet online at the same time, so it is up to you to set up a schedule that allows you to engage other students about the material.
There is a significant difference in terms of commitment in an online class, though, and it is this: Since the learning process is highly collaborative (and since different students will be reading material in different ways), your failure to participate will reduce the effectiveness of the class for other students as well. Taking an online class really does require commitment, and a special kind of discipline, in order for everyone to be successful.
Required Readings:
Required Readings:
Required Readings:
Required Readings:
Required Readings:
Required Readings:
Required Readings:
Required Readings:
Required Readings:
These resources are designed to help you work through the demographics project. You will need these three documents (you don't need to print them, though): Church Research Project Instructions.docx Mosaic Lifestyle Segment Worksheet.docx Worship Lifestyle Segment Worksheet.docx These two videos will be helpful to you. They are brand-new, although they generally cover the same material as the older videos which were already available to you. Note, however, that MissionInsite has added one new report type that is mentioned here. A Basic Radius Report (8 minutes) A Polygon Report (7 minutes) If you are interested in the Opportunity Scan that is mentioned in the Project Instructions, this is a very quick demo of what that looks like. It also demonstrates how to do some polygon drawing from the main map page. It does not demonstrate the uploading of congregant data - that's more advanced than the topics we cover in this course. A Basic Opportunity Scan, and Polygons from the Main Map (11 minutes) Two documents from Bandy which may be helpful. These are both self-assessments, though, so this is more about self-awareness within your ministry context:Project Directions and Worksheets
Instructional Videos
Self-Assessments
In this course, we will be exploring practical ways to identify and connect with the people in your ministry area (as in, ministry region).
Part of our work will involve an online tool known as MissionInsite (Links to an external site.). In the most basic sense, this site provides demographic data for use in ministry (and NPOs). Getting beyond the basics, though, MissionInsite has partnered with Dr. Tom Bandy to integrate their demographic data with his highly missional approach to church life (and he is using mission in a way that should help us to shed some baggage from our colonial/post-colonial periods).
All United Methodist annual conferences are currently under contract with MissionInsite. These contracts allow churches to obtain demographic reports at no cost. In Tom Barlow's experience, many churches are unaware of these contracts, and therefore are not using any of the available services. For this course, we will be using MissionInsite to obtain demographic data. Please understand that we are not trying to sell you on the use of this tool; rather, it is already the tool that the United Methodist Church presently uses, so we are using it as well. When you have completed this course, you will have fairly advanced practical skills related to this particular tool, and they are likely to transfer to other tools as well.
Note: You will need access to MissionInsite by the third week of the term, so please address the below items soon!
Please start by contacting your home church in order to request access to MissionInsite. This will often require obtaining an Agency Account Number from your district or conference. If you need a letter or email from Tom Barlow in support of this request, feel free to ask. If you are challenged along the way, please feel free to say that the President of MissionInsite, Rev. Chuck Salter, is aware of this project, and prefers that UM students use their church's login credentials and/or their Annual Conference's Agency Account Number. If you cannot obtain access, contact Tom Barlow and he will arrange for student access for you - but this should be a last resort for UM students (it may be the only option for students from other traditions).
First, check the MissionInsite client list page to see if your tradition is listed. If it is, see if you can arrange to get access as described above. If your tradition is not listed, or you are unable to gain access, contact Tom Barlow for access. MissionInsite has an agreement with Iliff to provide student access for this project at no cost, although you may not be able to obtain demographic reports for the area around your organization (Iliff's access is limited to specific counties in the Denver area) - still, however, this will be a valuable exercise. MissionInsite's services are available to any church in the country for an annual fee, so if you find the project helpful, it may be worth additional conversations at your organization or judicatory.
This was an early effort in video production at Iliff - we need to reshoot parts of it, but it should still be helpful. We've used it in Iliff's UM History course. It's slated for revising over the summer, so if anyone is new to Wesleyan grace and finds it particularly captivating, we might want to sit you down for an interview... https://youtu.be/_5rjz72NOc4
Discussions that Last the Whole Quarter
Introduce Yourself
Coffee Shop
Q&A - The "Internal" Helpdesk
| Date | Day | Details | |
| May 19, 2017 | Fri | Week 8 - Readings "Due" | due by 05:59AM |
| May 20, 2017 | Sat | Week 8 - Initial Discussion & Second Customized Narrative Due | due by 05:59AM |
| May 20, 2017 | Sat | Telling Your Story - Customized Version 2 | due by 05:59AM |
| May 23, 2017 | Tue | Week 8 - The Great Commission (Readings & Discussion) | due by 05:59AM |
| May 23, 2017 | Tue | Week 8 - Finishing with Narratives (Your Final Narrative Post) | due by 05:59AM |
| May 26, 2017 | Fri | Week 9 - Readings "Due" | due by 05:59AM |
| May 27, 2017 | Sat | Week 9 - First Discussion Post Due | due by 05:59AM |
| May 30, 2017 | Tue | Week 9 - Evangelism from Then to Now | due by 05:59AM |
| Jun 02, 2017 | Fri | Week 10 - Video "Due" | due by 05:59AM |
| Jun 03, 2017 | Sat | Week 10 - Wrapping-up Evangelism | due by 05:59AM |