Christianity Commons^™

A Covenant Epistemology, Larry Taylor

Doctor of Ministry

The problem addressed in this paper concerns how large, charismatic-type churches practice their ecclesial epistemology. It is the position of this paper that the typical hierarchical approach to leadership has hindered the epistemological process by placing too much responsibility on one person, the senior leader, and too little responsibility on the congregation as a whole. Covenant Epistemology is a response to this problem, by calling on the whole church to function in unity in the discernment process. Its core feature is the covenant that bonds members of a faith community together to a unique commitment to seek collectively knowledge and …

Functional Diversity, Eric M. Brown

Doctor of Ministry

The question at the heari of this dissertation is, "can it be different?" The "it" is the way church is organized, worship happens, and the very flavor of the church in the United Methodist Church in Oregon and Idaho. Today, church is generally organized following the traditional Anglo experience. The hymns, food, and organizational patterns generally follow the patterns of the white, English-speaking majority in the churches. A different formula would be one that is more multicultural and multiethnic. In this dissertation, the different way of organizing and thinking of church is called functional diversity.

Functional diversity is explored through …

Mobilizing Believers Through An Intentional, Sequential And Relational Approach To Discipleship Training At Calvary Baptist Church, Accra, Ghana, Joseph Agyei Mensah

Doctor of Ministry

Calvary Baptist Church has historically been a disciple making church. In recent years, however, interest and attendance has waned and church growth has plateaued. In an attempt to encourage new growth, revitalize small group discipleship training, and direct new leadership into ministry opportunities, this dissertation asserts that spiritual growth developed through a relational approach to sequential and intentional discipleship training for spiritual formation will help Christian leaders mobilize believers for ministry Chapter two examines the disciple making approaches of both the Old and New Testaments with Jesus' process being the primary example. Chapter three analyzes the discipleship methodology of John …

Sketching The Pharisees, Roger M. Rundell

Doctor of Ministry

This paper explores the Pharisees and their place in Palestinian society, particularly during the first century. Recent scholarly reconstructions are reviewed and compared to the evidence found in the works of Josephus, the New Testament, and rabbinic literature. This paper examines the Pharisees through the eyes of each source and attempts to use each viewpoint to develop a picture of the Pharisaic movement. The evidence proves too ambiguous to clarify the fine details of the movement, and it resists placing them at the top of the Jewish social or religious system. It does, however, suggest that the Pharisees represent a …

Theology Of Brotherly Love, Robert L. Marshall Jr.

Doctor of Ministry

Is it possible to have an adverse experience with Christianity and emerge being empowered by a new understanding of the gospel? Howard Thurman seems to answer that question in the affirmative. Thurman analyzes comments from Mahatma Gandhi and a barrister from "India" about Christianity under the light of the gospel. This encounter was important. It was the Genesis of Thurman's theology of brotherly love. This paper is an historical analysis of Howard Thurman's struggle to resolve the conflict between the perception that Christianity is a white man's religion and the gospel of Jesus and the disinherited. The writer will discuss …

Things Which Had Grown Are Being Made New: The Revitalization Of Missional Intent In The Diocese Of Oregon, George Thomson Hemingway

Doctor of Ministry

The problem addressed in this paper is to find out if the application of missional principles in the Episcopal Diocese of Oregon can revitalize this diocese, direct the diocese to missional ends, and provide applications for similar situations in other dioceses. This investigation assumes that the existing infrastructure of the diocese has intrinsic value for mission if it can become focused on God's mission as its primary end. This approach assumes that the diocese has been and perhaps still is distracted by matters of secondary importance such as maintenance of existing facilities, issues of power, lack of trust, and cultural …

Start Well To Finish Well: A Holistic Formation Model For Emerging Christian Leaders, Guy Michael Chmieleski

Doctor of Ministry

The ISSUE: How do we model, and help students to "start well' in life, and ministry, such that they can form healthy patterns and habits that will promote growth and fruit throughout their lives, as well as "finish weir without having to deal with issues of burn-out or moral failure? In order to strategically equip our leaders of tomorrow I will create a holistic formation model for the emerging Christian leaders. In section two of this project, I will make the claim that there are significant elements of a holistic spiritual formation model that can be found lives of Joseph …

Connexions: Models For Creative Collaboration Between Church And Academy In The Twenty-First Century, Anthony L. Blair

Doctor of Ministry

The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze the historic relationship between church and academy (defined as Christian higher education). Although certain external forces, including the decline in denominational identity, the power of market forces, and the growing philosophical/theological tensions between the lectern and the pulpit, have driven the academy and the church apart in recent decades, the claim of this study is that these same forces can be harnessed to draw them together in a more collaborative relationship in the twenty-first century.

Chapter One delineates the scope and nature of Christian higher education in North America, through both a …

Genesis 1:1-2:3 And Enuma Elish: Ideological Warfare Between Judah And Babylon, Rebecca L. Kirk

Doctor of Ministry

This thesis discusses two ancient cosmologies: Genesis 1: 1-2:3 and Enuma Elish. It details the culture in which each was written by discovering the possible time periods from which each cosmology came. This thesis also seeks to understand why each narrative was written and what the author was propagating to its respective audience. Finally, the present thesis contrasts similarities and differences between the two cosmologies and explains motivations for the similarities and. differences. Both cosmologies were conceived of and written down to encourage its respective audience to believe in the religions patron deity. This thesis maintains that the author of …

The Contagion: Sin And The Human Person From The Cappadocian Perspective, Brice John Tennant

Doctor of Ministry

This thesis examines the nature of sin and its effects on human nature in the thought of Gregory of Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa. In order to achieve this, it opens with an exploration of the original created state of human nature and the telos or purpose God established for it, then moves to a survey of the origin and ontology of evil, followed by a discussion of humanity in Paradise, and concludes with the state of human nature after the transgression. The human being is found to be a creature of composite nature, uniting soul and matter. It possesses …

A Process Of Restoration For Clergy Guilty Of Sexual Misconduct, Carol Hutchinson

Doctor of Ministry

Sexual misconduct on the part of clergy is not a new phenomenon. Nevertheless the Church in general lacks a concept of restoration that provides spiritual and emotional healing of an offender within the context of the redemptive community of faith. This dissertation is intended to demonstrate how Scripture, church history, theology and psychology support restoration of fallen clergy. The dissertation will go on then to describe what a process of restoration would include.

The dissertation begins and ends with case studies. Both cases deal with actual events though names and some details have been changed. The first case demonstrates some …

Jesus' Methodology Of Storytelling Is An Effective Means Of Communication In Our Emerging Culture, Peter Alvin Balaban

Doctor of Ministry

It is Sunday morning, and they come. They are Lutheran, either by heritage, by family choice, or because they have found their home here. Though they gather as generations before them, they are not the same. They live in a world where information is not what they seek but rather understanding of all the information that assaults them. The pastor steps forward to share a message.

Creating A Multisensory Enter-Active Gospel Storytelling Exegetical Commentary, Terrence O'Casey

Doctor of Ministry

Many pastors and teachers struggle to make the biblical text come alive both in their own lives and in their congregations. Part of the reason is that although existing commentary genres are a wonderful tool to help in understanding Scripture, they may not allow some to encounter more fully the Word. The reasons for this are 1) great academic commentaries may not alone be able to connect with a pastor and his or her congregation; 2) there are currently no commentaries that take into account the multisensory and emotional dimensions of the original author and text; and 3) with the …

Mentoring With Dignity: A Plan For Pastors And Churches To Support Women In Recovery From Domestic Violence, Martha F. Williams

Doctor of Ministry

This work addresses the need for the church, fully supported by the pastor and leaders, to minister to women who attend church and are suffering in abusive marriages. The Mentoring With Dignity recovery program provides a simple, easily accessible solution that can be readily implemented by churches and is built of commonly known, widely acceptable and respected components: Twelve Step and Stephen Ministers. The church must work for compassion and justice in any area that takes away freedom, stifles life, or invalidates persons. Violence against another in whatever form it takes is an offense against the integrity of life so …

The Social And Theological Implications Of Postmodern Holism In Community, Robin J. Dewhitt

Doctor of Ministry

The modern world has created for us a dichotomy in which the secular and religious worlds are divided along Cartesian lines. These Cartesian lines exist between church, the workplace, political life, social life, and any other arena in which a philosophical distinction can be demonstrated. The result is that not only has society been divided, but also each individual person has been divided into multiple distinct areas of life. 1 With the onset of the postmodern era, we have begun to reformulate our worldview along the lines of holism. Holism has been defined in the American Heritage Dictionary as, "The …

Www.Church: Consulting With 19th And 20th Century Congregations In A 21st Century World, Earl James Price

Doctor of Ministry

A new pastor is called and excitement is high. Both the pastor and the congregation begin this journey with high hopes and expectations. Yet too often things get off track quickly and people are left wondering what happened and why aren't things going in the direction we hoped? The problem comes from a failure to understand the unique nature of a faith community. Understanding the nature includes an understanding of the roles of and the relationship between values, vision and mission in charting a course to the future of their ministry together. This failure in understanding also presents itself when …

"So Now What?" Using The New Science To Design A Flexible And Adaptable Spiritual Growth Process For New And Returning Believers In The Local Church, Christine A. Prescott

Doctor of Ministry

This dissertation addresses the need for spiritual-growth opportunities in the local church for new adult Christians and those adults who are returning to the church after years of absence. This dissertation will identify concepts from the "new science' of quantum mechanics, chaos theory, and complexity theory to suggest elements for the creation of a flexible and adaptable spiritual-growth process.

I use the New Testament to address two assumptions of the thesis: that the spiritual growth of followers of Jesus Christ is a process of spiritual transformation that rests not a one-time conversion event but occurs over a lifetime of dynamic …

A Relational Hermeneutic Toward Connective Ecclesial Leadership, Dwight Jason Friesen

Doctor of Ministry

The modern western church is experiencing a crisis of hermeneutic. The pervasive hermeneutic or interpretive lens employed by modern Christ-followers has engendered a largely static view of church structure and leadership. Simply put, the Western church fails to see relationally. This problem of "visual impairment" will be addressed by crafting a relational hermeneutic composed of three distinct and overlapping lenses: a theological/biblical (God) lens, a sociological/ontological (humanity) lens and a scientific/network (the cosmos) lens. Lens 1: God is social. For orthodox Christ-followers a relational hermeneutic begins with a God who is social; a Tri-unity of Divine persons, each lovingly serving …

Emotional Intelligence: The Core Of The Church Leader For Missional Living In The Emerging Culture, Chad David Johnson

Doctor of Ministry

The modem western church is experiencing a crisis of leadership. This crisis of leadership within the church is driven largely by the lack of emotional intelligence among the churches leaders. The lack of emotional intelligence is debilitating to the missional effectiveness of the Church in this emerging culture. The problem of the lack of emotional intelligence among leaders will be addressed by crafting a model of leadership composed of a core with four key components. The core is emotional intelligence (EI). With EI at the core of the leader, four ways of life and leadership emerge. These will equip the …

Simple Church Ecclesiology In Relationship To The Evangelical Church Denomination, Leroy V. Robinson

Doctor of Ministry

The issue addressed in this paper regards the validity of a more organic ecclesiology in the context of The Evangelical Church. The validation for this paradigm is its ability to embody authentic Christian community and in the process develop disciples who are able to administrate the mandates of the Great Commission. The result will be three-fold: leadership development, church planting, and engagement of the emerging culture.

The purpose of this paper is to offer an ecclesiological paradigm advantageous to the entire Church community. This model is one of several the Holy Spirit has chosen to use in blessing and emboldening …

Relational Leadership: The Leadership Style Of Jesus For The Emerging Church, Shane E. Roberson

Doctor of Ministry

The purpose of this dissertation is to better understand the leadership style of Jesus as it relates to the leadership in the church for the purpose of carrying forth Jesus' mission in today' s setting and developing disciples of Jesus Christ. Traditional anthropocentric, hierarchical, and individualistic leadership styles and structures do not connect with a generation of people in a post-modern era. I intend to clarify the leadership style of Jesus and propose that church leaders return to his style in order to effectively engage the church with a postmodern context. This approach to developing leaders for the church will …

Metanoic Adaptation: The Necessary Experience That Precedes Church Revitalization, Wayne Evans

Doctor of Ministry

A look at the church landscape shows that once vibrant and influential churches sometimes have stagnated or died. Without a remedy, some of the EFC-ER churches I superintend have already faced this. My contention is that such churches can be revitalized. When, how, and with what tools can they be transformed? I answer these questions in this document. Revitalization is not a formula to guarantee success; it is an experience that spiritually and strategically remakes the church from the inside out. I call the experience Metanoic Adaptation. By research and experience, I frame the conditions, components, and course for …

Www.Church: Consulting With 19th And 20th Century Congregations In A 21st Century World, Earl J. Pierce

Doctor of Ministry

A new pastor is called and excitement is high. Both the pastor and the congregation begin this joumey with high hopes and expectations. Yet too often things get off track quickly and people are left wondering what happened and why aren't things going in the direction we hoped?

The problem comes from a failure to understand the unique nature of a faith community. Understanding the nature includes an understanding of the roles of and the relationship between values, vision and mission in charting a course to the future of their ministry together. This failure in understanding also presents itself when …