Week 2 of the Missional Church Leadership class at Uniting College for Leadership & Theology explored Christian practices as an expression of growth is discipleship and participation in mission.This is a theme to which we will be returning sevral times during the semester.
We watched and discussed the “Eating Together” TV advertisement. We compared accounts of practices from Craig Dykstra, Dorothy Bass and Diana Butler Bass.
We watched an excerpt from my PhD interview with Andrew Johnson (ssee below). We explored Acts 2 and a bit of what Maria Harris, Jurgen Moltmann, Richard Osmer, Andrew Root and Roger Owens say about makrs of the church and Christopraxis. Also Brett Mitchell’s description of ‘Christly gestures’.
We also looked at Wenger and Lave’s notions of communities of practice and situated learning. Legitimate peripheral participation got a mention.
I hgave a table listing different authors’ sets of Christian practices, including the above plus
Robert Schnase, Kenda Creasy Dean, David Augsburger, Tim Shapior and Kara Harris.
Riffing off Schnase, I have my own list of eight practices with cards that I use for discussion and a dice game.
- Radical Hospitality
- Transformative Worship
- Intentional Learning
- Risk-taking Mission
- Receptive Prayer
- Authentic Witness
- Generous Giving
- Just Living
DOWNLOAD Eight_Practices_Cards (4 mbPDF)
I ran out of time for the dice game but they get to take it home! All of this was to explore that discipleship is learned as it is lived and that formation and education in Christian practices needs to be intentional. Next week we look at what some authors call missional practices and start to explore getting to know the neighbourhood. Fun times.