Spiritual Resources & Practices for Church Leaders

Instructor:  The Rev. Craig MacCo ll

email: cmaccoll@Iliff.edu

Course Synopsis

In an era when people are moving away from religious organizations and moving toward more personal spiritual practices, it is critical for lay and ordained church leaders to feel competent in articulating their own spiritual identities as well as to be exposed to a wide variety of spiritualities and spiritual practices.

In this course students will first be asked to complete the Essential Enneagram Test - a dynamic personality system that describes nine distinct and fundamentally different patterns of thinking, feeling and acting - to help them identify how their natural personality type matches up with specific spiritual practices. The course will then  invite students to explore seven different Christian spiritual traditions - "types" or ways of understanding and practicing Christian spirituality.

This is not your typical Christian spirituality/devotional literature survey course, because, in addition to doing the assigned readings and engaging in on-line conversations about the readings, each week, students will be expected to explore a spiritual practice or practices that are associated with each spiritual tradition, and discuss their experiences with these practices.

Although this course will not focus on the spiritual traditions that are commonly associated with specific Christian denominations, students will be encouraged, when appropriate, to explore spiritual traditions and practices that have grown out of or are closely associated with the faith tradition/denomination that they are most familiar with. Students will be expected to complete a Final Project, in which they will be specifically asked to research and describe the type of spirituality that, in general, characterizes the faith tradition/Christian denomination that they identify with.

Required Resources

The Spiritual Way by Philip Sheldrake, Liturgical Press, 2019, ISBN 978-0-8146-4458-4

Streams of Living Water , by Richard J. Foster, Harper One, 1998, ISBN 978-0-06-062822-2

The Enneagram, A Christian Perspective by Richard Rohr and Andreas Ebert, Crossroad, 2012, ISBN-13: 978-0-8245-1950-4

The Essential Enneagram by David Daniels and Virginia Price, Harper One, 2009, ISBN 978-0-06-171316-3

Course Format

Our online class format will largely be discussion based, giving us the opportunity to examine with one another seven different Christian spiritual traditions, and discuss our experiences with different spiritual practices. Student are expected to take an active interest in the course, and an active role in bringing the learning community to life through contributions of online presence, discussion, and participation. As graduate students, you are invited (and will be expected to be able) to voice your needs if there is some blind spot either in course methodology or in the material.

Students will be expected to participate in the online (Canvas) classroom regularly. Please notify the instructor  if you are unable to make a full contribution (see below) during any week of the term. Additionally, your participation is expected as much as your online presence. Your active contribution for our collective learning environment is important for your own development as well as for the development of the whole class, particularly in the online setting where we don't engage with one another face to face. Students are expected to post their reflections and respond to others' in discussion of the readings and reflections on the suggested spiritual practices by scheduled deadlines each week.

Each week there will be three "contact points" for discussion of the weekly lecture notes and the assigned material.  The first "contact point" will be on Tuesday. The second "contact point" (by which time students will have submitted their reflections on the weekly readings) will be on Friday.  Reflections on the suggested spiritual practices for each week are expected to be posted by Sunday, the third contact point.

Students may be drawn to some of the suggested spiritual practices and not to others, and that's OK. I have selected seven different types of spiritual practice because, in my 37 years of ordained ministry, I have found these to be the most meaningful and helpful in my ministry, but I am aware that, today, there is a wide variety of practices that people find meaningful, especially those that have grown out of the Emergent Spirituality movement. In the final week of the course, students, if they so desire,  will be encouraged to explore more non-traditional spiritual practices, even those that are not traditionally Christian.

Since students' experiences with different spiritual practices is often highly personal, students will be permitted to email me if they wish to share their reflections about a practice in a more confidential manner.  Even if you decide to email part of your spiritual practice reflections to me, you should make sure to post some part of your reflections with classmates in Canvas.

Students can anticipate an average of nine hours of work per week for this course. In general, reading and reflections should take about four  hours of preparation time with an additional two hours devoted to experiencing and reflecting on different spiritual practices.   Reading the weekly lecture notes and responding to one another's reflections should take no more than an additional three hours. If you find that you are spending considerably more time than this, please let me know so we can either re-evaluate the required readings if everyone is struggling, or so I can help you prioritize the readings. Since a considerable part of this course is experiential (time spent exploring spiritual practices) these times may be adjusted.

Face-to-face Zoom conversations will be scheduled during the first two weeks of the course so that I can become acquainted with students and so that they can share with me their previous experiences with spiritual practices in a more confidential setting.

Approximately, 75-100 pages of readings will be assigned per week. Weekly assignments will include selections from our required texts, PDF files available on the Canvas class site, Web links (posted in the assignment section of our Canvas site at least two weeks before due dates), and a variety of print, audio and video media elements to help enrich our understanding and discussions of Christian spirituality.

Lecture notes and a short Zoom video version of the lecture notes will be posted two weeks in advance to aid in highlighting important aspects of the readings, and to provide insights to help link readings from week- to- week.

Evaluation

Engaging Course Materials - 30%

Students will submit weekly reflections based on the assigned readings as a part of our weekly discussion.  Reflections over a day late will be considered as not submitted. More than two late reflections, or any missed (i.e. not submitted or over a day late) reflections will impact students' grade. Up to two reasonable "absences" may be reported to the instructor via email without impacting grades (you may choose whether or not to make up the reflection or take it as one of your "two lowest grades" - see below). Grades will be assigned based on demonstrated engagement with the material, creativity, and strength of written expression.

Engaging One Another - 30%.

This portion of your grade is based solely on your interactions with other classmates and me. The quality as well as the quantity of responses over and above what is required will separate the "average" from the "above average" and "excellent" participation scores.

Spiritual Practice Reflections - 30% .

Each week, students are expected to engage with a suggested spiritual practice(s). Reflections on your experience with this spiritual practice will be due by Sunday morning (the end of the week). In order to benefit from each spiritual practice and give adequate time for reflection, students should try to incorporate their practices into a daily or every-other-day routine rather than leave them to the end of the week.

Final Reflections - 10%  Due by May 29.