Digital Commons Network^™

Worship, Discipleship, And Evangelism: How The Purpose Of The Church Affects Congregational Singing, Justin Aaron Mckinney

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

For several hundred years, in response to Charles Finney’s innovations, American churches emphasized evangelism over worship within corporate worship services. This approach redirected the vertical focus of corporate worship from God to the horizontal focus of non-believers as the primary audience. The Bible supports a horizontal audience for corporate worship for edifying fellow believers, but non-believers as the primary audience of corporate worship is contrary t¬o both the Bible and most of church history. The purpose of this project is to establish the necessity of worship preceding evangelism by examining their relationship through biblical exegesis, scholarly literature, and church history …

Understanding Motivations To Attend Various Sized Churches: A Study Using Family Communication Patterns, Expectancy Violations, And Anxiety To Predict Church Attendance, Molly Bradshaw

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Two separate studies were conducted to examine whether communication variables impact religious views and church attendance. For the first study, 228 students from a large Southeastern university completed a web survey. The second study was a web survey of 204 adults that was conducted via Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTURK). Both surveys were sent out to determine one’s motivations to attend a small, medium, or large church using family communication, anxiety, expectations, and religion variables as predictors. Family communication, anxiety, and expectancy variables were positively correlated to many aspects of religious views. Hierarchical regression models utilizing demographics, family communication, anxiety, expectancy …

“The Jesuit Mission Proves We Were Here”: The Case Of Eighteenth-Century Jesuit Missions Aiding Twenty-First Century Tribal Recognition, Andrew R. Beaupre

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Records indicate that during the French colonial period, Jesuits established four mission congregations within the territory now known as Vermont. These missions were established to preach to both French colonists and Native converts on Isle La Motte, on the Missisquoi River in Swanton, at Fort Saint-Frédéric on Lake Champlain, and in the area known as the Koas on the Connecticut River. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the Abenaki peoples of Vermont have had a long and difficult road to gain state and federal recognition. These descendant communities have invoked the existence of Jesuit missions to the Abenaki as proof …

Proven Biblical Discipleship: Make It According To The Pattern, Anthony Ray Mckee

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The first-century church’s spiritual growth methodology functioned to achieve the goal of Christlikeness through discipleship. God crafted a design for his church to advance followers of Jesus toward Christian maturity. God’s instruction for Israel to “see that you make it according to the pattern” came from God’s perfect mind and is practical guidance for today’s spiritual growth practices. According to the countless number of discipleship methods available, some churches communicate that Christian maturation can be achieved through any discipleship perspective. This project aims to study local churches that offer a discipleship program, process, or pedagogy and compare them with twelve …

The Way We See Matters: Developing A New Theological Vision For Effective Cross-Generational Evangelism, Michelle Naomi Jeremie

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Today, North American churches have great opportunities and face unique challenges in fulfilling their mandate to make disciples. This DMIN thesis discusses the issue of how to more effectively evangelize the Millennial generation and Generation Z in a postmodern context. The purpose of this thesis is to address the need for church leaders to utilize a specialized evangelism training program to equip Christians to evangelize to non-believers across generational lines. The focus of this project is to implement the Cross-generational Evangelism Training (C-GET) Program at a ministry that has a low representation of Millennials and Generation Z. This Program will …

Reformed Worship (Rw) 139 - Ascension / Pentecost (March 2021), Reformed Worship Editors

Reformed Worship Magazine

Features

Worship Series: Echoes of the Holy Spirit by Diane Ritzema, Michael Kooy, and Matt Mulder....3

Children's Pages for the Christian Year by Lindsey Goetz....16

Home by Sam Gutierrez....18

Locating Your Place in God's Story by Leon Johnston....34

Articles

Editorial: Finding Home by Joyce Borger....2

The Rest of Worship by Ron Man....28

For Pastors: Bolder? by Scott Hoezee....30

Liturgical Appropriateness by Adán Alejandro Fernández....38

Q&A: Shifting Preference Talk and Rule Talk to Wisdom Talk by John D. Witvliet....40

Lifting Our North American Asian Voice in Worship by Josh Lee....42

Resources …

Halfway To Everywhere: What Churches Can Learn About Community Vibrancy From Its Professional & Entrepreneurial Women, Catherine L. Holland

Consensus

No abstract provided.

The Sobramesa Dinner Group: Discipline Boomers In Active Adult Living Communities, James Divine

Doctor of Ministry

Over the next 25 years, the American Church will be in a unique position to impact the eternity of almost 77 million people. As the Baby Boomer population moves into the third age of life, the church has the opportunity to reintroduce this population to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Within this large mission field is the added dimension of a large migration of retired and semi-retired people into Active Adult Living Communities (AALCs). While AALCs represent the largest-growing urban segment of the USA, the church is doing little to evangelize these communities. What the church does for these adults …