Digital Commons Network^™

Holistic And Holy: An Inward Journey Toward Healing And Wholeness, Chad Mcswain

Doctor of Leadership

There are two ubiquitous challenges to the modern church in North America: declining church attendance and the mental health crisis. This is an opportunity for the modern church to take up the missional imperative by providing access to mental health resources to meet the mental and spiritual needs of those they serve, while creating a positive connection to those who do not currently attend church.

This doctoral project seeks to address both challenges by providing a podcast called, Holistic and Holy, Listener Guide, and website that creates conversations at the intersection of mental health and spirituality. This approach uses traditional …

Awe In The Helping Professions: Approaching Well-Being For Graduate Trainees Through Transcendent Emotion, Anna Forcelle

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Graduate school is a unique season of life involving high demands and high pressure, leaving adult degree-seeking students vulnerable to stress and negative health outcomes. Students seeking degrees in helping professional programs face additional risks due to the unique amounts of compassion required to engage in others-oriented work, leaving them susceptible to compassion fatigue and burnout. With a recent resurgence in the literature on the self-transcendent emotion of awe, which is associated with greater well-being, this present study sought to examine if experiences of awe can help sustain well-being and reduce the risk of compassion fatigue in helping profession graduate …

A Culture Of Scarcity And A God Of Abundance: Leading A Church Into A Bigger, Better, More Beautiful Story, Jamie Mccallum

Doctor of Ministry

Christians live in the ever-present tension of two competing stories. The first is the story our culture promotes. It is one of scarcity. In this story, there is never enough money, resources, time, or love to go around. The other story is the one God tells in Scripture. It is a story of an abundant Creator who gives more than enough for life, love, purpose, and enjoyment in this world. This paper explores my journey in leading Belfair Community Church away from a mindset of scarcity and into a living theology of abundance. When we truly trust that God is …

Winsome Wounds: A New Perception Of Pastoral Suffering, Stephanie Hurd

Doctor of Ministry

Pastors may view their divine calling as quid pro quo assurance against personal suffering. Yet everyone suffers. Seminaries train pastors in the technical skills required for ministry, but hermeneutics and homiletics do not help a pastor who is wounded. Churchcraft is about thriving as a leader in a church environment and acquiring the navigational tools, experiential knowledge, and soft skills to do so. Section 1 establishes the problem: Misperceptions about typical pastoral suffering, the disorientation it causes, and the lack of tools needed to respond in a productive way. Section 2 presents possible responses such as Stoicism, Legalism, Epicureanism, increasing …

The Church's Lament: Moving The White Church From Grief Of Complicity To Lament, Kristin Hamilton

Doctor of Ministry

This dissertation begins with the presupposition that leaders and members of the white, evangelical church are aware that there is an ongoing racial struggle in the United States, and in the church. Beginning with the theory that the church is in denial regarding historical complicity toward racism and white supremacy, this paper uses Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s Grief Stage model to explore how the white church has become stuck in the early stages of grief (denial and anger). This exploration reviews historic and current examples in which white Christians have been complicit with systematic oppression against Black people and non-Black persons of …

Wrestling For The Souls Of The Survivors: Helping Partners Who Are Married To Survivors Of Childhood Sexual Abuse, John N. Raymond

Doctor of Ministry

For some who partake in the wonders of marriage, the experiences of pleasant memories and successful challenges mark their dreams in their twilight years. For couples where one or both experienced childhood sexual abuse (CSA), marital challenges have far greater negative effect on each of the marital partners—their twilight dreams may not be so pleasant. Although many couples experience setbacks and hardships, for the couple affected by CSA, the setbacks are experienced with greater intensity and duration. This dissertation will highlight research quantifying the negative long-term consequences of CSA. I also will give examples of qualitative research that describes the …

Seeds Of Truth: The Importance Of C. S. Lewis's Interactions With Child Readers In The Chronicles Of Narnia, Joseph Thouvenel

Doctor of Ministry

This paper explores the ways in which C.S. Lewis's interactions with child readers in The Chronicles of Narnia provide important insight for communicating theological and spiritual truths to children. Through a brief examination of Lewis's own childhood as well as a concise analysis of his writings to and about children, important insights regarding the place of imagination and wonder within The Chronicles of Narnia will be revealed. This paper also inspects the seven books that comprise The Chronicles of Narnia, paying specific attention to Lewis's use of first- and second-person narrative within this series as a means of demonstrating his …

The History Of St. Joseph School And Challenges Of Catholic Education In Oregon, Mary Patrice Brooks

Doctor of Education (EdD)

St. Joseph School/Sacred Heart Academy has a long and lively history. The school has played a significant role in the faith and educational formation of the people it has served for the past 145 years. The school has experienced changes in the name and ownership; population ups and downs; times of turmoil and times of great celebration. Throughout the years, the school continues to mirror the lives of the many people that it has touched. This history will examine the challenges that were faced and the responses and resolutions to those challenges. Included will be events that affected Sacred Heart …

Recovering Spiritual Direction In The Protestant Tradition, Morris Dirks

Doctor of Ministry

The purpose of this dissertation is to foster a commitment to the development of spiritual direction in the ongoing care of pastors within the Protestant tradition. The need to recover this practice, once well established in the church, is made obvious by the increasing challenges faced in ministry and the spiritual and emotional impact now experienced by pastors. More and more leaders are losing their way as a result of the unchecked stress fostered by the overwhelming expectations, whether real or perceived, which are placed on them. Pastoral responsibilities have been significantly compounded by the increasing programmatic and executive functions …

Relational And Incarnational Leadership: A Flattening Of The Congregational Hierarchy And A Shared Journey Of Faith, Timothy D. Ozment

Doctor of Ministry

The problem addressed in this paper is: How can mainline congregational leadership move a church forward toward health in a postmodern world wherein the mainline Church as a whole is in such serious decline? This problem will be addressed by proposing a model of pastoral leadership that lives relationally and incarnationally with the congregation, flattens the hierarchy, and nurtures key lay leaders who are empowered to: answer their personal call, cultivate intentional relationships, and nurture the congregation into a missional and incarnationally focused living organism. Pastoral leadership, as we will argue, is, therefore, primarily living incarnationally and relationally with a …

The Death Of Postmillennialism In The Holiness Tradition Following World War I, Tiffany Enos

Seminary Masters Theses

Millennialism is an ancient component of religion, taking shapes and forms that vary widely from culture to culture, yet sharing enough in common that historian Frederic Baumgartner can describe an end-time scenario that sounds too familiar to be a generalization, even as it slides easily into the faiths of Buddhists, Aztec Indians, Jews, Muslims, and Christians alike. 1 Over the centuries, generation after generation has found reason to believe theirs would be the last, and several millennial groups have risen with fervor and conviction, only to see the promised end time come and go, and life carry on without them. …

The Death Of Postmillennialism In The Holiness Tradition Following World War I, Tiffany Enos

Seminary Masters Theses

Millennialism is an ancient component of religion, taking shapes and forms that vary widely from culture to culture, yet sharing enough in common that historian Frederic Baumgartner can describe an end-time scenario that sounds too familiar to be a generalization, even as it slides easily into the faiths of Buddhists, Aztec Indians, Jews, Muslims, and Christians alike. 1 Over the centuries, generation after generation has found reason to believe theirs would be the last, and several millennia! groups have risen with fervor and conviction, only to see the promised end time come and go, and life carry on without them. …

The Minister's Role With The Drug Problem, Roger Dennis Wolff

Western Evangelical Seminary Theses

Because of the increasing use of drugs in this country today, the writer has a deep concern for the potential dangers inherent in the problem. On August 21, 1971, the American Broadcasting Company presented on Channel two in Portland, Oregon, "Heroes and Heroin." On the program they quoted President Nixon, as saying, "drug abuse is America's number one enemy." On June 17, 1971, President Nixon asked congress for 155 million dollars to help stem drug abuse. He described drug addiction as having "assumed the dimensions of a national emergency."

The Extent And Influences Of The Holiness Revival In America, 1860-1900, Robert D. Bletscher

Western Evangelical Seminary Theses

Few factors have shaped the history of our nation more than the factor of religion. This has been especially true during the times of great revival endeavor. Beginning with the Great Awakening, in the middle part of the eighteenth century, and extending to the present, America has been blessed with several revival movements which have helped to preserve her mighty heritage. Their influences have been manifold, touching every aspect of life. They have affected the social, economic, political, and moral life of the nation.

These revivals have been widely different in nature and sphere of influence. They have affected different …