Missions and World Christianity Commons^™

Hospitality: Areas That Are Effective In Creating A Desire For A Visitor To Connect To Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Brent M. Hartwig

Doctor of Ministry Major Applied Project

This major applied project explores hospitality offered by the local congregation. Biblical hospitality is implicitly and explicitly commanded in scripture. Balancing the Missio Dei and two kinds of righteousness will keep us on the straight and narrow theologically when pursuing hospitality.

When churches offer hospitality, we are feeding, clothing, visiting, providing, and welcoming our neighbor. Our Redeemer wants to continue serving the community as a family-oriented, mission focused, hospitable congregation. We are doing the feeding, clothing, and providing through many efforts in the community. We are active with the local homeless shelter and crisis center. For the MAP, we wanted …

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 …

Positive Factors Related To The Decision To Study For The Office Of The Ministry By Men Of The Lutheran Synod Of Nicaragua (Iglesia Luterana Sínodo De Nicaragua/Lutheran Church—Canada), Edmund Auger

Doctor of Ministry Major Applied Project

Auger, Edmund D. “Positive Factors Related to the Decision to Study for the Office of the Ministry by Men of The Lutheran Synod of Nicaragua (Iglesia Luterana Sínodo de Nicaragua / Lutheran Church—Canada).” Doctor of Ministry. Major Applied Project, Concordia Seminary, 2023. 128 pages.

The Lutheran Church throughout the world needs a continuing supply of men to serve as faithful pastors in the public ministry of the Gospel. The identification and spiritual formation of candidates for Word and Sacrament ministry is critical for the young national church body, Iglesia Luterana Sínodo de Nicaragua (Lutheran Synod of Nicaragua).

This project is …

Recovering A Missional Ecclesiology: A Framework For Reviving Congregational Mission Within The Baptist Union Of Victoria, Gayle Hill

Doctor of Ministry Theses

ABSTRACT This project is an intervention to develop a theological and theoretical framework

that will become the foundation for a future curriculum for recovering a missional ecclesiology for the pastors of the Baptist Union of Victoria (BUV). Despite mission being central to the overall vision of the BUV, declining numbers, the post-COVID context in Victoria, and an overarching post-Christian and pluralistic context have significantly challenged the centrality and functioning of mission across our denomination. The impetus of this project was the observation that our churches were floundering rather than flourishing in the missional space. Many chronic and acute provocations were …

Cultivating Reproductive Small Group Leaders Within Southwest Church, Springboro, Ohio, Roger D. Hendricks

Doctor of Ministry Theses

ABSTRACT

This project was designed to address an ongoing challenge within the Southwest Church (SWC) in Springboro, Ohio. The specific challenge that SWC leaders have faced throughout the twenty-five-year history of the church is to continually increase the number of small group options within a growing congregation. Small groups have been identified as the primary vehicle for SWC members to grow as disciples of Jesus Christ. This congregational emphasis has led to the good dilemma of having more individuals willing to participate than lead weekly small groups. In the past few years, SWC leaders have identified the need for the …

Tell Me The Old, Old Story: An Educational Curriculum For Junior Week At Christian Youth Encampment, Justin L. Simmons

Doctor of Ministry Theses

The purpose of this project was to create a curriculum framework for the Junior Week of camp at Christian Youth Encampment (CYE) in DeRidder, LA. The initial step in this project was to develop information on the ministerial context of CYE by investigating its history and interviewing those who have experienced camp both as campers and staff. Next, an examination of theological and theoretical foundations was made, considering the history of narrative in the instruction of children both for Israel and the church. Also, the concept and practices of narrative and its usefulness as a pedagogical tool were explored. Using …

A Holy Land Guidebook: Cultivating Spiritual Disciplines For Pilgrimages, Johnnie Birks

Doctor of Ministry Theses

A small group of research participants and I assembled for this phenomenally enriching project intervention to create a proprietary branded guidebook for Miracle Loaves And Fishes World Hunger Ministry, Incorporated, and its subsidiary, Anointed Royal Tours, to be used for pilgrimages to the Holy Land. These pilgrimages will create sustainable funding for the ministry to support universal efforts to eliminate global hunger while simultaneously attempting to equip believers with a transformative and/or restorative walk in Christlikeness for the sake of creation, humanity, and eternal life in God’s Kingdom. The path of Christlikeness is to be transformed (Rom 12:2 NRSV), as …

Missional Renewal In A Large And Established Suburban Western Church, Michael Stevens

Doctor of Ministry Theses

This thesis addresses the topic of missional renewal at Clovercrest Baptist Church (CBC), specifically focusing on participating in the mission of God through simple, memorable, and reproducible missional practices. The identified problem is a lack of process or framework for enhancing participation in God’s mission and churchwide missional renewal at CBC, a large suburban Western church. The purpose of this project intervention is to develop a resource guide of missional practices that facilitate participation in the mission of God at CBC towards missional renewal. This intervention is guided by the theological foundation that God is a God of mission. He …

Redeeming Theodicy In Job: Moving From A Classical To A Christological Framework, Jaime L. Riddle

College of Theology and Ministry Dissertations, Projects, & Theses

This thesis analyzes existing interpretations of theodicy in the book of Job, in order to suggest an alternative approach informed by the nature and mission of Christ. Much of biblical scholarship in Job has focused on a classical approach to theodicy or, in recent years, deconstructed anti-theodicy. This thesis offers an alternative approach that focuses on the Christological overtones in Job and a modern synthesis of Old and New Testament theodicy.

Chapter 1 introduces the problem of theodicy in Job, and a taxonomy of lenses traditionally used to examine Old Testament theodicy. Chapter 2 analyzes classical perspectives of Job derived …

The Abc Of Christian Missionary Work, Luke Walsh, Amelia Thomas, Annalisa Stoll, Briana Slaubaugh, John Chevere, Natasha Leininger, Paul Jang

Liberty University Research Week

Graduate

Textual or Investigative

Review Of Intergenerational Missiology: An African Pentecostal-Charismatic Perspective, Vincent Anohene Appiah

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

No abstract provided.

Review Of Genesis: A Pentecostal Commentary, Michael Blythe

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

No abstract provided.

Review Of Los Profetas: The Prophetic Role Of Hispanic Churches In America, Hanna Larracas

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

No abstract provided.

Review Of The Spirit Of God In The Torah: A Pentecostal Exploration. By Steffen G. Schumacher, Lora Angeline E. Timenia

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

No abstract provided.

Abiding In The Vine: A Relational Model Of Spiritual Formation, Bill Buker

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

In recognizing the significance of final conversations, the information Jesus shares in his Farewell Discourse (John 13–17) is considered especially important. During this conversation, in describing the new relationship he envisioned with his disciples following the events of his passion, he employs a vine and its branches as an analogy. Three core concepts seem critical to understanding this comparison—abiding in the vine, bearing fruit, and pruning. These concepts are explored within the context of Jesus’ Farewell Discourse and defined relationally in connection with the new commandment he had just introduced. This new command to love each other as he had …

Songs As Theologizing: Annamma Mammen’S (1911–2002) Contribution In Shaping The Kerala Pentecostal Imagination, Allan Varghese Meloottu

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

In Indian Pentecostal theological and missiological literature, the role of Kerala Pentecostals is well documented. However, the pioneering voices that are highlighted are of men, sidelining women’s voices and contributions that shaped the grassroots Kerala Pentecostal imagination. The preacher-songwriter Annamma Mammen (1911–2002) is one such voice that impacted early Kerala Pentecostal growth. Therefore, this article, in addition to bringing forth the sidelined story of Annamma Mammen, emphasizes Mammen’s role as a songwriter and analyzes one of her early songs to highlight how her theology encapsulates early Kerala Pentecostal theological emphases (eschatological imagination, scriptural importance, contextual primacy, and Jesus-centeredness). Although Mammen’s …

Pentecostal Socio-Political Engagement And The Covid-19 Pandemic, Jonathan Cantarero

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

The coronavirus pandemic has raised important questions regarding the correct balance between religious freedom and public health. These questions have become increasingly difficult to address given the diverse reactions within the church to government-imposed restrictions on religious freedom such as limitations on public gatherings in places of worship. Nowhere has this diversity been more prevalent than within Pentecostalism. This article discusses the religious response to the pandemic in the United States within the Pentecostal Movement as gleaned through three sources: public statements, legal action, and other public activity. I suggest that Pentecostalism’s diversity in this area is consistent with its …

On Making “Universal Human Rights” Universal: The Intelligibility Of Human Rights In Jacques Maritain’S Natural Law Theory, Jeremy M. Wallace

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

This article examines the thought and influence of Jacques Maritain, specifically his application of Traditional Natural Law (TNL) theory to the vexing challenge of what makes universal human rights universal. The author shows how TNL satisfies the preconditions for the “universality factor” needed for making human rights truly universal where rival theories such as legal positivism, New Natural Law, and Empirical Natural Law fall short.

Then Peter Stood Up: A Dialogical Narrative Analysis Of Peter’S Preparation For Spokesperson At Pentecost, Rebekah Bled

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

Dialogical Narrative Analysis (DNA) asks, in brief, what work a story does in the context in which it is told and on the teller of the story itself. In applying DNA to Peter, this article assumes the premise that Peter’s meaning-making, or construction of the dialogical self in dynamic relationship with Jesus, positioned him to be the spokesperson who narrated the events of Pentecost. Therefore, this article seeks to understand how Jesus’ naming and accompanying statement to Peter that “on this rock I will build my church” and the unfolding narrative of Peter’s discipleship uniquely prepare Peter for this role. …

What Does “Spiritual Anointing” Have To Do With Ministry To The Poor?, William L. Lyons

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

The Bible employs various tactics to draw readers’ attention to its message. When something new is about to happen, the clearest, direct track is sometimes preferable: “I [the LORD] am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth; do you not perceive it?” (Isa 43:19; emphasis mine). Similarly, in Jeremiah: “The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah” (Jer 31:31; emphasis mine). Another method employed by biblical writers repeats carefully chosen words to garner attention: “‘The LORD has done great things …