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- Discipleship (6)
- Church Growth (5)
- Church (4)
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- Spirituality (3)
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- Church Attendance (2)
- Church Decline (2)
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- Unchurched (2)
- Worship (2)
- Acts 2:42 Model for Church Health and Growth (1)
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Articles 31 - 46 of 46
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Declining Inner-City Church Membership: Creating Spiritually Healthy Inner-City Churches Through Acts 2:42-47, Arthur L. Foster
Declining Inner-City Church Membership: Creating Spiritually Healthy Inner-City Churches Through Acts 2:42-47, Arthur L. Foster
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
Churches Are Declining in the Inner-City Multi-ethnic, inner-city churches are declining in membership. This premise is validated through surveys of inner-city church leaders and rigorous academic reviews from books, theses, dissertations, and peer-reviewed journal articles that discuss typical church problems in multi-ethnic, inner-city churches. Corroborated by applied research (qualitative and quantitative surveys), and academic research, this thesis project proposes a biblical solution to the problem of declining membership in the form of a step-by-step practical church model based on Acts 2:42.
An Examination Of Preaching And Church Leadership Within Royal Baptist Church, Jeffie L. Powell Jr
An Examination Of Preaching And Church Leadership Within Royal Baptist Church, Jeffie L. Powell Jr
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
Throughout this qualitative investigation, the researcher will examine prevalent preaching and leadership styles to promote congregational growth and development. Additionally, a proposed organized dossier for Royal Baptist Church will be implemented, delineating a biblical, practical, compelling leadership style. To explore for analysis, the researcher will assess their contemporary church leadership style juxtaposing favored leadership styles found in the literature. After creating a baseline, the researcher will interview seven ministers via face–to–face, telephone, video messaging, and email, assessing their church preferred leadership style, comparing their preferred preaching and leadership style against techniques found in the literature. Lastly, the researcher will provide …
A Strategy For A Successful Church Plant In An Un-Churched, Yet Spiritual Culture, Ernest Smith
A Strategy For A Successful Church Plant In An Un-Churched, Yet Spiritual Culture, Ernest Smith
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
Planting a church is difficult, especially when the church is planted in a post-Christian culture. Denver, Colorado is this type of culture and has commonly been called “A Church Planter’s Graveyard” by various church planters, church planting network leaders and senior pastors in Denver. According to the North American Mission Board and other reports, Denver is 88-95% un-churched. This writer moved to Denver in the summer of 2013 to plant a church. The goal is to create a different strategy to reach a community of people who are not Christ-followers. This strategy will research former and current Denver church planters. …
Common Areas To Integrate Young People Into Active Church Ministry Roles, David M. Gantt
Common Areas To Integrate Young People Into Active Church Ministry Roles, David M. Gantt
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
All throughout Scripture one can see God calling and using young people to carry out important parts of His narrative. Research has shown that seventy percent of young people drop out of church following high school graduation. One of the reasons this group is leaving is due to a lack of opportunities within ministries in the context of the local church for young people to serve. Through the investigation of applied research and surveys completed by pastors, youth pastors and other church pastoral staff of one hundred forty-seven different churches, the author will identify ministry practices that churches today are …
The Black Church And The Current Generation: A Program To Address The Decline Of African-American Church Attendance In Johnston County Of North Carolina, Robert Allen O'Neal Jr
The Black Church And The Current Generation: A Program To Address The Decline Of African-American Church Attendance In Johnston County Of North Carolina, Robert Allen O'Neal Jr
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
This study concentrates on issues dealing with the decline of attendance in African American churches. Although long-standing statistics since the Civil Rights Era have always shown the African American Church keeping higher audience percentage than European American churches, the tide has changed, and now African American churches are uncharacteristically declining at a faster rate than usual. Unchurched young adults, particularly African American males, are disproportionately missing in the African American church. The fundamental purpose of this study is to focus specifically on evangelical denomination African American churches in Johnston County, North Carolina by employing quantitative and qualitative research. The survey …
Helpmeet: The African American Pastor's Wife As An Extension Of The Pastor In Pastoral Care And Counseling - A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study Of The Ministry Helping Experiences Of Black Pastors' Wives In Predominantly Black Churches, D'Juana Chantel Pittman
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
The position of pastor’s wife presents itself as a unique role. For the African American Pastor’s wife, this role takes on an even more interesting dynamic, considering the cultural back drop of the population many pastor’s wives serve. A hermeneutic phenomenological research study was conducted to understand the phenomena of helper among African American pastor’s wives who serve alongside their husbands in ministry, particularly in pastoral care and counseling. The study included a total of seven African American Pastors’ wives from the state of Texas. The pastors’ wives participated in structured interviews that were extensive in nature. Answering thirty-six questions …
Cultural Kingdom Architects: Defining Success In Building God’S Kingdom, Philip Roy Bassham
Cultural Kingdom Architects: Defining Success In Building God’S Kingdom, Philip Roy Bassham
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
Identifying success or failure in “Building God’s Kingdom” can be challenging, considering the various circumstances and contexts in which one may find himself. The American Church is somewhat divided on what success looks like in this pursuit, and therefore people in ministry can feel discouraged or unaffirmed when their measure of success does not hold up to others’ views of perceived ministry success. The purpose of this project is to shed light on the various measures of success in building God’s Kingdom and enable church leaders to feel justified and affirmed in their approach. The research for this project will …
Incorporating A Pedagogy Of Worship In The Community Group Ministry Of Grace Bible Church, Jeremy G. Sauskojus
Incorporating A Pedagogy Of Worship In The Community Group Ministry Of Grace Bible Church, Jeremy G. Sauskojus
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
Many local church fellowships have embraced small groups (life groups, community groups) as a means of connecting people with one another from within the larger church body. These small groups are a means of building community. Furthermore, many churches testify to the importance of pursuing worship as much more than music in the corporate worship gathering that takes place once a week. However, very little has been done to connect these two components together in the small group ministry environment. As will be presented, people have written concerning each one of these important elements of church body life. Yet, connecting …
Discipling Children And Youth: Helping The Church Enable Parents To Lead, Angela Hazel
Discipling Children And Youth: Helping The Church Enable Parents To Lead, Angela Hazel
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
Parental apathy in the discipleship of children has become a worrisome issue in the Protestant churches of the United States. Where once the home was the foundation of Bible learning and character building, now parents have placed the responsibility of spiritual formation of children squarely on the shoulders of the church. The church, however, is ill-equipped to fully disciple a child or youth during this transformational time in their lives. This study sought to examine the issues that lead to parental withdrawal from discipleship training of their offspring and develop a method for the church to equip and enable parents …
Maximizing Discipleship Via An Adult Small Group Ministry, Wendell Jeff Jackson
Maximizing Discipleship Via An Adult Small Group Ministry, Wendell Jeff Jackson
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
Since its inception in 1996, First Redeemer Church has been firmly committed to Jesus’ commission to make disciples. While all of the church’s ministries aim to do this, First Redeemer Church relies heavily on its adult small group ministry to facilitate discipleship. One indication of this ministry’s strategic importance is the considerable financial investment the church has made, and plans to make, to provide on-campus spaces for adult education. Such investments have been considered worthy in light of the expected spiritual growth of the ministry’s participants and their involvement in and financial support of the church. This study will evaluate …
An Expositional Approach To The Parables Of Jesus And Applications For Unchurched Korean-American Christians, Junyong Cha
An Expositional Approach To The Parables Of Jesus And Applications For Unchurched Korean-American Christians, Junyong Cha
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
Korean-American churches like many immigrant churches often play a role as the ethical and cultural refuge for members. This failure to be a faith-based spiritual community causes ripple effects, in a negative sense, that pastors should not preach uncomfortable messages to the congregation and not to focus on spiritual matters and that this spiritual downspin leads to conflicts and frustrations in church and ultimately to numeral declining in either form of a church split or leaving church. While the reasons for leaving the church are varied, the ultimate source of individual believers’ healing, restoration, and growth is the Word of …
Leadership Factors That Influence Church Growth For Western North Carolina Churches Of God, Harold Jordan
Leadership Factors That Influence Church Growth For Western North Carolina Churches Of God, Harold Jordan
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
The purpose of this project is to identify and describe the essential leadership factors required to stimulate and sustain church growth for Church of God churches operating in Western North Carolina. This will be accomplished using a grounded theory research approach. Sample (N = 30) analysis of statistics provided by the Western North Carolina State Offices of the Church of God showed 3% of the churches in this region to have recorded significant overall growth in attendance and membership (=>10% per year) from April 1, 2014 to April 30, 2016. Few of the sampled churches recorded benchmark conversion growth …
The Unifying Theme Of The Mind Of Christ In Philippians Demonstrated By Paul's Use Of Rhetorical And Linguistic Devices In An Oral/Aural Culture, David Alan Posey
The Unifying Theme Of The Mind Of Christ In Philippians Demonstrated By Paul's Use Of Rhetorical And Linguistic Devices In An Oral/Aural Culture, David Alan Posey
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
Among the debatable issues arising from Paul’s epistle to the Philippians are questions concerning the structure, integrity and thematic emphasis of the letter. This dissertation argues that the “Christ Hymn” (2:6-11) is the central point of a chiastic structure of the letter, establishing the “Mind of Christ” as the primary and, thus, unifying theme of this correspondence. Four primary fields of research lend support to this hypothesis. First, rhetorical criticism seeks to understand the meaning of the biblical text through recognized persuasive devices utilized within first-century literature and speech. Second, linguistic studies, in its simplest form, examines the selection and …
The Matthew 16:13-18:20 Chiasm As The Fountainhead Of Matthean Proto-Ecclesiology, Nicholas A. Dodson
The Matthew 16:13-18:20 Chiasm As The Fountainhead Of Matthean Proto-Ecclesiology, Nicholas A. Dodson
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
The only two instances of the Greek term ἐκκλησία (usually translated “church”) found in the Gospels are in Matthew 16:18 and 18:17. These two passages have been examined, debated, and interpreted in a number of ways by various scholars. The present dissertation presents considerable exegetical evidence that these two uses of ἐκκλησία are actually part of a larger literary structure called a chiasmus, which connects the passages in which Matthew 16:18 and 18:17 are found. Because these are highly significant ecclesiological passages, this study further develops the connection of the chiastic structure to other foundational ecclesiological passages, namely the Matthean …
Mythology, Morality, And The Messiah: How Natural Moral Law And Hero Myth Entail That Jesus Christ Is The Best Possible Hero, Matthew J. Coombe
Mythology, Morality, And The Messiah: How Natural Moral Law And Hero Myth Entail That Jesus Christ Is The Best Possible Hero, Matthew J. Coombe
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
Essentially this dissertation is an abductive argument for Jesus Christ being the best possible hero. The abductive argument is concerned with the synthesis of several different disciplines: natural theology, general revelation, ethics, natural law (meta-ethics), literary criticism, Biblical criticism, and mythology. When synthesized the most reasonable conclusion for the data is that Jesus Christ is the best possible hero. All of the disciplines work together: Natural theology establishes the axiological basis for moral realism and moral knowledge. General revelation acts as a universal imprinter, which not only imbeds man with moral knowledge, but also with inherent notions of heroism—heroism and …
A Study Of The Sermon As Bible Study Materials For Small Group And Church Growth: With A Focus On Singing Hope Church, Ki Young Jeong
A Study Of The Sermon As Bible Study Materials For Small Group And Church Growth: With A Focus On Singing Hope Church, Ki Young Jeong
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
This study will suggest that the Sunday Service sermons are essential elements for church growth and the sermons can be used as Bible study materials in the small group meetings. Korean churches kept on growing after the Pyeongyang Great Revival in 1907. However, Korean churches stopped growing since 2000, at which point they started to decline in numbers. One of the reasons is that the congregants do not live according to the Word of God that is proclaimed from the pulpit. There are various reasons for church growth. The researcher observed that continuously applying Sunday sermons to church members is …