D-Group Modules Overview

Preliminary Understandings
  • The Learning  Process.
  • World-view and  Knowledge.
  • Secular and Sacred Understandings of Reality.
  • Character. Integrity. Spirituality.
  • Image of God.
  • Voice of God and Vocation.
  • Time Management.
Module One: Spiritual Formation and Basic Leadership
  • Leadership defined and described.
  • Purpose, Status and Role of the Leader.
  • Motivation and Manipulation.
  • Motivational Schemata.
  • Biblical Foundations for Leadership.
  • Old and New Testament Patterns.
  • Ministry Life. Expectations, Liabilities & Pitfalls.
  • Identity Issues and Leadership.
  • Common Fallacies.
  • Assessment Tools. Signs & Patterns.
  • Spiritual Formation, Longevity and Life Maintenance.
  • Practical Advice and Assorted Tips.
Module Two: Biblical Interpretation
  • Meaning, Perception and Language.
  • The Hermeneutic Problem. 
  • Language and Reality.
  • Social Functions of Language.
  • Literary Approaches.
  • Context and Meaning. Genre and Language.
  • Genre and Bible.
  • Interpreting the Bible's Genres
  • Literary Structures.
  • Literary Strategies.
  • Literary Devices. 
  • Missiological Interpretation.
  • Function, Purpose and Meaning.
  • Topographic Analysis.
  • Product, Ground and Tool Analysis.
  • Approaching the Text: Building a Robust Hermeneutic Process.
Module Three: Communicating to Groups
  • Contemporary Communication and Homiletics.
  • Perceptive Events.
  • Speech Acts and Meaning Events.
  • Relating Textual Goals and Communication Goals.
  • Relevance and Communication
  • The Speaker’s Role
  • Uses of Tension and Resolution.
  • Practics:  Notebuilding. Delivery. Ordering an Event.

Module Four: Pastoral, Spiritual and Peer Counseling 
  • Christian Theory of Humanity and Personality.
  • Human Awareness and the Image of God.
  • Human Meaning, Needs and Life Strategies.
  • Righteousness and Well-Being.
  • Roles of the Pastoral, Spiritual and Lay Peer Counselor.
  • Spiritual Counseling Goals.
  • Christian Life Strategies.
  • Assessment and Discernment.
  • Uses of Talk and Relationship.
  • Deep-Level Healing and Spiritual Deliverance
  • Limitations of the Spiritual and Pastoral Counselor.
  • Ethics and Conduct.
Module Five: Applied Leadership: Social Dynamics and Groups
  • Society, Culture and Groups. Basic Understandings.
  • Groups, Institutions, Traditions, Discourses and Metanarratives.
  • Group Identity.  Social Boundaries and Identifying Centers.
  • Individuals and Identification. Solidarity, Centrality and Marginality.
  • Group Configurations and Social Interfaces.
  • Networks, Alliances, and Partnership. Differentiation and Unification.
  • Sub-grouping. Macro-Micro Group Relations.
  • Change and Change Agency.
  • Leadership Teams: Purpose and Function. Creation and Maintenance.
Module Six: Practicum: Applied Leadership Projects.

    (Mentored Projects)

 Module Seven: Continuing Growth
  • The Mission of God. Church, Kingdom and Individual Perspectives.
  • Survival and Change in Organic Social Entities.
  • Discipling Others: Maximizing the Other.
  • Replication, Replacement, Variability and Adaptation.
  • The Body and its Members. Seasons of Service. Lifetime Service.
  • Discipling the Self:  Spiritual Disciplines. Strategies for Ongoing Vitality.