Thomas Groome’s work on Shared Christian Praxis is one of the most influential things in Christian Education since the 1980s (Harper & Row, 1980). The field of practical theology covers a range of approaches to theological reflection, including Groome’s approach. Richard Osmer’s Practical Theology provides the following summary of steps (Eerdmans 2008). Combined with Groome they provide an excellent way of approaching almost any kind of learning that seeks to connect life and faith, including theological reflection on ministry practice. The sequence is actually circular and continuous.
Osmer frames this as a series of questions:
- What is going on?
- Why is this going on?
- What ought to be going on?
- How might we respond?
Here is a handout that I prepared to assist a group of regional ministry workers to engage in reflection on their ministry practice.