TUL535: Theology & Practice of Community Transformation 

Course Information  

Mission and Purpose Statement of WCIU  

WCIU provides innovative distance education programs to enhance the effectiveness of scholar practitioners as they serve with others to develop transformational solutions to the roots of human problems around the world.  

Master of Arts in Transformational Urban Leadership  

The aim of the MA in Transformational Urban Leadership is to increase the capacity of emergent leaders among the urban poor, with wisdom, knowledge, character and skill in leadership.  

Course writers: Development of these courses is a collective process over several continents.  The following have contributed to this design: 

Dr. Rich Slimbach, Dr. Viv Grigg, Paul Turner, M.Sc., Rev Michael Mata 

SECTION 1 – OVERVIEW 

I.  Course Description 

This course develops a theological framework for integral mission and transformational ministries. It seeks to integrate theological reflection, socio-cultural analysis, and practical implementation in the service of impoverished communities. 

II  Pedagogy  

Relationship to other course: This course is the more theoretical of the six courses related to Community Development, though it involves a simple practical project. The other five are Service Learning courses. All work from praxis to theory.  

Style of learning: Community Transformation is focused on helping students understand why and how community change and transformation is pursued. The “community” is presented as the basic unit of development and examined for its unique culture, process, and narrative through the use of community research methods. Various strategies towards community development are introduced and analyzed alongside practical research (some more styles of research that feed into options for your final project), and the initiation of a seed project within one community. 

The course will involve a mixture of online class discussion and mini-lectures via Zoom, documentary videos, projects, and guest speakers. It builds off a 40 hour practicum designing a seed project with a team from a local church. 

III.   Pedagogical Rationale  

This course follows the Transformational Conversations model of doing theology in TUL500. It progressively moves through phases of working with local churches to enable them to develop a theology of community engagement, to processes of community development through seed projects, peoples’ participation and community organization then advocacy among the upper classes.  These latter processes lead to the development of NGO’s independent of the local churches.  

A third of this course is theological, requiring organized reflections on the biblical material, as well as “cultural material,” that is, how text and context inform one another. The task of transformational theology is in fact to negotiate “text and context” to free the gospel to impact human existence, from the domain of the human heart to social structures. Such theologizing inevitably touches on themes such as human dignity, liberation, socio-economic justice, and the role of the church in the world.  

One third is action-based as you work with the local church and reflect on those activities. The task of the practitioner is to wisely gauge appropriate strategies with the people within each community, based on the issues and resources available. 

Theoretical Analysis of Context: One third of the course is theoretical. The theological leads to theories of aid, development, and advocacy, including seed projects, ABCD, people participation, community organizing… 

Slums are perceived as positive resting places through progressions from rural peasant or tribal poverty to urban integration; as centers of broken social structure resulting in smuggling, gambling, illegal liquor-drug trade, prostitution, pollution sickness and crime; and marginalization politically, educationally and in terms of the urban systems (As developed in TUL 540).  

In the Indian context, there are established structures such as caste, patriarchy and class which are supported by religious ideologies and belief practices.  Victims are mostly the Dalits, women, and the poor.  The victims are trying to liberate themselves. Similar dynamics occur globally in the slums. Thus, Freirian engagement in Conscientization, elements of spiritual transformation and healing in the formation of faith communities (building off TUL 520 and TUL 530), and Alinsky’s theoretical and theological basis for Community Organizing theory are introduced (and later developed in TUL 655).  

IV.  Student Learning Outcomes    

Maggay, M.P. Rise Up & Walk: Religion and Culture in Empowering the Poor.  

Minneapolis: Fortress, 2016. ($22.44).  

Salvatierra, A and Heltzel, P. Faith-Rooted Organizing: Mobilizing the Church in Service to  

the World. Downers Grove: IVP, 2014 (paper $12.69/kindle $12.47) 

Lynn, M., Gailey, R., and Reese, D. Development in Mission: A Guide for Transforming  

Global Poverty and Ourselves. Abilene: Abilene Christian University Press, 2021 (paper $19.57/kindle $9.99)  

Tizon, Al. (2008) Transformation after Lausanne: Radical Evangelical Mission in Global-Local  

Perspective. Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2008.