Digital Commons Network^™

The Soil Test: Facilitating Increased Receptivity To Spiritual Formation In A Large Church Through Education, Motivation, And Resources, Rosemary Moore

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Decades of recent research and writing about spiritual formation and discipleship assume that there will be growth in spiritual maturity if churches have more models and biblical information. However, the literature addresses the wrong problem; it presupposes that the church is ready for spiritual formation. In their efforts to facilitate it, those trying to help the church are like the farmer who sows seed onto unprepared soil. Good seeds, such as discipleship groups, are sown into the soil of the church without paying attention to whether the soil can produce a harvest. The project posited that five conditions should be …

Review Of Transforming Higher Education With Human-Centered Design, Vu Tuong Quyen

Book Reviews

No abstract provided.

Navigating The In-Between: Transformational Practices In The Church's Liminal Spaces, Matthew James Engel

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation-in-praxis explored the concepts of transformational and adaptive leadership within the Christian Church during periods of liminality, emphasizing the continuous presence and certainty of challenges rather than focusing on specific challenges such as digital technologies, attractional methods, or COVID-19. The study draws upon Bass's transformational leadership theory (1985) and Heifetz’s (1994) adaptive leadership theory to establish a framework emphasizing the importance of thorough leadership training in times of uncertainty and transition. Integrating biblical narratives, the study highlights the need for adaptive and visionary leadership in religious contexts. Employing a mixed-methods approach involving quantitative surveys and qualitative measurement of responses …

Developing An Evangelistic Training Class For Revitalization Of Outward Evangelism At Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church In Ringgold, Virginia, Anthony R. Pass

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This thesis research project asserts that evangelizing the unchurched is essential to being an effective disciple of the Lord’s kingdom. Mt. Zion’s participants must have a heart for sharing the gospel with people outside of their church environment, and evangelizing those in their local community is a great start. Mt. Zion’s evangelism focus has slipped into the background of everything else, and the researcher created an evangelistic training class (ETC) to teach willing participants at Mt. Zion electric shock evangelism to shock their hearts into the rhythm of sharing the gospel. This spiritually healthy regiment will benefit those who witness …

An Organizational Approach For Teaching, Coaching And Empowering Displaced People, Tiffani J. Holloway

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This document will describe the issue of homelessness, the needs of the homeless/ displaced people, and how those needs can be addressed by creating a program. The purpose of the Transformational Home Empowerment Services for Everyone (THESE) program is to provide valuable resources to displaced individuals living within a shelter or transitional housing. The leader of this program used transformational and servant leadership skills, which will be described in the text. This program's vision, objectives, outputs, and outcomes will be listed. Details about the collaborating organization, Alice’s Home of Hope shelter, and information about the organization’s leadership and program participants …

The Art Of Inclusion: Theatre’S Contribution To Popular Culture Literacy For Students With Intellectual Disabilities, Catherine R. P. King

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

This essay explores the transformative role of theatre in special education, focusing on its capacity to foster social skills and life navigation abilities in students with disabilities. In light of the fundamental importance of these skills for social inclusion and quality of life, the article highlights the innovative and effective approach to integrating theatre into special education classrooms. It discusses how theatre can empower students with disabilities by enhancing their social interaction, communication, and life navigation skills. In addition, the article delves into the intersection of theatre and popular culture, showcasing how theatre can serve as a valuable tool for …

Avoiding Common Pitfalls In Medical Writing: An Editor’S Advice, Deanna Erin Conners

Milne Open Textbooks

Avoiding Common Pitfalls in Medical Writing is a useful companion text to comprehensive style guides for the biomedical sciences. This book walks authors through best practices for writing scientific papers and grant proposals in a concise and accessible format. Authors and teachers worldwide will benefit from these shared insights of an experienced scientific editor.

Read this book online at: https://milnepublishing.geneseo.edu/medical-writing/

Better In Pairs: Divide The Indo-Pacific Theater In Half, Tim Devine

Joint Force Quarterly

This article argues that the Department of Defense should reconsider the current geographic organization of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and create a second geographic combatant command in the region. The author contends that USINDOPACOM’s vast area of responsibility, expanding subordinate structure, growing operational demands, and increasing strategic competition with China are placing excessive strain on a single theater headquarters. Drawing on the U.S. experience in the Pacific during World War II, when separate commands under Admiral Chester Nimitz and General Douglas MacArthur divided responsibilities across the theater, the article presents a dual-command model as a historically proven way to improve span …

Ethical Leadership Development: Highlights From The Past And A Glimpse Of The Future, Elias Ursitti, Eric J. Weis, Donald P. Loren

Joint Force Quarterly

This article traces the development of ethical leadership in the U.S. military over the past century and argues that character, integrity, and ethical judgment remain essential to the profession of arms. Using the Eisenhower School’s centennial as a framework, the authors review how military ethics have adapted to changing forms of warfare, technology, law, civil-military relations, and social expectations from the interwar period through the post–Cold War era. They highlight recurring challenges involving civilian protection, command responsibility, nuclear weapons, counterinsurgency, autonomous systems, private military contractors, diversity and inclusion, toxic leadership, and the psychological effects of war. Looking ahead, the article …

Using Situational Leadership To Disciple And Develop Men For Spiritual Leadership In The Home, Christopher N. Andrews

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

God has designed the family to be the primary source of faith and spiritual formation, commanding all parents to pass along the faith and teach the commandments to their children. Scripture teaches that men hold a special role as the spiritual leader of the home. For men to fulfil this God appointed role they need to be trained and mentored. At the time of this research there was no formal ministry dedicated to the spiritual development of men at FBC Brandenburg. The purpose of this research was to test the Situational Leadership Model in a discipleship program designed to train …

Marianist Holistic Education: Bridging Divides For The Common Good, Katrina Kelly Wicker

Research and Reflection on Learning and Teaching in Higher Education

Bridging Divides for the Common Good seeks to rediscover and redefine the essence of holistic education within the Marianist tradition, with a steadfast commitment to understanding what a holistic Marianist education is. Key objectives include benchmarking perspectives of both students and staff on the facets of holistic education imbued with the Marianist spirit and integrating pedagogical strategies that incorporate ongoing assessments and dialogues to uphold these principles effectively. The article explores building cultural competence to create an educational environment that is inclusive and safe. The article highlights the importance of incorporating the Five Characteristics of a Marianist education into curricula …

Full Issue

Intersections

No abstract provided.

Access, Accessibility, & Change: A Call For Trustworthy Leadership In Higher Education, Emma Jones

Intersections

No abstract provided.

Blanket Statements, Issue 165, Fall 2024

Blanket Statements: News Publication of the American Quilt Study Group

Blanket Statements, Issue 165, Fall 2024

A Graceful Pedagogy: An Approach To Academic Advising Diffracted Through Love For Equitable Support Of Students Identifying As Black And Male At Two-Year Community Colleges, Ian Kelso Bodkin

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

This study explores the concept of “a graceful pedagogy” as a framework for academic advising within two-year community colleges, with a focus on supporting students who identify as Black and male. Guided by an approach rooted in diffractive methodology and inspired by bell hooks’ principles of love and engaged pedagogy, the research examines how advisors can create meaningful, equitable, and supportive relationships that account for the unique realities faced by these students. Through consciousness-raising sessions, the study captures the complexities of advising as an emotional, relational, and transformative practice. Participants engaged in intra-active dialogues of diffraction uncovering the entanglements of …

Artists On Creative Administration, Tonya Lockyer

University of Akron Press Publications

Brilliant artists share stories on artistic life and business, full of lessons we can all learn about living a creative life. Featuring the voices of thirty artists and arts workers, Artists on Creative Administration: A Workbook from the National Center for Choreography provides first-hand accounts of creative administration in action. The book pairs big topics with actionable tactics, addressing themes like equity, activism, design thinking, leadership, collaboration, family, ethics, and care. Provocative, candid essays and interviews expand our view of what creativity and leadership can be, as each chapter closes with experiments for the reader to try and adapt to …

What Lessons Can Be Learned From The United Nations Preventive Deployment Mission In North Macedonia, On The Border Of Two Civilizations: Nothing Fails Like Success?, Mary Frances Lebamoff

Comparative Civilizations Review

Preventive deployment as a conflict prevention tool has not recurred in the past several decades, despite the broadly acclaimed success of the United Nations Preventive Deployment in Macedonia, UNPREDEP 1995-1999, and of its predecessor missions, UNPROFOR/Macedonia, and UNPROFOR/M 1992-1995.

The United Nations in particular has continued with mainly first- and second-generation peacekeeping, peacemaking and peacebuilding actions even on civilizational borders. What may best explain why there has been no other engagement in preventive deployment missions? There has been much emphasis placed formally and informally on early warning, detection, mitigation, and prevention of conflict. There have also been increasing numbers of …

A Delphi Study Defining Catholic Identity In American Diocesan Catholic Higher Education, Katherine E. Grooms

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Over the past 60 years, there have been general comments and outcry that Catholic higher education schools simply are not Catholic enough anymore. The concern about the lack of identity started with the decline in ordained leadership and mounting pressures to compete with secular institutions. To measure if Catholic identity has declined, a working definition of Catholic identity is needed. This study employed the Delphi methodology to define Catholic identity among a subset of Catholic higher education institutions—diocesan-sponsored schools. The primary research question was how the identified schools defined Catholic identity, with subquestions that included who was responsible for the …

An Examination Of Employee's Perceived Level Of Their Leader's Religiosity As A Moderator Of The Relationship Between An Employee's Religiosity And Job Satisfaction, Brad Carney

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether an employee’s perceived level of their leader’s religiosity moderates the relationship between an employee’s level of religiosity and job satisfaction. The participants in this research study were recruited through the utilization of a snowball sampling method, primarily leveraging Liberty University’s doctoral student email list and social media platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn. Participants in the study were required to be 18 and older and had been employed under their current leader for a minimum of one year. The total sample size was N=65. The researcher used a quantitative self-reporting survey …

Examining The Theory Of Planned Behavior As An Explanation For Why Some Creatives Learn To Use Generative Ai Tools, Navrose Bajwa

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Artificial Intelligence (AI) can create art which earlier was restricted to humans. This involvement of AI in creating art poses risks of automation for the arts and design industry. One way with which artists can respond to this threat is to engage in proactive coping behavior and learn to use generative AI (GAI) for their work. Using an expanded version of Theory of Planned Behavior, this study looked at the predictors of graphic designer’s intentions to learn how to use GAI for art and design work. It was hypothesized that attitudes, social norms, perceived behavioral control and automation awareness would …

Deviance And Innovation: Change In A “Society Of Saints”, Thaddeus V. Drake, Derrick L. Mcclain

Joint Force Quarterly

Μilitary innovation and adaptation studies are a growth industry. Since the publication of Barry Posen’s seminal study The Sources of Military Doctrine in the early 1980s, the field has grown extensively. Despite well-known military thinkers’ recent book-length treatments of the topic, most studies of change in the military retain two key commonalities. First, nearly all assume that innovation or adaptation is inherently good and worth pursuing. Second, they agree that militaries are famously resistant to change and accept this as part of the fundamental nature of the military system. This article acknowledges the first point; indeed, modern military leaders continually …

Effective Strategies For Building Traditional Church Membership, Carlos Blake

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A dwindling number of congregational members poses a significant risk to the continuity of U.S. churches. Leaders in traditional congregations need effective tactics for membership expansion. Drawing upon Bolman and Deal’s four-frame theory, the purpose of this qualitative pragmatic inquiry was to explore effective strategies leaders of traditional churches use to build membership. The participants were six leaders from traditional churches situated in the Southern and Eastern parts of the United States. Data were collected by conducting semistructured interviews and archival documents. Thematic analysis of the data revealed four prominent themes: influential leadership, community involvement, use of technology and social …

Servant Leader Choral Conductor: The Effect Of Servant Leadership In Community Choirs And Community Partnerships, Zachary Debois Cooke

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Despite servant leadership primarily establishing itself as an appropriate leadership style, there is little research on how servant leadership affects community choirs in music education. Community choirs are prevalent in music education due to the number of individuals seeking choral experiences and community gatherings to sing and express their musicality. This hermeneutic qualitative phenomenological study explores the leadership styles of community choir choral conductors and their perspectives on servant leadership. By surveying current choral conductors of community choirs and community partnerships, this qualitative study identifies the overarching leadership styles and servant leadership qualities that are consciously considered or not implemented …

Missional Leadership: An Instructional Program To Cultivate Leaders Of A Missional Church, Conner Mathias Brew

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this action research project is to design, execute, and evaluate a small group instructional framework that cultivates a missional culture focused on communal discipleship at MVMNT Church, a local church in the Association of Related Churches network, while also addressing a gap in scholarship surrounding the interrelation of discipleship and the missional church. Using a mixed-methods approach, this study leveraged inductive thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with survey data to validate the lack of discipleship activity at MVMNT Church and moderate-to-low comprehension of topics related to mission, discipleship, and leadership in the church. This project recommended and …

School Counselors’ Perceptions And Descriptions Of Their Career Counseling Efforts For Non-Honor Roll Students In Career Management, Sherlette C. Burkhalter

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

High-quality career counseling is freely available at U.S. high schools. However, many students choose not to participate in career planning programs, despite being assigned to a school counselor for guidance. There is a projected increase in demand for school counselors; however, there needs to be more literature regarding whether high school students are taking advantage of career planning and how counselors cope with and manage their role in implementing career counseling programs. The purpose of this study was to explore school counselors’ perceptions and descriptions of their career counseling efforts for non-honor roll students in career management. The theoretical framework …

A Decade Of Earth-Centered Scholarship And Activism, Elizabeth Allison

CIIS Faculty Publications

Origin stories reveal the myriad causes that converge to birth a new initiative. On the occasion of its tenth anniversary, this essay looks back to document the context and intellectual lineage out of which the Ecology, Spirituality, and Religion graduate program at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) emerged in 2013, and suggests some possibilities for the future of transdisciplinary education and the fields of religion and ecology (e.g. Tucker and Grim 2001), religion and nature (e.g. B. Taylor 2010), and spiritual ecology (e.g. Sponsel 2012) more broadly.

Discerning The Missional Implications Of Context: A Demographic Study Of Great Falls For The Great Falls Church Of Christ, Matthew C. Burleson

DMin Project Theses

The purpose of this Lipscomb University June 2024 Doctor of Minstry project thesis was to discern the missional implications of GFCC’s (Great Falls Church of Christ) context. Three components comprised the larger purpose. First, the purpose was to survey the mission of God in Scripture with a team made up of members from GFCC. This survey would facilitate the missional aspect of discerning the missional implications. Second, the purpose was to acquaint this team with practices and principles of spiritual discernment. Acquainting the team with these practices would facilitate the discerning aspect of discerning the missional implications. Third, the purpose …

Reframing Radical Innovation In Pursuit Of Sustainable Futures, Timothy Cook, Leigh-Anne Hepburn

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Innovation affords us modern lifestyles filled with advanced technology and social structures; however, such development comes at a significant cost to the planet, posing an existential threat to humanity. In our highly complex and networked world, there is an urgency to achieve more sustainable, just and resilient futures. As design seeks to drive sustainable and systemic change, what is the role of radical innovation? And what do we want it to be? This study revisits and reframes the somewhat ambiguous concept of ‘radical innovation’ to broaden our understanding of its role, impact, and potential. We present a machine-learning-enabled literature review …

Is Community Currency Feasible In Rural China? A Field Study On Waste Sorting Improvement Via Green Passbook, Yinman Guo, Han Meng, Ying Hu, Xing Du, Tie Ji

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The Green Passbook is a Community Currency mechanism applied to waste sorting initiatives in rural areas of China. A field study was conducted at the Green Passbook national demonstration site to evaluate the local effectiveness of its practice. Through semi-structured interviews and qualitative research using the KJ method, the study shows that using a top-down approach to implement a Green Passbook policy in rural waste sorting reduces garbage and enhances awareness. Nevertheless, the standardized Green Passbook model is adopted in diverse ways across various social systems. The result shows the improvement in community and system attributes in three areas: perceived …

Workplace Wellbeing And Interior Design: A Systematic Literature Review, Nadine Fayyad, Busayawan Lam, Richard Evans, Youngok Choi

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper offers a systematic review of the literature on workplace wellbeing and interior design, exploring the creation and evaluation of appealing environments that enhance employee wellbeing. This paper adopts a systematic approach to review using the guidelines of Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). Multiple databases were searched. The final review included 55 studies out of 472 that examined factors related to workplace wellbeing. The findings of this study suggest that background noise and open-plan workspaces negatively affect workplace wellbeing, while visual connections with plants and natural objects enhance it. This paper extends the current literature …