DESCRIPTION:

How can one give leadership to a group of people so that communion, community and ministry are intentionally cultivated? How can one infuse leadership roles with grace and spirituality-patterns? How does one build a leadership core that lives and leads out of deep spiritual formation? How do we learn, prayerfully and practically, to discern the needs of people to whom we minister? This practicum is designed to enhance your own spiritual formation in a leadership community of grace. We will discuss and test formational approaches to ministry in order to transform your leadership into a regular practice of giving spiritual direction to the group(s) you lead. Ministry spiritual disciplines will be introduced and practiced.

You will experience a practical process of personal spiritual formation that informs and shapes your involvement in giving spiritual guidance and leadership to others. We expect that the communities you lead will be transformed by the Spirit of God into people who progressively overflow with the grace of Christ as they abide in Him, love one another and bear witness.

There will be three monthly three-hour class sessions on Thursdays (3:00-5:50pm) at the Pasadena campus and three monthly retreat sessions on Fridays (9:30am-3:00pm) at Mater Dolorosa Retreat Center in Sierra Madre (4/18-19, 5/16-17, 6/6-7). Thursday class sessions will involve group spiritual formation exercises, interaction on topics related to integrating personal and group spiritual formation, and meeting in mentored small groups. Christian leaders experienced in leading ministries from a base of spiritual formation will guide and contribute to these discussions. Friday retreats will involve 1) corporate worship, 2) individual time in solitude, silence and listening prayer on behalf of others, and 3) debrief time as a group.

Chittister, Joan. Wisdom Distilled from the Daily. HarperCollins, 1990.

Nouwen, Henri. Creative Ministry. Doubleday, 1978.

Peterson, Eugene. Working the Angles. Eerdmans, 1987.

Thompson , Marjorie J. "Putting it all together: Developing a Rule of Life." Chapter 9 in Soul Feast: An Invitation to the Christian Spiritual Life. Westminster John Knox.

A Practicum Reader in Spiritual Formation and Leadership Development (hand-out).

• Students will be involved in eight weeks of personal spiritual disciplines (i.e. lectio divina, journalling, fasting, etc.) for four days in each of those weeks. Students will write a one-page reflection paper for each of these eight weeks of disciplines.

• Students will implement and assess the training of this practicum in a real ministry situation, whether formal or informal. This final project will be designed out of the ongoing process of praying for people, discerning needs and goals that God's Spirit brings into focus. The project can be a series of meetings, a retreat, or some other gathering(s). Students will write an eight page final integrative report on needs and goals discerned, project design and actual outcomes.

Permission of the instructor. Students must have taken either CF500 or CF554, must have attended three three-hour orientation sessions and participated in two five-and-a-half-hour retreats with evaluative feedback in January, February and March. It is highly recommended that students currently have a defined leadership role with a specific group (or have had such a role for two years in the past).