Academic Catalog

Hogue (3 credits)

The work of compassion, justice, and collective liberation is integral to religious leadership in the 21st century, and for many progressive and liberal religious leaders, it is holy work. We live in a world beset by numerous moral, social, political, and spiritual challenges—a world of radical economic inequality, racial inequities, climate and environmental injustices, social acceleration, and post-truth political polarization. What role can progressive religious leaders play in relation to these challenges? What leverage do religious leaders and communities have in relation to these issues? What imaginative, theoretical, and methodological tools can aid religious workers as they seek to lead people and communities through these challenges? How and in what ways does the holy, or the divine, or God, manifest itself in and through religious social engagement? Guided by these orienting questions, this course will introduce students to ways of thinking, being, and leading that will empower them to build upon their unique gifts to creatively engage the peril and promise of the present world.

MDiv required course.

Fall Semester course

Prerequisite: Clinical Pastoral Education, Grounding, Completion of at least 18 credits

Kirk (3 credits)

This Fall semester course is linked with an approved congregational or community internship. The focus of this course is on the formation of ministerial identity. The internship site serves as a place for structured engagement and reflection on a range of topics and moves students more deeply into praxis. Students explore the roles and responsibilities of ministry including the intersections of personal, cultural, and professional identities, emotional literacy, professional boundaries, the influence of shifting trends and demographics on religious leadership, the impact of context on leadership, and public speaking, among others. Students must register for the internship separately.

MDiv required course.

Fall Semester course

Prerequisite: Vocational Studies: Formation

Robersmith (3 credits)

This Spring semester course is linked with an approved congregational or community internship. The focus of this Spring semester course is on the work of ministry in diverse communal and congregational settings. The internship site serves as a place for structured engagement and reflection on a range of topics and moves students more deeply into praxis. Students explore the roles and responsibilities of ministry including the intersections of personal, cultural, and professional identities, emotional literacy, professional boundaries, the influence of shifting trends and demographics on religious leadership, the impact of context on leadership, and public speaking, among others. Students must register for the internship separately.

MDiv required course.

Spring Semester course

Prerequisite: Clinical Pastoral Education, Grounding, Completion of at least 18 credits

(3 credits)           
2nd Year Fall Internship, to be taken concurrently with Vocational Studies: Formation.

MDiv required course.

Fall Semester course

Prerequisite: Internship 1

(3 credits)           
2nd Year Spring Internship, to be taken concurrently with Vocational Studies: Communities.

MDiv required course.

Spring Semester course

Prerequisite: Internship 2

(3 credits)           
3rd Year Fall Internship, to be taken concurrently with Leadership Studies: Formation.

MDiv required course.

Fall Semester course

Prerequisite: Internship 3

(3 credits)           
3rd Year Spring Internship, to be taken concurrently with Leadership Studies: Administration.

MDiv required course.

Spring Semester course

Prerequisite: Vocational Studies: Communities and Internship 1 and 2.

Hicks or Leach (3 credits)

This Fall semester course is linked with an approved congregational or community internship.  The course builds on awareness of congregational/organizational systems gained during the first year of the internship and provides space for making meaning of the skills and dispositions needed for a career of leading people and organizations. Through the use of case studies and engagement with visionary religious leaders, students will explore personal leadership capacities, challenges and rewards of leadership styles, including exploration of the intersection of personal and professional act of leadership. In the tradition of appreciative inquiry, the student will also try on leadership skills and dispositions that serve organizational needs and self-identified areas for growth.  Students must register for the internship separately.

MDiv required course.

Fall Semester course

Prerequisite: Leadership Studies: Formation

House (3 credits)

The Leadership Studies year allows Interns to continue learning about ministry and leadership through the prism of guided work within the internship site. We will also use the concept of change to orient our work in the course this semester. The course will be organized around five modules: (1) engaging change; (2) stewarding ¢hange; (3) leading change; (4) imagining change; and (5) celebrating change. Along the way, we will explore other themes including ministerial leadership for today’s changing world, including a public theology, leadership styles, and the multiple roles of the minister (pastoral, prophetic, poetic, and sustaining). Students will focus on leadership formation during the fall term and matters of ethics and administration during the spring term.

The structure of learning and organizational engagement will be the same as that experienced during Vocational Studies. Students will be involved in the day-to-day ministry of the internship site. They will have the opportunity to blend academic learning with structured reflection on the multiple dimensions of organizational life. They will continue to meet monthly with their Internship Committee and weekly with their Internship Supervisor. In this semester, students reflect on their focused initiative (the Leadership Initiative) at their internship site.

MDiv required course.

Spring Semester course