The assignment “Mission and Evangelism in Context” is part of the assessment for curates in relation to the Mission and Evangelism Formation Criteria. This is an exercise in theological reflection. The assignment should be completed in the first six months of curacy and should be submitted electronically to David Herbert and Jane Hood by 31 January. The word count should be between 4000 and 5000 words (additional to the bibliography).
There should be three sections to the assignment:
1. A brief description (<33% of word count) of the most significant aspects and features of the community and the church. Parish data to help with this section is available from jane.hood@chester.anglican.org. In this section you will be demonstrating your knowledge and understanding of the key tool of social analysis.
2. An analysis (<33% of word count) of the issues, needs and assets of the community and the corresponding mission and evangelism of the church. In this section you will be demonstrating your ability to analyse the relationship between the local church’s resources and community needs.
3. Personal and theological reflection (>33% of word count) considering the implications of the profile of the church’s mission and evangelism and the role of the curate within that. In this section you will be demonstrating your skills of theological reflection, your ability to make a coherent critical and theological response within your context, and your understanding of your own engagement and your local church’s engagement in evangelism and mission.
The Pastoral Cycle model of theological reflection is usually appropriate. Please justify the use of any model of theological reflection that you use.
Curates whose work is being validated by the University of Chester should refer to the separate guidelines that are published on the Moodle pages for TH6120 and TH7113.
Ministers in Secular Employment may choose to focus on their secular context of practice.
Some books you might like to refer to:
- Ballard, P. & Pritchard, J. 2006. Practical Theology in Action. 2nd edn. London: SPCK
- Billings, A. Making God Possible: the task of ordained ministry, present and future. London: SPCK
- Bosch, D. 1991. Transforming Mission. New York: Orbis
- Davie, G. 1994. Religion in Britain since 1945. Oxford: Blackwell
- Davie, G. 2015. Religion in Britain: a persistent paradox. Wiley-Blackwell
- Donovan, V. 1982. Christianity Rediscovered. London: SCM Press
- Drane, J. 2000. Cultural Change and Biblical Faith. Paternoster
- Graham, E. 2005. Theological Reflection: Methods. London: SCM Press
- Green, L. 1990. Let’s do Theology: a pastoral cycle resource book. London: Mowbray
- Hull, J. 2006. Mission Shaped Church – a Theological Response. London: SCM Press
- Morisy, A. 2004. Journeying Out. London: Chapman
- Murray, S. 2004. Post-Christendom: Church and Mission in a Strange New World. Carlisle: Paternoster
- Percy, E. 2014. What Clergy Do: especially when it looks like nothing. London: SPCK
- Thompson, J. et al. 2008. SCM Studyguide: Theological Reflection. London: SCM Press
You might like to explore the Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) approach. References are found at:
http://thisestate.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/asset-based%20approaches on Al Barrett’s blog, This Estate. Al tweets @HodgeHillVicar
http://blog.nurturedevelopment.org/ - Cormac Russell’s blog
Revised on 3 February 2016