Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Pastoral Leadership Of Seventh-Day Adventist Pastors In Sub-Saharan Africa And Congregational Giving During 2020-2021: A Grounded Theory Study, Eric Jean-Bruno Aniel Barbe

Dissertations

Problem

The purpose of this study was to develop a theoretical model that describes how the behavioral strategies of Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) pastors in Sub-Saharan Africa may have positively influenced congregational giving during the years 2020-2021 of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Method

A qualitative grounded theory research design was used (Corbin & Strauss, 2015). In-depth interviews were conducted to collect data from a purposive sample of SDA pastoral leaders in Sub-Saharan Africa. The collected data were analyzed using an iterative process consisting of open, axial, and selective coding, thereby facilitating the construction of subcategories and a core category. This analytical process …

Childhood Trauma And The Faith Maturity Of Seventh-Day Adventist Pastors And Seminarians, Pete A. Palmer

Dissertations

Problem

Unfortunately, Childhood Trauma is a fact of life. For instance, children lose parents/guardians through death or divorce. Children grow up in impoverished situations. Children have parents who suffer from mental illness and/or commit suicide. In addition, more unfortunately, some children are mistreated, neglected, and/or abused. The long-lasting impact of Childhood Trauma includes increased morbidity and mortality, and decreased opportunities for prosperity. This research sought to establish a statistical relationship between Childhood Trauma and Faith Maturity. Childhood Trauma has been demonstrated to affect attachment processes in children and, since religion is an attachment process and God is an attachment figure, …

Divine Attachment: A Canonical Model For Discipleship And Religious Education, Kristina Marie Freed

Dissertations

Problem

Christianity is in decline in the United States and, with it, discipleship engagement. While several explanations and many remedies have been offered as solutions to the problem over the last half-century, demographic research shows that the decline continues. The problem addressed in this dissertation is the lack of a theological model to augment psychological models of religious attachment theory. The research sought to identify a canonical model of divine attachment which may contribute to the revitalization of personal discipleship and religious education by offering a new relational context. This model is based on an understanding of God as an …

Strengthening Mission Through Strategy: An Analysis Of The Mission-Driven Excellence Strategy, Osvaldo Souza Santos Jr.

Dissertations

The Office of Strategy and Research (OSR) for the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) churches in the North America Division (NAD) is beginning to implement a new strategy that focuses on mission. The OSR designed the strategy, created tools and materials to support the churches in implementing the Mission-driven Excellence (MdX) strategy. MdX combines planning and direction that helps church leaders to think strategically. MdX is a combination of pre-events, processes, and resources combined with local church strategies toward mission. The purpose of this study was to suggest strengths and improvements to the Mission-driven Excellence (MdX) strategy by seeking to better understand …

Church Planting: Exploring The Actual Experiences And Stories Of Four Church Planters Of The Plant1000 Evangelism Initiative In The North American Division Of The Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Hyveth Williams

Dissertations

Problem. Plant1000 was launched in 2016 by the North American Division (NAD), the fifth largest of 13 divisions of the worldwide Seventh-day Adventist Church. Since then, it has been reported that over 1000 new church plants have been started, but we do not really understand how healthy most of these are, or not. We also do not know what they are actually experiencing in their developing into viable congregations. The focus of this dissertation is the story of four selected church plants that may be able to help us understand those dynamics that, at the moment, are little understood. -- …

Perceived Effectiveness Of A Mentoring Program For Training Adventist Chinese Evangelists, Terry Man-Yuen Tsui

Dissertations

Problem

The fact that evangelism in the Unorganized Territories of the Chinese Union Mission was done mainly as personal evangelism and that public evangelism was limited to a one-day seed sowing meeting had led to a serious need for equipping pastors in effective public evangelism methods. It required a model of public evangelism, which is adaptable to the local Chinese culture, and a mentoring program that accompanies evangelists, who were still developing their skills in public evangelism.

Method

This study used a parallel mixed methods design to measure the perceived effectiveness of selected methods in the mentoring program. This design …

Exploring The Influence Of Racial Diversity On Church Growth: A Case Study Of Buffalo Suburban Seventh-Day Adventist Church In Lancaster, New York, Luis A. Mancebo

Dissertations

There is a growing phenomenon in the United States of America: multiracial churches. While earlier research indicates that church growth typically happens in more homogenous congregations, more and more churches are growing that are multiracial. This case study focused on the growth of Buffalo Suburban Seventh-day Adventist Church (BSSDAC), a multiracial church in Lancaster, New York. Data collection was done through focus groups of church leaders and members, and a review of any available church and membership records.

BSSDAC started as a White congregation in Buffalo in 1885 and moved to the suburbs in the 1980s where the initial transition …

Measuring The Perceived Effectiveness Of Five Selected Professional Courses Taken By Alumni Theology Majors And How They Are Related To Selective Demographics: A Mixed Methods Study, Barry J. Tryon

Dissertations

Problem

The study was prompted by the need for the evaluation of current theological educational programs for preparing students to meet the many challenges of pastoral ministry in a rapidly changing world. However, to date there has been little published research addressing the effectiveness of undergraduate theological education. Furthermore, changes implemented in the theological education program at Southern Adventist University (Southern) have not been evaluated for their effectiveness for ministerial job preparedness.

Method

This descriptive study measured the perceived effectiveness of five professional courses taught in the undergraduate theological educational program at Southern for ministerial job preparedness. A parallel mixed …

Estrategia “Comunión, Relacionamiento Y Misión–Crm” Y Su Influencia En La Fidelidad Hacia La Iglesia En Los Miembros De Grupos Pequeños En Un Distrito De La Misión Centro Oeste Del Perú, César Fernando Palacios Pinedo

Dissertations

Problem

The leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the North Union, in particular, in the West Central Peru Mission, have planned a series of activities to be conducted among Small Groups and also at the church level as part of the strategy of Communion, Relationship and Mission (CRM in Spanish). Nevertheless, it is not known the degree of influence of activities such as Bible reading, prayer, witnessing and a relationship with God in the level of fidelity towards the church among members of small groups that will increase their permanence in the church. Therefore, there was a need to …

Predictores Significativos De La Participacion De Los Miembros De Los Grupos Pequenos De La Mision Del Oriente Peruna En El 2015, Orlando Chilon Guevara

Dissertations

Problem

The Seventh Day Adventist church in the South American Division, promotes teamwork among its members through the small groups; even though a high percentage of church members are involved in the small groups not all of the members involved achieve a high level of participation. The purpose of this study is to find what relationship exists between authentic leadership, level of satisfaction and level of commitment in the participation of members in their small group in the East Peruvian Mission of the Seventh Day Adventist Church during the year of 2015.

Method

The type of this research is descriptive …

Union With Christ In The Writings Of Ellen G. White, Katrina B. Blue

Dissertations

Building on the work of nineteenth-century theologian Augustus Strong, five historical approaches to union with Christ identified by Bruce Demarest in the late twentieth century include: an ontological union, a sacramental union, a covenantal union, a moral or filial union and an experiential union. Given the identification of multiple approaches to union with Christ, my dissertation attempts to clarify Ellen G. White’s concept of union with Christ using Demarest’s categories as an evaluation tool. I traced the development of her writings on union with Christ from 1860 to 1898 to ask whether White’s approach is best described as an ontological, …

The Relationship Of Family, Church, School, Peers, Media, And Adventist Culture To The Religiosity Of Adventist Youth In Puerto Rico, Edwin P. Alicea Santiago

Dissertations

Problem. No formal study that considers the influence of the family, church, school, peers, media, and Adventist culture on the denominational loyalty, Christian commitment, and religious behavior of Adventist young people of Puerto Rico has previously been conducted. Therefore, pastors, parents, teachers, church leaders, and administrators have no data on which to base their assessment of the religiosity of Adventist young people.

Method. This study used youth ages 14 to 21 from the youth sample of the Avance PR study conducted in 1995 in Adventist schools and churches in Puerto Rico. For the analysis, the sample was divided. When studying …

The Pastor As Vital Link : A Study In How Seminary-Educated Pastors Engender Engagement With Scripture In Select Congregations, Jewel Gingerich Longenecker

Dissertations

Problem. The problem this study sought to address was the tendency of “ordinary readers” of Scripture to misuse the Bible on the one hand, or to give up reading it entirely, on the other hand. The purpose of this study was to develop a grounded theory that describes how seminary-educated pastors are successfully leading ordinary readers to informed, enthusiastic engagement with the Bible. The conceptual lenses through which research data were compared to literature in the field included teaching methodologies proposed by Wink, Blair, and Borsch.

Method. The study used a qualitative research design. It was field focused, utilized …

Faith Commitments And Spiritual Influences As Correlates Of Adolescents' Involvement In Service In The Valuegenesis Study, Andrea Cristina Nagy

Dissertations

Purpose. The first goal of this research was to examine the changes that took place over the three administrations of the Valuegenesis survey, in terms of students’ involvement in service. Secondly this study sought to determine the relationship between adolescents’ commitment to religious values and Seventh-day Adventist beliefs, and their involvement in service to others. The third goal of this research was to explore the relationship between home, church, and school variables, and the participation in acts of service of students attending Seventh-day Adventist schools.

Methodology. The present research study uses quantitative research methods and is a secondary analysis. …

Factors Associated With Pastoral Preaching On Financially-Related Topics Within The Missionary Church, Terry A. Zeitlow

Dissertations

Problem

The Bible gives significant direction and insight concerning financial stewardship. One of the roles of pastors is to teach biblical principles, including these financial concepts and practices. While there have been a few studies on pastoral preaching and teaching on financial matters, no known studies examine factors related to pastoral preaching on finances in smaller evangelical communities. This study focused on senior pastors in the Missionary Church, and factors that predicted their frequency in preaching and teaching about financial topics. The Missionary Church was selected because its five theological traditions (Anabaptism, pietism, Wesleyan-holiness movement, Keswickian-holiness movement, and evangelicalism) value …

Key Factors Of Faith Development : The Relationship Between Family And Church Factors And Faith Development Of Adolescents And Young Adults In German-Speaking Europe, Alexander C. Schulze

Dissertations

Problem. The church is losing its children. Research revealed that more than two thirds of the next generation leave their congregations during their teens and early 20s. Without these adolescents and young adults the church has no viable future. While the youth are able to make their way without church, the church will definitely not make its way without the youth. The problem addressed in this study is the continuing challenge for church leaders, educators, and administrators to provide the best possible conditions for spiritual and organizational growth in order to retain the next generation.

Method. Observation and anecdotal evidence …

A Missiological Study Of The Phenomenon Of Dual Allegiance In The Seventh-Day Adventist Church Among The Yoruba People Of Nigeria, Paul Adekunle Dosunmu

Dissertations

Problem

Many Africans and members of other traditional societies of the world who still hold to a supernaturalistic and spiritualistic worldview visit diviners, shamans, spiritualistic herbalists, and the traditional medicine men and women who use enchantments, divination, charms, invocation of the spirit world, etc. They engage in such practices for various reasons which include, to diagnose and treat various ailments, both physical and psychological which plague their clients, a quest to know the future through divination, and also for the preparation of different kinds of charms and medicines. Christians, including some Yoruba Adventists, also engage in such consultations, a practice …

The Pluriformity Of The Alexandrian Text-Type In The Catholic Epistles, Coster Shimbaba Munyengwe

Dissertations

The Alexandrian text-type is traditionally known by textual critics to exist in two groups. In the mid-1970s, W. Larry Richards discovered a third Alexandrian group in his study of the Johannine Epistles. Kenneth Keumsang Yoo’s study of 1 Peter in 2001 confirmed the existence of the third group. This study attempted to determine whether the so-called third Alexandrian group exists in all of the books of the Catholic Epistles, and what the characteristics are of the readings in this group. Using factor analysis to form tentative groups for thirty manuscripts previously classified as Alexandrian in all three groups in the …

Organizational Leadership : A Study Of The Perceptions Of Servant Leadership Practices And Beliefs, And Its Implications For A Private Christian Institution Of Higher Education In Brazil, Jose Iran Miguel

Dissertations

Purpose. This study verified the perceptions of the workers of Brazil Adventist University (UNASP) regarding the beliefs and practices of servant leadership by using data collected online through the instrument called the Organizational Leadership Assessment (OLA), focusing on six key areas of organizational health, according to three independent variables, which are leadership categories, campus, and gender.

Method. As a quantitative comparative study, the relationship between dependent and independent variables was determined by means of a one-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and a 2 by 3 factorial design in order to observe significant differences and interactions between variables. …

The Stairway To Heaven: A Critique Of The Evangelical Gospel Presentation In North America, Paul Brent Dybdahl

Dissertations

The topic . This study focuses on the so-called "plan of salvation" or "gospel presentation" that evangelical Christians in the United States present to seekers who want to know how to be saved. There are currently three dominant presentations that are widely employed and emulated. The authors of each are well-known: D. James Kennedy, Bill Bright, and Billy Graham.

The major portion of my study involves a two-stage critique of these dominant evangelical gospel presentations: first, from the perspective provided by communication theory, and second, by comparing the presentations of Kennedy, Bright, and Graham with conversion accounts from Luke-Acts. Essentially, …

The Impact Of Intentional Learning Experiences For Personal Spiritual Formation On Seminary Students, Carol M. Tasker

Dissertations

Problem. Many seminary students describe their time in seminary as a spiritual desert. Most Protestant seminaries do not provide spiritual formation classes for their students, thinking that such measures are unnecessary or inappropriate for theological education, or assuming that the church is the place for spiritual formation to take place. Nevertheless, pastors are expected to be spiritual leaders, and the pastor’s spirituality is ranked by laity as the highest priority needed by seminary graduates for effective church ministry. A literature survey of theological education shows that, in the last 150 years, students have consistently recognized their need for help …

A Longitudinal Study Of Seventh-Day Adventist Adolescents Through Young Adulthood Concerning Retention In Or Disaffiliation From The Church, Gyung Gu Kim

Dissertations

Problem. Why do some Seventh-day Adventist youth leave the church in North America? The proportion of the youth who disaffiliate themselves from the church is considered to be a problem of serious concern for parents, teachers, other religious educators, and the church itself. It was the purpose of this study to discover the relationships that may exist between youth retention in the church and other selected variables.

Method. The Ten-Year Youth Study of Youth Retention in the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America furnished data for statistical analyses. Out of the 578 questions of the Ten-Year Youth Study, relevant items …

Mediating Contexts In Trans-Generational Faith Transmission : A Qualitative Study, David John Mcclintock

Dissertations

Problem. This descriptive study explored the experience of faith transmission across generations in order to seek to identify the conditions that are intrinsic to successful faith transmission, and conversely, the conditions that my lead to a rejection of faith in Jesus Christ.

Method. Diads were chosen purposively so that the diads were: (1) known to the interviewer, (2) representative of the convergent or divergent paradigm, (3) residents of Australia, and (4) composed of children between 20-40 years of age. Convergent diads were defined as diads in which all in the diad when interviewed were members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. …

Development Of The Concept Of Salvation In The Argentinean And Paraguayan Seventh-Day Adventist Children And Adolescents From Ages 6 To 17 Years, Victor Andrés Korniejczuk

Dissertations

Problem. Research is lacking on how the concept of salvation develops in children and adolescents from Christian religious populations. the purpose of this study was to explore how the concept of salvation develops in Argentinean and Paraguayan Seventh-day Adventist children and adolescents, from a psychological perspective.

Method. Using a developmental, cross-sectional design, semiclinical interviews were conducted with 120 Argentinean and Paraguayan children, ages 6 to 17, to assess the development of the concept and assurance of salvation. Subjects also completed (1) a semantic differential scale, which measured their attitudes toward salvation (ATS), (2) a demographic and religious practices information survey, …

The Empirical Development Of A College Curriculum Of The Epistle To The Galatians, Dragutin Matak

Dissertations

Problem. Seventh-day Adventist adolescents need a clear understanding of the gospel which provides the assurance of salvation. Since in Seventh-day Adventist colleges there is no curriculum for the Epistle to the Galatians, this study was intended to provide college religion students with the opportunity to understand cognitively and to apply experientially the claims of the gospel as presented in Galatians.

Method. The basic philosophy of the learning approach utilized in this study was that a curriculum is more than a blueprint for educational planning. In Christian education, curriculum is a bridge between theory and practice in the cognitive, affective …

An Investigation Of The Effectiveness Of Training In The Utilization Of Spiritual Gifts In The Personal Ministries Of Ontario Seventh-Day Adventists, Fitzroy S. Maitland

Dissertations

Problem. The New Testament indicates that spiritual gifts occupy a crucial function in the life and growth of the church. No known empirical study has measured the effectiveness of nurture and training for gift implementation. This study was designed to investigate behavioral change in awareness and use of spiritual gifts by Seventh-day Adventist members.

Methodology. The New spiritual Gifts Inventory (NSGI) was used to identify awareness of giftedness in five clusters--Teaching, Shepherding-Evangelizing, Supporting, Counseling, and Leadership. An Activity Inventory was developed for the study with 20 activity questions corresponding to the NSGI. The following statistical designs were used to analyze …

An Exploratory Study Of The Aims And Methods Of Family Worship In The Seventh-Day Adventist Church, L. Edgel Phillips

Dissertations

Problem

The Adventist Church places a high value on family worship yet less than 50 percent of those surveyed indicated that the observance was practiced. It was posited that an investigation of the aims and methods of family worship might provide a partial answer to this phenomenon. This present study was to determine the underlying dimensions of the aims and methods of family worship and to discover which methods have a significant correlation with the aims of family worship.

Method

An instrument was developed for collecting data from individual members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church who reside in the geographic …

Preparation And Practice Of Ministry : A Study Of Seventh-Day Adventist Ministerial Education In The Philippines, Crisolito Vasquez Dela Cruz

Dissertations

Background and purpose of the study. The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which the present undergraduate ministerial degree offered at Philippine Union College is able to prepare the ministry adequately to meet the demands in the North Philippines. This study surveyed the opinions of administrators/departmental directors, pastors, religion and seminary faculty, and selected laymen.

Methodology. Societal background and statistics of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Philippines were collected and organized from existing sources. Information concerning the graduates were obtained by aquestionnaire with two five-point scales. Data were analyzed and rankings were developed for levels …

The Empirical Development Of A Curriculum To Train Sda Professional Youth Leaders, Steve Case

Dissertations

Problem. The purpose of this study was to meet the need for SDA youth ministry training by empirically developing a curriculum to train church youth leaders.

Method. The instructional product development of Baker and Schutz (1971) was utilized for this research. After the need for the product was established, instructional specifications were established by means of behavioral objectives. Criteria for these objectives were rooted in current youth ministry literature. Strategies to promote affect were included.

The curriculum was prepared in the form of a weekend seminar. Mastery was set at 80% of the participants scoring at least 80% on each …

Selected Variables Related To Alienation From Religion Among Church-Related High School Students, Carl Robert Laurent

Dissertations

Problem. One of the most important concerns of parents and church leaders is alienation from religion among church-related adolescents. This research was conducted to discover relationships that might exist between alienation from religion and other selected variables.

Method. Three hundred and ninety students were selected by a stratified random method from among all students attending three church-related youth conferences. Each teenager was asked to respond to an inventory which consisted of 162 statements divided into eighteen attitude scales. One scale measured alienation from religion, while the other seventeen measured the independent variables. The major statistical method used in analyzing the …