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Cannon Chapel

Candler School of Theology

 

Requirements

  1. Attend at least one Candler retreat for students enrolled in the certificate program.
  2. Participate in at least one year of directed contextual education placement in an approved setting which will satisfy requirements for contextual education. For students accepted for the CCM Certificate before their first semester at Candler, both the first and second year of contextual education placements can be arranged.
  3. Required Courses:
    • The Church and Community Leadership. This is the basic introduction to the ecclesiology of public church ministries, to the relationship of social justice to the liturgical and sacramental life of the church, and to theologies of local mission. Focusing on local communities, the course offers an overview of public issues and religious responses. This course also offers an introduction to research methods, community organizing, asset-based community development, capacity building, and neighborhood revitalization, as well as skills in forming collaborations among congregations, local government, nonprofits, and foundations. 3 credit hours. Students can substitute the Church and Community Ministries course for this course.
    • The Church and Public Policy. This weekly, spring-semester course is required of all third-year CCM students and will follow the Georgia legislative session. We will learn the skills of lobbying and advocacy, study church-state relations (as they also relate to local and community government), study faith-based initiatives and charitable choice programs. It will also be the setting in which the student's portfolio is finalized and presented to the seminar. Three credit hours.
  4. Elective Courses: Six credit hours in related and approved courses must also be completed. These courses can be taken outside of Candler with the approval of the teaching professor, Candler's registrar, and the director of the CCM program.
  5. Completion of a CCM portfolio which will focus the student's attention on either one public issue or one particular Atlanta community. This portfolio is written during enrollment in the Church and Public Policy course. The portfolio might chronicle a congregation's involvement in a neighborhood or the recommendations and strategies for that involvement. It could also include biographies and oral histories, sermons, web sites and resources, confirmation class designs, liturgies, reports from conferences, and "best practices" from elsewhere in the country.

Because this program is intended to develop the skills needed to lead congregations in rural, urban, and suburban settings, several tracks within the program can evolve. For instance, students in the Teaching Parish program could also enroll in this CCM certificate program and learn to apply these theological and methodological tools to the rural setting.