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Text Box: The following books are required reading for this course. Birkey, Del 1988 The House Church: A Model for Renewing the Church. Herald Press. Hebblethwaite, Margaret 1993 Base Communities: An Introduction. New York: Paulist Press. Hunter, George G., III 1996 Church for the Unchurched. Nashville: Abingdon. Miller, Craig Kennet 2000 Next Church. Now. Nashville: Discipleship Resources. Murray, Stuart 2001 Church Planting. Herald Press. O’Connor, Elizabeth 1968 Journey Inward, Journey Outward. New York: Harper & Row. O’Halloran, James 1996 Small Christian Communities: A Pastoral Companion. Orbis Books.

Text Box: As a way of promoting a lively, meaningful discussion of the reading, all students should bring to class on each of the eight weeks were reading is assigned two copies of a short, one-page response to the reading. The paper should be typed, single-spaced, using a standard 12-pt. font with 1” margins. Some of these will be read in class; all of them will be turned in after the reading discussion. This response paper should be divided into two equal parts: Provide a concise summary of the reading and of the author’s thesis. What is the author saying? How does the author develop this thesis in the reading? Provide an evaluation of the reading. What did you find helpful, provocative, useful, disturbing, difficult, incomplete, or faulty? Why? An evaluation such as this is not a statement such as “I liked this...” or “I didn’t like that...” (in fact, avoid using the first person altogether) but rather a thoughtful, reasoned set of judgments about what the author has said. The evaluation need not be negative, but it must be substantiated. Failure to maintain an adequate balance between these two sections will result in a serious grade reduction on the paper, possibly even a failing grade. Do not use footnotes, but simply indicate page references parenthetically. Don’t quote a lot and make each sentence count since you only have one page. Students will be allowed to drop the lowest grade among the eight papers. In the case of an absence, students may submit a 6-8 page double-spaced response paper using the same basic instructions above, but only up to a maximum of 2 absences.

Text Box: Four site visits are required throughout the semester to congregations that have been started in the last seven years. Instructions will be given in class, but students can go by themselves or in teams of two. Short 1-page write-ups of the field notes taken during the interviews will be submitted as a part of the grade for the course. Additional instructions will be provided by the instructor on the substance of the interview questions.

Assignment	Percentage of Grade
Reading/Reading Response Papers	35%
Site Visit Write-Ups	15%
Term Project	50%