Digital Commons Network^™

Timothy Keller: Champion For The City: Keller's Philosophy Of Urban Contextualization, Michael W. Cunningham

Eleutheria: John W. Rawlings School of Divinity Academic Journal

Timothy Keller's 2023 passing serves as an occasion to consider his ministry legacy. His magnum opus, Center Church, encapsulated his philosophy of contextualization. This philosophy was rooted in a robust theology that informed and balanced missions, evangelism, and church planting. Keller's passion for city missions defied current ministry trends that favored suburbia and avoided urban contexts. His ministry conviction overcame cultural opposition and ministry bias and grew a thriving ministry in an unlikely ministry setting. Keller’s ministry captured the imagination of rising generations of pastors, missionaries, and ministry practitioners and provided the needed theological framework and training for successful …

Long-Term Partnerships Between Communities And Mission Organizations: A Case Study, Rebecca Boggs Bishop

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the long-term partnership of World Changers with the community of Chattanooga, Tennessee to understand best practices for creating similar cross-sector partnerships involving short-term mission work. Within this research, long-term partnership is defined as an arrangement existing for at least ten years. The study utilized the theories of covenant community (Lingenfelter, 2008), legitimate peripheral participation (Lave & Wenger, 1991), and cross-sector social-oriented partnerships (Selsky & Parker, 2005) to guide the research. The study considered the perspectives of community members, ministry leaders, and mission organization leadership to determine benefits and areas of …

The Impact Of Testimonies On Partner Development Strategies: Mission Work In Europe, Kimberly Witte

Senior Honors Theses

This study seeks to answer how first-world missionaries can utilize research findings on the effectiveness of testimonials and apply that knowledge to partner development strategies. Research trends demonstrate that most missionaries are being sent to countries with the largest practicing Christian populations, such as those in Africa or South America, and are more likely to receive financial partnerships. Europe has a high rate of non-practicing Christians and is a cultural intersection due to the refugee crisis, leading to a need for mission work. This research will culminate in the creation of a prayer guide, highlighting testimonies of individuals impacted by …

Latina Mothering As Diaspora Mission : The Role Of Latina Immigrant Mothers In The Religious Identity Formation Of The Next Generation, Rebekah R.S. Clapp

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Church Planting In The East Of Germany : The Importance Of Missions, Discipleship, And Community Formation, Maria Boschker

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Church Planting As Evangelism : How People Are Influenced And Worldview Assumptions Impacting Church Plants And Church Multiplication, W. Bud (Walter Bud) Simon

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

P.U.S.H. For Life Among The Stars: A Scientific And Philosophical Quest For Conceptualizing Uncertainty, Jacinta Creel Vallejo

Senior Projects Spring 2024

This senior project tackles how to deal with uncertainty in the search for life. Defining this uncertainty is tricky, and scientific efforts to do so are crucial. Such efforts include analyzing the data and biases of past, present, and future missions searching for exoplanets: planets outside our solar system. From there, the next step would be to infer what exoplanets have an atmosphere. This is a crucial, but not sufficient step, as having an atmosphere is a good sign of encountering life. However, finding an atmosphere is not an easy task, and this step will undeniably come with some amount …

American Indian Residential Boarding Schools: Historical Trauma And The Role Of Government, Churches, And Tribes In Healing Indigenous Communities, Briana Slaubaugh

Eleutheria: John W. Rawlings School of Divinity Academic Journal

Throughout the 19^th and 20^th centuries, Native Americans and Indigenous tribes in North America faced systematic destruction of their cultures, genocide, and extreme abuse. With wars against Native Americans, forced relocation from their historic lands, and mandatory residential boarding schools where Indigenous children were forcibly separated from their parents, the social fabric of Native American communities was destroyed. These travesties were government sanctioned and enacted by churches. The American Indian Residential Schools serve as the most recent and egregious factories of abuse. The policies and actions enforced against Native Americans left a generation plagued by abuse leaving a …

(Special Section) Translating Race: Mission Hymns And The Challenge Of Christian Identity, Philip Burnett

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

“Ye seed of Israel’s chosen race,” “The race that long in darkness pined,” “To heal and save a race undone,” and “Sanctify a ransomed race” are a few examples of many references to “race” that exist in English-language hymnody. Throughout the nineteenth-century, hymns containing lines such as these, were exported from Britain into mission fields where translators had to find new ways to conceptualize notions of race and, in effect, created new group identities. This requires asking critical questions about the implications of what happened when ideas of race, in the Christian sense, interacted with non-religious notions of race in …

Behind The Numbers: A Traditional Church Faces A New America, Larry Vogel

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

The dissertation examines membership data for The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) from the mid-1970s to the present. It considers the analysis of LCMS decline by two scholars, George Hawley and Ryan MacPherson, who independently proposed that LCMS membership decline was internal in causation due to diminished birthrates and fewer young families. While acknowledging the reality of such internal decline, this dissertation argues that the lack of external growth is a greater cause for LCMS decline. Its lack of external growth is due primarily to the racial and ethnic homogeneity of the LCMS and its failure effectively to evangelize the increasingly …

Short-Term Missions: Helping Or Hurting?, Hannah Rossell

Honors Theses

Every year, thousands of short-term mission teams are sent out all over the world. It is estimated that more than four million Americans take an overseas short-term mission trip every year. Most of these participants are youth and young adults. The American church is estimated to spend as much, or more, on short-term mission trips as they do on sending and sustaining long-term missionaries. The question is, with all these participants and resources being sent out, are short-term mission trips helping or hurting the long-term goal of missions? Short-term missions can be helpful if they are plugging in and supporting …

Understanding Secularized People Of Metro Manila: A Case Study Approach For A Contextualized Urban Ministry Strategy, Ermela T. Dizon

Dissertations DIS

Problem

Secularization shapes people's thinking, feeling, and behaving in the cities. Yearly, there is a rise in the number of de-religionized or secularized people in cities of the world who engage in pursuits of materialism and show declining interest in religion. Sociologists and missiologists postulate about the spectrum of secularity and the variety of secularism in different context. Since Metro Manila is one of the world's top highly urbanized and densely populated cities, the Seventh-day Adventist Church encounters challenges in reaching its secularized people. It is a new turf for the church. Pastors trained for rural settings may not understand …

Public Theology For Global Witness : Essays In Public Missiology, Gregg Okesson, David Thang Moe

Academic Books

No abstract provided.

Understanding Secularized People Of Metro Manila: A Case Study Approach For A Contextualized Urban Ministry Strategy, Ermela T. Dizon

Dissertations

Problem

Secularization shapes people's thinking, feeling, and behaving in the cities. Yearly, there is a rise in the number of de-religionized or secularized people in cities of the world who engage in pursuits of materialism and show declining interest in religion. Sociologists and missiologists postulate about the spectrum of secularity and the variety of secularism in different context. Since Metro Manila is one of the world's top highly urbanized and densely populated cities, the Seventh-day Adventist Church encounters challenges in reaching its secularized people. It is a new turf for the church. Pastors trained for rural settings may not understand …

Reflections On Client Dependency In The Salvation Army, Joshua A. Simpson

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Nigerian Fastest Growing Churches And Their Intersection With The Poor, With Poverty And With Poverty Alleviation, Chinyereugo Euphemia Adeliyi

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Raising Godly Leaders : For Finishing The Task In Thailand, Weerawut Hongsa

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Impact And Challenge Of Religious Syncretism To The Christian Faith And Discipleship In The Anglican Diocese Of Kabba, Kogi State, Nigeria, Akobe Steven Kayode

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Reflections On Experiences Abroad, Myra Ann Houser, Benjamin Utter, Monica Hardin, Ray Franklin, Donald Allen Copeland Jr., Susan Monroe

Creative Works

Reflections on Experiences Abroad is a collection of essays written by Ouachita Baptist University faculty and staff who have lived outside of the United States. Students in Professor Margaret Reed's Fall 2022 ENGL 3383 Editing class copyedited and helped prepare this volume. It is a one-time publication that gave Reed's students an opportunity to demonstrate their editing skills at the end of the course. The student editors were Darby Jones, Sydney Motl, and Addie Woods.

Christmas Collage, Susan Monroe

Reflections on Experiences Abroad

The author highlights some of her most pleasant memories spending Christmas abroad as a missionary kid.

The Land Of Eight Million Gods: Communicating Christian Concepts Of God Into The Japanese Worldview, Ray Franklin

Reflections on Experiences Abroad

The author shares how he navigated a Japanese language barrier where the term God in English did not translate correctly.

Of Course, I Live In A Tree House, Monica Hardin

Reflections on Experiences Abroad

The author recounts her experience as a missionary kid returning to the United States to explain her life and her family’s impact to curious and uninformed youth groups.

On The Trans-Kalahari Highway: Caught In The Middle Of Two Spaces, Myra Ann Houser

Reflections on Experiences Abroad

The author reflects on how Africa’s Trans-Kalahari Highway bridged her move from Botswana to Namibia literally and figuratively.

Introduction, Darby Jones, Sydney Motl, Addie Woods, Margaret M. Reed

Reflections on Experiences Abroad

This is the introduction to Reflections on Experiences Abroad, a collection of essays authored by Ouachita Baptist University faculty and staff who have lived outside the U.S.

Missions And Media And The Pentecostal Tradition, Elena Espinoza

Masters of Theological Studies

This thesis sought to discover how the use of media for missions developed within the Pentecostal tradition. In order to accomplish this, the historical development of the print medium and the introduction of radio will be analyzed. Additionally, methods of visual media will be introduced by discussing televangelism, media and theology, and the ethics of missions photojournalism. From there, the thesis transitions to the current use of digital media. Digital media today includes, but is not limited to, electronic newsletters, photos, videos, and social media. For the sake of this paper, only those for digital media mediums/platforms will be discussed. …

Engaging Millennials In Missions, Annell Adams James

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The millennial members of the Power of God Church have shown a lack of interest in participating in the local church's mission ministry. This lack of interest has caused the Missions Department and the church concern because fulfilling the mission of God is the mission of the church. The mission statement of the church is the focus of the ministry programs. Suppose the mission department creates a missions training program designed to focus on a technological learning style in which millennials thrive. Could it attract, involve, and engage millennials in future mission trips while educating them? It is this question …

Commissioned To The Nations: Using Graphic Design To Mobilize Millennials For God's Strategic Mission, Victoria Dissmore

Masters Theses

All over the world, billions of people are walking throughout their entire lives without ever hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and they never will unless someone crosses into their culture to share it with them. Giving Gospel access to all people groups is a huge mission for the Church to tackle, but this mission is often not even known among the Millennial generation. Initial investigation for this thesis found that although some Millennials are engaging in missions, there is still a huge need for people to give, go, pray, and send, especially as older missions workers age out. Existing …

Examining The Cross-Cultural Competence Of United States Christian Missionaries Engaged In Developing Indigenous Leaders: A Mixed Methods Study, Craig W. Goodman

Dissertations

For the past two millennia, missionaries have crossed from one culture to another to bring the Christian message to all cultures of the world. Questions about the effectiveness of these mission efforts have been asked and researched by many; however, one key question remains unanswered: what personal attributes help a person to be more competent at crossing cultures as they interact with people from other cultures? Although cross-cultural competence has been studied in a variety of fields over the past 50 years, the models and assessments used have never been applied to Christian missionaries.

To address this deficiency, this parallel …

Missiological Intelligence: Taking Cultural Intelligence To A New Level In Guanacaste, Costa Rica, Adam Vaughan

Doctor of Ministry (DMin)

Many people thrive on the mission field while others seem to flounder. This includes some missionaries who must return to their home country prematurely. The correlation between flourishing and floundering for missionaries on the field is not necessarily limited to a lack of passion, biblical knowledge, effort, or even language proficiency. All missionaries need a comprehensive set of tools, and one that has been seriously neglected in missiological training is Cultural Intelligence (CQ). CQ is a modality of intelligence within the umbrella of Social Intelligence, as categorized under the Multiple Intelligence Theory. With the rapid increase of globalization, those who …

Sacred Business: Outlining Business As Mission For The Fulfillment Of The Great Commission, Eli Jackson

Senior Honors Theses

Business as Mission (BAM) is the operation of a for-profit business located in a cross-cultural setting and aimed toward the fulfillment of the great commission. This definition reveals four key success factors for BAM: support, financial and otherwise, for both the business and the missionaries; the ability to gain access to cross-cultural settings; the opportunity to advance the gospel; and the requirement of managing both missional and business goals. Examining each of these areas, along with the historical effectiveness of BAM, reveals that BAM is an efficient and effective missional strategy, which should be used to see the Great Commission …