Digital Commons Network^™

Preaching The Witness Of Last Words: How Biblical Farewell Speeches Shape Contemporary Listeners' Theological Legacy, Derek J. Engfelt

Doctor of Ministry Theses

This project explores several last words speeches in Scripture, in an attempt to mine core theological convictions. It considers the subject of theological legacy. It seeks to ascertain whether or not the preaching of last words of witness will be effective in influencing listeners’ consideration of their own cherished spiritual values. By means of a series of six sermons the author endeavored to encourage listeners to incorporate into their own lives of faith the treasured spiritual values that have been passed down to them as a theological legacy and to give greater thought as to what core theological convictions they …

Practicing Community: Naming, Claiming, And Practicing The Holy Spirit's Sending Of A Congregation In The Midst Of Change Into The Open Future, Meghan K. Gage-Finn

Doctor of Ministry Theses

This project utilized social science research, through a transformative, mixed- methods strategy, to investigate a thriving, downtown Presbyterian Church (USA)

congregation’s missional awareness and response to change, disruption, and chaos in their midst during a major building expansion and movement into new spaces. This study explored in what ways members of the congregation relied on or adjusted their patterns of engaging in spiritual practices as a result of a change in their surroundings. This research shows how a greater missional understanding developed for members of the congregation because of a movement through a season of modification to both their building …

Competing Frameworks: How Theoretical And Theological Frameworks Influence Congregational Renewal Efforts And Color External Evaluations, Linda Bobbitt

Master of Arts Theses

No abstract provided.

Opening To Revelation: Building Discernment Processes From Practices That Best Inform Communal Decision Making, Chris Alexander

Doctor of Ministry Theses

This sequential explanatory mixed methods research project investigates the spiritual discernment processes of a Christian congregation in the United Church of Christ. The study identifies most utilized and most helpful practices of spiritual discernment within the areas of prayer, conversation, community, and media. This research shows how engaging spiritual practices influences participation in decision making by Christian congregations.

Looking Back To Move Forward: Youth Ministry And Its Effect On The Faith And Christian Practices Of Today's Adults, Andrew A. Taylor

Doctor of Ministry Theses

This mixed methods explanatory research project investigated the effectiveness of youth ministry practices in shaping, or failing to shape, adult Christian faith. Fifty-nine former youth group members from three congregations were surveyed, and six were interviewed: two active Christians, two inactive Christians, and two non-Christians. Results revealed the active Christians had experienced a personal sense of God’s presence and witnessed God’s activity in the public sphere. This suggests that youth ministry would do well to utilize practices that encourage adolescents to experience and articulate a sense of God’s presence in both their personal lives and in the world around them.

A Congregation Engaging In Missional Dialogue: Strengthening Discernment Amid Diversity Through Healthy Congregational Dialogue, Jeffrey M. Wilson

Doctor of Ministry Theses

This transformative mixed-methods modified Participatory Action Research (PAR) project was used to investigate and affect healthy and faithful discernment and decision-making in a diverse congregation within the reality of being the body of Christ in mission. Data were collected utilizing baseline and end-line surveys, recorded and transcribed meetings and interviews, and memos. The data revealed that people who engaged in the research process grew in their perception of the congregation as being healthy and faithful in discernment and decision-making. This research shows that mutual responsibility, respect, trust, and interdependence between leaders and congregation members helps us focus on God’s mission …

Generous Leaders, Generous Congregations: A Study Of The Relationship Between The Financial Generosity Of Congregational Leaders And The Financial Generosity Of Their Congregations, Ryan D. Brodin

Doctor of Ministry Theses

This sequential explanatory mixed methods comparative case study research project explores personal financial generosity in pastors and Congregational Council members of five suburban mainline congregations to discover what influence their generosity has on the congregations they lead. This research involved a survey of all the leaders, interviews with each pastor, focus groups with Congregational Council members, and financial statistics for each congregation. Although there are many insights in this research project regarding financial generosity in leaders and congregations, the results do not show a direct influence of the personal financial generosity of the leaders on the financial generosity of the …

Walk Me To The Gate: Christian Practices Of Accompaniment With People Who Are Dying And Their Families, Yolanda Kali Denson-Byers

Doctor of Ministry Theses

This mixed-methods concurrent triangulation research project asks, “What practices should we incorporate into the hospice ministry of Fellowship Lutheran Church in order to help dying people and their families experience a peaceful death with love?” Utilizing two focus groups, four interviews, and a congregational census, this project finds that research participants are terrorized by death and are hungry for hospice and bereavement ministries provided by their community of faith. This exploratory project illuminates the specific practices which missional congregations may utilize to empower the priesthood of all believers to create a beloved community which points to the hope of resurrection.

The Joy Of The Lord Is Your Strength: How Your Passions Can Serve God's Mission In The World, Jay Grave

Doctor of Ministry Theses

This participatory action research project utilizes praxis events to enhance the understanding of Lutheran vocation in relationship to joy bringing activities. The research question driving this project is,

How would a participatory action research (PAR) intervention utilizing praxis events encourage congregational members to recognize and exercise their own gifts and passions as avenues of joyous participation in God’s mission in the world?

Data were collected through baseline and end-line interviews, transcribed meetings of a journey team, and census surveys. Data revealed that participation did yield a positive change effect on the understanding of joy bringing passions to enhance the missional …

From Establishment To Innovation: Rethinking Structure In A New Apostolic Age, Dwight J. Zscheile

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Soli Deo Gloria: A Doxological Hermeneutic Of Mission In Emerging Ministries In The Evangelical Lutheran Church In America, Daniel R. Anderson

Doctor of Philosophy Theses

This research project is a grounded theory, ethnographic study of emerging ministries in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Twenty emerging ministries were selected from within the ELCA. Six of those sites were the subjects of indepth site visits by a research team. Eleven additional sites were the subjects of partial site visits and interviews. The data-gathering phase of the research concluded with a consultation with thirty emerging leaders held at Luther Seminary. Four sensitizing concepts were used as lenses in data gathering: Lutheran, emerging, missional, and doxological hermeneutics. Leadership in emerging ministries and emerging ministries as contextual and …

A Local Christian Community's Missional Imagination: Accessing, Cultivating, And Assessing Missional Discernment In Civil Society, Johannes Gerhardus Jacobus Swart

Doctor of Philosophy Theses

This dissertation explores a particular local Christian community's socially-embodied theology as their missional imagination in civil society from within a research question on how to access, cultivate, and assess such missional imagination. The research question is addressed through a phenomenological approach to such particular local Christian community's process of discernment.

In following the trajectory of this particular local Christian community's process of discernment, the research journey became embedded in the playful imagination of this local Christian community's engagement with their discernment question, and how their critical reflectiveness from within this playful imagination opened up the possibilities of God's preferred and …

Sharing Witness Along The Way: Engaging The Lived Theology Of An Urban Congregation In Evangelical, Public, And Missional Strands, Scott J. Hagley

Doctor of Philosophy Theses

This ethnographic phenomenology explores the lived theology of an urban congregation as it engages with civil society. Drawing methodological considerations from Jen-Luc Marion, Paul Ricoeur, and James Clifford, the research journey attends theologically to the sociality embodied both within the congregation and with its neighborhood for the sake of participating with this congregation in bringing to discourse its lived evangelical, public, and missional theological strands.

Drawing upon Charles Taylor's use of moral frameworks in relationship to narratives, practices, and goods, the evangelical strand explores intimacy as a strongly valued good. Theologically, such a good makes possible James McClendon's vision of …

Characteristics Of Congregations That Empower Missional Leadership: A Lutheran Voice, Terri L. Elton

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Reformation Is A Terrible Thing To Waste: A Promising Theology For An Emerging Missional Church, Gary M. Simpson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Reconciling The Believing Nonbelonger: Readiness To Reach And Receive Lost Sheep, Robert E. Sachs Jr.

Doctor of Ministry Theses

This study examines and explains readiness of reconciling with believing nonbelongers from 284 respondents in two categories of 139 systematically selected ELCA congregations in the western United States that received adults during 2001-2005. A concurrent-nested, mixed-method design integrates biblical-theological missio Dei and missio ecclesia foundations with Prochaska’s Transtheoretical Stages of Change and Parshall’s Contextualization Spectrum. Chi-square crosstabulations, simple logistical regression, and Centering Resonance Analyses show: faith of origin, worship attendance growth trend, regional location, population size and growth trend, clergy and lay partnership, and programmatic emphasis has significant effects on the readiness of congregations and respondents to receive the unaffiliated.

Congregations As Systems For Empowering Missional Leadership: A Lutheran Hermeneutic For Leading In Mission, Terri Lynn Martinson Elton

Doctor of Philosophy Theses

What are the cultural dynamics within a congregational system that are vital to the empowering of missional leadership? Do Lutherans have anything to contribute to the missional church movement in the United States? These two questions were primary for this dissertation and emerged out of two gaps identified in the missional church literature. Seeing congregations as complex, open systems, missional leadership within congregational systems was studied using a grounded theory, qualitative research approach. The five ELCA congregational systems in this study were identified by their peers as excelling in helping their faith community discover their calling as disciples of Jesus …

What Is Essential In Lutheran Worship?, Steven D. Paulson

Faculty Publications

Martin Luther’s simple definition of worship remains valid: “nothing else” need ever happen “except that our dear Lord himself may speak to us through his holy Word and we respond to him through prayer and praise.” The essential moments of public worship are reading, preaching (including the presence and proclamation of Christ in the sacraments), and prayer.

Opportunities Amidst Challenges: Denominations And Rural Ministry, Alvin Luedke

Faculty Publications

The changing social, economic, and religious landscape of rural communities offers denominations an opportunity for demonstrating renewed relevance to congregations in those areas, as denominational leaders and structures help rural congregations identify and meet the mission challenges they now face.

The Return Of The Congregation: Missional Warrants, Patrick R. Keifert

Faculty Publications

The new era of mission in North America warrants the return of the congregation as the primal location of the study of theology at every level of theological education, including schools of theology.

The Concord, Luther Seminary

Student Newspapers

No abstract provided.