Digital Commons Network^™

The Potential Of The Hybrid Course Vis-A-Vis Online And Traditional Courses, Dan Brunner

Faculty Publications - Portland Seminary

Face-to-face, hybrid, and online courses are part of the panoply of course options available to students and teachers in the twenty-first century. This essay tackles the promise of hybrid courses for enhancing student learning in seminary contexts. The author contends that the introduction of hybrid instruction prompts faculty to revisit questions about pedagogy and improves student learning.

Gender Wars: Biology Offers Insights To A Biblical Problem, Marykate Morse

Faculty Publications - Portland Seminary

No abstract provided.

A View Of The Native North American Contextual Movement And Its Undecided Future, Randy Woodley

Faculty Publications - Portland Seminary

No abstract provided.

Intentional Discipleship: Spiritual Formation As Trinitarian Immersion For The 21st Century, Craig W. Henningfield

Doctor of Ministry

The local Christian congregation is remarkably active. Pastors serve the congregation in a variety of roles. Church leaders meet to plan so that tasks, funds and activities are properly ordered. Church members participate in the various ministries and opportunities offered. Citizens of the local community take advantage of programs designed for them. Christian congregations, sometimes called "religious malls," are busy.

Yet, with all the activity, church members still come and go, complain about the decisions being made, resist changes in their "religious tradition," struggle with various addictions, expect more than is being provided, and wonder how Christianity relates to their …

Via Media : The Necessity Of Deeper Theological Refection For The Genuine Renewal Of Church In The Emerging Culture And Context / By Jason Clark., Jason Clark

Doctor of Ministry

No abstract provided.

Prayground.Tv: Penultimate Written Statement, David Mcdonald

Doctor of Ministry

Prayground.tv is an online experiential prayer exercise. It is designed to facilitate personal expression and creativity, high user interactivity, and conversation among peers in order to help postmoderns engage spirituality that is both individual and communal. The Internet has quickly become the voice for virtual community and personal expression and prayground.tv is a helpful tool in exploring the tension between the communityoriented teachings of Jesus while helping each user internalize those teachings.

Section Two will show that, based on external data and outside sources, this dichotomy is especially real in a postmodern context and needs to be addressed. Here I …

Re-Envisioning Theological Education And Formation For Mission, In-Context, Using Distance Education, David Wollenburg

Doctor of Ministry

Distance Education Leading To Ordination (DELTO) is a program of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) designed to prepare individuals for pastoral ministry. It is non-residential, and it is contextual, as those in the program are already engaged in ministry.

Three concerns about DELTO are addressed in this work: the first is that it is a "dumbing-down" of pastoral formation; the second is that it is not possible to form a spiritual commWlity of support on-line; and the third is the need for the seminary faculty to have enough information to be able to confidently certify DELTO graduates for ordination.

This …

Training Volunteers To Effectively Make Disciples Of Troubled Youth In The Emerging Postmodern Culture, Dwight Spotts

Doctor of Ministry

One of the great opportunities for the Christian community in an emerging postmodern culture will be the renewed potential for incamational ministry to troubled youth. For over a half century the evangelical church in America has failed to significantly impact the problem of delinquency. This has not always been the reality. Yet current research pertaining to the relationship between religion and delinquency shows that when contextual variables are considered the church can have an inverse effect upon delinquency. In other words, the practice of religion does have something positive to offer troubled youth.

While it is has traditionally been assumed …

Re-Hearing The Gospel: Toward New Practices For Evangelism And Discipleship, Todd Hunter

Doctor of Ministry

The ministry problem addressed in this dissertation is: approaches to evangelism and discipleship are not working well because the works and words of Jesus have been reduced to "going to heaven when you die," instead of "living a Kingdom life now for the sake of the world." Chapter 1 discusses the problem of a disenstoryed, to coin an apt term for this context, bullet-point theology and uses The Alpha Course, as a step in the right direction. Alpha, while not explicitly "storied" in its approach, is far more holistic than an average tract on the Gospel. In Chapter 2, …

Baptist Student Ministry: Object Lessons In The New Reality For Denominational Ministries, Nick Howard

Doctor of Ministry

No abstract provided.

Baptist Student Ministry: Object Lessons In The New Reality For Denominational Ministries, Nick Howard

Doctor of Ministry

The world in which we live is a world filled with opportunity. It is an exciting time to be alive and involved in ministry. This is especially true for those who minister to the more than 14 million university students on campuses across America today. To work on a university campus is to experience the quickening of the Spirit. There is a very real sense that one is ministering on the cusp of the postmodem world. In contrast with earlier generations of students, the beginning years of the 21st century are times in which students are characterized by an optimism …

In His Steps: An Asian Christian View To Discerning God's Will, Philip J. J. Chen

Doctor of Ministry

Most Asian cultures are polytheistic, and the people of these cultures have evolved specific ways to discern the gods' wills for their lives. 1 When an individual from an Asian background converts to Christianity, he or she faces many challenges. For example, family members may pressure the believer to return to polytheism, and the believer must respond to their difficult challenge. Polytheism provides many ways to discern the will of the gods, but Christianity limits its methods to prayer, guidance from the Bible, and the direction of the Holy Spirit.2 This dissertation will describe methods of spiritual discernment for Christians …

Spiritual Literacy: A New Concept For A New Reality, Felicia A. Smith

The Christian Librarian

The idea of literacy is prevalent in today’s society, especially among librarians.There is much discussion of technological literacy and the digital divide. There are volumes written on cultural literacy and how we interact with different groups such as younger generations. There are books dedicated specifically to literacy in the 21st century. There are growing specialized “literacies” but none dealing with religion, per se. It is critical that librarians are aware of spiritual undertones inherent in information, in order to provide balanced information to patrons.