Durham University
Programme and Module Handbook

Undergraduate Programme and Module Handbook 2024-2025

Module TMMC2171: Leadership and Theology for Ministry and Mission

Department: Theology, Ministry and Mission

TMMC2171: Leadership and Theology for Ministry and Mission

Type Tied Level 2 Credits 20 Availability Available in 2024/2025 Module Cap None. Location Durham

Prerequisites

  • None

Corequisites

  • None

Excluded Combination of Modules

  • L5-10 Exploring Leadership and Theology for Ministry and Mission L6-20 Leadership and Theology for Ministry and Mission

Aims

  • To enable students to apply a range of appropriate theological disciplines to inform leadership in the church and the workplace.
  • To encourage students to integrate biblical, theological, pastoral, ethical and liturgical approaches to leadership with their prior experience, formulating their own coherent personal response and practice in the light of the church’s ministry and mission.
  • To introduce students to an understanding of group and team processes and dynamics, reflecting specifically on the nature of the church as a voluntary organisation and on the use and abuse of authority and power.
  • To equip students with practical skills of leadership including managing meetings, time management, vision building, managing change and conflict.
  • To enable students to think laterally about issues concerning leadership and to how they might apply them as reflective practitioners able to identify and implement principles of collaborative working to servant leadership.
  • To develop students’ capacity and disposition for servant leadership that is informed by profound listening to the world, to others, to self and to God.

Content

  • Biblical and theological understandings of leadership, authority, service and collaboration within the perspective of the church’s ministry and mission.
  • A study of the relationship between spirituality and servant leadership.
  • An overview of theories and approaches to working in teams including models of collaborative ministry and the skills of facilitation.
  • Learning about, and applying a theological perspective to, theories and skills of leadership, management, vision building, change and conflict.
  • Leadership as listening to self, others, God and the world.

Learning Outcomes

Subject-specific Knowledge:
  • Describe and analyse in detail key theological and biblical principles underpinning leadership and collaboration in the context of the church’s ministry and mission.
  • Analyse and explain the principles and skills that contribute to effective team working.
  • Compare and contrast influential ideas about leadership and management and evaluate them and the questions to which they give rise from a theological perspective in the context of Christian discipleship, ministry and mission.
Subject-specific Skills:
  • Apply a range of principles for collaborative servant leadership and team-working in familiar and unfamiliar contexts, devising appropriate and effective modes of inquiry and processes to achieve this.
  • Reflect critically and theologically on their own experience of group and team membership and leadership identifying strengths, weaknesses and areas for development.
Key Skills:
  • Take responsibility for a task that involves independent inquiry; the management of time, resources and use of IT; meeting deadlines, evaluating the task and learning from it.
  • Plan their own personal and professional development.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

  • Teaching methods to be specified by each TEI, selecting from the following:
  • Lectures provide content, a conceptual framework and a survey of approaches within a subject area that enable students to locate their learning in a wider context, to make connections with other disciplines, and to evaluate and apply their learning to different contexts.
  • Seminars offer students an opportunity to present, evaluate and apply their knowledge to specific contexts, and to engage with teaching staff and peers in debate and reflection.
  • Guided reading in conjunction with lectures encourages independent learning and underpins the knowledge and understanding gained in lectures and seminars.
  • Small group learning creates an environment where students learn to articulate their knowledge and understanding effectively and in a way that is relevant to the group and its context.
  • Case studies offer students the opportunity to apply their knowledge, analytical and problem-solving skills to the kinds of complex, realistic and often ambiguous situations they are likely to encounter in their profession / ministry/ vocation.
  • Placements and/or work-based learning ensures that students make habitual connections between knowledge, understanding, skills, professional practice and the reality of a specific context, under the supervision of an experienced practitioner.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Activity Number Frequency Duration Total/Hours
Lectures 8 1.75 hours 14
Placement 20
Seminars 16 1 hour 16
Guided Reading 10 1 hour 10
Personal Study 140
Total 200

Summative Assessment

Component: Written Assignment Component Weighting: 50%
Element Length / duration Element Weighting Resit Opportunity
Written assignment 2500 words 100%
Component: Written Assignment Component Weighting: 50%
Element Length / duration Element Weighting Resit Opportunity
Written Assignment 2500 words 100%

Formative Assessment:

Students will be expected to demonstrate engagement with the subject matter and the learning outcomes throughout the module by suitable formative assessments that encourage integrative and reflective skills.


Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University