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 …

Anonymous Student Missionary 1 Living Memoirs Interview, Anonymous

Student Missionary Stories

No abstract provided.

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 …

A Phenomenological Study Of The Cross-Cultural Transitions Of University-Level Missionary Kids, Naomi Walter

Senior Honors Theses

The cultural identity and transitions of a Third Culture Kid (TCK) is often a matter of discussion and debate. The purpose of this phenomenological study is to understand the factors that influence the identity and the cross-cultural transitions of university-level TCKs, with a specific focus on Missionary Kids (MKs). The study involved semi-structured interviews of seven undergraduate university students, over the age of 18 and currently involved in the university's Missionary Kid Scholarship program. Results revealed several key themes including identity, community, and friendship expectations that influenced the transition process. Participants generally displayed a positive transition, and the findings provide …

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 …

Autonomous Strike Uavs In Support Of Homeland Security Missions: Challenges And Preliminary Solutions, Meshari Aljohani, Ravi Mukkamala, Stephan Olariu

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are becoming crucial tools in modern homeland security applications, primarily because of their cost-effectiveness, risk reduction, and ability to perform a wider range of activities. This study focuses on the use of autonomous UAVs to conduct, as part of homeland security applications, strike missions against high-value terrorist targets. Owing to developments in ledger technology, smart contracts, and machine learning, activities formerly carried out by professionals or remotely flown UAVs are now feasible. Our study provides the first in-depth analysis of the challenges and preliminary solutions for the successful implementation of an autonomous UAV mission. Specifically, we …

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 …

A Light In The Darkness: Cedarville Senior Spreads The Gospel In Her Home Country, Mark D. Weinstein

News Releases

Students at Cedarville University are encouraged to go on at least one international or domestic mission trip during their four years of college. For Angela Aad, however, missions is a way of life.

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.

A Life-Changing Experience, Kaitlyn Norris, Ouachita News Bureau

Press Releases

Many Christians have a chance to go on a mission trip, whether it be local or somewhere no one would ever think about going. At Ouachita, students are given the opportunity to travel and share their gifts and talents with people around the world. This summer, I got to travel to Poland to work with Breakthrough, teaching English to university students as well as having the opportunity to share God’s word. Before going to Poland, I was tasked with choosing a chapter of the Bible to read while I was there; I chose Mathew 28. Verse 19 states, “Therefore go …

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. …