Courses

Instructor: E. Allen Sorum

Description:
The Bible is the Word of God which testifies to Christ. The Bible’s salvation history is also, along with the story of the Christ, the story of many spiritual leaders who guided God’s people to the Christ. This course will examine some of these leaders in terms of their part in God’s salvation history but also in terms of their role as a leader.

Leadership is a human thing. Research has demonstrated that all followers regardless of culture or ethnicity seeks specific things from their leaders. Transformational Leadership as a paradigm of looking at what every culture wants from their leaders allows us to look at the Bible’s leaders through a leadership lens. This course will discuss Transformational Leadership as a paradigm and then evaluate the appropriateness of using this paradigm as a way to describe the leadership we see in our favorite characters of the Bible.

This course will also allow participants to experiment with the idea of using Bible characters as touchstones of leadership in general but also spiritual leadership. We will look at “biblestorying” as a format for presenting these characters to various cohorts in a Christian congregation. For example, how might a pastor use the story of Moses addressing Israel’s complaints at Rephidim? How might a pastor open a men’s breakfast with the story of David and Goliath? How might a congregation’s women’s group start a women’s breakfast with the story of Abigail keeping David from undermining his own anointed rule? This course intends to provide helpful and practical concepts for a parish pastor.

During Spring Online 2025, this course runs for 8 weeks beginning on January 20, 2025.

Registration will be available in the Student Information System (SIS) beginning September 23, 2024 and close December 20, 2024.

Financial assistance is also available. If your congregation is paying for your tuition, please submit a financial aid request form with that information so you may receive the tuition discount.

Area of Study: Pastoral Leadership
Tuition: $400
Course Number: PL5001
Course Credits 1.0