The Theology of Ministry paper is part of the Final Review for all students. The paper is first developed as an assignment for all MAGS, MACM, and MDiv students in BIBM 657 Contexts of Ministry. MDiv and MACM students will have another opportunity to refine this paper as part of their coursework in BIBM 658 Practice of Ministerial Leadership.
The Theology of Ministry paper is a personal theology of your ministry. While it will certainly be related to other artifacts you have produced during your program (for example, the Ministerial Identity Paper), your Theology of Ministry paper is meant as a more comprehensive depiction of what you understand ministry to be: its foundations, its rationales, its actions, and its aims. We hope that in this paper you will allow your coursework and experiences to influence your present understandings of ministry. You should also feel free to draw on works and resources you might not have explicitly encountered in your coursework. Your goal is to demonstrate how your experience in your degree program has informed and shaped your vision of ministry and the ways you undertake it.
As you write your theology of ministry, some of the topics you might include are:
- Calling and vocation- what does it mean to be called to ministry?
- Ministerial practices- What are the practices and activities of ministry? How does their significance shape both what one does in ministry and how one does it?
- Ecclesial understandings- What is the relationship between ministry and the larger body of Christ?
- Relationship with God- the place and importance of spiritual formation,
- Public witness and service- Towards whom does one’s ministry focus (a congregation, a wider public, the world?)
Some questions you might address in your paper:
-
- What are the biblical and theological foundations for your ministry?
- How does God’s ministry shape your practice of ministry?
- What biblical metaphor or theological themes inform your practice of ministry?
- How does context shape the practice of ministry?
- How does your understanding of your ministry’s telos shape its concrete actions?
- How does ministerial practice engage the public square or the world?
- How is your theology of ministry shaped by ecclesiology?
You might also use other categories for organizing your thoughts. For example, Henri Nouwen (Creative Ministry) uses the categories of teaching, preaching, pastoral care, organizing, and celebrating. Tim Sensing’s schema is theology as a communal activity, theology as a critical activity, theology as a formative activity, and theology as a public activity. Cooper-White and Cooper White (Exploring Practices of Ministry) uses the concept of “practice” to organize their theology of ministry around five ministerial practices: Proclamation, Worship, Pastoral Care, Christian Education, and Leadership.
- Include a 100 word single spaced abstract of your paper that includes a statement about your personal, professional, and communal identity. Include a clear and concise statement of your purpose for ministry.
- Students are expected to write this paper in conversation with those resources that have shaped and continue to fund their theological and ministerial thinking. It is not enough to simply “say what you think.” You will need to put your theology of ministry in conversation with the resources of the Christian tradition. Thus, while a specific number of footnotes/references is not named, faculty expect to see these present in your paper as a demonstration of your engagement and careful reflection.
- Paper Requirements:
- 2,500-3,000 words
- 12 pt. Times New Roman, double-spaced, Turabian, SBL, or Chicago style.
- Interact with key sources from your GST courses (examples) that developed your theology of ministry.