Multiplying Laborers for the Urban Harvest

A p p e n d i x

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R e a d i n g S t a n d a r d s

history with the texts included, and have tested them in real-world settings with real leaders. They supplement the concepts we seek to cover. In an integrated curriculum, you must be careful to teach in sync with the objectives of the lesson and module, and frankly, I cannot guarantee where mentors will go if we were to grant blanket authority to sites to change every and anything. The concepts of the texts are integrated in the outline, supplemented within them for emphasis and focus. (Remember certain issues of interdenominational status, historic orthodoxy, and non-sectarianism were hammered out in selecting these books. We selected them on their ability to both enhance our lessons while avoiding idiosyncratic and tangential directions.) For these reasons you may not substitute books without the express, written permission from the Director of the Institute. Additionally, if the Director does in fact grant you this permission, you will not be able to substitute texts arbitrarily. Exceptions to our Required Text list will require you to submit an alternative text proposal which lists the Module, the original Capstone Required Text you desire to substitute, what your replacement will be, and the rationale for that replacement. This level of carefulness is done primarily to safeguard our entire educational network from arbitrary and/or idiosyncratic changes to our curricula. Please know that we had, as theological educators, a broad reservoir of potential texts on every subject within Capstone. We settled on our current listing based on a number of factors, including reading level, theological soundness, consistency with our learning objectives, and overall defense of historic orthodox teaching. Unfortunately, with the dozens of mentors and trainers in our network, we have no way to ensure that all our mentors will be as concerned to adhere to these pedagogical aims here. So, as a rule, we ask that you make no changes to our Required Text list. (For our international sites, where the Texts may be hard to find or even unavailable, we have provided them with specific guidelines and instructions to help them overcome this difficulty.) Of course, denominations and communions of the Faith will want to articulate their own distinctive doctrines and practices, and we have granted them the privilege and blessing to add modules and curricula to augment our TUMI training. Additionally, you may want to expose your students, in the course of your training, to other authors with different perspectives than those covered by our Required Texts. Still, the rule remains clear: do not substitute other texts for our Required Texts, and yet, in those extremely rare cases where you desire to do so, remember that you may not substitute books without the Director’s explicit, written permission. I hope that this helps. What I found most challenging in developing such a curriculum is knowing that it will be used in multiple places by very distinctive communities of the King. We love them all, and serve them all.

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