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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Behind The Numbers: A Traditional Church Faces A New America, Larry Vogel
Behind The Numbers: A Traditional Church Faces A New America, Larry Vogel
Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation
The dissertation examines membership data for The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) from the mid-1970s to the present. It considers the analysis of LCMS decline by two scholars, George Hawley and Ryan MacPherson, who independently proposed that LCMS membership decline was internal in causation due to diminished birthrates and fewer young families. While acknowledging the reality of such internal decline, this dissertation argues that the lack of external growth is a greater cause for LCMS decline. Its lack of external growth is due primarily to the racial and ethnic homogeneity of the LCMS and its failure effectively to evangelize the increasingly …
Implementing Vocational Training At Escuela Quiteña De Estudios Bíblicos, Joshua K. Marcum
Implementing Vocational Training At Escuela Quiteña De Estudios Bíblicos, Joshua K. Marcum
Doctor of Ministry Theses
This DMin project addressed the problem of the absence of a viable training model to equip graduates of EQEB (Escuela Quiteña de Estudios Biblicos) for self-sustaining ministry. Based upon a theology of vocation, the project implemented and evaluated the inclusion of a technical-skills component to EQEB’s current seminary training. The project followed the integration of sixteen EQEB students in the vocational program implemented during the 2015-2016 school year. Qualitative research data gathered from five group interviews with these students, my own field notes, and a faculty interview provided the substance upon which I based the project´s findings. Over a seven-month …