Practical Theology Commons^™

The Forgotten Movement: Church Planting Trends And Lessons (Part 2 Of 2), S. Joseph Kidder, Dustin Serns

Faculty Publications

Church planting is a challenging enterprise. Realistic expectations are essential, and adequate support systems and coaching are helpful. Our research revealed that those who commit to church planting encounter significant obstacles. Based on data and interviews from the top four conferences in church planting over the last decade in North America, part two of this article will address three common obstacles to church planting and show how God transforms them into amazing opportunities.

The Word, The Spirit Of Prophecy, And Mutual Love: Lessons From The 'Daily' Controversy For Conflict Resolution, Denis Kaiser

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Santa Clara Strength Of Religious Faith Questionnaire (Scsorf): A Validation Study On Iranian Muslim Patients Undergoing Dialysis, Amir H. Pakpour, Thomas G. Plante, Mohsen Saffari, Bengt Fridlund

Psychology

The Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire (SCSORF) is an often used and validated scale that is uncommonly utilized in culturally diverse populations. The purpose of this research investigation was to adapt the SCSORF for use among Iranian Muslim patients undergoing dialysis and to examine the reliability and validity of the scale among this population. A total of 428 patients (228 females, 200 males, M age = 52.2 years, SD = 10) were selected from five dialysis center in Tehran and Qazvin, Iran. A comprehensive forward–backward translation system was used for cross-cultural translation. Patients completed a baseline questionnaire obtaining …

Every Good Endeavor Author Katherine Alsdorf On Why Faith@Work Is Important, Katherine Leary Alsdorf

Theology of Work Project

More than ever before, humanity is in a crisis over work. People change jobs and careers 6 times or more in their lives. Robotics will threaten even professional level vocations over the next decade. Darwinian competition trumps teamwork and human dignity. Our work – our commitment to bring God’s truth, love, and human dignity to the work lives of all people – has never been so important! How can we better equip ourselves for our work, for our calling? How do we help others work in a world that is increasingly unaware of and even hostile to the hope of …

Christians And Creation Care, Jo Ann Davidson

Lake Union Herald

No abstract provided.

The Pastor's Faithless Child: Strengthening Methods For Hurting Parent-Pastors, Ryan Ayers

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Parent-pastors face challenges when balancing vocational and familial responsibilities every day, and when faithless adolescent children are part of their family dynamic the hardship is magnified. These pastors often experience debilitating critique from their faith communities and colleagues while carrying the burden of raising a rebellious child. Utilizing a phenomenological study process, one hundred transparent interviews with parent-pastors are used to identify assumptions and realities surrounding the hurting parent-pastor's dilemma. Leading principles that have helped other parent-pastors cope with the overwhelming affects of their child's behavior will be introduced, empowering those who are hurting identify their stress points and overcome …

Why Do We Need To Know What The Bible Says About Work?, Theology Of Work Project, William Messenger

Theology of Work Project

by William Messenger

Executive Editor, Theology of Work Project

Adapted from a talk at the Faith@Work Summit, October 24, 2014

Probably everyone interested in faith and work knows some Bible passages related to work, but did you realize that those passages are not rare highlights, but representative samples of the Bible? To put it in biblical words, “The cattle on a thousand hills” are the Lord’s, not just the temple on the hill of Zion. Once I took off my church-polarized lenses, I saw that a lot of the Bible has to do with work. It’s impossible to summarize 859 …

Best Biblical Career Advice From Joseph, Bruce D. Baker

SPU Works

The biblical character whose story best illustrates what we might think of today as a “career” is Joseph. His story fills roughly nine chapters in Genesis (37 – 45), a very large portion of the history of the patriarchs. Joseph’s path is an epic story of rising from the bottom to the top. In terms of vision, management and public service, he must be considered a standout success. But is this an example of “career”? It depends what you mean by “career.” Although the Bible does not offer much by way of prescriptive career advice, we can glean practical wisdom …

The Cookie Man Baked Goods And Prayer, Melodie Roschman

Lake Union Herald

No abstract provided.

Diagnose Pastoral: Como Identificar E Curar Males Que Impedem O Crescimento De Sua Igreja, Ricardo Norton

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Forgotten Movement: Church Planting Trends And Lessons (Part 1 Of 2), S. Joseph Kidder, Dustin Serns

Faculty Publications

At the inception of the Advent movement, believers united to advance the cause of the gospel by entering new territory and starting new congregations. The Seventh-day Adventist Church experienced explosive growth, launching a movement that spread and continues to advance across the world. Today, 150 years later, the time has come to ask, How are we doing with raising up new congregations to finish the harvest in North America? To answer this question, we decided to look at statistics of the last century about church planting. We hope that the findings from this study will benefit the global church.

Christ As Chrism, Christ Given Away, Anna Mercedes

Theology Faculty Publications

This article develops the concept of Christ not as static body but as chrism for bodies. Christ as chrism travels in the matrix of relationality, on a vector toward the benefit of others. Conceptualizing christ as chrism potentially avoids both exclusionary and colonizing tendencies in Christian polity, and frames a Christian ethics that, while vulnerable and risky, marks the sanctity of the one giving Christ away.

A Lonely Faith: Lessons In Spiritual Resiliency Learned From The Isolated, Captive, And Rescued, Jeff Schlenz

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Americans have always traveled abroad whether as merchants, military service members, missionaries, reporters, or simply, "tourists." Most return safely, but some have been taken captive by foreign governments, terrorists and criminal organizations. Though many have studied their struggles, no wide-scale attempt has been made to understand the role religious faith played in enduring their captivities. If understood, such information could be used in training those who may be exposed to similar circumstances in the future, and may have devotional value for others enduring crises. In this study, one hundred seventy-eight international travelers are surveyed, assessing their expectations of and preparation …

Two Principles Toward Ecumenical Liturgy, Sunggu Yang

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

In this essay, I want to discuss two essential principles of Christian ecumenical liturgy, especially for the Asian American church: a) the principle of other-wise liturgy and b) the principle of culturally-conscious worship.1 These two principles will escort the way we approach different Christian traditions of worship and eventually the way we design and practice ecumenical worship. I owe much to works of John McClure and Kathy Back in figuring out and applying these two principles.

O Pastor E Sua Vocação, Skip Bell

Faculty Publications

Teólogo reflete sobre o fundamento bíblico para a origem e o desenvolvimento do chamado pastoral

Witnessing In The Czech Republic: Not "Business As Usual", Petr A. Činčala

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Reclaiming The Spiritual Leadership Role Of Christian Parents In Family Life: Coaching And Markers, Cindy Hayes

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Christians in the Western culture often struggle to pass on their faith to the next generation and as a result, the way God designed the family to function is being unwittingly abandoned. Countless parents today are leaving genuine faith and reliance on God behind. Though God's Word gives specific instructions on how to maintain and pass on faith, many have abdicated this injunction. In an effort to encourage authentic faith within the family, the local church can come alongside parents to help them understand and share their faith by offering training and coaching to embrace their own faith and pass …

Discipleship Principles And Applications To Help Local Church Pastors To Become Disciple-Makers In South Korea, Dongjin Park

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Every pastor is called to develop disciple-makers to fulfill the mandate of the Great Commission. Korean pastors have been trying to make disciples with many programs, but they have difficulties in making disciples that multiply. This is caused by misunderstanding the meaning of disciple and what disciple-making principles are in the Bible. The purpose of this project is to define the essential nature of a disciple and to research principles and applications for helping local church pastors to develop disciple-makers in South Korea by focusing on Jesus' ministry. The New Testament will be studied to discover principles for discipleship making. …

A Biblical Foundation Counseling Strategy To Direct Couples To Become One Flesh In Marriage, Colin Seager

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This project will outline steps in counseling newly married couples to develop biblical, physical, emotional, social, and spiritual unity within marriage. A review of currently available marital and pre-marital counseling suggests the focus centers on intimacy, communication issues, and being happy together versus truly becoming one flesh. This ministry tool will enable pastors to counsel and prepare couples effectively for marriage with the richness God designed for marriage and to fortify them against marital temptation and marital fatigue. Based on a review of available resources and data collected from a control group comprised of sixty individuals, an implementable discipleship program …

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.

Infinite Horizon: The Prairie Spirituality Of Ronald Rolheiser, Michael W. Higgins

Mission Integration & Ministry Publications

Ronald Rolheiser, president of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio Texas (but a native of the Saskatchewan prairie), is one of the most popular Catholic spiritual writers and syndicated columnists at work today.

What some critics see as Rolheiser’s complacency, his supposedly uncritical embrace of modern secular society, is actually borne of his remarkable faith and confidence in God’s abiding presence and care. Like the philosopher Charles Taylor, a fellow Canadian and Catholic, Rolheiser is keenly aware that modern liberal values such as tolerance and benevolence, and especially respect for individual dignity and freedom, have deep Christian roots.

In All Things..., Neal Deroo

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"As Christians, we like Jesus - as long as it's our Jesus, the one we like best."

Introduction to In All Things - an online hub committed to the claim that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has implications for the entire world.

http://inallthings.org/in-all-things/

Love Your Enemy? Reflections At The Centenary Of World War I, Denis Kaiser

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

God’S Power Touches Lives In Cuba, L. Fernando Ortiz

Lake Union Herald

No abstract provided.

Addressing Apathy In The Church: Moving People Towards A Biblical Healthy Discipleship Model, Kevin Brooks

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

In 1 Corinthians 12, the apostle Paul speaks to the giving of spiritual gifts by the Holy Spirit to individuals at the time of conversion. However, current statistics reveal that a large majority of church members are not actively serving their current ministry. The purpose of this project is to investigate the problem of apathy in the church, the failure of God's people to use their spiritual gifts and also present an effective model for solving the issue. A ministry filled with servants instead of spectators will help unify the body and more effectively reach the community for Christ. Research …

Church Hospitality: A Biblical Model For Growth Based On The Seven Churches In Revelation, Gesner Noel

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Church growth seeks both to actualize the precepts of the "Great Commission", to attract new members and sustain current congregation. One of the fundamental problems is the inability to preserve hospitality. The pertinence of hospitality to the Church originates from Scriptures that clearly exemplify Christ's deeds and teachings of hospitality. This thesis project will investigate the seven churches in Revelation and reveal factors of outstanding and inhospitable practices in relation to Church growth and hospitality. Surveys will be based on unregulated interactions among pastors. Twenty pastors across five denominations, Evangelical Lutheran, Charismatic, Pentecostal, Seven-Day Adventist, and Roman Catholic will demonstrate …

A Pre-Methodological Theology For Biblically Proper Ecclesiological Health, James Woods

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The American church is in a dramatically noticeable decline, with many resources offering superficial remedies and solutions but rarely digging below the surface to evaluate the structural integrity of the foundation. This paper will evaluate the foundation as to how it has been altered over the last two thousand years, as well as identifying three main foundational attributes of the first century church that must be in place for the twenty-first century church to be on target biblically. The thesis will be corroborated by utilizing two different, yet related surveys administered to both pastors and congregants, as well as by …

A Theology Of Ordination: An Integration Of Bible And Ellen G. White’S Writings, P. Gerard Damsteegt

Faculty Publications

A theology of ordination should begin with investigating what is God’s testimony about ordination in the Scriptures. In this study, insights into the Old and New Testament history from the writings of Ellen G. White will be referred to whenever they shed light on the biblical passages and their relevance for today. In addition, the study has tried to investigate how ordination is connected to the truth as it is in Jesus, the Head of the church. Ordination and its authority will also be related to Jesus’ model of leadership in the church. The biblical examples of appointment, consecration, or …

Seminary Promotes Healthy Lifestyles, Eloise Ravell

Lake Union Herald

No abstract provided.

Idealism & Reality: A Phenomenological Exploration Of Pastoral Expectations & Ministry Realities Experienced By Protestant Church Planting Pastors, Dwayne Bond

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

With the majority of literature focused on reducing clergy stressors, there is a need to explore how pastors respond when ministry idealism dissipates, while familial and congregational expectations increase. When idealized expectations fade, how do clergy experience resiliency? The purpose of this study was to explore how idealism affects clergy resiliency and their responses, coping, and longevity in ministry. Ten new church-planting Protestant pastors were selected using snowball sampling. Each pastor was interviewed. Data from the two-hour in-depth interviews was collected, organized and analyzed. The findings for each interview were compared and contrasted, and themes were identified - a) utilizing …