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Articles 1 - 30 of 80
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
A Case Study Of Stakeholders’ Motivation To Invest In Classical Christian Education, Cory James Merante
A Case Study Of Stakeholders’ Motivation To Invest In Classical Christian Education, Cory James Merante
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
The purpose of this qualitative case study is to describe the motivation of parents, teachers, and school board members to invest their efforts in classical Christian education in a modern American K-12 school. The theory guiding this study is expectancy-value theory as it relates to the evaluative aspects of stakeholders’ beliefs about classical Christian education and their motives to become involved in it. Classical Christian education includes the concepts of the trivium, explicit instruction, the Socratic method, and basic skills mastery, as well as carrying on the traditions of the West; all steeped in a Christian worldview. Data came in …
A Correlational Study Of The Relationship Between Help-Seeking Behavior And Writing Self-Efficacy, Brian Douglas Aunkst
A Correlational Study Of The Relationship Between Help-Seeking Behavior And Writing Self-Efficacy, Brian Douglas Aunkst
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
A writing center performs the academic support function of developing independent writers as revealed by students’ writing self-efficacy—their perceptions of themselves as writers. Despite the apparent link between students’ desire to seek assistance from the writing center and their writing self-efficacy, no quantitative study to date has examined this association for online graduate students. This quantitative, correlational study investigated that potential relationship. Participants were online graduate students at a large, regionally accredited, faith-based, non-profit, private university in the southeastern United States with a substantial online student population who received assistance from the online writing center (OWC) multiple times. Writing self-efficacy …
A Phenomenological Exploration Of Women’S Attitudes Towards Women Mentoring Other Women In The Church, Natasha Amy Pettigrew
A Phenomenological Exploration Of Women’S Attitudes Towards Women Mentoring Other Women In The Church, Natasha Amy Pettigrew
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
This qualitative phenomenological study explores the attitudes and views of women towards mentoring other women in the church for discipleship purposes. Although there are many benefits to women entering into a mentoring relationship for discipleship purposes, including spiritual growth, increase in the practice of spiritual disciplines, staying grounded in the Christian faith, and experiencing deeper intimacy with Christ, there is still a significant percentage of women who are not doing so. The researcher surveyed 37 Christian women between the ages of 18 and 65 to explore their attitudes and views towards women mentoring one another in the church for discipleship …
Acts Of The Holy Spirit In Leadership: A Case For Holy Leadership In The Church, Jeffrey James Boone Sr
Acts Of The Holy Spirit In Leadership: A Case For Holy Leadership In The Church, Jeffrey James Boone Sr
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
The purpose of the research is to remove worldly leadership from, Abundant Life Community Christian Church (ALCCC), and to replace it with a biblical leadership model. Biblical leadership is spiritual and holy. Biblical leadership is predicated upon Jesus Christ's leadership example and teachings. The first-century Apostles’ leadership modeled the words and works of Jesus Christ. The problem of secular leadership at ALCCC is the cause of stagnation and declination of the church. Worldly leadership at ALCCC is the root cause of inefficiency, ineffectiveness, in-house fighting, strife, division, rivalry, preeminence, predominance, lack of humility, outreach neglect, evangelism neglect, and unproductivity. The …
The Intersection Of Ministry And Mental Health: Worship Leaders With Depression, Benjamin Bartow Harrison
The Intersection Of Ministry And Mental Health: Worship Leaders With Depression, Benjamin Bartow Harrison
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
Despite the fact the mental health issues are becoming more destigmatized among those in society, pastors and other church staff still face unique challenges when seeking treatment for mental health issues. This study considers the perspectives of ministers who often struggle in silence with depression. This qualitative historical research study will identify the unique challenges faced when battling depression that have not yet been studied concerning the lives of worship leaders in various stages of such mental health issues. Time demands, financial challenges, and stigma have emerged as common themes through exploration of a small body of existing literature and …
A Phenomenological Study Of Early Resignation Among Southern Territory Salvation Army Officers, Everette F. Platt
A Phenomenological Study Of Early Resignation Among Southern Territory Salvation Army Officers, Everette F. Platt
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to understand early resignation of Salvation Army officers in the Southern Territory by investigating their lived experiences with the phenomenon. The theories guiding this study were role identity, as it explains the differences in perceptions and actions that accompany a role and emotional intelligence (EI), which refers to a generic competence in perceiving emotions, both in oneself and in others. The central research question addressed how former Salvation Army officers in the Southern Territory perceive that their officership experiences impacted their decision to resign early. The subquestions for this study addressed (a) …
A Phenomenological Understanding Of A Calling With Implications For Pastoral And Vocational Education, Thomas R. Connors
A Phenomenological Understanding Of A Calling With Implications For Pastoral And Vocational Education, Thomas R. Connors
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the experiences of calling for seasoned pastors. Guiding the research were four related sub-questions: (a) How do seasoned pastors describe their initial experiences of calling? (b) How do they describe the ways in which they have critically reflected on their experiences of calling ? (c) How do seasoned pastors describe their subsequent actions that have resulted from their calling? (d) HAnd, how do seasoned pastors describe the development of their calling? A purposeful sampling of 11 pastors who have for six or more years functioned as a full-time pastor were engaged …
Mentorship Of The Female Worship Leader, Tammy L. Jarboe
Mentorship Of The Female Worship Leader, Tammy L. Jarboe
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
In recent years, some evangelical churches have seen a rise in the number of females involved in worship ministry leadership. Despite the female worship leader’s significant call to ministry, many challenges still exist in fulfilling God’s call on her life. Some of these challenges include clarity of call, difficulties in a male-saturated work environment, and perceived lack of opportunities for ministry. Additionally, some female worship leaders feel marginalized by the reluctance of churches to ordain them to the ministries in which they already serve. Although this paper will not address the question of whether women should or should not be …
A Christ-Centered, Attachment Based, Church Program For The Healing Of Father Wounds, Stephen J. Madosky I
A Christ-Centered, Attachment Based, Church Program For The Healing Of Father Wounds, Stephen J. Madosky I
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
Father wounds have devastated the hearts of men as to make impotent their effectiveness as fathers, leaders, and ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This dissertation used Christ- centered attachment-based theories to develop a church-driven program that includes discipleship disciplines along with counseling techniques to help develop a more secure relational attachment to God and therefore producing psychospiritual benefits, such as a greater love of self, others, and God. This research evaluated the efficacy of the development of this Christ-centered, attachment-based church program for the Healing of Father wounds. This program development looks to secure the participants’ attachment to …
Eradicating Recidivism: Evangelism For African American Men Impacted By Mass Incarceration, Anthony Mark Berry
Eradicating Recidivism: Evangelism For African American Men Impacted By Mass Incarceration, Anthony Mark Berry
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
The Prison Industrial Complex impacts 2.3 million people, affects the poor, and the nation's minority family's ability to retain a sense of unity. These data impact community health with the absence of the father figures, lack of power to gain viable income, and in some cases, the right to vote. The issue decimates African American young men. This topic is needed because the research suggests a cyclic nature of excavation of human capital by incarceration and is depleting communities of capital by jailing wage earners from the Black community. Voting capital is dwindling in some states where felony crimes remove …
The Relationship Between Mindfulness, Surrender, And God Attachment And Its Impact On Depression And Anxiety, Shalana Marlene Palermo
The Relationship Between Mindfulness, Surrender, And God Attachment And Its Impact On Depression And Anxiety, Shalana Marlene Palermo
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
The purpose of this study was to explore how God attachment may impact surrender to God and how mindfulness relates to the relationship between surrender and God attachment. Additionally, this study explores how surrender, God attachment and mindfulness might work together to impact symptoms of depression and anxiety. This study comprised 82 participants from a large Christian university that was enrolled in the university’s online doctoral counseling program. Using a quantitative survey research design, participants completed the following self-report measures online: Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire, Surrender Scale, Attachment to God Inventory, and Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale-21. Bivariate and multiple …
The American Unreformation: The Undoing Of American Evangelical Prominence And The Rise Of The Religiously Unaffiliated Nones, H G. Walker
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
With over sixty percent of Protestant churches in America experiencing either plateaued or declining numbers, the ineffectiveness or outright inattention to evangelistic efforts is magnified by the aggressive growth of the Nones population; therefore, this dissertation project seeks to answer one central question related to the current increase in the number of Americans identifying as religiously unaffiliated: Are there identifiable religious resurgence mechanisms in American religious history that address the current rise of the Nones and if initiated would facilitate future religious resurgence? Lower levels of religious affiliation reveal a weakening of the heart of the Evangelical position on evangelization …
A Strategy For Transformation Of Men Through Implementing Principles From Wesley's Class And Band Groups, John Joseph Campbell
A Strategy For Transformation Of Men Through Implementing Principles From Wesley's Class And Band Groups, John Joseph Campbell
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
The purpose of this thesis project will be to implement certain principles from John Wesley’s class and band groups into the men’s ministry group meeting with the goal of the transformation of men. The research will occur at Grace Fellowship in Comstock Park, Michigan. The author of this project is the founding Pastor and Elder of the church who has been for five years and still is part of the men’s ministry group. Through the use of questionnaires, surveys, personal interviews, and analysis of the information collected by these means, this study will compare information collected before the implementation of …
Reading Scripture: Developing Intimacy With God, The Church, And Community, Tammy Janiece Jacko
Reading Scripture: Developing Intimacy With God, The Church, And Community, Tammy Janiece Jacko
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
By addressing the biblical literacy that results from not reading Scripture, and lack of discipline, Christians will experience spiritual growth, maturity, and a Christian worldview as a result of applying proper exegesis and hermeneutics of Scripture. The purpose of this Doctor of Ministry thesis project is to help Christians read the Bible by engaging in proper biblical interpretation. According to Fee and Stuart, “a text cannot mean what it could never have meant for its original readers/hearers. The interpretation of the biblical text is what the original writer had first spoken or written,” directly from God; therefore, developing the skills …
Developing An At Risk Youth Prevention Model In Local Church, Norman Dwight Vick
Developing An At Risk Youth Prevention Model In Local Church, Norman Dwight Vick
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
Congregations must be spiritually positioned to receive and pass on the Gospel baton to all believers. This work will concentrate on those that are at risk for emotional disorders, particularly at the stage of adolescence. This effort will point to the young with emotive challenges that will assist them in being able to pass on the faith constructively and wholesomely. This dissertation will utilize an analytic approach that consists of multi-components related to mental health classifications and disorder, therefore, Christian leaders should be looking beyond secularism to provide support for adolescents who are at risk. Given the presence of millions …
A Biblical Model To Encourage Associate Ministers To Serve Effectively With Enjoyment, Marcus L. Ellison
A Biblical Model To Encourage Associate Ministers To Serve Effectively With Enjoyment, Marcus L. Ellison
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
Associate Ministers play a vital role in the growth and development of healthy churches. Yet, too often, they grow impatient with their role and frustrated with their current assignment. This frustration often leads to dysfunction and a lack of spiritual development that ultimately hinders the growth of the church. So, what are the challenges that associate ministers face in serving in subordinate roles of leadership? As an Associate Minister for seven years, this researcher experienced this frustration while serving and waiting on God to open the next door of opportunity. The purpose of this project is to provide a biblical …
Racism In Southeast Texas Churches: A Plan For Reconciliation And Healing Among Its Church Community, William James Carter
Racism In Southeast Texas Churches: A Plan For Reconciliation And Healing Among Its Church Community, William James Carter
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
A cursory look at many churches in the United States will show many local Churches are segregated by ethnicity and people groups. When this is done, it gives the appearance that the Church is broken because certain groups choose not to celebrate with others of different ethnicities. The problem is that there is a considerable reality to the appearance. With that, it is the intent of this project to examine the reasons for the divide. In order to determine the reasons, a survey will be provided, and classes taught examining the reasons for the divides. Additionally, this project will seek …
A Strategy For Building Healthy Local Churches In Jordan, Kwang Hu Hwang
A Strategy For Building Healthy Local Churches In Jordan, Kwang Hu Hwang
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
Evangelical churches in Jordan have faced many challenges in maintaining healthy churches under the Islamic government. The churches in Jordan are not only important for local people, but also for people in the Middle East in fulfilling the Great Commission. This is because many Jordanians visit various Arab countries to have a job and a numerous number of Gulf countries’ people travel to Jordan. The purpose of this thesis is to create a strategy with this context to build healthy local churches in Jordan that can then be involved in fulfilling the Great Commission actively for the local and Arab …
A Mixed Methods Approach To The Implementation Of Simple Church At Greenhouse Community Church, Jeff Michael Wheeland
A Mixed Methods Approach To The Implementation Of Simple Church At Greenhouse Community Church, Jeff Michael Wheeland
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
The majority of Evangelical Churches in America are declining. The majority of Christian and Missionary Alliances churches in America are also declining. Greenhouse Community Church of the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Houston, Texas was in decline. Greenhouse Community Church lacked a simple discipleship plan. Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger wrote Simple Church and discovered after conducting research that vibrant, growing churches in America had a simple discipleship plan, whereas declining and plateaued churches had a complex plan or no plan at all. A mixed methods approach of both quantitative and qualitative research was applied to the congregation at Greenhouse …
Declining Church Attendance: Five Reasons Why Millennials Have Stopped Attending Church, Charles Eugene Sumpter
Declining Church Attendance: Five Reasons Why Millennials Have Stopped Attending Church, Charles Eugene Sumpter
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
During the past decade, every denomination has recorded a decline in church attendance despite a continual increase in the US population. Research organizations including the Barna Group, Pew Research, and the Hartford Institute of Religion Research conducted an untold number of surveys providing statistics that ascertain reasons for declining church attendance and why people are leaving the church. Failure to address the issue of declining attendance will lead to more church failures and an increased number of people with no church affiliation. This research document will review data from the Barna Group, Pew Research, and the Hartford Institute of Religion …
Believers But Not Followers: The Unstoppable Misconduct And Neglect Of Christians Outside Ministries Duties, Fabio Delgado
Believers But Not Followers: The Unstoppable Misconduct And Neglect Of Christians Outside Ministries Duties, Fabio Delgado
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
Christianity is embedded in moral conduct, values, and norms which require believers to project a Christ-like nature. While the whole concept of Christianity is embodied in faith and righteousness, the current generation of believers has exhibited an increased state of secularism which contradicts biblical morals and drifts them further from the religious faith. This research stems from the increasingly common notion of “believers but not followers,” where Christians wittingly abandon their ministerial duties and engage in misconduct. The selection of this topic emanates from the deep concern regarding the rising trend of hypocrisy among believers and mainly propagated by events …
Missional Metamorphosis: How Identity, Presence, And Praxis Are Reshaping Disciple Making Within Post-Christian Contexts, Justin Thomas Wester
Missional Metamorphosis: How Identity, Presence, And Praxis Are Reshaping Disciple Making Within Post-Christian Contexts, Justin Thomas Wester
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
The American Church’s current disciple-making paradigm is struggling to engage post-Christian contexts with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Despite American society’s steady trending away from a biblical worldview, dwindling church attendance, and declining religious affiliation, the American Church is still operating under a disciple-making paradigm conducive for the Christendom era. What changes must occur to help churches break away from an antiquated paradigm and embrace a more contextually appropriate expression? This project helps to answer that question by capturing and expressing how changes in ecclesial identity, contextual presence, and corporate praxis are altering disciple-making paradigms within post-Christian contexts. Utilizing quantitative …
The Role Of Biblical Literacy In Discipling Believers In The Local Church, Joseph G. Austin
The Role Of Biblical Literacy In Discipling Believers In The Local Church, Joseph G. Austin
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
The degradation of biblical literacy has increased in recent years to the point that many church attendees have very little actual knowledge or understanding of Biblical truths. This lack of knowledge is a direct correlation to the lack of moral foundations for many of today’s believers, particularly with younger generations. The goal of this paper is to provide a balanced, substantive, and interactive plan for churches, large and small, to integrate into their discipleship programs or use to assist the local church in establishing a discipleship program. The process will include surveys gauging the level of biblical literacy among self-identified …
Aristotle And Habituation: Is Virtue Really Attainable Without God's Help, Roy Michael Mattson
Aristotle And Habituation: Is Virtue Really Attainable Without God's Help, Roy Michael Mattson
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
We are by nature moral beings who desire virtue. This fact is borne out by innumerable studies. Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics and Eudemian Ethics remain among the most influential works on ethics and human moral psychology. Aristotle claims that human beings can develop good character traits and achieve virtue with the appropriate upbringing (what Aristotle called habituation). Much of what Aristotle says about character traits, virtue, and habituation is accepted today and inspires character education. Yet recent results in experimental psychology challenge the notion of character traits and virtue as understood by Aristotle. The challenge is the abundance of evidence showing …
Pastoral Counseling And The African American Churches Of Metro Atlanta: Breaking The Stigma Associated With Asking For Help, Lasonja Chanta Richardson
Pastoral Counseling And The African American Churches Of Metro Atlanta: Breaking The Stigma Associated With Asking For Help, Lasonja Chanta Richardson
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
A stigma exists in the African American Christian community that seeking counseling services displays a lack of faith and therefore is unspiritual; however, as a new generation emerges with more liberal views on counseling and the role of the church, an opportunity to define pastoral counseling as an acceptable practice is emerging. The current lack of pastoral counseling in the African American church is negatively affecting the spiritual health of the church but offering counseling services will increase spiritual maturity. African American churches must re-evaluate their stance on pastoral counseling and begin to emphasize pastoral counseling as not only acceptable, …
Development And Implementation Of Selected Spiritual Disciplines For The Worship Team Leaders Of Monte Vista Baptist Church, Clifton Edwin Kosier
Development And Implementation Of Selected Spiritual Disciplines For The Worship Team Leaders Of Monte Vista Baptist Church, Clifton Edwin Kosier
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
One of the foremost doxological problems of the twenty-first century is complacency in worship. Deficient spiritual development of the follower of Christ is rampant among Christians; many believers, suffering from this, have moved away from the purpose of man - to have a love relationship. This relationship has been replaced with a task-oriented spirit. No longer do we leave worship ready to make a difference for the Kingdom of God, but Christians come to complete a task and remove it from a long list of “to dos” in their busy world. Corporate worship has become habitual while lacking spiritual meaning. …
Depression In Black Men: One Church’S Solution, Dwayne T. Baskin
Depression In Black Men: One Church’S Solution, Dwayne T. Baskin
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
This dissertation examines the Black Church’s influence on Pentecostal African-American men who are depressed, and how the church may assist these men to heal from the wounds of despair through a Pentecostal experience. While many Pentecostal African-American men have matriculated through the ranks of leadership, establishing successful businesses, churches, ministries, and organizational denominations; they are teetering on the edge of an emotional and spiritual breakdown. Researchers have found that African-American men are understudied and underdiagnosed as it pertains to depression. Eight African-American Pentecostal men were interviewed and given questionnaires to examine how depression affected them while maintaining leadership roles in …
A Study Of The Renewal Of Worship Through The Restoration Of The Public Nature Of The Gospel: A Case Study Of The Seed Church, Jubilee Together, And Cris, Kang Hyeok Lee
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
The Korean church which advocated evangelicalism is now in crisis. It is because the actual meaning of the Kingdom of God and the public and social significance of the gospel have been lost while the aspect of the individual salvation or the church itself has been its primary concern. As a result of losing the social meaning of sin and salvation, Christianity as a holistic truth has been excluded from the public sphere and is merely regarded as a personal religion. The gospel and the church, which have been reduced to religion and institutions and have acquiesced in the divided …
A Comparison Of Eighth Grade General Education Students’ Ela Scores In Co-Teaching And Regular Classrooms, Deborah Cecilia Mitchell
A Comparison Of Eighth Grade General Education Students’ Ela Scores In Co-Teaching And Regular Classrooms, Deborah Cecilia Mitchell
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
This causal comparative, ex post facto quantitative study compared the Georgia Milestones English Language Arts (ELA) scores of 8th-grade general education students taught in a co-teaching classroom compared with scores of students taught in a regular classroom. The research focused on a comparison of the academic performance of two groups on statewide standardized assessments in ELA over 2 consecutive years, 2017 and 2018. The study contributes to the limited research regarding student achievement of general education students in co-teaching classrooms. This study was based on Vygotsky’s social development theory. The research questions examined the differences in the academic performance of …
The African American Church Response To Homosexuality And The Reasons There Is No Response, Robert Jackson Jr
The African American Church Response To Homosexuality And The Reasons There Is No Response, Robert Jackson Jr
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
Although the Bible records over eight passages which directly condemns homosexuality, many African-American churches are silent on this controversial issue. The purpose of this thesis is to present information that suggests that the African-American church compromises on this Biblical principle, by embracing homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle, both outside and within the church. The church leadership has chosen to either overlook or accept this lifestyle. Based on statistical surveys and interviews, this project will offer practical and Biblical solutions and advice to all churches and ethnic groups, assisting them in dealing with the issue of homosexuality and gay marriage. The …