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Articles 1 - 28 of 28
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Long-Term Partnerships Between Communities And Mission Organizations: A Case Study, Rebecca Boggs Bishop
Long-Term Partnerships Between Communities And Mission Organizations: A Case Study, Rebecca Boggs Bishop
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the long-term partnership of World Changers with the community of Chattanooga, Tennessee to understand best practices for creating similar cross-sector partnerships involving short-term mission work. Within this research, long-term partnership is defined as an arrangement existing for at least ten years. The study utilized the theories of covenant community (Lingenfelter, 2008), legitimate peripheral participation (Lave & Wenger, 1991), and cross-sector social-oriented partnerships (Selsky & Parker, 2005) to guide the research. The study considered the perspectives of community members, ministry leaders, and mission organization leadership to determine benefits and areas of …
The Impact Of Testimonies On Partner Development Strategies: Mission Work In Europe, Kimberly Witte
The Impact Of Testimonies On Partner Development Strategies: Mission Work In Europe, Kimberly Witte
Senior Honors Theses
This study seeks to answer how first-world missionaries can utilize research findings on the effectiveness of testimonials and apply that knowledge to partner development strategies. Research trends demonstrate that most missionaries are being sent to countries with the largest practicing Christian populations, such as those in Africa or South America, and are more likely to receive financial partnerships. Europe has a high rate of non-practicing Christians and is a cultural intersection due to the refugee crisis, leading to a need for mission work. This research will culminate in the creation of a prayer guide, highlighting testimonies of individuals impacted by …
American Indian Residential Boarding Schools: Historical Trauma And The Role Of Government, Churches, And Tribes In Healing Indigenous Communities, Briana Slaubaugh
American Indian Residential Boarding Schools: Historical Trauma And The Role Of Government, Churches, And Tribes In Healing Indigenous Communities, Briana Slaubaugh
Eleutheria: John W. Rawlings School of Divinity Academic Journal
Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, Native Americans and Indigenous tribes in North America faced systematic destruction of their cultures, genocide, and extreme abuse. With wars against Native Americans, forced relocation from their historic lands, and mandatory residential boarding schools where Indigenous children were forcibly separated from their parents, the social fabric of Native American communities was destroyed. These travesties were government sanctioned and enacted by churches. The American Indian Residential Schools serve as the most recent and egregious factories of abuse. The policies and actions enforced against Native Americans left a generation plagued by abuse leaving a …
Commissioned To The Nations: Using Graphic Design To Mobilize Millennials For God's Strategic Mission, Victoria Dissmore
Commissioned To The Nations: Using Graphic Design To Mobilize Millennials For God's Strategic Mission, Victoria Dissmore
Masters Theses
All over the world, billions of people are walking throughout their entire lives without ever hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and they never will unless someone crosses into their culture to share it with them. Giving Gospel access to all people groups is a huge mission for the Church to tackle, but this mission is often not even known among the Millennial generation. Initial investigation for this thesis found that although some Millennials are engaging in missions, there is still a huge need for people to give, go, pray, and send, especially as older missions workers age out. Existing …
Engaging Millennials In Missions, Annell Adams James
Engaging Millennials In Missions, Annell Adams James
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
The millennial members of the Power of God Church have shown a lack of interest in participating in the local church's mission ministry. This lack of interest has caused the Missions Department and the church concern because fulfilling the mission of God is the mission of the church. The mission statement of the church is the focus of the ministry programs. Suppose the mission department creates a missions training program designed to focus on a technological learning style in which millennials thrive. Could it attract, involve, and engage millennials in future mission trips while educating them? It is this question …
Sacred Business: Outlining Business As Mission For The Fulfillment Of The Great Commission, Eli Jackson
Sacred Business: Outlining Business As Mission For The Fulfillment Of The Great Commission, Eli Jackson
Senior Honors Theses
Business as Mission (BAM) is the operation of a for-profit business located in a cross-cultural setting and aimed toward the fulfillment of the great commission. This definition reveals four key success factors for BAM: support, financial and otherwise, for both the business and the missionaries; the ability to gain access to cross-cultural settings; the opportunity to advance the gospel; and the requirement of managing both missional and business goals. Examining each of these areas, along with the historical effectiveness of BAM, reveals that BAM is an efficient and effective missional strategy, which should be used to see the Great Commission …
Using Intentional Relationship Building And Community Presence To Minister To An Addicted Population In Cookeville, Tennessee, James Bailey Simpson
Using Intentional Relationship Building And Community Presence To Minister To An Addicted Population In Cookeville, Tennessee, James Bailey Simpson
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
Addiction and substance abuse are banes in American society as they destroy lives, families, hopes and dreams. Individuals with potential for productive lives and societal contributions are reduced to hollow shells and find themselves laser-focused on their next fix. Cookeville, Tennessee, is no different than any other rural American town as addiction and substance abuse are prevalent, especially within the northwestern areas of the city. West View Baptist Church was planted in this area in 1950 and has actively attempted to minister to the community's residents for the last 71 years. Recently, internal issues in the congregation and increasing disconnections …
Art As Contextualization: Using Visual Communication As Christian Missions In Native American And Alaskan Cultures, Hali Gehring
Art As Contextualization: Using Visual Communication As Christian Missions In Native American And Alaskan Cultures, Hali Gehring
Senior Honors Theses
Contextualization is an important aspect of Christian ministries and cross-cultural missions to create sustaining churches around the world. There are many forms of communication that use contextualization for religious purposes, such as theatre, story, art, and dance. These important forms of communication can be used with cultural practices to contextualize the Gospel to different people groups. For Native Americans and Alaskans, artistic works that promote cultural heritage are highly regarded. A beadwork piece that explains the Gospel could be a creative way to contextualize to Native American and Alaskans.
Advancing Christ: Understanding How Foreign Cultures Respond To Missionary Aviation, Aidan Van Pelt
Advancing Christ: Understanding How Foreign Cultures Respond To Missionary Aviation, Aidan Van Pelt
Senior Honors Theses
After World War II, missionary aviation became a profound influence on the world of missions. The impacts of missionary aviation culture on the spread of the Gospel in foreign locations will be investigated to better understand how it influences Christianity. The effect of expediting the travel-time to remote locations is apparent, but missionary pilots have several other influences as well, such as, community development, education and discipling locals. These various cultural aspects will be explored by first defining the culture, discussing the history of missiological responses and the origin of missionary aviation, and then examining the effects of missionary aviation …
A Look At Short-Term Mission Trips In The Context Of Cypress Baptist Church As A Sending Unit, John Daniel Bodine
A Look At Short-Term Mission Trips In The Context Of Cypress Baptist Church As A Sending Unit, John Daniel Bodine
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
This thesis project is a study on short-term missions in the context of Cypress Baptist Church as a sending unit. The purpose of this project is to seek answers of why many of Cypress members are choosing not to engage globally by being part of the ministry of short-term missions at Cypress. Cypress Baptist Church is a rapidly growing church, and as it grows it should see more members participating in short-term missions. The goal is to ask the people of Cypress questions centered around this project so the project manager can get candid, real answers to why many are …
Engaging The Poor: Leveraging Local Poverty Assistance Programs To Prepare For Global Engagement, Darren Hercyk
Engaging The Poor: Leveraging Local Poverty Assistance Programs To Prepare For Global Engagement, Darren Hercyk
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
With globalization, there has been an explosion in travel by academic institutions and the church. For the church, this growth has been in short-term mission trips. Unlike traditional missionaries, most short-term travelers are untrained or lightly trained laypersons. The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to understand how local poverty assistance programs could be leveraged to prepare the church today for global engagement. This study provided ten church volunteers with training that included a Scripture overview of the poor, the multidimensional factors of poverty, reducing harm in poverty programs, and the skills for affirming dignity during an interview. Following …
Short-Term Missions: Developing An Effective And Sustainable Program In The Local Church, Matthew Alan Trill
Short-Term Missions: Developing An Effective And Sustainable Program In The Local Church, Matthew Alan Trill
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
Increasing numbers of churches, schools, and Christian ministries are sending out teams to foreign countries for brief trips. Without proper oversight these may become little more than sightseeing excursions. This project seeks to develop a ministry for the New Testament Baptist Church in Largo, Florida that will support its missionaries’ objectives and provide significant spiritual experiences for participants. The project focuses on determining proper objectives, training team members, raising funds, arranging logistical matters, and implementing components into a successful outreach. Research includes a thorough examination of biblical principles, contemporary resources on the topic, and at least sixty surveys from experienced …
Servant Learners: Short-Term Missions As An Effective Strategy, Abigail Chennells
Servant Learners: Short-Term Missions As An Effective Strategy, Abigail Chennells
Senior Honors Theses
Short-term missions (STM) is a phenomenon that is quickly growing; each year more and more teams are sent out from North America to locations across the globe to share the gospel and do work projects in another culture. However, there are some significant issues with the current execution of STM, ranging from its ineffectiveness in accomplishing helpful projects to its heavy financial cost to the potential negative impact on host communities. In order to push the impact of STM in a positive direction, there are two major shifts in the way it is carried out that must take place. First, …
A Message From Antioch And Moravia To The West, Barry Hudspeth
A Message From Antioch And Moravia To The West, Barry Hudspeth
Masters Theses
This qualitative thesis study, “A Message From Antioch and Moravia to the West,” explores the North American Church’s role in the global missions arena and seeks to develop a streamlined strategy for engaging in cross-cultural evangelism in the twenty-first century. A qualitative case study of the first-century Christian church and Moravian church of the eighteenth century provides data on actions conducted to spread Christianity from a central geographical location outward to the known world in their respective eras of Christian history. These two case study analyses looked at how the Gospel was spread during each point in history followed by …
Integrating Public, Private, And Homeschool Students Into A Cohesive Youth Ministry, Michael Cunningham
Integrating Public, Private, And Homeschool Students Into A Cohesive Youth Ministry, Michael Cunningham
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
Parents make agonizing educational decisions for their children, and there are more options than ever before. Some opt to teach their children in the home; others pay handsomely to put their children in the best private schools money can buy. The remaining groups of parents select public, charter, or magnet schools based on those schools’ particular merits or because those schools represent their primary educational option. These subtle lifestyle decisions are building blocks upon which students develop their personality, intellectual ambition, extracurricular interests, and social networks. Neighborhoods, schools, and community activities are often as influential in the formation of a …
Evaluating Missionary-Care Responsibilities: A Guide For Sending And Supporting Churches, Donald Hall
Evaluating Missionary-Care Responsibilities: A Guide For Sending And Supporting Churches, Donald Hall
Masters Theses
A thoughtful approach to global missions requires a team of support personnel. This team, composed of the sending church, the supporting churches, the missions agency and other supporters, is effective when it works together to recruit, train, and maintain a healthy missionary workforce, but a sub-standard support structure jeopardizes the mission. Sadly, many sending churches do not properly understand or fulfill their missionary-care roles and responsibilities. This project provides a biblical, philosophical, and practical methodology by which churches can properly evaluate their responsibilities and address gaps in their missionary-care ministry. In the model presented in this paper, the sending church …
Reaching Transcendental Meditation Followers For Jesus: Christian Meditation And Cultural Contextualization, Ashley Boyles
Reaching Transcendental Meditation Followers For Jesus: Christian Meditation And Cultural Contextualization, Ashley Boyles
Masters Theses
The purpose of this thesis is to build on to research pertaining to Christian meditation, the Transcendental Meditation movement, and theological contextualization for possible evangelism strategy to reach adherents of TM. The first chapter begins with the purpose of the thesis as well as its limitations and research methods to be involved, with a layout of the rest of the thesis. In the second chapter, the literature review examines material from several different perspectives: Christianity, TM, the TM turned Christian, and the nonreligious field of science. The third chapter includes historical background on Transcendental Meditation, its interaction with Western culture, …
Reframing The Imperative Of The Great Commission In The Haitian Context: Discipleship Strategies To Impact Haiti For Christ, Dieufort Dieujuste
Reframing The Imperative Of The Great Commission In The Haitian Context: Discipleship Strategies To Impact Haiti For Christ, Dieufort Dieujuste
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
Haitians generally identify themselves as Christians. According to World Factbook, Haiti is 80% Catholic and 16% Protestant; however, nearly all the population practices or believes in Voodoo, which is now a national religion. Idolatry permeates every segment of life while the Haitian Protestant Church remains powerless and disengaged. The purpose of this thesis project is to develop key strategies of discipleship for Haiti in view of Matthew 28:18-20. The author proposes to survey 300 Haitian pastors, seminarians, and lay leaders in order to gauge the status of discipleship and to identify hindrances to the gospel in Haiti. The survey will …
Business As Missions: Applying Business As Missions To The Hospitality Industry, Leah J. Reist
Business As Missions: Applying Business As Missions To The Hospitality Industry, Leah J. Reist
Senior Honors Theses
Business is a vehicle highly useful for achieving specific missions for the kingdom of God that could not otherwise be accomplished. A Business as Missions (BAM) organization is one structure of business that focuses intently on accomplishing the mission of reaching others for the kingdom of God. BAMs can be utilized in virtually any industry; however, the following thesis focuses on the unique opportunities that exist within the hospitality industry. These unique opportunities are present because of its relational components and consumer demands for community and social interaction. A hostel is one specific form of a hospitality company that has …
Evangelism And Social Concern In The Theology Of Carl F. H. Henry, Jerry Ireland
Evangelism And Social Concern In The Theology Of Carl F. H. Henry, Jerry Ireland
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
This study examines evangelism and social concern in the theology of Carl F. H. Henry. Henry stands not only as the most important figure in the re-awakening of evangelical social concern, but also a leading thinker among Evangelicals on the theological foundations that should guide this movement in its life and practice. Henry, building on the work of Abraham Kuyper (although with some significant differences), sought to recapture the Reformed emphasis on a worldview approach to the Christian faith. Thus, Henry emerges as a key and oddly understudied figure in the re-awakening of evangelical social action. Yet, his balanced approach …
The One Balm For All Earth’S Wounds: The Priority Of Gospel Proclamation In Charles Haddon Spurgeon’S Missiology, John Sypert
The One Balm For All Earth’S Wounds: The Priority Of Gospel Proclamation In Charles Haddon Spurgeon’S Missiology, John Sypert
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
This dissertation explores the relationship between gospel proclamation and mercy ministry in Charles Spurgeon’s ministry. The dissertation argues that Spurgeon’s Pastors College, Stockwell Orphanage, and his multitude of other ministries had one clear goal: the spreading of the gospel and the conversion of the lost. This dissertation uses Spurgeon’s approach to missions as an apologetic for a more biblically precise missiology, namely, one that prioritizes gospel proclamation without neglecting the physical needs of those who suffer. This approach could be called “benevolent prioritism” because it prioritizes the proclamation of the gospel while not neglecting works of love for those suffering.
The Great Commission, Don Fanning
The Great Commission, Don Fanning
Eruditio Ardescens
This last promise in Matthew extends beyond the life span of the Apostles to every believer that commits to the task of raising up a group of Christ-followers among every ethno-linguistic people groups on earth “to the end of the age” (Matt 28:20b). This phrase is also found in Matt 13:39-40, 49; 24:3, which refer to the end of the present age when the Son of Man returns to establish His kingdom. Thus the promise not only applied to these 1st century disciples, but to every disciple since then and until the end of the Church Age. We can …
Reflections Magazine - A Promotional Magazine For Reflections Adoption Ministry, Kamryn Reynolds
Reflections Magazine - A Promotional Magazine For Reflections Adoption Ministry, Kamryn Reynolds
Senior Honors Theses
For my senior honors thesis I have received permission to present a project along with its scholarly apparatus. I will be displaying ways to apply communications to ministry. The project will be a promotional magazine and informational materials. For the thesis I will include the magazine and a press release. I will be approaching some marketing techniques for a non-profit organization and assessing potential ways to reach the public. Many organizations are doing incredible work to fight social injustice and oftentimes few people understand the issues. I want to show how communication can revitalize ministry and get the word out …
Dando Um Jeito: An Integrated Theological, Historical, Cultural And Strategic Study Of Missio Dei To, In And Through Brazil, Joao Mordomo
Dando Um Jeito: An Integrated Theological, Historical, Cultural And Strategic Study Of Missio Dei To, In And Through Brazil, Joao Mordomo
Faculty Publications and Presentations
Since it’s descobrimento on April 22nd, 1500, Brazil proved to be resistant to Protestant and Evangelical Christianity until the 20th century. However, by the end of the century, Brazil had, in many missiologists’ minds, transitioned from being a missionary field to a missionary force. There is one Brazilian trait in particular that serves well to describe both God as He has orchestrated the evangelization of Brazil, and Brazilians as they increasingly have fulfilled their role in God’s global mission to, in and through Brazil. This trait is summarized in the expression dar um jeito (pronounced “darh oon jhei’-to”). While a …
Educate To Equip: A Model For Educational Short-Term Missions As A Ministry Of The Local Church, Steven Curtis
Educate To Equip: A Model For Educational Short-Term Missions As A Ministry Of The Local Church, Steven Curtis
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
Recent data show that most short-term mission trips are focused on economic and social development projects coupled with intentional and/or relational evangelism, while reproducible models for in-depth theological education during short-term missions are rare. As a missionary presently ministering in a number of underdeveloped nations, this writer has witnessed the need for, and potential benefit of, such models. To validate these conclusions, research was conducted among missions agencies and church-based missions departments to determine the efficacy of existing models to meet the educational needs in the field, as assessed through personal interviews with pastors from a representative sample of underdeveloped …
An Oral Strategy For Training Leaders Among The Aztec Indians, Anthony Conner
An Oral Strategy For Training Leaders Among The Aztec Indians, Anthony Conner
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
Today there are over 150 Unengaged Unreached People Groups and Unreached People Groups in Mexico. Current methods of outreach are missing the mark with the indigenous people groups. Leaders are poorly equipped to take the Gospel to these least reached areas. The purpose of this project is to research and implement a program to train leaders in an indigenous context in Southern Mexico. The development of this program is based on the biblical mandate to reach all people groups, communication among indigenous peoples as affected by culture and worldview, surveys and interviews with missionaries and national leaders, and special considerations …
The Father's Business Person, The Shift To Tentmaking Missions Strategy, Chris White
The Father's Business Person, The Shift To Tentmaking Missions Strategy, Chris White
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the important place that tentmaking holds or should hold in missions strategy. It is the belief of the author (supported by almost 20 years of ministry experience overseas) that visas and money are often barriers to ministry effectiveness. This paper would like to provide a solution (i.e. tentmaking) to these common tensions that most missionaries encounter. The value of the topic is very personal to the author's ministry: first because I am currently serving on the mission field (needing a visa and money), and second because of the potential tentmaking holds for …
The Great Commissioning: An Exegesis Of Matthew 28:16-20, Ryan Kendall Phelps
The Great Commissioning: An Exegesis Of Matthew 28:16-20, Ryan Kendall Phelps
Masters Theses
Throughout the history of Christianity, evangelism has been an often-discussed topic. At certain times the discussion has revolved around the question of whether or not there is a command to actively seek out unbelievers for the purpose of evangelism in the Bible that applies to Christians in the world they live in. One of the most common verses cited as a command for evangelism is Matthew 28:18-20, commonly called the "Great Commission." However, some Christians argue that this is a command for discipleship and not evangelism. While it is hard to make a distinction based on this verse alone, Matthew …