Tempted to cheat on some schoolwork? "Christians have a source of water other than the world's poisoned well"
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 Cheryl and Doug Samples hold a hundred-year-old sign from the first Church of the Nazarene in Los Angeles, California |
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Resources for the course which Southern Nazarene University call "MCS"
"Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy" -- Ephesians 5:25-26
A course on putting your faith into action
MCS speaks to questions like:
- How do I share my faith in a pluralist society?
- Is the church all that important? Do I have to be an active member to go to heaven?
- Spiritual gifts? Do I just get them or am I supposed to use them?
- Can I witness to my faith in Christ without having to memorize a long presentation and go knocking on strangers' doors?
- What is the church supposed to do and be?
- What is the most biblical way for church leaders to approach their task: relationally or functionally?
- How can churches reclaim their roles as "communities of disciples" so that they become a counter-culture and a challenge to secular society?
MCS is a required General Education class. Its major components are:
- A look at some of the various worldviews of our pluralist society with an eye toward being able to clearly dialogue with others about evangelical Christianity
- Ecclesiology (a study of the church) including a strong encouragement to everyone to get involved in some kind of active ministry
- A look at assuring that everyone knows how to articulate their own Christian faith and the plan of salvation clearly.
The materials listed below reflect the sections of MCS as they are taught by Howard Culbertson.
Course syllabus
- Spring semester -- in Adobe Acrobat PDF format [ click here ]
- January mini-term -- in Adobe Acrobat PDF format [ click here ]
- May mini-term -- in Adobe Acrobat PDF format [ click here ]
- What is a syllabus?
Course materials
- Burning question form [ get form ]
- Instructions for preparing the "double-entry" notes assignments [ read instructions ]
- Groups
- Is your MCS class group not working very well?
Dealing with unproductive group members [ read article ]- Reporting on involvement in group presentations: dividing the $100
- Adobe Acrobat PDF format [ click here ]
- Microsoft Word format [ click here ]
- Creative teaching methods [ see list ]
- Learning styles inventory from Youth Specialties
- Wesley's Holy Club self examination questions [ read questions ]
- What should Christians avoid? John Wesley's mother had a pretty good definition of sin. [ read definition ]
- "Ministry" component resources
- Questionnaires
- Ministry project (8 hours of volunteer service)
- Choosing your ministry project
- Reporting on your project
- Sample listing of where students have given volunteer service [ see listing ]
- Mid-term project report [ get form (in Adobe Acrobat PDF format) ]
- How will my project report be graded?
- Sharing your faith / giving testimonies
- Writing your personal testimony
- Paul's example and instructions [ go to page ]
- Faith Story Work Sheet [ get work sheet ]
- Audio skit: "Jesus is better than money"
- At what age do Americans become Christians? (pie chart by age groupings) [ view graph ]
- List of spiritual conversation starter questions
- Wouldn't you like to have faith in something? [ read article ]
Cultivating growing, deepening relationships [ diagram and explanation ]
- Don't use the wrong words when trying to talk to Jews about the Messiah! [ check out these Messianic Jewish language do's and don'ts ]
- Devotional: Life-and-convert philosophy of life (as opposed to "live-and-let-live" relativism)
- Ministering to the dying [ what to do and not to do ]
- My commitment as a Christian
Written by an African pastor- OKC Compassion ministry and contact information [ click here ] [ PowerPoint on ministry ]
- "Church" component resources
- What was Adam and Eve's last name? Was it Tate?
- Lab reports
- Preparing "lab" reports reflecting on your church participation. [ see instructions ]
- What makes a church a church? [ read Ed Robinson's definition ]
- Conflict management strategies and techniques
- Writing diamond (or diamante) poems
- Articles for reflection
- "Society" component resources
- How should Christians view the surrounding culture? Positions or attitudes as outlined by Richard Niebuhr and Charles Kraft
- Crossword puzzle on worldviews explained in Sire's book
- The hand of God at work in current events - Dudley Woodberry
- Live-and-let-live? Is that the correct approach? Devotional thoughts on this issue from Luke 5 and 6
- Case studies to be used in class
- Battling racism in a local church: Pervasive sinful attitudes within a congregation [ read case study ]
- Conflict at the Lord's Supper: A congregation in changing times [ read case study ]
- Male stripper at youth sponsor's birthday party: what to do when other believers step over the line [ read case study ]
- Pastor under attack - conflict with a manipulative church member [ read case study ]
- Sunday school class on the decline [ read case study ]
- To drink or not to drink - a clash of worldviews: living out convictions when others don't share them [ read case study ]
- Walking away: a personal witnessing encounter at the workplace [ read case study ]
- When trust erodes -- a congregation loses faith in their pastor [ read case study ]
- Other case studies [ see list ]
- "Generic" case study guide to aid reflection, discussion and responses on case studies used in class.
- Using case studies as an educational tool
- Video viewing guides [ click here ]
- Exam study guides [ click here ]
- PowerPoint presentations used in class
- Assignment instructions and clarification
- Case studies: a unique teaching tool
- Volunteer service hours [ view online ] [ download as PowerPoint ]
- "Lab" reports [ view presentation ]
- Course content
- Christ and Culture [ view presentation ] [ open as PowerPoint ]
- Epochs of church history [ view online ] [ download as PowerPoint ]
- Luther, Wesley and Bresee [ view online ] [ download as PowerPoint ]
- Global evangelism [ view online ] [ download as PowerPoint ]
- The U.S.: Fertile soil for new religious movements [ view online ] [ download as PowerPoint ]
- Worldviews -- PowerPoint presentation on Christian theism, deism, naturalism, nihilism, existentialism and others [ view online ] [ open as PowerPoint ]
- Donald McGavran and his study of church growth [ view online ] [ open as PowerPoint ]
- Your faith journey (giving your testimony) [ view presentation ] [ open as PowerPoint ]
- Obstacles churches face in accomplishing their missions
- Relational evangelism -- a variety of friendship evangelism or even lifestyle evangelism
- Assignment samples
- MiniTerm course: Ministry dreams paper
Some class assignments will be submitted online to Moodle/SNUDLE. [ Go to Moodle ]
Links to Internet resources for MCS [ click here ]
What students have said about MCS
"It encouraged me to be other-focused instead of inward focused."
"It helped me understand the importance of ministry."
"It got me closer to the Lord."
| Writing Standards | Most courses at SNU contain a writing component. I expect students to produce written work that is focused, well developed, organized and relatively free of grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors. Papers falling short of this standard will not be graded. That work will be returned to the students for further revision and resubmission. See my writing checklist. |
 | What are the possibilities for getting in the required service hours? Check out the list of places where MCS students have recently given volunteer service. [ read more ] |
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Howard Culbertson, Southern Nazarene University, 6729 NW 39th, Bethany, OK 73008 | Phone: 405-491-6693 - Fax: 491-6658
Copyright © 1999, 2001 - Last Updated: May 9, 2008 | URL: http://home.snu.edu/~hculbert/mcs.htm
