Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Liturgical Practices For Full Participation: Creating Opportunities For Engagement In Corporate Worship For People Living With Intellectual Disabilities At The Mooroolbark Salvation Army, Catherine Jane Spiller

Doctor of Ministry Theses

The Mooroolbark Salvation Army is a place of welcome and acceptance for people with disabilities. However, people with intellectual disabilities often have limited opportunities for engagement in corporate worship. The act of worship is a practice everyone should be able to participate in, but barriers often limit engagement for people with disabilities. This project thesis explored and sought to address these barriers and create opportunities for full participation for people with intellectual disabilities. A small diverse group of people from the Mooroolbark Salvation Army came together for ten weeks commencing in February 2022 to consider how to attend to engagement …

Embracing Worship And Performance, Robson N. Galvao

Selected Honors Theses

Music is a very powerful tool. It is a very important part of the world around us. Some would even say that without it, life would not be the same. When it comes to church, it is not any different. Music plays a very large part of most church services today, whether that be having someone play a church organ in a more traditional church or by having a full worship band with lights and production in a more contemporary church. With that comes the issue of performance within the church music context. One of the biggest issues within the …

Reaching The Diaspora: Streamed Worship And Preaching In The Lutheran Church Of Australia, Cultivating Koinonia And Ecclesia, Timothy Paul Stringer

Doctor of Ministry Theses

Streamed worship has been happening in the Lutheran Church of Australia since 2013. Who is it reaching? Where is it reaching? Is it connecting them to community and the church? Is the preaching reaching the people who gather outside of the physical church buildings? Is there anything we can do to improve the reach, the connection and the sense of belonging to the wider church even when living remotely or kept away from regular worship by illness, disability or work commitments? This exploratory case study seeks to find these answers and more and then to offer ways forward for the …

The Social Role Of Worship: A Reading Of Micah 6:1-8, Khin Win Kyi

Master of Theology Theses

This thesis provides exegesis of Micah 6:1-8 with particular focus on the relationship between worship and social ethics, as well as a consideration of the implications of this passage for the Chin Christian community.

Worship-Worthiness And Absolute Perfection: Towards An Account Of Supreme Worship-Worthiness, Austin Mccoy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Theists and non-theists alike have generally taken absolute perfection to be a necessary condition for worship-worthiness. Unless the object is absolutely perfect, it is often put, the kinds of attitudes or actions constitutive of worship are unwarranted. In this thesis, I offer an account of worship-worthiness that does not take for granted that to be worship-worthy is to be absolutely perfect. More specifically, I advance the claim that to be absolutely perfect is to be supremely worship-worthy and that supreme worship-worthiness holds a unique position in this respect. For instance, I argue that to be absolutely perfect and thus supremely …

Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow: Innovating, Evaluating, And Improving Worship To Participate In God's Mission, Andrew K. Barnett

Doctor of Ministry Theses

This case study asks how a Cathedral might innovate, evaluate, and improve worship to participate more fully in God’s mission. Theoretical frameworks include: Missional Church (Zscheile, Keifert, Bosch), Adaptive Leadership (Heifetz, Linsky), Playful Acts in Scripture (Taylor), Doxology (Anderson), and utilizes Mixed-Methods Social Science Research. The central findings are that participation leads to transformation in worship, engagement helps communities innovate together, and innovation requires prolonged investment. Theoretical codes yielded a model of church as sailing vessel: seeking transformation, balancing identity with financial realities, dependent on trust, steered by a sense of shared purpose, and powered by the Holy Spirit’s wind.

Measuring The Value Of Guided Preparation On The Worship Experience At First Baptist Greenville, Sc, Matthew Rollins

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Worship is a central part of the life of the church. There exists an understanding that the church will provide a time and space for regular, meaningful worship to occur, as well as an expectation that the people will attend and engage, open to an encounter with God, alongside their brothers and sisters in Christ. This study investigates the latter responsibility - that of the people to fully participate in worship that gives worth to God, listens to God, and responds to God. In this project, volunteers from First Baptist Church Greenville, SC, engaged with specially designed pre-worship guides to …

A Renaissance Of The Visual Arts In Worship For Churches Of Christ, Heather Heflin Hodges

Doctor of Ministry Theses

This Doctor of Ministry thesis presents the results of a project in which a group of four artists from across the United States met via video conference to create liturgical art activities that can be integrated into the Sunday morning worship for Churches of Christ. The problem identified at the beginning of the project was a lack of integration of the visual arts in worship in Churches of Christ. I understood this lack to be due in part to an iconoclastic heritage in Protestantism as well as a focus on rational intellectualism and desire for simplicity in worship as a …

Sunday, Bloody Sunday: Martyrial Theology In The Eucharistic Liturgies Of The Anglican Church Of Canada, Andrew M. Rampton

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Martyrs were foundational to early Christian life. Their experiences, their commemoration, and their ongoing inclusion in Christian life shaped significant portions of the theology, liturgy, and cultural life of early Christians. This foundation is part of the inheritance of all churches today, including the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC). The ACC states that its own beliefs are best articulated in its liturgies. Much of the belief, understanding, and practice of the ACC’s members is shaped by participation in those liturgies.

In order to understand how the ACC’s theology of martyrs and its liturgical formation of members around this topic, this …

Perichoretic Worship: Cultivating Relationships With The Triune God, With One Another, And With The World, Greg G. Busboom

Doctor of Ministry Theses

A Participatory Action Research (PAR) study focusing on perichoretic worship as a way of cultivating holy relationship with the Triune God, with others, and with the world. Theoretical lenses include ritual studies, Faith Development Theory, and personhood in social relationships. Theological lenses include perichoresis, Lutheran worship, and faith practices. Using both quantitative and qualitative research, the study explores the practice of Christian worship in a large Lutheran congregation and seeks to grow active participation in the missional work of the Triune God through worship grounded in Word and Sacrament. Presents the Triune God as the active subject of Christian worship.

Worship Music As Spiritual Identity: An Examination Of Music In The Liturgy Among Black And White Adventists In The United States From 1840 To 1944, David A. Williams

Dissertations

The Topic

This study examined Black and White Seventh-day Adventist music in the liturgy in the United States from 1840 to 1944. Little scholarly attention has been given to the development of Adventist liturgical practice, the function of music in the liturgy, and the effect of music upon the spiritual identity. This study utilized liturgical history, ritual studies, musicology, and liturgical theology to derive and compare the spiritual identity fostered through music in the liturgy by these ethnic groups. This study considered both the shared and distinct spiritual identities of Black and White Adventists, as cultivated by the music in …

Educating Calvary Baptist Church, Asheville, Nc, On The Value Of Following The Christian Year As A Means For Spiritual Renewal Through Worship, Jeffrey C. Hayes

Doctor of Ministry Projects

This project introduced the spiritual value of following the Christian year in worship. Through a series of sermons and study lessons that focused on eight major seasons (Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, Pentecost, and Ordinary Time), participants were exposed to the history and spiritual purpose of each, respectively. Two surveys were administered, along with weekly evaluations, and interviews, to measure the project’s effectiveness. The desired outcome was a greater degree of knowledge and interest in worshipping through the Christian year. According to the final analysis, increased understanding, spiritual growth, and desire to worship through the Christian year did …

Assessing The Effect Of Worship Education And Worship Renewal At First Baptist Church Kings Mountain, North Carolina, Jonathan Bundon

Doctor of Ministry Projects

For many Christians, worship has been reduced to the entertainment value centered on self rather than the Triune God. Ignorance must be combated with worship education and worship renewal. For the worshiper, how one prepares for corporate worship affects their worship experience and informs their private worship. The four-week study, Spirit and Truth, introduced members of First Baptist Church Kings Mountain to worship education and renewal and challenged them to assess their own worship practices. Quantitative and qualitative test results and observations validated this project's needs. In addition, the project afforded opportunities that might contribute to a life-long experiment of …

Learning Together: Integrating Worship, Education, And Personal Devotion At Oakhurst Baptist Church Of Asheboro, North Carolina, Hunter Duncan

Doctor of Ministry Projects

The hypothesis of this project is that an integrated worship experience that engages church members with one biblical concept each week through various interactions will strengthen the community of faith. The ministry experiment sought to accomplish this goal by integrating weekly worship, Sunday School, daily devotions, and an internet-based discussion forum. Data was collected from project participants before the project began, weekly to measure the ongoing impact, and again at the project's conclusion. The results of the project revealed that integrating worship elements does improve engagement with the community of faith and the overall satisfaction with the weekly worship experience.

Emergent Worship: A Study On "Contemplation" In The Emerging Church, Filip Milosavljevic

Honors Theses

Due to great interest and popularity of various contemplative practices among youth leaders, clergy, and church members across all denominational—including Seventh-day Adventism—and religious lines, this project will analyze the nature of selected Emergent contemplative practices, in particular those promulgated by the CAC. The primary goal is to find out whether “contemplation” and contemplative practices, as promoted by Richard Rohr, Cynthia Bourgeault, and their Emergent colleagues, are appropriate in Christian worship. This study will also contrast such contemplative practices and spirituality with the concept of contemplation in the Bible and in the writings of Ellen G. White. As a scientific addendum …

An Analysis Of The Theory And Practice Of Worship In The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints, John Franklin Heidenreich

Theses and Dissertations

The concept of worship projected in this study is the broad Isaiah pattern of worship of awareness of God, restructuring of the life of the individual, and dedication of the worshiper in service. From this concept, standards of worship are set forth by which Latter-day Saint worship is evaluated.