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Propers 17 (Pentecost 15) Series C 2016, Phillip L. Brandt

Sunday's Sermon

This PDF comments on the Propers for the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Series C, and offers ideas for proclamation and preaching.

Propers 16 (Pentecost 14) Series C 2016, Phillip L. Brandt

Sunday's Sermon

This PDF comments on the Propers for the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Series C, and offers ideas for proclamation and preaching.

Propers 15 (Pentecost 13) Series C 2016, Phillip L. Brandt

Sunday's Sermon

This PDF comments on the Propers for the Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Series C, and offers ideas for proclamation and preaching.

Propers 14 (Pentecost 12) Series C 2016, Phillip L. Brandt

Sunday's Sermon

This PDF comments on the Propers for the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost, Series C, and offers up ideas for proclamation and preaching.

Formulating An Intentional Curriculum For Spiritual Leadership Development At The West University Church Of Christ, Daniel A. Mcgraw

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

This project addresses the lack of a formal curriculum for spiritual leadership formation in the West University Church of Christ in Houston, Texas. While the West University Church of Christ has been blessed by strong congregational leaders in both the past and present, recent conversations revealed the need for a deeper connection to God and a better understanding of spiritual leadership on the part of the congregation’s leaders. The problem I identified was a lack of understanding about spiritual leadership in contrast to secular understandings of leadership and the lack of a formal curriculum to help address this problem.

This …

Propers 13 (Pentecost 11) Series C 2016, Phillip L. Brandt

Sunday's Sermon

This PDF comments on the Propers for the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost, Series C, and offers up ideas for proclamation and preaching.

Propers 12 (Pentecost 10) Series C 2016, Phillip L. Brandt

Sunday's Sermon

This PDF comments on the Propers for the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost, Series C, and offers up ideas for proclamation and preaching.

Propers 11 (Pentecost 9) Series C 2016, Phillip L. Brandt

Sunday's Sermon

This PDF comments on the Propers for the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost, Series C, and offers up ideas for proclamation and preaching.

Propers 10 (Pentecost 8) Series C 2016, Phillip L. Brandt

Sunday's Sermon

This PDF comments on the Propers for the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost, Series C, and offers up ideas for proclamation and preaching.

Propers 9 (Pentecost 7) Series C 2016, Phillip L. Brandt

Sunday's Sermon

This PDF comments on the Propers for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost, Series C, and offers up ideas for proclamation and preaching.

Sabbath And Creation, Kathryn M. Schifferdecker

Faculty Publications

Work and rest, planting and letting lie fallow—these are the rhythms by which both we and the earth are sustained, as on creation’s first Sabbath. “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.…Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest.” It is, of course, a word of law. For those who have ears to hear, however, it is also a word of promise.

Book Review: Leading Church Multiplication: Locally, Regionally, Nationally By Tom Nebel And Steve Pike, David Yetter

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

How To Study The Bible For Transformation., S. Joseph Kidder

Faculty Publications

"The primary purpose of the Bible is not to communicate information but to change and transform us at the level of our hearts. In other words, in addition to reading the Bible for the purpose of information, Christians must also commit to regularly reading God’s Word for the purpose of transformation."

Propers 8 (Pentecost 6) Series C 2016, Phillip L. Brandt

Sunday's Sermon

This PDF comments on the Propers for the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, Series C, and offers up ideas for proclamation and preaching.

Propers 7 (Pentecost 5) Series C 2016, Phillip L. Brandt

Sunday's Sermon

This PDF comments on the Propers for the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, Series C, and offers up ideas for proclamation and preaching.

Propers 6 (Pentecost 4) Series C 2016, Phillip L. Brandt

Sunday's Sermon

This PDF comments on the Propers for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost, Series C, and offers up ideas for proclamation and preaching.

Propers 5 (Pentecost 3) Series C 2016, Phillip L. Brandt

Sunday's Sermon

This PDF comments on the Propers for the Third Sunday after Pentecost, Series C, and offers up ideas for proclamation and preaching.

The Development Of The Life-Healing Program In Churches For The Restoration Of God's Image, Young Park

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This study is an attempt to introduce a pastoral system called Life-healing to Restore God’s Image. God made man in His image when He created him. The image, however, was broken because of the fall. Even after becoming a new creation by believing in Jesus, many Christians remain the same instead of experiencing the restoration of God’s image. Korean churches have grown in number and emphasize doctrines but face criticism for not exemplifying the life resembling God’s image. In an effort to overcome the criticisms, the researcher biblically analyzes the concept of God’s image and examines the theological resources related …

Propers 4 (Pentecost 2) Series C 2016, Phillip L. Brandt

Sunday's Sermon

This PDF comments on the Propers for the Second Sunday after Pentecost, Series C, and offers up ideas for proclamation and preaching.

Festival Of The Holy Trinity Series C 2016, Phillip L. Brandt

Sunday's Sermon

This PDF comments on the readings for the Festival of Holy Trinity, 2016 and offers up sermon ideas.

Festival Of Pentecost Series C 2016, Phillip L. Brandt

Sunday's Sermon

This PDF comments upon and proposes sermon ideas for the Festival of Pentecost, Series C.

The Perceived Need For Spiritual Development Among Female Church Of Christ Students At Harding University, Anessa Westbrook

Discernment: Theology and the Practice of Ministry

This work explores how female students perceive their need for personal spiritual development. In a male-dominant structure, women may question their need to develop spiritually. Three areas of college life were investigated to see how they influenced female students’ perception of their own need for spiritual development: pre-college experiences, classroom experiences, and co-curricular religious activities. The research questions focused on these three areas in an effort to identify what was most effective in achieving spiritual growth among female students from a Church of Christ background. A survey was conducted among a sample of 610 sophomore female and male students.

Results …

A Narrative, Missional Approach To Discipleship And Spiritual Growth, Travis A. Sharpe

Discernment: Theology and the Practice of Ministry

All Christians have the desire to grow in faith and knowledge of God. The difficulty is that most do not have the tools to help them accomplish the task. While churches desire to help their members grow in faith, many have never created an intentional plan to make spiritual formation possible. While there are a multitude of ways this could be accomplished, one avenue would be for churches to implement an intentional discipleship program. A discipleship program that combines a missional/narrative reading of scripture with spiritual disciplines has been shown to help participants grow in spiritual formation and join the …

Through The Lens Of The Cross: Cruciformity As A Model For Teaching Ministry, Benjamin D. Pickett

Discernment: Theology and the Practice of Ministry

As the contemporary church travels deeper into the postmodern era, modern methods of education and catechesis have remained. In this paper, a foundational set of principles drawn from Michael Gorman’s analysis of Pauline spirituality—known as “cruciformity”—is examined and presented as a lens to inform and support the teaching ministry in churches. Gorman’s thought provides a fresh way to understand the central theme of Paul’s correspondence to the first century churches.

The paper begins with a brief explanation of the current conditions regarding the adult education ministry of churches and then examines Gorman’s cruciform patterns of faith, love, power, and hope, …

Easter 7 Series C 2016, Phillip L. Brandt

Sunday's Sermon

This PDF comments on the readings for the Seventh Sunday of Easter, Series C, and offers up sermon ideas.

Easter 6 Series C 2016, Phillip L. Brandt

Sunday's Sermon

This PDF comments on the readings for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, Series C, and offers up sermon ideas.

Challenging Students At Fort Worth Christian School To Engage The Economically Disadvantaged In Their Community, James Hensley

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

This doctor of ministry thesis presents a project in which I led a group of students at Fort Worth Christian School in experiences that challenged them to be more engaged with the economically disadvantaged in their community. The problem I identified at the outset of the project was a lack of such experiences along with troubling attitudes about poverty. Many students initially demonstrated ambivalence or even outright hostility toward the notion of helping people who live in poverty. I found such attitudes to be contrary to the teachings of Jesus and to my central beliefs as a Christian. I believed …

Obligations Of Grace, Mark E. Roberts

Empowered21 Global Network of Spirit-Empowered Scholars

Grace obliges recipients to respond in gratitude and obedience to God, the giver of grace. While the New Testament emphasizes God's grace given through Jesus Christ in a New Covenant with believers, the Old Testament emphasizes grace more than many Christians recognize. Grace is expressed in the Old Testament especially through God's free choosing of Abraham as the "father of the faithful," through divine covenants with Abraham, with the divinely constituted nation of Israel, and with the governing house of David. Such grace abounds when God's covenanted people fail to keep their covenant, yet God, after disciplining the covenant people …

Exploring The Dynamics Of Transformative Change Of Lectio Divina In The Context Of Transformative Learning Theory, Joyce M. Chen

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Biblical Principles Of Small Group Ministry, Shawn Barr

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Small group ministry models abound today, and so do the materials that provide the methodology for these models. However, there seems to be a dearth of resources that connect the methods with a theological foundation. This project will demonstrate the need for examining small groups from a theological aspect, and then examine the principles of biblical community as found in Scripture. These principles will then be measured through surveys of at least fifty participants in small group settings from several churches, including the churches where the author was the small group pastor for the last seven years and where he …