Digital Commons Network^™

The Diamond, December 11, 2014, Dordt College

Dordt Diamond

• Front Page: Students Rally to Raise Funds and Cut Hair; "Red Light, Green Light" Showing Held on Campus; Dordt Career Services Holds #25DaysofJobs
• News: Yik Yak App Evokes Mixed Responses; VanTol Meets Special Needs in Nicaragua; Digital Media Projects Hit the Big Screen; Vande Griend Gets Cheesy; Students of Dordt: Anya Kalsbeek; New Off-Campus Coordinator
• Opinion: Juan: Surface Tension; Narayan's Knowledge; The Kaiser Has Spoken; Jerusha Yerusha: Venting with Style
• Sports: Men's Basketball: Can They Make It Four?; Dordt Cross Country Performs at Nationals
• Arts and Entertainment: Dordt/Northwestern Student-Juried Art Show; Sound of Music Sing-A-Long Fundraiser; It's a Wonderful Life: …

Millennials: The Unreached In Our Midst. A Practical Theology Of Reaching Millennials Through Organic Church Principles And Repurposing The Church, Janelle Anderson

Master of Arts in Ministerial Leadership (MAML)

There is an unreached people group in your community--you interact with them on a consistent basis, but they are beyond the reach of the Church right now. The Church has missed her opportunity to reach and disciple Millennials as children and is now struggling to connect with them at all. The first step to reaching this people group is understanding them. This thesis presents the three major longings of generalized Millennial culture, in hopes of highlighting ways to interlace individual lives with faith and Christian community. Each of the three cries of this generation has varied implications for the world, …

The Forgotten Movement: Church Planting Trends And Lessons (Part 2 Of 2), S. Joseph Kidder, Dustin Serns

Faculty Publications

Church planting is a challenging enterprise. Realistic expectations are essential, and adequate support systems and coaching are helpful. Our research revealed that those who commit to church planting encounter significant obstacles. Based on data and interviews from the top four conferences in church planting over the last decade in North America, part two of this article will address three common obstacles to church planting and show how God transforms them into amazing opportunities.

The Banner - V. 149, No. 11 - (November 2014), Christian Reformed Church In North America

The Banner

No abstract provided.

Difference And The Establishment: An Asian Canadian Senior Pastor's Evangelical Spatiality At Tenth Avenue Alliance Church In Vancouver, Bc, Justin K. H. Tse

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper explores how the evangelical spatiality of an Asian Canadian senior pastor at a historically Anglo-Saxon congregation has transformed it from an ethnically homogeneous, aging church to a heterogeneously-constituted gathering in an evangelical Protestant tradition. This piece challenges the conventional wisdom of the church growth movement and the new religious economics in the sociology of religion, both of which advise religious groups to construct homogeneity and consensus in efforts for numerical growth over against secularizing forces. The paper argues instead that Pastor Ken Shigematsu’s evangelical spatiality from the mid-1990s to the present must be understood as a theological embrace …

The Echo: October 31, 2014, Taylor University

2014-2015 (Volume 102)

Was it all worth it? – Reclaiming God – Top five news events of the week – Checking in with the chiefs – A golden ticket – In The Loop – Top five bizarre news stories of the week – Battle for Senate rages on – Under the Radar – War for the Arctic? – How to terrify your roommate with Halloween crafts – Untold stories of TU: Halloween Edition – Trick-or-treat yourself – Battling for the crown – The Weekly Nugget – Humans of Upland – Echograms #TaylorU -- #TaylorU’s Top Tweets – Terrifying Taylor Grads – Editor’s Picks …

The Bison, October 24, 2014

The Bison Newspapers

No abstract provided.

Calvin Theological Seminary Forum: October 2014, John Rottman, Kristy Manion, Bruce Buursma, Scott Hoezee

Calvin Theological Seminary Forum (2002- )

Idols of Our Time

Articles
3 - leasure: The Greatest Idol of Our Time by John W. Cooper
7 - Idols of Our Time: What Does the Church Have to Say? by Jul Medenblik

Called to Serve
10 - Be Holy by John Rottman
12 - Making Her Way: Dr. Catherine González by Kristy Manion
13 - From the Ends of the Earth: Dr. Justo González on Missions by Bruce Buursma
14 - Center for Excellence in Preaching Celebrates Ten Year Anniversary by Scott Hoezee
15 - New Faces at CTS

The Forgotten Movement: Church Planting Trends And Lessons (Part 1 Of 2), S. Joseph Kidder, Dustin Serns

Faculty Publications

At the inception of the Advent movement, believers united to advance the cause of the gospel by entering new territory and starting new congregations. The Seventh-day Adventist Church experienced explosive growth, launching a movement that spread and continues to advance across the world. Today, 150 years later, the time has come to ask, How are we doing with raising up new congregations to finish the harvest in North America? To answer this question, we decided to look at statistics of the last century about church planting. We hope that the findings from this study will benefit the global church.

An Integrative Study Of Doxological Metanarrative, Mission, Motivation And Mechanism, João Mordomo

Business as Mission Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation engages in an integrative study of the doxological metanarrative of Scripture in relation to mission, motivation and mechanism, with special attention given to the business as mission (BAM) mechanism in Brazil. Two research techniques were utilized: 1) archival research in order to define and describe both the doxological components (metanarrative, mission and motivation) and the BAM mechanism; and 2) case study method in order to examine the motivations that drive successful Brazilian Christian entrepreneurs to start Kingdom companies.

The researcher identified three key metanarrative frameworks for understanding Scripture and redemptive history: the Nature of God (NOG), the Kingdom …

Equipping New Pastors Within The African Methodist Episcopal Church: A One Year Training Manual, Delphoney Kargbo

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this thesis is to create a training manual for the development of and successful transition to a new appointment as a pastor within the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Based on the surveys and questionnaires collected from fifty newly-appointed pastors in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and through a well-developed manual, pastors will become better equipped for the ministry. This thesis will show that the decline in membership is a direct result of the lack of post-seminary training for those in the ministry. This thesis seeks to demonstrate that through a well-developed and practical classroom and online training …

Vision Impaired: A Model To Make Vision A Reality For Church Plants, Dwayne Pedroza

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Although begun with good intentions, not every church planting effort stays on course or continues to success. Church planting is uniquely birthed and has many areas that can become pitfalls as well as demands that challenge a church planter while trying to implement the vision; therefore, this thesis project provides a biblical structure to help church plants successfully implement the vision for the church. This thesis project provides a staffing model for church plants to give life to the vision and to enhance the survival rate of the church plants. The staffing model in this thesis project project consists of …

Mission Statement Alignment: Guiding Ministries Toward A Strategic Culture Focused On The Great Commission, David Fuller

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The development of organizational mission statements has been emphasized since the early 1990's. Church ministries and religious organizations providing direct human services within communities have utilized mission statements to articulate actions and identity. The purpose of this project is to provide a framework to construct a clearly defined mission statement, to measure the behavior of the organization to determine proper mission statement alignment and to focus that alignment toward the great commission. The project will survey religious organizations within the United States and compare religious non-profits' operational and administrative procedures to their own mission statement. Based on the findings of …

The One Balm For All Earth’S Wounds: The Priority Of Gospel Proclamation In Charles Haddon Spurgeon’S Missiology, John Sypert

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation explores the relationship between gospel proclamation and mercy ministry in Charles Spurgeon’s ministry. The dissertation argues that Spurgeon’s Pastors College, Stockwell Orphanage, and his multitude of other ministries had one clear goal: the spreading of the gospel and the conversion of the lost. This dissertation uses Spurgeon’s approach to missions as an apologetic for a more biblically precise missiology, namely, one that prioritizes gospel proclamation without neglecting the physical needs of those who suffer. This approach could be called “benevolent prioritism” because it prioritizes the proclamation of the gospel while not neglecting works of love for those suffering.

Learning To Live, Stephen Erich

Lake Union Herald

No abstract provided.

A Christian Value?: Faculty Diversity At Southern Evangelical Campuses, Marquita Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explored institutional efforts to increase faculty diversity at three southern Christian universities and provided descriptions of what promoted or curtailed faculty diversity at those institutions. Daryl G. Smith's (2009) dimensions of diversity were used to evaluate the role of institutional missions, and how they were connected to diversity efforts. Smith's 2009 conceptual framework offered four areas for studying diversity: access and success, institutional vitality and viability, education and scholarship, and intergroup relations and campus climate. A qualitative multiple or collective case study design was used. The sample included 20 total participants; 19 from the three case institutions and …

Harding School Of Theology 2014-2015 General Catalog, Harding University

Harding Academic Catalogs

Academic catalog for the graduate program in Bible and religion.

A Pre-Methodological Theology For Biblically Proper Ecclesiological Health, James Woods

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The American church is in a dramatically noticeable decline, with many resources offering superficial remedies and solutions but rarely digging below the surface to evaluate the structural integrity of the foundation. This paper will evaluate the foundation as to how it has been altered over the last two thousand years, as well as identifying three main foundational attributes of the first century church that must be in place for the twenty-first century church to be on target biblically. The thesis will be corroborated by utilizing two different, yet related surveys administered to both pastors and congregants, as well as by …

Five Types Of Multicultural Churches: A New Paradigm Evaluated And Differentiated, Bob Whitesel

Great Commission Research Journal

This article puts forth a comprehensive and reconciliation-based paradigm through which to view multicultural congregations as one of five models or types. It updates the historical categories of Sanchez, adds contemporary models, and then evaluates each through a ten-point grid of nomenclature, mode of growth, relationships, pluses, minuses, degree of difficulty, creator complex, redistribution, relocation, and reconciliation. The five models are 1) the asset sharing Multicultural Alliance, 2) the collaborative Multicultural Partnership, 3) the asymmetrical Mother-Daughter model, 4) the popular Blended approach, and 5) the Cultural Assimilation model. The result is a comprehensive five-model paradigm that includes an assessment of …

The Ecclesiology Of Training For Trainers: The Issue Of Method And I Timothy 3:6, John Henry Serworwora

Great Commission Research Journal

The implementation of the Church Planting Movement (CPM) and Training for Trainers (T4T) by the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention missions life is not without challenge. Southern Baptist missiologists and seminary professors have written numerous papers and articles supporting or contesting this methodology. The majority of criticisms focus on the emphasis in the rapidity and “mass production” of churches, fearing the theological alteration among the new believers and their churches. This article argues that the leadership process in T4T/CPM violates the Baptist ecclesiology, since 1 Timothy 3:6 essentially excludes a new believer from pastoral leadership.

Book Review: Planting New Churches In A Postmodern Age By Ed Stetzer, Joseph Mun

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

The Banner - V. 149, No. 7 - (July 2014), Christian Reformed Church In North America

The Banner

No abstract provided.

Taylor: A Magazine For Taylor University Alumni, Parents And Friends (Summer 2014), Taylor University

The Taylor Magazine (1963-Present)

The Summer 2014 edition of Taylor Magazine, published by Taylor University in Upland, Indiana.

Introduction, Alan Mcmahan

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Book Review: The Coffee Shop That Changed A Church: Discovering The Net Effect By Steve Parr, Peter Varosky

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Reaching The Nations Through Our Cities, Chris Clayman

Great Commission Research Journal

While the American public perceives New York City to be a post-Christian environment, reality is that the city is moving into a post-secular existence largely influenced by religious immigrants. These immigrants are symbolic of a new era in pioneer missions—one in which migration, transnationalism, globalization, and urbanization pose newer challenges and opportunities than uncharted geographies, isolated societies, and foreign cultures. “Reaching the Nations Through Our Cities” proposes that the next challenge for missionary pioneers is reaching busy, hidden, influential unreached peoples who have migrated to cities. Based on several years of research on the immigrant populations in Metro New York, …

Why Is There A Silent Exodus Of English-Speaking Adults From Western Canadian Chinese Churches?, Matthew Todd

Great Commission Research Journal

This study recommends solutions towards the retention through empowerment of Canadian Born Chinese (CBC) adults in Chinese bicultural churches. To address retention, the key risk factors and common dynamics that contribute to a “silent exodus” of CBC adults were established through qualitative research, including a survey of participants from diverse church affiliations. Based on an analysis of the literature review and survey results, this study advocates working toward the retention of English-speaking adults from Chinese Canadian churches through associated parallel independent English congregational models; this recognizes a link between the process of acculturation and the imperative to leverage mission.

My Pilgrimage In Church Growth, Ray Ellis

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Replant: How A Dying Church Can Grow Again By Mark Devine And Darrin Patrick, Garrett R. Eaglin

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Idealism & Reality: A Phenomenological Exploration Of Pastoral Expectations & Ministry Realities Experienced By Protestant Church Planting Pastors, Dwayne Bond

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

With the majority of literature focused on reducing clergy stressors, there is a need to explore how pastors respond when ministry idealism dissipates, while familial and congregational expectations increase. When idealized expectations fade, how do clergy experience resiliency? The purpose of this study was to explore how idealism affects clergy resiliency and their responses, coping, and longevity in ministry. Ten new church-planting Protestant pastors were selected using snowball sampling. Each pastor was interviewed. Data from the two-hour in-depth interviews was collected, organized and analyzed. The findings for each interview were compared and contrasted, and themes were identified - a) utilizing …