Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

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 …

Examining The Cross-Cultural Competence Of United States Christian Missionaries Engaged In Developing Indigenous Leaders: A Mixed Methods Study, Craig W. Goodman

Dissertations

For the past two millennia, missionaries have crossed from one culture to another to bring the Christian message to all cultures of the world. Questions about the effectiveness of these mission efforts have been asked and researched by many; however, one key question remains unanswered: what personal attributes help a person to be more competent at crossing cultures as they interact with people from other cultures? Although cross-cultural competence has been studied in a variety of fields over the past 50 years, the models and assessments used have never been applied to Christian missionaries.

To address this deficiency, this parallel …

The Devil Of The Missionary Church: The White Fathers And Catholic Evangelization In Zambia, Bernhard Udelhoven

Journal of Global Catholicism

This article examines how Western Catholic missionaries in Zambia dealt with claims of witchcraft and Satanism. Within an analytic frame that draws upon cultural history, theology, and anthropology the article also considers how African Christians appropriated missionary notions of the devil.

From The Father’S Heart To Our Hands: Christian Responsibility In The U.S. Foster System, Amelia Tam

Selected Honors Theses

Nearly half a million children are currently served by the child welfare system in the United States. This overwhelming strain on state departments and non-profit placement agencies is compounded by the fact that there are not enough available homes. There appears to be a shortage of capable and resilient foster and adoptive parents. Thousands of children who are ready to be adopted do not have anyone to take them in, and thousands more float in the system until new families agree to foster. This seeming shortage of homes is absurd considering the wealth of compassion and capability within the American …

The Father's Business Person, The Shift To Tentmaking Missions Strategy, Chris White

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the important place that tentmaking holds or should hold in missions strategy. It is the belief of the author (supported by almost 20 years of ministry experience overseas) that visas and money are often barriers to ministry effectiveness. This paper would like to provide a solution (i.e. tentmaking) to these common tensions that most missionaries encounter. The value of the topic is very personal to the author's ministry: first because I am currently serving on the mission field (needing a visa and money), and second because of the potential tentmaking holds for …

Hidden Treasures: Four Great Reasons To Sign Up For An International Mission, Sherylyn Watson

Nursing Faculty Publications

I am a nurse who has said yes to calls to volunteer internationally for the past 10 years. Whether aiding victims of the tsunami in Sri Lanka and Hurricane Katrina in Mississippi or traveling on prearranged annual mission trips, I discovered personal and professional fulfillment.

Danish Methodists In America, Arlow W. Andersen

The Bridge

The separate histories of foreign-language missions present a special challenge to students of American church history. Descendants of the immigrants, more and more of mixed ancestry, lack the ability to read and translate material published in the language of their forebears. To make matters more difficult, the children and grandchildren of the pioneers often shun the tedious work of research and writing. Their handicaps apply to the offspring of all foreignspeaking peoples in America. Of the nineteenth-century immigrants, the Danes come to mind.

Latter-Day Saint Servicemen In The Philippine Islands: A Historical Study Of Their Religious Activities And Influences Resulting In The Official Organization Of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints In The Philippines, Lowell Eliason Call

Theses and Dissertations

Though generally unheard of in the Western world and the United States prior to the Spanish-American War of 1898, the Filipino people have made some remarkable contributions to world leadership and world history. Frequently they have been considered a pagan and an ignorant people, although in objectively observing them one finds such a belief unfounded and even the reverse of that to be true. Progress which the republic has made during the last fifty years, since being liberated to develop liberties in religion, politics, and education, is phenomenal, even when compared with the United States period of evolution to her …