Courses

For the DPT, this course is the place to explore the biblical basis for our contemporary worship practices, but also to critique them biblically. Devotional practices, or spiritual disciplines, are fundamental ways that we enter the sphere of grace and foster our love for God. The devotional actions of the first Christians with which they worshipped Jesus Christ as God were stunningly innovative in their contexts. Understanding those actions anew in those contexts provides a repertoire that moves us beyond our typical traditional and our popular devotional practices. This course combines the study of the devotional practices in the New Testament with interactive experience in which we explore the application of early Christian devotional practices together.

Knowing

• Know the spectrum of devotional practices in the New Testament and early Christianity
• Understand the social, historical, literary and religious cultural contexts in which the early church developed its devotional practices
• Grasp the nature of devotion to Jesus within exclusive monotheism

Being

• Identify the role of one’s identity and traditions in devotion and worship and connect it and/or differentiate it from the early Christian practice
• Evaluate one’s own practices and experiences of devotion and worship with the NT

Doing

• Participate in interactive practices of devotion and worship

• Through reading, research, and writing, engage in practice-led research on devotional practices in the NT that address your research question, and informs your practice of ministry
• Practice serving as a resource for the church as others as you share your expertise, sources and research with the class