I'm really excited -- today is the first day of class for "Emerging Churches". Eddie Gibbs and I will be teaching through all our material for the first time. The class runs from 3pm to 6pm each weekday for the next two weeks. From a few stray pre-class emails, I believe we might have a really good mix of students -- we have pre-service combined with some seasoned church leaders and mission executives -- 27 in all.
As a grad student, I loved the classes taught by authors, where the students, having read the author's book, would dialogue with them. The best. It didn't get much better than that for me. Now it is flipped around -- Eddie and I created a class built around our Emerging Churches material. I hope we can come close to the kind of dynamism I enjoyed as a grad student...
Besides the dialogue learning in class, the students will analyze a church or mission in light of the nine patterns of Emerging Churches. In addition, they will examine that same community in light of the insights of Jamieson, Frost and Hirsch, Pagitt, and Steve Taylor. Finally, they will prescribe changes for their congregation or mission in light of the insights gained. See Current Classes on my left sidebar to access the class. All of you are welcome to post. Here is the link directly: http://www.thebolgblog.com/mc535_w06 ...
As with the class I taught in the fall, the students will create blogs to report on their experiences and interact with others in their small group. The class wiki will list the communities on which they are reporting.
Each class is essentially a one-time event -- the same community, both teachers and students, will never gather again as that community and around those same texts. For this class it is especially true, for it is likely to be the first and last time Eddie and I teach it together, as Eddie Gibbs will be retiring in June. :^(
For all these reasons, I'm excited for this class beginning today. I'll give frequent updates on the class in this blog for the next couple of weeks.
Technorati Tags: Eddie Gibbs, Emerging_Church, Fuller Theological Seminary
sounds so great, ryan - could we peek at the wikis & blogs ?
Posted by: Bob C | January 30, 2006 at 10:19 AM
i'd also love a peek (if possible) and some of the blogs and wikis once they take shape.
Posted by: fernando | January 30, 2006 at 11:58 AM
Sounds pretty cool. It would be interesting to see what the students see as they go through this. Hope it goes well. Peace.
Posted by: + Alan | January 30, 2006 at 01:24 PM
Dang... to be in that class! So many questions, so few Air Miles... All the best with it!
Posted by: Kester | January 30, 2006 at 03:04 PM
Wow, Ryan, I'd love to be in that class. The book's great, BTW, and I even bought one for our local bishop. Shame I don't live in Pasadena...
Posted by: Paul Roberts | January 30, 2006 at 11:48 PM
Paul and Kester, I would love you guys to be in the class too -- to teach -- I would sit in the back and soak it all in...
Really hope to see you again on your side...
Thanks Alan, it should be pretty fun -- I'll keep you posted --
Bob, Fernando -- by all means, peek!!!
Posted by: Ryan | February 01, 2006 at 10:47 AM
one word: podcast :-)
i'm still holding out hope that i'll make it out to pasadena for a couple summer classes - steve's class and your "leading emerging churches".
Posted by: aaron | February 01, 2006 at 11:42 AM
Wish I could be there for that class! I'll be there for another class beginning Feb. 13, which actually pointed me to this website as part of our required coursework.
Looking forward to being in Pasadena and the sunny weather....
Posted by: Tom | February 08, 2006 at 12:38 PM