Transforming the City : Reframing Education for Urban Ministry

by Villafane, Eldin; Jackson, Bruce W.; Evans, Alice Frazer; Evans, Robert A.; Franklin, Robert M.

• ISBN13: 9780802849687
• ISBN10: 0802849687
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-11-01
• Publisher: Eerdmans Pub Co

Summary

Experience teaches that traditional approaches to ministry education do not work well in the ever-changing climate of the city. This book offers a new way to look at ministry training by presenting a number of informative case studies that can help in equipping people to minister effectively in the urban context.

The book is built around six case studies that chronicle very different examples of urban theological education and that highlight both the challenge and the promise of creative approaches to education for ministry in multicultural urban locales. Commentaries by noted educators and church leaders point to the pitfalls and opportunities of inner-city work. Purposely designed for a variety of educational settings, this book is the best resource now available for exploring the task of urban ministry.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Robert M. Franklin
Introduction	1	(36)
Invitation to Dialogue	3	(8)
How Did We Get Here? A Survey of Important Historical, Social, and Theological Issues That Occasioned the Rise of Urban Theological Education	11	(19)
Bruce W. Jackson
Using Case Studies in Urban Theological Education	30	(7)
Alice Frazer Evans
Robert A. Evans
Cases Studies and Commentaries on Critical Issues Facing Urban Theological Education	37	(154)
Contextualization and Constituency	39	(1)
Case Study: Another World	39	(13)
The academic dean responsible for an experimental seminary program in inner-city Los Angeles finds that one of his most challenging tasks is equipping traditional faculty members to teach a different constituency in a threatening context
Alice Frazer Evans
Robert A. Evans
Background: Another World (Haggard Graduate School of Theology, Azusa Pacific University)	47	(2)
Discussion Notes: Another World	49	(3)
Case Study: Setting the Captives Free	52	(28)
Following state cutbacks in prison education programs, a group of Sing Sing prison inmates asks a seminary to sponsor a certificate program in the prison, using as instructors those inmates who had previously received graduate degrees from the seminary
Anne Reissner
Background: Setting the Captives Free (New York Theological Seminary)	58	(4)
Discussion Notes: Setting the Captives Free	62	(3)
Commentary	65	(6)
Michael A. Mata
Commentary	71	(9)
Carolyn Tennant
Community and Curriculum	80	(1)
Case Study: Service and Survival	80	(18)
Leaders of an innovative urban ministry training program which brokers educational services for inner-city residents from a suburban college consider the advantages and disadvantages of independent accreditation as the best path to independent identity and long-term security
Youtha Hardman-Cromwell
Sue Zabel
Background: Service and Survival (Center for Urban Theological Studies)	91	(4)
Discussion Notes: Service and Survival	95	(3)
Case Study: A Shifting of Paradigms	98	(42)
Faculty and administrators of a creative grassroots community ministry program find that a new masters program and closer connections with their suburban host seminary bring greater restrictions and fewer course offerings for their multiracial, multiethnic urban student body
Bruce W. Jackson
Background: A Shifting of Paradigms (Center for Urban Ministerial Education)	107	(3)
Discussion Notes: A Shifting of Paradigms	110	(3)
Commentary	113	(10)
Leah Gaskin Fitchue
Commentary	123	(6)
Roger S. Greenway
Commentary	129	(11)
Richard White
Collaboration and Confession	140	(1)
Case Study: Whose Program Is It?	140	(16)
Significant changes in the student population, seminary needs, and funding bring the director of a respected urban ministry program for a consortium of seminaries to wrestle with radical changes in structure and programing
David J. Frenchak
Mark S.R. Walden
Background: Whose Program Is It? (Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education)	150	(3)
Discussion Notes: Whose Program Is It?	153	(3)
Case Study: A Metro Strategy	156	(35)
An inner-city parish priest and his parish council debate whether or not to enroll their congregation in a lay leadership program based on strategies of community organizing which some feel would energize the parish and other consider a serious distraction from the ``real ministry'' of the church
Alice Frazer Evans
Robert A. Evans
Background: A Metro Strategy (Industrial Areas Foundation --- Metro Strategy)	164	(4)
Discussion Notes: A Metro Strategy	168	(4)
Commentary	172	(9)
Warren L. Dennis
Commentary	181	(10)
Mary Hennessey
Paradigms for Urban Transformation	191	(9)
Eldin Villafane
Authors and Contributors	200