Digital Commons Network^™

Book Review: Remission: Rethinking How Church Leaders Create Movement By Gary Comer, Jim Roden

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Something Old, Something New: How New Churches Are Embracing Liturgy, Winfield Bevins

Great Commission Research Journal

The movement toward ancient church tradition has been well documented; however, there has also been a steady rise of new churches that are embracing church tradition and liturgy. The first part of this article will examine the history behind this movement and the factors that have contributed to its development. Next, it will look at four case studies of new churches that are embracing liturgy, which I refer to as neo-liturgical churches. It will end with an exploration of the promise that this may hold for reaching young adults.

That All May Hear: How Indigenous Church Music Encourages Church Growth In Africa, Trevor Yoakum

Great Commission Research Journal

This article demonstrates how indigenous church music can be an effective tool in promoting healthy church growth. After defining indigenous church music through the insights of ethnodoxology, the author explains how it engages local hearers through their own conceptual categories. This cognitive interaction is relevant in that it augments comprehension of biblical themes and content. But it also impacts hearers through the various levels of their worldview. The article ends with a case study of how a consortium of African theological institutions and IMB missionaries are developing orality-based indigenous music to teach, refute heresy, and evangelize the continent.

The Song Of Cuba’S Great Awakening: Music In Baptist Worship And Witness, Michael Sharp, Ed Steele

Great Commission Research Journal

From the 1990s to the present, Cuban Baptists have witnessed a time of unparalleled church growth. During that time frame, musicians have participated in ministries aimed at church growth by organizing largescale public musical events, compiling a Cuban hymnal that included indigenous Cubano worship songs, developing new programs of leadership training for church musicians, and employing music in missionary projects both at home and abroad. This article explores what can be learned from the Cuban Baptists’ experience regarding music as an effective tool in evangelism, the value of musicians reaching musicians as a mission strategy, the importance of ethnodoxology in …

The Life Of Donald Mcgavran: Leaving A Legacy, Gary L. Mcintosh

Great Commission Research Journal

As the Church Growth Movement continued to develop, it gained strength and respect. The establishing of the McGavran Chair of Church Growth was a red-letter day, which established the CGM as an academic discipline. Donald and Mary McGavran slowly backed away from direct ministry, but continued to follow the movement’s impact. This except reports the final years of McGavran’s life and ministry

The Christian Family: Implications Of Familial Language For The Identity Of The Church, Rebekah Lukas

Master of Art Theology Thesis

Lukas, Rebekah L. “The Christian Family: Implications of Familial Language for the Identity of the Church.” M.A. thesis, Concordia Seminary, 2020. 85 pp.

The family is a prominent image for the identity of the Church. Biblical language reflects the truth that the Church is a family, and God’s promises include familial rhetoric. For Christians, God is “Our Father who art in heaven,” and Jesus is our brother. Christians are made “sons of God” through Baptism, becoming a member of the whole family of God. These are essential aspects of the Christian’s identity. When the Church neglects its use of this …

Ascertaining Factors Affecting Church Congregational Affiliation Among Anglophone Caribbean Immigrants In South Florida, Sheryl Marks-Williams

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Video Church: The Effects Of The Video Church Model On Christian Hospitality, Assad Mohammed Saif

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Hospitality is fundamental to human spiritual growth. Jesus knew this. Therefore, Jesus spent much time seeking to encounter people in the spaces they naturally congregated in. God sent Jesus to come from heaven to earth to show people the incarnate God and his desire to welcome them into his family. More specifically, God sent Jesus to a specific culture in the world where he believed the message of God’s love could be viewed through the lens of hospitality. By using a grounded theory approach, the researcher set out to discover the methods by which hospitality is impacted within the video …

The Impact Of Presence And Touch On Church Growth, William Charles Berg

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project addresses the problem of discovering whether, when churches move to be physically present in their communities and engage in appropriate touch through serving, there is a corresponding impact in confession of faith and church growth. To answer this problem, the researcher began with the incarnation and trinity as a model of presence and touch. The researcher reviewed the Gospels to identify Jesus’ use of physical presence and touch in His ministry. The researcher also looked at the impact of presence and touch on the early church in the Book of Acts. He reviewed literature that focused on the …

Cultivating Relational, Developmental And Missional Discipleship Within A Lutheran Mega-Church, Richard Michael Webb

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Over the last two decades, many Lutheran mega-churches have become stagnant or have begun to decline in worship attendance. Some have even closed their doors, not surviving past their founding leadership. Furthermore, few of these mega-churches offer any kind of intentional growth pathway for their members. What is called discipleship often appears instead to be a classroom-driven assimilation process. This project addressed the problem Lutheran mega-churches have in making disciples by exploring the relational, developmental and missional aspects of discipleship and how they might be integrated into an effective discipleship strategy for use in these mega-churches. This project began with …

Assessing The Health Of An Established Urban Church To Develop A Strategic Plan For Growth, Alfonse Javed

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The health of a church is solely dependent on the health of its leadership. The more the leadership becomes imitators of Christ (Ephesians 5:1-2), the more the church resembles the image of Christ (Romans 8:29). This work seeks to determine the kind of healthy church leadership, which generates a healthy church culture for multiplying disciples. The purpose of this study is to assess the health of an established urban church in midtown Manhattan, and to evaluate the perception that one large church is more effective than multiple churches in order to discover an evangelistic approach that may help this and …

Reframing And [Re]Presenting Evangelism In Oral Cultures : A Case Study Of The Harare West (Mumc) Vabvuwi Choir In Zimbabwe, Irene M. Kabete

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Exodus/Bay Shore: How An Idea Became A Reality, Freda Elliott Baker

West Islip (New York) Church of Christ Audio Collection

Freda Eliott Baker recounts the story of the ExodusBayshore church plant.

Eradicating Recidivism: Evangelism For African American Men Impacted By Mass Incarceration, Anthony Mark Berry

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The Prison Industrial Complex impacts 2.3 million people, affects the poor, and the nation's minority family's ability to retain a sense of unity. These data impact community health with the absence of the father figures, lack of power to gain viable income, and in some cases, the right to vote. The issue decimates African American young men. This topic is needed because the research suggests a cyclic nature of excavation of human capital by incarceration and is depleting communities of capital by jailing wage earners from the Black community. Voting capital is dwindling in some states where felony crimes remove …

Reviews, Arden C. Autry Phd, Christopher G. Foster, Jennifer Greig-Berens, John Austin Helm, Thad R. Horner, Wonsuk Ma, Sandra Richardson, R. Samuel Thorpe, Jeffrey Voth, Ruth Whiteford

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

No abstract provided.

2019 Denominational Survey Results, Calvin University

CRCNA Denominational Survey Results

As part of the denominational ministry plan, Our Journey 2020, the CRCNA has contracted with Calvin College’s Social Research Center to administer a denominational survey every year. The results from the 2019 survey have now been compiled.

All CRC-affiliated adults and older youth are welcome to respond to this survey every year as they are led. In order to ensure a healthy number of responses to the survey every year, however, CRC leaders have randomly assigned every CRC church to one of five “cohorts.” Each cohort includes about 20 percent of all active congregations, and each congregation will be asked …

Mitigating Decline Of Church Growth Resulting From Misunderstanding Of Selected Messianic Passages In Psalms And Isaiah, Hiwatha Bell

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Paul admonishes the leaders in Ephesus to guard the flock whom God gave them oversight, to develop their spiritual insight by advancing their Scriptural aptitude so they would be able to withstand opposing forces outside the church as well as threats that would emerge from inside the church (Acts 20:28-30). Christ often engaged religious leaders in Judaism, accusing them of evangelizing to others (Matt. 23:15) and misleading those whom they had evangelized and proselytized (Matt. 15:1-13). The Bible is replete with Scriptures that require the shepherd to protect the sheep from wolves, thus the impetus for this report. This report …

Post-Founder Sustainability : Building Ministries That Outlive Their Founders, William Stephen Murrell

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Logic Of Intersubjectivity: Brian Mclaren’S Philosophy Of Christian Religion, Darren M. Slade

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

To survey harsh criticisms against Brian Douglas McLaren (1956‒), readers gain the inaccurate impression that he is a heretical relativist who denies objective truth and logic. While McLaren’s inflammatory and provocative writing style is partly to blame, this study also suspects that his critics base much of their analyses on only small portions of his overall corpus. The result becomes a caricature of McLaren’s actual philosophy of religion. The thesis of this dissertation is simple: McLaren is, in fact, a rationalist and empiricist, who utilizes irony, humor, generalization, and ridicule to disturb those expressions of faith common to mainstream, Western …

A Study On Church Revival And Growth Through Prayer Ministries: The Case Of Busan Sooyoungro Church In Korea, Dong Won Chun

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this study is to emphasize the necessity and importance of prayer ministries by studying the effect of prayer church revival and growth and to offer practical and concrete suggestions. Korean churches are currently experiencing a serious crisis of stagnation and decline due to their focus on the quantitative measurement of success and the moral failure of pastors. It is certain that various aspects of churches must go through major changes in order to overcome the current crisis and to revitalize the churches. It is meaningful to highlight the role of prayer ministries as a part of the …

Planting Healthy Churches Through The Lens Of Missional Discipleship, Melvin R. Reddy

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Faith In The Marketplace : Measuring The Impact Of Church Based Entrepreneurial Approaches To Holistic Mission, Samuel Lee

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Finding The Church Planting Model For Our Church: How Existing Churches Can Be Part Of The Church Planting Movement, Seungsoo Jun

Great Commission Research Journal

Church planting has become an effective method for revitalizing denominations. In many cases, however, church planting is limited to one or two charismatic leaders or a large church’s multi-site movement. This article attempts to present a roadmap to categorize the models of church planting. After understanding pathways for church planting, it suggests a method that enables existing churches to be part of this exciting movement of God.

An Alternative Mission Paradigm For Healthy Church Growth, Paul Seung-Oh An

Great Commission Research Journal

Christianity is becoming weaker and nominalized, and it is expected to be surpassed quantitatively by Islam in 2070. The purpose of this article is to analyze the limitations of the holistic mission paradigm, a representative view of mission today, in terms of healthy church growth, and to propose key points of an alternative mission paradigm which would be helpful for overcoming these limitations. The history of holistic mission is examined to show the identity and characteristics of the paradigm, and then an alternative mission paradigm that can contribute to healthy church growth is presented.

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 …

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 …

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.

Christian Scholars' Conference Records, 1981-2009, Christian Scholars' Conference

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

No abstract provided.