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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Her Story: Forming A Woman's Voice In The Pulpit, Mindy Smith
Her Story: Forming A Woman's Voice In The Pulpit, Mindy Smith
Doctor of Ministry
Story is a paradigm for how women shape their preaching identity. Women preachers benefit from developing their voice through the stories of women in scripture, and the voices of women from the past and present day who have found their authentic preaching voices. Shaping a voice through story is a model in which the preaching identity can develop, and as a result minimizes insecurity, stress and fear around the craft of preaching. Section One defines the preaching identity and examines the elements that form identity. It explores the challenges that have impacted how women understand their role in preaching. Section …
Transcendence At The Table: A Transfigurational Experience For Ecclesia While Breaking Bread Together, Julia Rachelle Hurlow
Transcendence At The Table: A Transfigurational Experience For Ecclesia While Breaking Bread Together, Julia Rachelle Hurlow
Doctor of Ministry
The Church has been slowly losing its identity. This loss of identity has a strong connection to the failure of the church to tend and till faith relationships, as well as pass the faith story on to children and others. There has been a loss of emphasis on the table as a place of significance in church, community, and home. To break bread together is to reclaim the spoken story of Jesus’ transfigurational power. The hope for growth in a stronger identity lies in believing in the Truth of a present and powerful Jesus who could transfigure lives, offer forgiveness …
Beyond Change-Overcoming The Barriers To Small Rural Church Revitalization, Allen F. Wachter
Beyond Change-Overcoming The Barriers To Small Rural Church Revitalization, Allen F. Wachter
Doctor of Ministry
Many of the rural churches of the Free Methodist Denomination in the Northeast region of the United States have experienced substantial stagnation and/or decline of their attendance rates over the past five years. This begs the questions, "What is preventing these churches from being revitalized so they too can be used as vessels to grow the Kingdom of God?" Though many obstructions to kingdom growth1 exist, this study focuses on the following five barriers: resistance to change, under-utilization of spiritual gifts, relational dysfunction, apathy, and lack of love. The source of these barriers was discovered through personal observation and experience …