Contextual Ministries

Introduction

United’s commitment to collaborative and contextual theological education is rooted in our call to Christ-centered community, love of learning, nurture of piety, and pursuit of justice.

Only within enacted covenantal and facilitated groups of peers, each serving in actual service-learning placements, may the fodder for learning weave within disciplined practices of faith and concrete settings of service toward a supervised discernment of God’s particular callings.

The formation/integration program revolves around local church and community service-learning placements and facilitated peer-groups for critical theological reflection.

The intercultural immersion program (extended off-campus immersion, concluding with critical theological reflection) stretches students’ horizons to understand context and collaboration in a global sense.

Contextual Ministries, as a central element of United’s academic curriculum, encourages students to develop stronger skills in:

• Spiritual disciplines for a balanced life amidst the development of professional competence
• Articulation of clear learning goals and corresponding criteria for their accomplishment
• Proactive pursuit of healthy, well-bounded relationships for the support of ministry
• Entrepreneurial leadership and discernment of gifts as means of professional thriving in church and community ministries
• Critical theological reflection that speaks to the church/world, yet weaves concrete experience of the Spirit
• Engaging in ministry with people from other cultures
• Discernment of the taken-for-granted assumptions of one’s own culture

Formation/Integration

Formation

Six-credit hours of formation [MIN 104G Formation I (Fall) and MIN 105G Formation II (Spring)] must be taken in sequence by all students in the M.Div., M.A.C.G., and M.A.L.M. degree programs.

Students receive 3 semester hours of credit per 12-week semester module for:

• Working at least 10 hours a week in a service-learning placement from September through May.
• Meeting weekly during the 12-week modules of Fall and Spring semesters in professionally facilitated peer groups.

Using brief readings, plenary lectures, spiritual autobiographies, and case studies, MIN groups engage in professional identity formation and provide opportunities for students to grow in spiritual maturity and critical theological reflection.

This formation is broadened with a weekly all-campus Word and Sacrament worship service followed by a communal meal. Liturgy, scripture, sacrament, table fellowship, small-group process, and supervisory discernment constitute the web within which skills of faithful attentiveness and theological reflection develop further toward faithful Christian leadership in Christ’s church.

Integration

Six credit hours of integration [MIN 207 Integration I (Fall) and MIN 208 Integration II (Spring)] must be taken in sequence by all students in the M.Div degree program.

Students receive 3 semester hours of credit per 12-week semester module for:

• Working at least 10 hours a week in a service-learning placement from September through May.
• Meeting weekly during the 12-week modules of Fall and Spring semesters in professionally facilitated peer groups.

Using brief, advanced readings, plenary lectures, case studies, and theological composition, these MIN groups integrate with intention the diverse preparations of peers, ongoing theological coursework, and service-learning placement experiences into a working paper called a theological statement for ministry.

Within the similar contexts of liturgy, scripture, sacrament, table fellowship, small-group process, and supervisory discernment, Integration students take fledging steps into ministry professional discourse that bridges the settings of local congregation and/or agencies with those of denominational bodies of certification.

Service-learning Placements

Formation students (M.Div., M.A.C.G., and M.A.L.M. degree programs) serve 10 hours/week in a local, service-learning placement from September through May. Integration students (M.Div degree program) serve 10 hours/week either in the same service-learning placement (i.e. Student Pastor or Student Associate appointment), or in a new placement that may diversify their experience of Christian ministry and theological reflection in a new context.

The preferred pattern for M.Div students is to serve one year in a community organization and one year in a church setting.

Placements are negotiated between the service-learning site (mentors and staff) and the student, with assistance and approval by the Coordinator of Contextual Ministries. It is the student’s responsibility to discern her or his interests and the type of placement in which she or he desires to learn and serve.

A listing of recommended organizations/agencies and church sites is available through the Office of Contextual Ministries, and contains both voluntary (non-paying) positions and work-study compensatory positions in conjunction with Federal Work Study program guidelines.

Each student works on-site at the service-learning placement and in regular monthly or bi-weekly conversations with a mentor (either on-site or in a nearby ministry site).

Community Settings

The advantage of a community site placement is the student’s opportunity to experience in learning/teaching exchanges the diversity of ministry responsibilities within broader community.

The breadth and depth of human needs to which faithful disciples must respond and from which the gifts and graces of attentive discipleship grow form a necessarily broad perspective for students’ critical theological reflection.

Prison ministry, service in transitional housing ministries, community centers, shelters, and other organizations strengthen the students’ understandings of Christ’s preferential option for the other (marginalized, poor, or unseen) within the Spirit’s transformative work in us all.

Church Settings

The advantage of a church site placement is an in-depth contextual introduction to the real workings of the local church.

Approximately one hundred churches located in rural and urban areas participate in United’s Contextual Ministries program. Involvement in these settings provides students with opportunities to engage in a range of pastoral and specialized ministries that contribute to professional ministry identity and discernment of calling within the invitation to spiritual maturity.

Particular to our United Methodist heritage, two placement options deserve further specification: student pastor and student associate appointments.

Student pastors are those who serve as the sole pastor of a church or charge. Student associates are those who serve in a local church with an appointed or called pastor, who serves as a mentor to the student. Students in either placement position are paired with a mentor who assists the student with theological reflection, annual learning goals, periodic feedback, and evaluation.

The appointee process for possible United Methodist Church student pastor and student associate placements begins in January or February of each year and includes required participation in short-term instruction sessions designed by the applicable annual conference to acquaint students with denominational policies and procedures.

United students serving nearby churches often commute to campus daily; those situated in churches at some distance may find it more feasible to commute to campus weekly and use nearby housing options when on campus.

Intercultural Program

Intercultural studies is a contextual ministry initiative designed for addressing an increasingly global world with sensitized, theological understanding and faithful, active stewardship.

In an increasingly isolated North American cultural milieu, effective religious leadership requires opportunities to examine presuppositions from previous social locations, opportunities to be immersed within different cultures of God’s church and world, and opportunities to reflect critically on such presuppositions and transcultural experience. United Seminary addresses this need in a particularly streamlined and creative way.

After completing 30 credit hours, Master of Divinity students are required, and other degree candidates are invited, to engage the curriculum involving:

• ICP 201 Christianity and Culture: preparatory critical reflection within a traditional classroom setting,
• ICP 202 Transcultural Experience: an immersion experience within another culture, traditionally in an international location,
• ICP 203 Intercultural Ministry: a concluding course for critical and contextual integration of the immersion experience toward learning for future ministry settings.

Students must choose from a list of approved Transcultural Experience trips.

These may involve guided trips to countries outside of the United States and Canada, cross-cultural ministry seminars offered by other institutions, church-sponsored volunteer in mission (VIM) trips, or semester-length cross-cultural immersion experiences closer to home.

Spouses and older children are encouraged to participate, when possible. Short-term trips and seminars generally take place during January or in the summer, and students register for ICP 201 in the fall or spring module in which the Transcultural Experience occurs. During the semester module immediately following the Transcultural Experience, the student registers for ICP 203 Intercultural Ministry.

The monies for this program are interwoven into the administrative process of the M.Div. degree program as a whole. A non-refundable Transcultural Experience surcharge of $25 per semester hour provides a way for students to accumulate up to $2,250 for the 90 semester hours of the Master of Divinity program.

The surcharge funds—both those accumulated and those that will be paid by the time of graduation—are made available at the time a student participates in a Transcultural Experience.

Additional funds might be raised from a student’s congregation or in other ways, should the student choose a trip slightly extending this planned amount.

The Intercultural Program is a unique opportunity to experience a culture and people outside of a student’s normal worldview. Contrary to previously outdated missions perspectives within traditional theological education, United’s Intercultural Program is designed to provide critically reflective and sensitively nuanced opportunities for students and faculty to receive invaluable ministry training and retooling from a global population with whom we have much to learn.