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Soli Deo Gloria: A Doxological Hermeneutic Of Mission In Emerging Ministries In The Evangelical Lutheran Church In America, Daniel R. Anderson

Doctor of Philosophy Theses

This research project is a grounded theory, ethnographic study of emerging ministries in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Twenty emerging ministries were selected from within the ELCA. Six of those sites were the subjects of indepth site visits by a research team. Eleven additional sites were the subjects of partial site visits and interviews. The data-gathering phase of the research concluded with a consultation with thirty emerging leaders held at Luther Seminary. Four sensitizing concepts were used as lenses in data gathering: Lutheran, emerging, missional, and doxological hermeneutics. Leadership in emerging ministries and emerging ministries as contextual and …

A Local Christian Community's Missional Imagination: Accessing, Cultivating, And Assessing Missional Discernment In Civil Society, Johannes Gerhardus Jacobus Swart

Doctor of Philosophy Theses

This dissertation explores a particular local Christian community's socially-embodied theology as their missional imagination in civil society from within a research question on how to access, cultivate, and assess such missional imagination. The research question is addressed through a phenomenological approach to such particular local Christian community's process of discernment.

In following the trajectory of this particular local Christian community's process of discernment, the research journey became embedded in the playful imagination of this local Christian community's engagement with their discernment question, and how their critical reflectiveness from within this playful imagination opened up the possibilities of God's preferred and …

Sharing Witness Along The Way: Engaging The Lived Theology Of An Urban Congregation In Evangelical, Public, And Missional Strands, Scott J. Hagley

Doctor of Philosophy Theses

This ethnographic phenomenology explores the lived theology of an urban congregation as it engages with civil society. Drawing methodological considerations from Jen-Luc Marion, Paul Ricoeur, and James Clifford, the research journey attends theologically to the sociality embodied both within the congregation and with its neighborhood for the sake of participating with this congregation in bringing to discourse its lived evangelical, public, and missional theological strands.

Drawing upon Charles Taylor's use of moral frameworks in relationship to narratives, practices, and goods, the evangelical strand explores intimacy as a strongly valued good. Theologically, such a good makes possible James McClendon's vision of …

Congregations As Systems For Empowering Missional Leadership: A Lutheran Hermeneutic For Leading In Mission, Terri Lynn Martinson Elton

Doctor of Philosophy Theses

What are the cultural dynamics within a congregational system that are vital to the empowering of missional leadership? Do Lutherans have anything to contribute to the missional church movement in the United States? These two questions were primary for this dissertation and emerged out of two gaps identified in the missional church literature. Seeing congregations as complex, open systems, missional leadership within congregational systems was studied using a grounded theory, qualitative research approach. The five ELCA congregational systems in this study were identified by their peers as excelling in helping their faith community discover their calling as disciples of Jesus …