March 2025 Course Descriptions
Congregational Leadership
This seminar-style class is designed to assist pastoral leaders in: understanding more clearly the distinction between technical and adaptive challenges and changes; exploring and making progress on a current or looming challenge or dilemma; addressing how, in this anxious era in which our churches are impacted by national partisan-political divisions, we leaders can remain attentive to the voices of those around us while listening even more closely to God’s call to us.

Our experience will be our classroom. Please read that sentence again. This class will be a safe, supportive environment in which students will benefit to the degree that they invest themselves in the learning process. Where do you face or anticipate a difficult challenge? Where do you feel stuck and want to make progress? Dealing with this dilemma will be the heart of the class,
which is for anyone in a position of leadership – ordained and unordained, official and unofficial; veteran pastors and those in the initial stages of preparation; Parish Ministry Associate students and those simply interested in leadership.
Required Texts
  • O’Malley, Ed; and Cebula, Amanda. Your Leadership Edge: Lead Anytime, Anywhere, KLC Press, ISBN 978-0-9889777-5-4
  • McShane, Kathleen; and Babchuck, Elan. Picking Up the Pieces: Leadership after Empire, Fortress Press, an imprint of 1517 Media, print ISBN 978-1-5064-9097-7
Recommended Texts
  • Bolsinger, Tod. Canoeing the Mountains, InterVarsity Press, ISBN 978-0-8308-4147-9
  • Beaumont, Susan. How to Lead When You Don’t Know Where You’re Going, Rowman & Littlefield, ISBN 9781538127674

Your Instructor
  • The Rev. Roger Gustafson is bishop emeritus of the Central States Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.  Prior to his election as bishop he was a co-pastor of Advent Lutheran Church, Olathe, for 23 years.  He earned his Master of Divinity degree with Honors from Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, California, and his Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism from the University of Minnesota.  He has served as dean of the Kansas City-area ELCA churches and chaired the Church Planters missions team in the Kansas City area.  He is certified as an ELCA discipleship coach, working with ordained clergy and parish presidents. He recently served as interim pastor of The American Church in Berlin. He now manages the small-group component of Weave: The Social Fabric Project, an initiative of The Aspen Institute.


Contemporary Catechumenate
Some say that the Adult Catechumenate is the best kept secret within the Episcopal and Lutheran churches. Two resolutions from the 1988 General Convention encouraged the Catechumenate to be the normative way to initiate adults for baptism, confirmation, and reception in the Episcopal Church. Rooted in the experience of the early Christian Church, we will explore the Catechumenate formation process, gain a pastoral sense of its liturgical rites, and begin to apply this knowledge to our pastoral settings. A hybrid learning model will be used - calling for some work before and after our time together.
Required Texts
  • Go Make Disciples: An invitation to Baptismal Living,  Augsburg Press, ISBN 978-1-4514-2612-0
  • Benedict, Daniel T. Come to the Waters: Baptism and our Ministry of Welcoming Seekers and Making Disciples, ISBN 0-88177-179-1
  • Turrell, James F.  Celebrating the Rites of Initiation: A Practical Guide.  Church Publishing, ISBN 978-0-89869-875-6
  • Access to the current  Book of Occasional Services of the Episcopal Church:  https://www.episcopalchurch.org/files/lm_book_of_occasional_services_2018.pdf
Recommended, but Not Required:
  • The Catechumenal Process: Adult Initiation and Formation for Christian Life and Ministry, ISBN 0-89869-7
Your Instructor
  • The Rev. Dr. Larry Ehren is an Episcopal priest in the Diocese of West Missouri, currently serving St. Mary Magdalen as Priest in Charge. He is a graduate of BKSM in Anglican Studies, has a Master of Divinity degree from Boston College's Graduate School of Ministry and Theology, and undergraduate degree from Saint Louis University in Psychology and Philosophy. He recently completed his Doctor of Ministry studies in Christian Spirituality at the Virginia Theological Seminary. He has pastoral experience with the Catechumenate in a variety of settings. He an Advisory Board member of Journey to Baptismal Living (an ecumenical resource for the Catechumenate) and recently served as a Catechist for Baptized for Life (a Lilly Foundation initiative within the Episcopal Church).


Sacramental Theology
This course addresses the basic principles of sacramental theology from a classical Anglican standpoint and the historical development of the Book of Common Prayer as a response to those principles. Beginning with the fundamental categories of time, space, and incarnation, this course provides a biblical and theological base for the further study and practice of the liturgical worship in the Episcopal tradition.
Required Texts         
  • Boersma, Hans. Heavenly Participation: The Weaving of a Sacramental Tapestry. First Edition. Grand Rapids, Mich: Eerdmans, 2011.
Recommended Texts     
  • Martos, Joseph. Doors to the Sacred: A Historical Introduction to Sacraments in the Catholic Church. Updated ed. edition. Liguori, Missouri: Liguori Publications, 2014.
  • Valantasis, Richard. Dazzling Bodies: Rethinking Spirituality and Community Formation. Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books, 2014.
  • Weil, Louis.  Liturgical Sense: The Logic of Rite (Weil Series in Liturgics).  New York:  Seabury Books, 2013.
Your Instructor
  • Dr. Donna Ruth Hawk-Reinhard, AF is a professed member of Anamchara Fellowship.   She has a PhD in Historical Theology from Saint Louis University and an MDiv from Covenant Theological Seminary.  Since 2008, she has taught classes in spirituality, early and medieval church history, introduction to Christian theology, and Anglican Studies in a variety of contexts including vocational, university, and seminary settings.  Her research area is the intersection of sacramental theology, liturgy, and Christian identity formation. 

Social Ministry II
This course will apply concepts learned in Social Ministry I to the participant’s particular local context.  Students will develop ministry partnerships within their own local community and will learn basic community organizing principles such as asset mapping.  This course will use, in part, the Called to Transformation model of Asset Based Community Development developed by the Episcopal Church and Episcopal Relief & Development.
Required Texts   
  • Mather, Michael. Having Nothing, Possessing Everything
  • Harder, Cameron. Discovering the Other: Asset Based Approaches for Building Community Together
Your Instructors
  • The Rev. Deacon Teresa Houser serves as the Executive Director of Magdalene Omaha, an organization serving the needs of survivors of sexual violence, especially sex trafficking. Deacon Teresa brings over thirty years of non-profit and community service to this position, including over twenty years of experience in addictions recovery programs and in working with survivors of prostitution and sex trafficking. In 2014, she founded the Friends of Tamar, a ministry of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in downtown Omaha, Nebraska, where she is assigned as a deacon. The Friends of Tamar is dedicated to supporting survivors of sexual violence in all its forms, including rape, domestic violence, and trafficking. It was from this work that efforts to establish Magdalene Omaha began. Deacon Teresa is a 2017 graduate of the Bishop Kemper School for Ministry.
BKSM welcomes you to take courses with us for personal enrichment or continuing education. Classes are richer with occasional students around the table.  We encourage you to experience this remarkable, uplifting community of learning, worship and fellowship for yourself!

March Overview
  • Classes begin on Monday, February 10.  You will receive an email and syllabus directly from your instructor. If you have  not received anything from your instructor by Tuesday, please contact us.
  • The in-person Focus Weekend meets  March 8-9 , on Saturday from 7:30 am-9:00 pm and on Sunday from 7:30am-12:15pm.
  • The detailed weekend schedule is here.
  • Classes end on Friday, April 11.
  • Grades due April 30.

Tuition & Scholarships
  • Tuition is $100 to audit a class in person or online, $240 to take a class for credit in person, which includes  overnight accommodations at Upton Hall &  meals, $165 to take a class for credit on Zoom.
  • Apply for the $100 Jim Upton lay scholarship. Scholarships also available for students on an ordination track.
  • Many hotels are available throughout Topeka. Most are 15 minutes away or less.
Register for March Courses