Arts and Humanities Commons^™

A Companion Guide For The Discipleship To Missional Community (D2mc) Program, Jedidiah T. Maschke

Doctor of Ministry Major Applied Project

This Doctor of Ministry (DMin.) Major Applied Project (MAP) offers a companion guide for the discipleship training program called D2MC (Discipleship to Missional Community) taught by PLI, a leadership development organization that works primarily with the LCMS. The D2MC program is based on the training pioneered by Mike Breen through 3DM. The companion guide shows how the methods and practices taught by PLI are soundly based in Scripture and confessional Lutheran theology and offers some personal insights and devotional thoughts. The companion guide was distributed and field tested with volunteer participants through and with the approval of PLI. Participants in …

Positive Factors Related To The Decision To Study For The Office Of The Ministry By Men Of The Lutheran Synod Of Nicaragua (Iglesia Luterana Sínodo De Nicaragua/Lutheran Church—Canada), Edmund Auger

Doctor of Ministry Major Applied Project

Auger, Edmund D. “Positive Factors Related to the Decision to Study for the Office of the Ministry by Men of The Lutheran Synod of Nicaragua (Iglesia Luterana Sínodo de Nicaragua / Lutheran Church—Canada).” Doctor of Ministry. Major Applied Project, Concordia Seminary, 2023. 128 pages.

The Lutheran Church throughout the world needs a continuing supply of men to serve as faithful pastors in the public ministry of the Gospel. The identification and spiritual formation of candidates for Word and Sacrament ministry is critical for the young national church body, Iglesia Luterana Sínodo de Nicaragua (Lutheran Synod of Nicaragua).

This project is …

Hospitality: Areas That Are Effective In Creating A Desire For A Visitor To Connect To Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Brent M. Hartwig

Doctor of Ministry Major Applied Project

This major applied project explores hospitality offered by the local congregation. Biblical hospitality is implicitly and explicitly commanded in scripture. Balancing the Missio Dei and two kinds of righteousness will keep us on the straight and narrow theologically when pursuing hospitality.

When churches offer hospitality, we are feeding, clothing, visiting, providing, and welcoming our neighbor. Our Redeemer wants to continue serving the community as a family-oriented, mission focused, hospitable congregation. We are doing the feeding, clothing, and providing through many efforts in the community. We are active with the local homeless shelter and crisis center. For the MAP, we wanted …

Embodied Superintendence: The Person Of The Preacher In Lutheran Homiletics Especially In Relation To Cultural Identity, Dennis Matyas

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Over the past several decades, the greater homiletical academy has progressed from questions of authority to dialogics to identity, both of the preacher and of the hearers. Within this timeframe, modern Lutheran homiletics has stayed relatively silent on considerations of the person of the preacher, opting instead for certain foundational homiletical truths including the efficacy of the Word of God, the proclamation of justification, and the authority of the Ministerium. After recovering the consideration of the person of the preacher as a foundational Lutheran homiletic, this work explores the formational significance of the preacher’s cultural identity by offering a theoretical …

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 …

What God Has Joined Together: The One Threefold Purpose Of Marriage, David Frayne Shudy

Master of Sacred Theology Thesis

Modern married couples and marriage-minded individuals are often left awash in a sea of confusion aimlessly groping about for a purpose for their marriage, with disastrous societal results. Whereas long-standing Christian tradition has taught a unified threefold marital purpose of three equal elements—procreation, mutual help, and remedy for sin—Enlightenment thinkers and their ideological descendants have introduced a hierarchical marriage teleology with a self-chosen purpose (usually companionship) at the top in order to correct for an alleged countervailing overemphasis on procreation in premodern marital teleology.

This thesis will challenge the claim of a relative deficiency in the companionate aspect of premodern …

The Dwell Bible Listening App As An Effective Tool To Habituate Daily Bible Engagement In The Local Congregation, Daniel Russell Prugh

Doctor of Ministry Major Applied Project

Prugh, Daniel R. “The Dwell Bible Listening App as an Effective Tool to Habituate Daily Bible Engagement in the Local Congregation.” Doctor of Ministry. Major Applied Project, Concordia Seminary, 2023. "115" pp.

Congregational members desire to engage the Bible daily. However, oftentimes there are barriers to this goal. One of the most important barriers is that people do not regularly read. This is problematic if the church desires for people to read the Bible daily. In addition, people encounter a tsunami of information every day, that makes it hard to prioritize regular engagement with the Bible. However, the church can …

Sex In Church: The Christian Vocation Of Sexuality Within The Ecclesial Community, Sarah Talena Rusche

Master of Art Theology Thesis

Rusche, Sarah Talena. “Sex in Church: The Christian Vocation of Sexuality Within the Ecclesial Community.” Master’s thesis, Concordia Seminary, 2023. 71 pp.

Sex is characterized as an individualistic endeavor by both Christian and non-Christian thinkers. The culture of the world gives license to every individual to choose what kind of sexual experiences they would like to give and receive, while the culture of Christianity isolates individuals navigating the complexities of sexuality. In response to this individualism, this thesis argues that a faithful sexual ethic orders itself according to God’s will for His creation by considering the needs of the ecclesial …

No Lack Of Gain: A Biblical Theology Of Feminine Generosity, Jenny Zoë Huelsman

Master of Art Theology Thesis

This thesis traces a biblical theology of feminine generosity. The capable wife of Prov. 31:10–31 sets an Old Testament paradigm, which is inhabited and enlarged by women in the New Testament. The thesis considers the women who supported Jesus’ ministry (Luke 8:1–3); the widow and her mites (Luke 21:1–4); Mary’s anointing of Jesus (John 12:1–8); and Tabitha caring for the widows (Acts 9:36–42). Throughout these profiles, a picture emerges of women who make essential contributions to the mission and work of Christ as agents of generosity that is derivative, expressive, contextual, intemperate, and Christocentric, always flowing from and returning to …

Discovering The Means To Provide Mentorship For Post-Seminary Pastoral Formation From Apprentice To Craftsman: A Pastoral Journey, Paul Hass

Doctor of Ministry Major Applied Project

This project seeks to produce a distinct process for the discerning of who might best serve as mentors to those newly ordained. The process aims to allow for people in ecclesiastical leadership roles to discern which of the numerous available pastoral mentors might best be suited for fostering a long-term mentoring relationship to a newly ordained pastor. This project uses the results of qualitative research, drawn from interviews, to provide a matrix for evaluating potential mentors through the lens of the Adaptive Leadership model. The resulting evaluation process was ‘tested’ in a truncated format through the Office of the President …