Students learn to address specific situations, problems, challenges, and opportunities in ministry through interdisciplinary readings, theological reflection, and strategic planning exercises. ============================================ Fall 2012 Topic - The Church and Urban Ministry. ============================================ In general, this course seeks to address specific situations, problems, challenges, and opportunities in ministry through interdisciplinary readings, theological reflection, and strategic planning exercises. This semester we will explore the best practices of urban ministry in America by examining the work of the Christian Community Development Association. The CCDA is a loose affiliation of thousands of churches, non-profit ministries, and individuals who work in urban communities or other areas of need throughout America and beyond. CCDA is built on the idea that the church can best meet the needs of our society by living amongst the problems and sharing the reconciling love of Christ. The primary feature of this class will be to attend the CCDA conference in Indianapolis from the evening of Oct. 12 through Oct. 15. In preparation for the conference, we will meet twice beforehand and twice after the conference in order to prepare for our time in Indianapolis and to process what we learned there. Requirements include short readings before and after the conference, and one urban ministry project after the conference. The meeting times both before and after the conference are as follows: Sept. 14 (1.5 hrs.), Sept. 28 (1.5 hrs.), Oct. 20 (1.5 hrs.), and Dec. 1 (1.5 hrs.). An extra fee of no more than $75 will be charged per student to cover the expenses of the CCDA conference.