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LEARN Seminar Listings Fall 2009

LEARN • Fall 2009 • Winter 2010 •

LEARN Fall 2009 Seminars List

LEARN Fall 2009 Seminar Descriptions

LS120: Islam: A Basic Introduction

Instructor: Karen Hernandez-Andrews
Level: Basic
Core Seminar: LS120, $125
Project Option: LS120P, $75
Dates: October 12 – November 6
Registration Deadline: October 2
Description: Learn the basics about the religion of Islam, as well as understand how Muslims view their faith in a world context. Basic topics include learning about Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam; basic principles in Islam; Islam in the early period and it’s development; the difference between Sunni and Shi’i Islam; understanding the importance of the Qur’an in the Islamic faith; and how history plays a role in what we witness in the Muslim world today.
Reading: Islam, A Short History by Karen Armstrong

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LS124: Good Girls, Bad Girls: Discovering the Women of the Bible

Instructor: Tina Wray
Level: Basic
Core Seminar: LS124, $125
Project Option: LS124P, $75
Dates October 19 – November 13
Registration Deadline: October 9
Description: The few popular Bible stories about women are often presented in black and white; the women were good or bad, Ruth or Jezebel. But most of us fall somewhere in between these two extremes. This seminar invites students to take a more nuanced look at women in the Bible, to explore their lives more deeply in the historical context and take into consideration what archaeology can tell us about the real lives of women during Biblical antiquity so that we can grasp what these stories can mean to women today.
Reading: The New Oxford Annotated Bible

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LS125: Four Keys to Teaching Children

Instructor: Wendy Morris
Level: Basic
Core Seminar: LS125, $125
Project Option: LS125P, $75
Dates: October 5-30
Registration Deadline: September 25
Description: This seminar will focus on inclusion, preventative discipline, transitions, and framing questions to encourage participation and thinking, each of which is an important key to effective teaching. Participants will consider how to adapt the principles discussed to the age level with which they work.
Reading: “Welcoming Children with Special Needs, A Guidebook for Faith Communities” (UUA, 2004); and on-line resources.

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LS508: Appreciative Inquiry: Shaping Conversations, Leading Change

Instructor: Mark Branson
Level: Empowerment
Core Seminar: LS508, $275
Dates: September 28 – October 9 and October 26 – November 6 (*The two week break provides time for participants to lead an appreciative inquiry experience).
Registration Deadline: September 18 Description: Appreciative Inquiry provides a way for a church to engage its own best stories and imagination in service of deepening the faithfulness of its practices and the innovations needed for changing contexts. During the first two-week section of the seminar the process and theoretical underpinnings of AI will be explored. Participants will design an initial project for their own churches. During a two-week interim those projects will be engaged. This will be followed by another two-week on-line section in which the initial results will be discussed and an ongoing project will be designed. At various times other materials on organizational change, leadership theory, missional ecclesiology, and embedding innovations will be included.
Reading: Memories, Hopes, and Conversations by Mark Branson
Recommended Reading: Ministry of the Missional Church by Craig Van Gelder; Appreciative Inquiry: Change as he Speed of Imagination by Jane McGruder Watkins and Bermard Mohr; Leadership on the Line by Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky; The Missional Leader by Alan Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk.

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LS512: Becoming a Blessed Church

Instructor: Graham Standish
Level: Empowerment
Core Seminar: LS512, $275
Project Option: LS512P, $75
Dates: October 26 – November 20
Registration Deadline: October 15
Description: To what extent is your congregation grounded in following its calling? To what extent does your congregation base its decisions on prayer and discernment? To what extent are your leaders trained in and encouraged follow God's guidance? Dr. Graham Standish will lead us in a course designed to open congregations to grow spiritually so that seeking God's will becomes the foundation of doing God's will and experiencing God's grace and blessings.
Reading: Becoming a Blessed Church by Graham Standish; Christianity for the Rest of Us by Diana Butler-Bass.

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LS513: The Soul of a Leader

Instructor: Margaret Benefiel
Level: Empowerment
Core Seminar: LS513, $275
Project Option: LS513P, $75
Dates: October 19 – November 13 with an on-campus session on Saturday, October 24 (9-3)
Registration Deadline: October 9
Description: In twenty-first-century Western culture, leaders are rewarded for their drive, decisiveness, productivity, and long work hours. What would it look like for a leader to cultivate the inner life, to step off the treadmill, to take time apart for personal reflection? What would leadership arising from a core of spiritual groundedness and compassion look like? This will be an experiential course, in which participants' own leadership experiences will serve as the basis for reflection and discernment. Insights from the fields of spirituality, management, and leadership studies will be combined to consider leadership in the church, in healthcare, in non-profits, in businesses, and in other organizations. Dr. Benefiel will post reflections on current events related to soulful leadership each week. All participants are invited to an in-person meeting day, which will combine spiritual reflection with practical application, on October 24 on the Andover Newton campus from 9 to 3.
Reading: The Soul of a Leader by Margaret Benefiel

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LS600: Introducción al Antiguo Testamento (Introduction to the Old Testament)

Instructora: Mayra Castañeda
Nivel: Basico
Curso requerido: LS 600, $125
Fecha: Octubre 5-30
Fecha limite para registrarse: Septiembre 25
Descripción: Este seminario presenta un vistazo al Antiguo Testamento abarcando algunos de los temas e ideas principales, analizando su fondo histórico y sociocultural, su organización y composición interna. Se espera equipar al participante con herramientas básicas para el estudio serio y responsable de las Sagradas Escrituras.
Texto: Introducción al Antiguo Testamento por Guillermo Ramírez Muñoz. Se sugiere usar la Reina Valera 1995, Edición de Estudio.

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LS600: Introduction to the Old Testament

Instructor: Mayra Castañeda
Level: Basic
Core Seminar: LS600, $125
Dates: October 5-30
Registration Deadline: September 25
Description: This seminar presents an overview of the Old Testament glancing at some of its main themes and ideas, analyzing its socio and historical context, its composition and internal organization. It is hoped that participants will be equipped with basic tools for serious and responsible study of these sacred writings.
Reading: Introducción al Antiguo Testamento por Guillermo Ramírez Muñoz. Se sugiere usar la Reina Valera 1995, Edición de Estudio.

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Last Updated: October 06, 2009

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