Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Bridging The Latino--Anglo Gap: A Transition Towards A Cross-Cultural Church At First Baptist Church, Robbins, North Carolina, Ernesto Robledo

Doctor of Ministry Projects

In its 2,000 years of existence, the church has remained mostly segregated in regards to the inclusion of other cultures within one setting. Christians from various traditions have spent centuries trying to be more like Jesus as they worshiped in many different settings. Even though the church has been active for so long, the reality is that she has been predominantly white. Through an intentional pastoral project, twenty-four individuals participated in a four-week bilingual Bible study and a community-wide missionary event. These purposeful interactions proved that the church can change her traditional ministry pattern by engaging members of the Latino …

A Training Program For The Mentoring Ministry At Spencer Baptist Church In Spindale, North Carolina, Bruce Ray Caldwell

Doctor of Ministry Projects

A training program was developed to equip adult volunteers to be mentor/encouragers to adolescents. Believing Christian adults have a responsibility to nurture and encourage the church's children and youth, adult volunteers were led through training to enable them to give this support. Surveys and questionnaires measured the effectiveness of the weekly training sessions. Following the training, the mentor/encourager program was initiated.

Volume 46 (2014), C. V. Davis

The Broad River Review

The 2014 edition of The Broad River Review was edited by C. V. Davis. The publication contains fiction, non-fiction, art, poetry, and photography. The cover, "Icy Down Shelter," was photographed by Les Brown. The winner of the J. Calvin Koontz Poetry Award, given annually for a portfolio of poetry to a senior English major, is Dennis Zaragoza. The Rash Awards, named in honor of Ron Rash, a 1976 graduate of Gardner-Webb University, are awarded annually for outstanding works in poetry and fiction. The 2013 award recipients are Tom Howard for his fiction work titled, “Grandfather Vampire” and Jessica Glover for …

Gardner-Webb Review, Volume 7, 2014, Christopher V. Davis, Nancy Bottoms

Gardner-Webb Review

Annual publication associated with the Life of the Scholar Multidisciplinary Conference. This publication presents selected essays written by undergraduate students at Gardner-Webb University.

The Cleansing Of The Temple In The Fourth Gospel As A Call To Action For Social Justice, Douglas Thompson Goodwin

MA in Religion Theses

Historically, there has been the attitude that the writer of the Fourth Gospel, due primarily to his emphasis on the high Christology of Jesus, is uninterested, or even unconcerned, with the issues of social justice. The contention of this study is to show that this is just the opposite. By placing the Temple cleansing episode at the beginning of Jesus' earthly ministry, instead of the end as the Synoptics do, the author of the Fourth Gospel uses Jesus' Temple episode as the vehicle for showing the importance of caring for those in society who have no voice and no future. …

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.

Mobilizing Cedar Spring Baptist Church, Spartanburg, South Carolina, For Creation Care Through Project "C.A.R.E." (Christians Assuming Responsibilty For The Earth), Malcolm Todd Lowe

Doctor of Ministry Projects

For many Baptist churches, the theology and practice of environmental stewardship has historically been viewed as irrelevant to the Great Commission. However, as environmental degradation increasingly affects the lives of people and the earth's ecosystems, it is imperative that Christians understand the connection between the care of the environment and God's redemptive work for humanity. Through a designed project called C.A.R.E. (Christians Assuming Responsibility for the Earth) which involved the congregation and a Bible study group from Cedar Spring Baptist Church in Spartanburg, South Carolina, this project proves that theological education can positively influence attitudes towards environmental stewardship.

Incorporating Giving As An Integral Part Of Worship At Blessed Harvest Institute Of Charlotte, North Carolina, Brian Gerard Fite

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Giving is one of the most effective forms of worship we have available to us, but it has become the most exploitive and misunderstood element of the worship service. The methods and language used to frame giving within worship have led to exploitation resulting in unwillingness to wholeheartedly participate in giving as an element of worship. The literature addressing giving and the biblical interpretations are lacking in accurately speaking to the issues that arise in applying Old and New Testament scripture to address giving as an element of worship. There are a growing number of articles attempting to address the …

Discovery And Integration: A Framework Of Spiritual Formation For The Leadership Team Of Via Faith Community, Winston-Salem, Nc, Linda Marie Jones

Doctor of Ministry Projects

For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord-who is the Spirit-makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image. (2 Corinth, 3:17-18, NLT )

The process of spiritual formation can be seen throughout all of scripture; men and women, growing in faith, learning to truly love God, themselves and God's people. There is something so special to be on this journey of faith …

Empowering Clinical Staff To Provide Spiritual Care For Patients With Life Limiting Illness And Their Family Members Under Hospice Cleveland County Care, Terry Pinkney Floyd

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Staff members at Hospice Cleveland County struggle to provide quality spiritual care to dying patients or their family members because the staff members are not trained chaplains. Staff members tend to fall back on "pat" answers that can sometimes cause the patient or family members to have even more unresolved spiritual issues.

This project sought to determine whether or not hospice staff could become more empowered to give quality spiritual care by being introduced to the basics of pastoral care to the dying and their families. Information was shared by way of presentations; practical experience was gained by role-playing and …

Stations Of The Cross: An Imitative Devotional Exercise Conducted At Lamb Of God Lutheran Church Spartanburg, South Carolina, John Rickert

Doctor of Ministry Projects

The general goal of this project was to strengthen the spiritual life of the members of Lamb of God Lutheran Church, Spartanburg, SC. It was held that introducing a form of the Stations of the Cross at Lamb of God could help towards this goal. The congregation responded to both a pre-project survey and a post-project survey. Three couples were also interviewed before and after the project. The results indicate that the Stations of the Cross can indeed be valuable in strengthening the spiritual life of believers who use them.

Exposed Heads And Exposed Motives: Coverings As A Means To Unity At Corinth, April M. Hoelke

MA in Religion Theses

This thesis argues that in 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 Paul asserts most centrally that women should wear head coverings while praying and prophesying in the Corinthian Christian assembly. I examine the honor and shame value system of the Greco-Roman world, both generally and in specific reference to head adornment, since head coverings and hairstyles were connected to honor and status. Then I look at Paul's treatment of honor and shame throughout 1 Corinthians, which denounces the worldly value system of status seeking in favor of the value system of the cross. Paul's stance leads him to subject cultural norms to gospel …

"I Am A Living Enigma - And You Want To Know The Right Reading Of Me": Gender Anxiety In Wilkie Collins's The Haunted Hotel And The Guilty River, Hannah Allford

MA in English Theses

This paper discusses gender anxiety in two of Wilkie Collins's novellas, The Haunted Hotel and The Guilty River.As each of Collins's novella was written near the turn of the nineteenth century, commonly known as the Fin de Siècle, the author explores the social construction - and subsequent subverting - of Victorian notions of genderideology in each text. Arguing that the novella's emphasis on marginalized characters demands scholarly attention and literary worth, the author next investigates three discourses through which traditional genderspheres are subverted. In examining each novella's use of embedded narratives, discussion of science (specifically chemicals), and portrayal of …

Reference, Mimesis, And Application: An Examination Of Gadamer's Rehabilitation Of Allegory, Evan Weinzierl

MA in Religion Theses

The goal of this thesis is, first and foremost, the presentation of the stance of allegorical interpretation and its potential revaluation in a postmodern context (as argued for by Hans Georg Gadamer), giving special consideration to select pre-critical voices and allegorical methodologies that are becoming relevant to this discussion concerning personal, revelatory Truth or Truths. This goal is enriched by the incorporation of pertinent, contemporary (postmodern) perspectives in literary theory that concern the relationship between the world of a text, the world of the individual or society in which that text is interpreted, and any possible or useful allegorical link …