Digital Commons Network^™

Lifters And Gifters: Keeping Millennials And Boomers Together To Build The Church, Richard Wilkerson

Doctor of Ministry (DMin)

One of the great needs of the church at this moment is to keep the primary funders, “Gifters,” and the primary workers, “Lifters,” of the church together in order to grow healthy, thriving, life-giving, Spirit-inspired churches. Inspired by the experiences of declining and plateauing church the author has witnessed and experienced, this dissertation will examine how to keep the church family together generationally, while at the same time planting new churches with the generations still intact. The research within this project, comprised of a theological study of biblical principles, a study of current literature, and surveys and interviews from pastors, …

Technological Discipleship: How Modern Platforms Can Improve Devotional Habits In Core Church, Greg D. Phelps

Doctor of Ministry (DMin)

In a society immersed and fascinated with technological devices and tools, the researcher explored the extent to which online platforms can provide a productive means to implement discipleship programs in a church plant through the use of internet video devotional materials. The relatively low practice of regular devotional habits in today’s Church has become an increasing problem. The purpose of this project was to examine the possibility of spiritual formation within the congregants of Core Church through the use of online video devotions. The project consisted of sixteen online video devotions that were created from four sermons delivered at Core …

Urban Church Planting: Three Functional Shifts From The New Testament, Anthony Wagenersmith

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies

"Indeed, the very pulse of Adventist ministry beats strongest through apostolic mission. A basic consideration of the practical and exegetical link between the second advent of Christ and the apostolic witness for Christ must generate significant shifts in thinking and practice. Describing these as functional shifts rather than paradigm shifts—to emphasize the connection between theology and practice—what better framework to reflect upon urban church planting than that of the New Testament Church. Looking through a disciple-making and church planting lens, one can be challenged by three functional shifts for urban mission today: from places to people, from performers to equippers, …

The Beauty Of Change Continues : Effective Practices Of A Blended Ecology Of Church, Mark Dunwoody

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Toward A Post-Religious Urban Theology: The Missionary Movement Ethos In Secularized Contexts, Marcelo E. C. Dias

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies

"An urban theology should be the center of conversation with the current post-religious context that takes into serious consideration people’s search for meaning and the new spirituality in this age. Perhaps popular culture can give clues about contemporary meaning-making as well (Shannahan 2014:207-217). On the one side, history assures that an urban setting does not need to feel like a threat to the Christian faith. “Early Christianity was primarily an urban movement. The original meaning of the word pagan (paganus) was ‘rural person,’ or more colloquially ‘country hick.’ It came to have religious meaning because after Christianity had triumphed in …

Multicultural Urban Ministry In The Post-Apartheid Era:A Search For Identity And Unity In Diversity, Diói Cruz

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies

"This article explores the cultural-ethnic diversity of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in South Africa and its development in urban centers since the end of Apartheid. It examines challenges and opportunities for the transition to multicultural churches, and concludes by arguing that the culture of racial prejudice and suspicion can only be eradicated with the weapons of trust, faith, hope, and love."

Missional Apologetics: Keys To The Hearts And Minds Of Urban Young Professionals?, Sven Östring

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies

"research study in Australia indicated that one of the top spiritual repellents for non-Christian people is a focus on philosophical discussions and debating ideas. In spite of this, a significant percentage of Australian young professionals are still willing to consider changing their worldview if presented with the right circumstances and evidence. This article explores how apologetic material can missionally connect with the hearts and minds of urban young professionals. The Greater Sydney Conference and the South Pacific Division Adventist Media Center developed this approach based on a preliminary qualitative research study of an evangelistic series."

Country Versus City Tension: Historical And Socio-Religious Context Of The Development Of Adventist Understanding Of Urban Mission, Allan Novaes, Wendel Lima

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies

"The Adventist engagement in the evangelization of cities has been timid and, for many decades, even discouraged by an anti-urban attitude. This mentality of criticism and resistance to the cities was largely sustained through an incomplete and/or misreading of Ellen White’s writings (Jones 2013:716). This article seeks to describe Adventist rural/urban tension, the historical and social context of its origin, and how it has been softened by a contrasting broader view of Adventist urban mission."

Perceived Strengths And Weaknesses Of American Churches: A Quadrant Analysis Of Church-Based Ministries, David R. Dunaetz, Joshua Mcgowan

Great Commission Research Journal

The needs and expectations of both Christians and non-Christians concerning churches vary according to the cultural context. Similarly, a church’s ability to respond to these needs depends on its ability to fine-tune ministries so that they are appropriate to the cultural context. This study uncovers various elements of American church ministries (especially those that can be supported by technology) which church members consider important but which are poorly executed. A sample of 325 members of American churches indicated which ministries they considered most important and to what degree they believed that they were carried out well in their church. A …

Reach, Assimilate And Develop: Essential Keys For The Resurgence Of The Church In America, Gordon E. Penfold

Great Commission Research Journal

This article presents a way to understand church growth from the perspective of reaching, assimilating, and developing people in the church. In Re:Vision: The Key to Transforming Your Church, Aubrey Malphurs and Penfold researched the characteristics discovered in re-envisioning (turnaround) pastors. The two researchers gathered a great deal of information about the ministry and practices of effective pastors including statistics on worship attendance, conversions, and baptisms. The statistics on conversion and baptism did not find their way into the book. This article examines worship attendance, conversion, baptism, and assimilation rates of reporting pastors. These rates reveal a great deal about …

Visionary Differences, Chris Messerer

Great Commission Research Journal

Organizational vision is nearly universally accepted as being critically important to a church in any stage of growth or decline. Church plants and church revitalization efforts depend on organizational vision because it provides focus and direction. Organizational vision is also important because it inspires people to participate. Successful church planters and church revitalization leaders excel at casting vision. While church plants and church revitalizations have similarities, leading one is significantly different from leading the other. Likewise, organizational vision is different between a church plant and a church revitalization. This article analyzes the differences between an organizational vision for a church …

Attractional To Missional: A Strategic Transition Plan For Anastasia Baptist Church, Samuel F. Thigpen

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Anastasia Baptist Church (ABC) has existed for fifty years and has grown into a church of roughly sixteen-hundred regular worshipers. Over the last five years, ABC has plateaued in growth due to its focus on maintaining an attractional church structure. For ABC to grow and be healthy again, it must shift from an attractional model of discipleship to a hybrid one that utilizes both attractional and missional models of discipleship. This thesis seeks to investigate how ABC can strategically shift from an attractional to a hybrid model of discipleship. Research for this project will examine a biblical model for discipleship, …

Designing Non-Residential Theological Training Curriculum For Enph Vocational Ministers, Nixon A. Ng

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Speaking With God's Words : Preaching Training For A Multi-Site Church, Emmanuel P. Carlos

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Block Adoption: Evaluating The Impacts Of Neighborhood Care On Church Attendance At House Of Joy, Victor King

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

When a church plateaus, it is a major indication that the church is no longer adding new members. This is a dangerous stage for any church to be. If nothing is done to turn the situation around, the church will likely head down toward decline and death. This Thesis project addresses the problem of stagnation in church attendance. The Thesis project examines how block adoption can be used as an evangelism strategy to reach the people who live in the same community where a local church is located. The thesis project shows how block adoption can be planned and implemented. …

A Strategy For A Successful Church Plant In An Un-Churched, Yet Spiritual Culture, Ernest Smith

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Planting a church is difficult, especially when the church is planted in a post-Christian culture. Denver, Colorado is this type of culture and has commonly been called “A Church Planter’s Graveyard” by various church planters, church planting network leaders and senior pastors in Denver. According to the North American Mission Board and other reports, Denver is 88-95% un-churched. This writer moved to Denver in the summer of 2013 to plant a church. The goal is to create a different strategy to reach a community of people who are not Christ-followers. This strategy will research former and current Denver church planters. …

Mission In The Diaspora: The Role Of Migrants (Refugees) As Principal Bearers Of The Christian Faith, Emmanuel Anim

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

Th is paper explores migration and displacement as both a crisis and opportunity. It maintains that throughout biblical history—and even in the history of modern mission—migrants and refugees have often become the principal bearers of the Christian faith. In our own generation, Africans who have migrated to other parts of the world for various reasons have traveled with their faith. Many African churches such as Kingsway International Christian Centre, Th e Church of Pentecost, Winners Chapel International, International Central Gospel Church, and Victory Bible Church International have all established branches of their churches in the diaspora through the efforts of …

Maximizing Discipleship Via An Adult Small Group Ministry, Wendell Jeff Jackson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Since its inception in 1996, First Redeemer Church has been firmly committed to Jesus’ commission to make disciples. While all of the church’s ministries aim to do this, First Redeemer Church relies heavily on its adult small group ministry to facilitate discipleship. One indication of this ministry’s strategic importance is the considerable financial investment the church has made, and plans to make, to provide on-campus spaces for adult education. Such investments have been considered worthy in light of the expected spiritual growth of the ministry’s participants and their involvement in and financial support of the church. This study will evaluate …

Black-Led Multiethnic Churches : Understanding The Unique Challenges And Opportunities, Brian L. Taylor

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Perceptions Of The Discipleship Process In The Methodist Church In Kenya : A Study On Discipleship In Context Using The Kenyan Experience, Susan Nkatha Barriu Murithi

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of State Religious Policies On Christian Women’S Leadership Status In Vietnam: The Case Of The Evangelical Church Of Vietnam Since 1975, Le Ngoc Bich Ly

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper contributes to a feminist critique of multiculturalism by presenting the complexity of the relationship among the state, religion and women in the context of Vietnam. By taking the Evangelical Church of Vietnam—South as a case study, and based on both primary and secondary data obtained from in-depth interviews with 38 Vietnamese female and male church leaders in 2014–2016, and four months of fieldwork in southern Vietnam between February and May 2016, the paper argues that the assumption of equal rights and citizenship status for all women in the wider society according to the liberal model of multiculturalism cannot …

Women In Church Leadership: Raising The Awareness Of Women's Contributions To The Kingdom Of God In The Christian Reformed Church, Mary Walker

Doctor of Ministry

The official position of the Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRCNA) is that all congregations in the CRCNA may allow women to serve in the offices of minister, elder, deacon, or commissioned pastor. The problem is that 70 percent of the congregations remain convicted complementarians and do not call women into office. The debate over the biblical, historical, theological, philosophical, and ethical arguments for allowing women into leadership positions has so far failed to convince those 70 percent who are opposed to the idea.

In the Reformed tradition, the Word is principally taught with expository preaching. Doctrine is paramount. …

A Story, Metaphor, And A Matrix For The Truly Rural Church That Grows Christ Followers In An Uncertain Future, Lon Hider

Doctor of Ministry

The Church is always one generation away from extinction. There are larger trends that jeopardize the future of rural churches in my area. Evidence suggests there will not be enough Millennials to keep these rural churches viable. The rural churches built themselves on the “world-as-it-used-to-be.” But this world is fading with younger generations. Current approaches are unlikely to keep the ship afloat.

The “world-as-it-used-to-be” distorted the biblical narrative culminating in Christ. This story does not have weight with younger generations. If followers of Jesus in a rural context can embrace the correct biblical narrative, they can grow in their humanity …

The Melody Of Mutuality: Integrating Theological And Psychological Principles For Egalitarian Churches To Better Support Marriages, Jennifer J. Dean-Hill

Doctor of Ministry

The dynamic combination of the unique characteristics of man and woman have been described by author Carolyn Custis James as The Blessed Alliance. Yet power struggles, misunderstandings, and unmet expectations often plague the particular struggles of modern marriages therefore creating a demand for marriage therapists and psychological modalities that seek to rectify the conflictive divide among the genders. Marriage therapy has provided tools and methods for marriages to resolve their differences, strive for a relationship of equity, and develop a culture of mutuality. These new and improved marriages attend egalitarian churches, only to discover the gender wars are still being …

Traitors In The Service Of The Lord: The Role Of Church And Clergy In Appalachia's Civil War, Sheilah Elwardani

Masters Theses

Studies of the guerrilla war in the central and southern Appalachian Mountains reveal repeated instances of violence and threats directed at the pastors of mountain churches. Instances of churches being burned, pastors and laymen beaten and at times murdered are sprinkled throughout the primary source materials. The question raised here is why were pastors and specific churches being targeted for violence? The church was the center of the life for secluded Appalachian communities, church leadership carried tremendous weight in influencing loyalties. Research focused solely on the Dunkard Church in Floyd County, Virginia revealed that amidst a particularly violent guerrilla war, …

Adam Reinhold Schiewe---A Cross-Border Man Of Faith: A Baptist Trailblazer In Estonia, Poland, Ukraine, Germany, And Russia, Üllas Linder

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This study aimed at compiling a biography of the preacher Adam Reinhold Schiewe (1843–1930). Schiewe ministered in the territories of present-day Poland, Germany, Ukraine, Russia, and Estonia. His historical significance lies primarily in the formal founding of the first Baptist congregation in Estonia. Schiewe wrote memoirs of his life and is featured in a large number of fragmentary, at times even contradictory, sources. The author pointed out the inaccuracies found therein and reconstructed a plausible biography. The study was originally written in Estonian and was supported by a single scholarship from the ESF programme DoRa activity 8.

Rethinking Evangelism As Discipleship: Equipping Followers To Live Incarnational Lives Outside The Walls, Lisa A. Willey

Doctor of Ministry

This dissertation explores how local churches can help lay people live incarnational lives of reaching out and connecting or building relationships in their communities with the potential to share the gospel. To live an incarnational life means to allow Jesus to live through you in a way that changes your life and allows you to do what you otherwise could not do on your own. To live the life of a disciple or follower fosters a missional mindset and the desire to build relationships. To spring off of Len Sweet’s concept of MRI (Missional, Relational and Incarnational)1 I will explore …

Rethinking Foreign Missions: How Churches Can Engage In Global Missionary Work Without Leaving Their Communities, Stuart Alan Cocanougher

Doctor of Ministry

For three hundred years, the modern missions movement has established a paradigm in which evangelical churches, denominations, and parachurch agencies have recruited, trained, funded, and sent missionaries around the world. Taking seriously Christ’s command to reach the nations with the gospel, U.S. churches spend millions of dollars each year to send a few select missionaries to faraway nations, while most Christians are not engaged in cross-cultural ministry. But the world has changed. Now there are millions of foreigners living in the United States. I propose that evangelical church leaders consider a new strategy that involves training American Christians to minister …

The Use Of Spiritual Classics As A Resource For The Ongoing Formation Of Congregational Leaders With Special Reference To The Middle East, Hank Voss

Essays

No abstract provided.

Exodus/New Jersey Records, (1964-1971), Exodus/New Jersey

Center for Restoration Studies Archives, Manuscripts and Personal Papers Finding Aids

No abstract provided.