Course Details

Contemporary Issues
In Pastoral Ministry

Course Description

This course examines a number of challenges and issues that pastoral leaders face today, especially within the diverse forms of ministry found in local faith communities. Participants will explore various topics related to pastoral ministry, including evangelization, team ministry, ministry in a pluralistic church, and a spirituality of pastoral ministry. Course participants will also examine in more depth ministry to a particular population in their home community (e.g., youth ministry, family ministry, ministry to the bereaved, ministry to single young adults, etc.) and will present a needs analysis identifying the most pressing ministerial needs found among the populations they have chosen to study, along with their proposed ministerial responses to those needs.

Course Goals

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

relate how evangelization and ongoing conversion flows from the mission of the church and how the spiritual needs of various age groups and cultures shapes efforts toward contemporary evangelization and parish spirituality;
describe how pluralism and differing functional religious identities affect the life of faith communities;
discuss viable strategies that may be used to address some of the important issues, tensions, and concerns in ministry found in local faith communities today;
explore the self-care needs of ministers and your own boundaries in ministerial work; and
identify the ministry needs and issues of a specific population group at your ministry site and suggest ways that a ministerial leader, the population group identified, and the local faith community might respond to those needs.

Brennan, Patrick. Re-Imagining Evangelization: Toward the Reign of God and the Communal Parish. New York: Crossroad Publishing, 1995. ISBN: 0-8245-1433. Available from major booksellers, the Loyola Bookstore and www.faithalivebooks.com.

Dues, Greg and Walkley, Barbara. Called to Parish Ministry: Identity, Challenges, and Spirituality of Lay Ministers. Lima, OH: Academic Renewal, 2003. ISBN# 0-7880-9947-7. (Copies are available through major booksellers and through the publisher by calling 1-800-537-1030 or 419-227-1818 or by ordering online at www.arpress.com.

Course Requirements

LIM online courses are available for 3 graduate semester credits or 3 continuing education units.

Graduate students will participate in the class by:

completing readings in assigned texts and review of other course materials each week
posting responses to discussion questions and to the reflections of other students at least three times each week (10 weekly sessions)
completing two reflective essays (described in more detail in the course syllabus)

CEU students will participate in the class by:

completing readings in assigned texts and review of other course materials each week
posting responses to discussion questions and to the reflections of other students at least three times each week (10 weekly sessions)

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