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Worship Space And Immigrant Memory: Korean Parishes In Los Angeles And New Jersey, Hansol Goo Ph.D. (Cand.)

Journal of Global Catholicism

It has been often observed that national parishes in the US play a central role for Catholic immigrants in preserving and transmitting the cultural heritage of the community. For Catholic immigrants, a parish is more than a place of worship. It is a source of belonging, comfort, friendship, social interaction, and most importantly, a place in which the immigrant’s cultural heritage is reaffirmed and preserved. The early European immigrants to the US built their national parishes following the architectural style of their homelands, by which they could express their cultural identity. However, more recent arrivals like Asians and Hispanics are …

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

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

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 …

Addressing The Intergenerational Disconnect Through Small Group Ministry In A Rural Church, George Russell Strickland

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Programs and activities at church are designed primarily to minister to the needs of specific age groups. Though this style of ministry has its place in the church, if not monitored, it can cause a division among the generations in the church. The division that exists can create a “we versus them” mindset. The generational division can create an attitude that affects the unity of the church while also a competition for resources and style preference in the church. This division also creates a culture of anemic discipleship from a lack of investment across generational lines that is a biblical …

Relational Evangelism: Family-To-Family Through Recreational Activities, Kimberly R. Williams

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The goals of this Doctor of Ministry thesis project are to explore and implement an approach to evangelism that has the potential of family connection through relational evangelism. The approach delivers the gospel message through family to family encounters in recreational activities. The church, Idlewild Baptist Church (IBC) has a unique communal opportunity to enhance ministry efforts through relational evangelism. The church leaders at IBC realize that they can do more with their recreation center on their campus by using it as a resource for outreach connecting with unchurched families and families without a church affiliation. An identifiable dilemma in …

The Spiritual Impact Of Female Pastoral Leadership On Members Of New Heritage Fellowship, Cheryl Russell

DMin Project Theses

This April 2023 Doctor of Ministry project thesis at Lipscomb University examines how, today, many females are waiting for opportunities to serve in pastoral leadership, hoping to partner with local churches to help carry the story of God forward in a moment of great vulnerability for the church, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, very few churches are opening their doors to females for key leadership roles, upholding a long tradition of male-only leadership. This project explores the spiritual impact of egalitarian culture and female pastoral leadership on the members of New Heritage Fellowship. My hope is that …

Intergenerational Discipleship At St. Paul's Smoke Church, Elle Rulavage

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Intergenerational ministry through discipleship is found in the archetype of Christ and His disciples. St. Paul’s Smoke Church in Windsor Township, Pennsylvania, has impacted and influenced the area through many centuries in the generational call to follow Christ. The church has seen its ebbs and flows. In the past decade, membership has tremendously decreased, but the heart of love for God and its community is lasting. The pandemic of COVID-19 had limited ministry in the traditional sense. Still, the unorthodox ways of ministry were sought out and employed to continue St. Paul’s Smoke Church in its operation and functionality while …

My Pilgrimage In Church Growth, Gary L. Mcintosh

Great Commission Research Journal

A short autobiography by Gary McIntosh focusing on his role in the Church Growth Movement

Growing And Declining Churches Face Different Challenges: A Statistical Analysis Of The Top Ten Challenges Facing Churches Study, David R. Dunaetz

Great Commission Research Journal

The data behind the study The Top Ten Challenges Facing Churches (Moody, 2023) is presented and analyzed with a focus on differences between growing churches and non-growing churches. Church leaders (N = 129) indicated how difficult they believed it would be for North American churches to overcome 50 potential challenges. For most challenges, no significant difference between the church leaders from growing and non-growing churches was detected. However, church leaders from non-growing churches viewed 1) attractiveness of programs, 2) retaining young adults, 3) youth programs, 4) small group participation, and 5) effective strategy as more difficult challenges to overcome than …

Finding Them, Keeping Them – Strategies For Evangelism And Assimilation: A Review Of The Books Written By Gary L. Mcintosh, Gordon E. Penfold

Great Commission Research Journal

A short review of each of the twenty-seven books by Gary L. McIntosh traces the development of the author’s thought up to his latest release in January 2023. This review demonstrates that McIntosh’s passion is to see churches and Christian leaders apply classical biblical church growth principles in their ministry contexts. His passion for reaching and assimilating new people, and for developing Christian leaders to carry out Christ’s Great Commission with a Great Commandment passion permeates each book. The breadth and depth of his knowledge are demonstrated in his many volumes with little overlap in their subject matter. His works …

Great Commission Research Journal Spring 2023, David R. Dunaetz

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Teaching High School Students An Apologetic Curriculum On Relativism, Ryan G. Willert

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this action research project is to develop and teach an apologetic curriculum on relativism to the high school students at Eastern Hills Church. The research project will measure the student's prior knowledge of relativism and show that an apologetic curriculum on the topic can be used in order to grow their knowledge of the worldview that inhabits their generation. There were twenty total student participants. Eight total male students ranging from 9th grade to the 12th grade level. There were twelve female students ranging from the 9th grade to the 11th grade level. Each student was given …

Wrestling With Disturbing Bible Passages : A Trinitarian Approach For Adults At Tri-Lakes United Methodist Church That Engages Family Systems Theory And The Twelve Steps, Jason L. Baxter

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Women And Their Roles In The Church, Matthew Niles

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Women and Their Roles in the Church, addresses the disagreement about the roles women are allowed to serve in at Faith Baptist Church. The problem is that congregants are disagreeing about what roles women are allowed to serve in at the church. This disagreement has led to people leaving the church and finding new churches. The purpose of this study is to develop a small group curriculum to teach leading examples of women from the Bible. The purpose of the study would help expand the participants' understanding of what roles women are allowed to serve in at their local church. …

Index Of Discernment Articles

Discernment: Theology and the Practice of Ministry

These pages present an index of work published in Discernment: Theology and the Practice of Ministry from Volume 1, Issue 1 until Volume 8, Issue 2. Lists by subjects and authors are presented.

The Decline And Absence Of Young Adults At Grace Place Christian Church, Michael Carnell Mcgill

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of the study was to address the problem of low attendance and engagement among young adults at Grace Place Christian Church. This topic is given consideration based on the researcher’s observation of the absence of this demographic within the local ministry context. The literature review revealed this is a common problem throughout the Body of Christ. Grace Place Christian Church is a predominately African American within a military community. The unique characteristics of this ministry context warranted research specific to it. The researcher interviewed twenty unchurched young adults and ten pastors and collected over one hundred nine questionnaires …

Applying Paul’S Areopagus Model To Generation Z, Tanita Maddox

Great Commission Research Journal

The members of Generation Z are today’s adolescents and young professionals, bringing with them their own culture. This culture requires other generations to use a cross-cultural approach to evangelism, as modeled by Paul in Athens (Acts 17:16-34). Paul observed the Athenian culture, built rapport, used common language with his audience, found common ground as a cultural doorway for his message, and redefined the audience’s understanding of the relationship between God and humans. The same steps can be applied to gospel proclamation to Generation Z for effective and relevant evangelism.

How To Help The Bi-Vocational Pastor At Sandy Grove Church To Have Balance In Ministry And Life Through Equipping & Teaching Of The Saints Along With A Structured Plan To Meet The Ministry Demands, Duran Kiley Odoms

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Burnout, a subject that was birthed in the 1970s was only associated with the private and public sectors of the workforce. It has transitioned into other avenues where personal interaction takes place. Ministry is a profession where people interaction happens weekly and sometimes daily. Ministry is repetitive work that must be done daily, weekly, and monthly. Many pastors have fallen prey to this awful and painful enemy. Burnout has caused many pastors to lose their church, family, and life. The lack of ministry assistance and the demand for the job have taken a toll on many pastors whether they are …

Developing Practices Within The Lord’S Supper That Develop Central Identity At Queen City Church Of Christ, Ryan Russell

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

This project was designed to meet a need at the Queen City Church of Christ (QCC) for developing intentional practices around the Lord’s Supper for forming a central identity in a diverse community. The scope of this project focuses on the project group’s ability to develop practices based on the theology of the Lord’s Supper, biblical teaching, engaging in practices of spiritual formation as a group, and their observations of Lord’s Supper practices in other Christian traditions. Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth provides the textual context for the discussion of the role the Lord’s Supper plays within …

Christian Sexuality: Five Session Small-Group Study, Christian Dollar

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

Christian sexual ethics have always set the Church apart from the world. The division between Church and world goes deeper than its incongruence with its early Greco-Roman context of sexual slavery and pervasive homosexuality. Jesus’ teaching on sexuality was shocking to his Jewish context as well. Jesus’ radical commitment to the integrity of marriage left his disciples questioning the feasibility of the institution, all the more since the teaching contradicted the pattern of divorce instituted by scripture (Matt 19:1-10). Behind Jesus’ vision of human sexuality stood God’s original design for marriage rooted in the creation of sexed bodies designed for …

Grapho 2022, Kendall Davis

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

The Light from Generation to Generation

Tradition: Handing Down The Light To The Next Generation, Kristen Einertson

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

When my husband and I found out that I was pregnant with our first child, we started discussing the ways we hoped to hand down the faith to our children one day. Initially, the things that our own parents had done when we were younger helped us to come up with a pretty familiar list of activities: getting them baptized soon after they arrived, going to church regularly, teaching them to pray before mealtimes and bedtime, reading Bible stories, and familiarizing them with the church’s hymns. If there was one nearby—and we wanted to get a little crazy—maybe we would …

Book Review: When Everything Is Mission By Denny Spitters And Matthew Ellison, Kenneth Nehrbass

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Making Online Children’S Ministry Interactive In Wheaton, Illinois, Eric Norregaard, Ping Ng

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Innovativeness And Church Commitment: What Innovations Were Most Important During The Pandemic?, Anna Covarrubias, David R. Dunaetz, Wendi Dykes Mcgehee

Great Commission Research Journal

The COVID-19 pandemic created an unprecedented need for innovations in churches around the world. Organizational innovativeness, a precursor of successful innovations in organizational contexts, is rarely studied in churches. This study of American church attenders (N = 244) found that perceived innovativeness of churches (conceived of as the elements of a church’s culture which promote innovation, specifically, creativity, organizational openness, future orientation, risk-taking, and proactiveness) was a very strong predictor of church commitment (conceived of as intentions to stay in the church, r = .60, p < .001). Of the moderators examined in this study (membership tenure, age of participant, church size, and gender), only gender moderated this relationship; the relationship between perceived innovativeness and church commitment was stronger for females than for males. This suggests that innovations that facilitated relationship development and relationship maintenance had the greatest impact on church commitment during the pandemic.

The Relationship Between Contemporary Evangelical Church Leadership And Church Discipleship Formation, James Lawrence Marshall

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to determine if the church leadership paradigm contributes to the problem of a lack of disciple-making in Pennsylvania Evangelical churches. A disciple is defined as an unwavering commitment to the Lordship of Christ that is illustrated by Luke 9:23 in which disciples deny themselves and carry their cross daily. This research sought to identify the causes for the lack of discipleship in Pennsylvania Evangelical churches, and had the following findings from the quantitative survey. First, the vision that leadership provides for disciple-making is much higher than either the member involvement in discipleship …

Utilizing Relevant Bible Centric Studies As A Means Of Retaining Young Adults In Active Church Membership And Ministry In An Older Puerto Rican American Baptist Church, Jessica Lugo-Melendez

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This project will explore how the integration of young adults’ everyday life issues and struggles into Bible Studies content can become more attractive for this demographic. With the intention of adding relevancy as a means of retention of young adults within a local American Baptist Church in Puerto Rico. Several recent studies provide a concrete picture of the lack of local church involvement among young adults’ lives, translating into attrition in many cases. In terms of church attendance, a study maintains that only 30.9% of young adults attend religious services "regularly," meaning at least twice a month, 35.4% report never …

Development Of Future Leaders In The Christian Church, Albert Lee Crout

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The thesis project, Development of Future Leaders in the Christian Church, was developed to address the decline in youth attendance, retention, and participation in The Mountain Christian Church in Nicholasville, Kentucky. There has been a consistent decline in the number of youths who attend and participate in the church after high school graduation. After a review of literature and case study, which included a survey, questionnaire, and roundtable discussions, this researcher determined that the cause of the problem was that the church lacked programs for youth that lead them to Christian maturity and an opportunity for leadership skills training. The …

The Effectiveness Of Servanthood Training, Shirley Godard Peele

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This thesis project researched the leaders at Divine Praise Ministries to determine the effectiveness of servanthood training. The leaders at Divine Praise Ministries were interviewed, trained, and equipped to serve a local homeless shelter in Washington, North Carolina. The leaders were informed of the biblical reason to serve based on Matt. 25:35-40. They were also informed of the physical reason to serve based on the needs of the homeless population. In addition, the need for this thesis project was fueled by the desire of the pastor to find out why the leaders at Divine Praise Ministries lack a desire to …

2021 Denominational Survey Results, Calvin University

CRCNA Denominational Survey Results

As part of the denominational ministry plan, Our Journey 2025, the CRCNA has contracted with Calvin College’s Social Research Center to administer a denominational survey every year. The results from the 2021 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 …

Walk Beside Me: A Look At Theology Of Accompaniment With Youth On Retreats, Carla Nunneri

LMU Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.