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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

A Correlational Study Of Emotional Competence And Christian Practices Among Millennials, Nancy Watkins Flanagan Apr 2021

A Correlational Study Of Emotional Competence And Christian Practices Among Millennials, Nancy Watkins Flanagan

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

While emotions management is critical to effective leadership, literature describes present and emerging leaders in the millennial generation as not being proficient at managing their emotions. If this is true, how could the Christian community promote leadership development for millennials? Toward determining if a connection exists between emotions management and faith, this non-experimental quantitative correlational study explored the relationship, if any, between millennials’ emotional competence and Christian practices. Survey instrumentation was employed. The survey included two validated instruments, one for emotional competence and the other for spiritual growth. Study invitations were emailed to 395 millennials at a church in VA’s …


Advancing Christ: Understanding How Foreign Cultures Respond To Missionary Aviation, Aidan Van Pelt Apr 2021

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 …


An Exploration Of The Attitudes And Expectations Of African American Congregants Regarding A Proposed Mental Health Ministry, Faith Clarisa Brown Apr 2021

An Exploration Of The Attitudes And Expectations Of African American Congregants Regarding A Proposed Mental Health Ministry, Faith Clarisa Brown

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This mixed methods research project explored the attitudes and expectations of African American congregants regarding a proposed mental health ministry in a large urban church in Miami Gardens, Florida. The scale component assessed the mental health literacy levels of congregants. The semi-structured interview revealed congregant needs and ways to address them, as identified by leaders of other ministries based on their interactions with congregants. Relevant themes were stigma surrounding mental health, the desire for spirituality in counseling, and Christ’s concern for humanity’s physical, mental and spiritual well-being. This project collected digital scale surveys from 51 individuals and conducted nine semi-structured …


Pastoral Leadership Strategies For A Multisite Church In A Small Church Setting In The African American Community, Lionel Reynard Catchings Apr 2021

Pastoral Leadership Strategies For A Multisite Church In A Small Church Setting In The African American Community, Lionel Reynard Catchings

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

There are many mega churches that are moving to multisite facilities. This project focuses on the small church that wishes to establish multisite facilities to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. The project will provide a guide for small churches who may desire to embrace multi worship sites for their congregations. It will identify strengths of small churches and the challenges they face when they seek to found multisite churches, and ultimately demonstrate that small church multisite facilities are possible and feasible. This project will also validate the importance of teamwork in recruiting, enlisting and training volunteers for multisite responsibilities. …


Resolving The Shortage Of Youth At Mount Moriah Baptist Church, Sharion Dianne Otey Apr 2021

Resolving The Shortage Of Youth At Mount Moriah Baptist Church, Sharion Dianne Otey

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this project is to examine the lack of youth at Mouth Moriah Baptist Church. The participants’ perspective is crucial to understanding why youth are not returning to the church after graduating from high school. The following chapters show the need for youth in the church and the why youth are leaving the church after graduating high school. In this project, the data will demonstrate the causes for the lack of youth. Furthermore, it will present changes that are needed to increase the number of youth in the church. Current literature provides insight into what others have done …


Servant - Leadership In Christ Apostolic Church North America: Leadership And Discipleship To Build Trust And For Church Growth, Emmanuel Oluwafemi Olorunnisola Apr 2021

Servant - Leadership In Christ Apostolic Church North America: Leadership And Discipleship To Build Trust And For Church Growth, Emmanuel Oluwafemi Olorunnisola

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Due to the infiltration of Nigerian authoritarian culture into the church, many Nigerian churches today are struggling with leadership issues. This has resulted in many of the younger generation losing faith in the church despite the outburst of “revival” and churches in virtually every community. Some had struggled in vain to attain leadership positions in the church. Nevertheless, the church teaches on leadership, but from the authoritarian point of view. A major case in point is the Christ Apostolic Church, the first indigenous Pentecostal church in Nigeria, which has assemblies in the United States. This research will look into the …


Individual Pastoral Counseling In Combination With Celebrate Recovery Group Experience, Stephen F. Curtis Mar 2021

Individual Pastoral Counseling In Combination With Celebrate Recovery Group Experience, Stephen F. Curtis

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Celebrate Recovery is a Christ-centered twelve-step program in which participants benefit from testimonies and mutual sharing of their struggles and victories. However, “cross-talk” and giving advice is not permitted in the group. Some participants may need or desire individual counseling. This thesis project focused on a Celebrate Recovery ministry in a rural setting where travel and economic obstacles create an impediment to access the services of a licensed therapist. Individual pastoral counseling was combined with the Celebrate Recovery group experience to ascertain whether the combination of these two approaches would yield enhanced and accelerated recovery as perceived by the participants. …


Shared Oversight: Equipping Elders To Shepherd The Flock, Eric Michael Hartman Mar 2021

Shared Oversight: Equipping Elders To Shepherd The Flock, Eric Michael Hartman

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Leadership structures vary greatly across various faith traditions, but how much flexibility is biblically warranted? Far from being silent, the Bible is descriptive and prescriptive with regard to a plurality of leadership within a congregation. These elders, also called overseers, are to shepherd the flock (Acts 20:17, 28). The problem is that there is often lack training to that end. This study constructed a process for training elders and/or potential elders within a congregation to better understand the nature of plurality and parity of those tasked with caring for God’s people. The four training sessions covered the following: (1) The …


Church Revitalization: Fashioning Church For Growth, Willie Lee Wormack Mar 2021

Church Revitalization: Fashioning Church For Growth, Willie Lee Wormack

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This thesis research project is an approach to resolve the issues of the critically declined and dying Friendship Baptist Church whose membership cannot support a viable ministry. Friendship Baptist Church exists with minimal infrastructure at 38503 Mosstown Road, Dade City, Florida, in the rural Lacoochee, Florida area. Friendship Baptist Church needs a visionary plan with leadership and team support directed to assist with church development and growth. The case study approach will implement exploration on the meanings and beliefs of Christianity for the church in the church’s social setting. Investigations about cultural associations of faith with the church is engaged …


Becoming Fitly Joined Together: Unifying The Church Body For Vision Manifestation, Keisha Hodge Mar 2021

Becoming Fitly Joined Together: Unifying The Church Body For Vision Manifestation, Keisha Hodge

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This DMIN action research project fulfilled the purpose of increasing awareness within the four churches in the Greater Berea District concerning the value and function of having a vision. Preintervention and postintervention questionnaires, interviews, hypothetical case studies, and a class-styled intervention was employed. The one-day intervention educated participants concerning how a vision supports the work of the church, which enables it to be more fruitful. Furthermore, the class equipped attendees with a biblical foundation showing that God is a proponent and encourager of vision. The necessity of this study was determined when the researcher witnessed a church vision being cast …


Defining Revitalization As The Initial Step In The Revitalization Process, Bradley Kent Childres Mar 2021

Defining Revitalization As The Initial Step In The Revitalization Process, Bradley Kent Childres

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The revitalization of churches that are either plateaued or declining is a daunting task for any pastor. The idea for this thesis project arose when this researcher engaged in his first revitalization program as a Senior Pastor. This researcher noticed that many people in the church were confused about what revitalization meant which led to confusion and mistrust in the revitalization process. This is when this researcher observed the need to define what revitalization means. As challenging as church revitalization is, pastors can make this process easier by knowing the first step to take in a revitalization program. This thesis …


Exploring The Cultural Intelligence (Cq) Experiences Of Ethiopian Immigrant Church Leaders And Church Families: A Phenomenological Inquiry, Worku Tegegn Wolderufael Mar 2021

Exploring The Cultural Intelligence (Cq) Experiences Of Ethiopian Immigrant Church Leaders And Church Families: A Phenomenological Inquiry, Worku Tegegn Wolderufael

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological research was to explore the cultural intelligence (CQ) of the Ethiopian Evangelical immigrant church leaders’ and families’ experiences in the Washington metropolitan area, including the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia. In this study, nineteen participants were sampled to gather data. The data was collected through questionnaires, in-depth interviews, and focus groups. Following this, the data was analyzed through the transcendental phenomenological analysis. Through these analyses, the investigation presented the lived experiences of immigrant church leaders and church families. It described how the immigrant church leaders dealt with cultural conflicts through cultural intelligence to lead …


The Examination Of Grit In Southern Baptist Lead Pastors In Alabama, Kyle Bradley Hodges Feb 2021

The Examination Of Grit In Southern Baptist Lead Pastors In Alabama, Kyle Bradley Hodges

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to understand the attribute of grit in current Sothern Baptist Convention (SBC) lead pastors in Alabama. Having first been coined as a separate attribute in 2007, there was much still to learn about grit and its qualities. This study attempted to research the impact of grit in Christian ministry. Grit was coined by Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews, & Kelly (2007) and is defined as the perseverance and passion for long term goals and the attainment of those goals. In this mixed-method study, grit was examined in lead pastors of SBC churches in Alabama …


Understanding And Equipping Female Leadership At Prosperous Temple Church Of God In Christ, Jonathan R. Hackett Feb 2021

Understanding And Equipping Female Leadership At Prosperous Temple Church Of God In Christ, Jonathan R. Hackett

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Debates on whether women qualify to take up church leadership have persisted over the years. In 2016, there was an instance in Alabama where a woman was appointed as the assistant pastor of a church. Within three months of her service, the number of congregants dropped. Efforts by the church management to unravel the cause of the decline revealed that a majority of the people, particularly women, who canceled their church attendance were uncomfortable with women taking up leadership positions. The case informed this research, which will use the case study of Prosperous Temple Church of God in Christ. The …


Federalism, Constitutionalism, And The Texas Revolt, John Leslie Hancock Jan 2021

Federalism, Constitutionalism, And The Texas Revolt, John Leslie Hancock

Masters Theses

Traditional historiography characterizes the period directly following Mexico's independence as one during which the adoption of federalism divided a previously united and uniformed country. Anglo-American settlers in Texas sought to remove the territory from Mexican control by exploiting the resultant political turmoil. This exploitation eventually led to the Texas revolt of 1835, its independence as a republic, and, ultimately, statehood within the United States. The recent focus on Mexico's provincial history challenges this narrative by illustrating that independence did not result in a unified nation. On the contrary, comprising multiple provinces with varying interests, the region's Provincial Deputations adopted federalism …


The Rural Church As Community Support For Grandparents Raising Their Grandchildren, William Shane Cassida Jan 2021

The Rural Church As Community Support For Grandparents Raising Their Grandchildren, William Shane Cassida

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

A growing trend in rural communities located in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, as well as across much of the United States, is the significant increase in the number of grandparents that are being forced to accept the responsibility of raising their grandchildren due to a crisis within the family structure. The US Census Bureau cited in 2016 that over 2.5 million grandparents are helping with the responsibility of raising their grandchildren, and that 7.8 million children live in homes owned by their grandparents. This accounts for almost 10% of all children nationally. There is a current ministry need for churches …