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The Mandate Of Shepherding: A Socio-Rhetorical Analysis Of Shepherding Metaphor Scriptures And Phenomenological Study Of A New Shepherding Pastoral Leadership Model, Jeremy L. Pickwell

PhD in Organizational Leadership

Pastors are increasingly taking on a CEO style of leadership to lead their churches (Goodmanson, 2005; Maddox, 2012; Whitaker, 2013). Pastors have made this shift at the expense of a shepherd mindset, seemingly creating a dichotomy between styles (Tara, 2020; Whitaker, 2013). Consequently, scholars have identified an increasing trend in pastoral burnout (Fee, 2018; Hessel, 2015; Samushonga, 2021). The current study evaluated the pastoral role and its responsibility from a place of Scripture, while also considering popular current leadership trends. The findings revealed a clear shepherd metaphor arc throughout Scripture, beginning in Psalm 23 and ending in 1 Peter 5. …

Prayer, Leadership, And Church Planting Movements : Learning From The Prayer-Lives Of Western Renewal Movements And Their Leaders, Matthew Porter

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Investigating The Impact Of Spiritual Gifts On Church Growth, Johnnie James Finkley

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This thesis project uses spiritual gifts found in scripture as teachable models for church growth to address a decline in church attendance at Friendly Missionary Baptist Church. The research assumes that if church members are aware of their spiritual gifts, they will use them to build a healthy church. Therefore, the question that this thesis project asks is, “Will an understanding and development of spiritual gifts grow Friendly Missionary Baptist Church?” The Bible is the primary literary resource for God’s provision in transforming believers into His image. It is the foundation for church members’ spiritual growth. The book of Acts …

The Father’S Business: Exploring The Challenges Of Second-Generation Ministry Leaders, Garrett Booth

Doctor of Ministry (DMin)

Today’s pastoral leader must balance more competing priorities than ever before. Pastors are responsible for strategic planning, providing excellent messages, developing a staff or ministry team, overseeing finances, and building ministries to meet the needs of their flocks and communities. Many times, the demands of pastoral leadership, especially in a growing church environment, can be so consuming that the family of the pastor pays the price. Pastors’ children who grow up in such a leadership environment face their own additional pressures and extra challenges. This project explores the question “What are the challenges of growing up as a pastor’s child …

Creating Collaborative Missional Communities To Enhance Church Revitalization, Bradford William Reaves

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Paste or Type Your Abstract *

This project utilizes the revitalization efforts of Grace Community Church in Winchester, VA to examine the precedence of collaborative strategies for church revitalization. In this study contemporary literature, theological foundations, surveys of church leaders in the United States, and interviews with collaborative church and ministry leaders from around the United States are evaluated to determine the need for greater collaboration for the health and revitalization of church and ministries. The findings of this research argue that contemporary church growth strategies that emerged from the recent church growth movement may actually inhibit church revitalization efforts …

Apostolic And Prophetic Leadership In The Contemporary Church: Applied Study Of The Early Church Model, Jordanna Marie Taffel

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The research addresses the application of apostolic and prophetic governance in church plants. Research methods include surveying and interviewing pastors from Every Nation, the researcher’s local church senior and senior associate pastors, and church plant lead pastors. Every Nation is a “global movement dedicated to church-planting churches, reaching the next generation on the campus, and preaching the gospel to every nation.” The sample size is thirteen pastors. The setting was in person and/or via video call. The research includes current, historical, and scholarly literary resources, the Bible, and the local church’s planting materials. The idea of what it means to …

Prolegomena To A Theology Of Eschatological Leadership: 13 Leadership Principles For The End Time Gleaned From The Book Of Revelation, Gregory Pierce Whitsett

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies

Jesus entrusted his disciples with leadership. That leadership was to be exercised on behalf of his mission to seek and save the lost in all the world before his return. This mission work will reach a climax during the time of the end before Christ’s promised return. This article explores the book of Revelation for clues concerning leadership qualities required for this task. The article will support the discussion of these leadership qualities with contributions from contemporary authors on the topic.

Developing a theology of eschatological leadership is a daunting task and will require a broader discussion than what one …

Trump Was Trumped Long Ago: Or, The Legacy Of Leadership In The Book Of Ecclesiastes, W. Creighton Marlowe

The Asbury Journal

Around the globe at any moment in history we witness a world in which numerous nations simultaneously struggle with the person or party in power. Often, we hear senior citizens long for a return to “the good old days.” But biblical anthropology reminds us that everyone by nature is sinful (willingly disobedient to God’s laws); and Qoheleth corrects those who long for a past golden age, because such thinking is not realistic. There never has been a government under which people were not oppressed, even the Hebrew theocracy of the Old Testament. Over the centuries, whether in the East or …

Formulating A Communal Covenant For The Elders And Ministers Of South Fork Church Of Christ, Drew Baker

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

This project addressed the lack of a communal covenant for the elders and ministers of South Fork Church of Christ. The purpose of the project was to formulate a covenant that would promote the spiritual discernment and leadership of the elders and ministers. For the theological framework, I relied upon Mark’s portrait of Jesus. I looked at Jesus’s lived example as well as his teachings to discern values and practices that defined his leadership and should therefore be normative for Christian leaders. These values and practices were analyzed according to three relational categories—relationship with God, with each other, and with …

Reviews, Spiritus Journal

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

Reviews

Bulgarian Pentecostal Leadership In The Crucible Of Change, John Paul Thompson

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

Bulgarian Pentecostal leaders have navigated the waters of turbulent cultural change over the last thirty years in the wake of the fall of Communism in Bulgaria. From May to July 2020, eighteen Bulgarian Pentecostal leaders were interviewed to explore their leadership characteristics and how their leadership behavior and values changed over time amid a rapidly evolving society. Three generational groups of present-day Pentecostal leaders were identified, and their characteristics described. The study concludes with the leadership development needs of young emerging leaders given the continuously changing cultural environment.

Editorial: Spirit-Empowered Leadership: Leading And Being Led, John Paul Thompson

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

Guest editor, Dr. John Thompson, gives an introduction to this special issues dedicated to Spirit-empowered leadership.

Editor's Note, Jeffrey S. Lamp

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

No abstract provided.

Front Matter - Spiritus 5, Vol 2 (2020)

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

No abstract provided.

Full Issue - Spiritus 5, Vol 2 (2020), Spiritus Journal

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

This special journal issue devoted to Spirit-empowered leadership.

John Thompson, guest editor.

Pastoral Burnout: Practical And Biblical Insights For Prevention And Rehabilitation Within The International Pentecostal Holiness Church, Jim Tunnell

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

With the excessive demands in pastoral ministry, the spectrum of ministry workload has become a stressful occupational peril that could trigger pastors to give in and ultimately abandon ministry altogether. Before and after secession, clergy, particularly pastors, experience a wide variety of maladies, including but not limited to physical and psychological distress, that may lead to intensive outcomes. As the number of resignations continues to rise, there is an emergent interest among leaders, particularly in the denominational sector, to determine the interposing contributing factors and to develop appropriate resources to be of assistance when pastoral burnout is recognizable. With the …

Healthy Church Multiplication In Modern Churches, William J. Burns

Doctor of Ministry (DMin)

Jesus’ command in Matthew 28:19 leaves no room for interpretation. The role of the followers of Jesus and of the church is decidedly clear. We are called to make disciples of all nations. An honest assessment of my local ministry context, Access Church, reveals that we, as a church, have fallen short of Jesus’ Great Commission. The intention of this research project is to understand the biblical mandate to make disciples as taught throughout Scripture, study Jesus’ discipleship methods in the book of Matthew, and, ultimately, create a new rubric to help Access Church—and other churches—understand how to measure its …

Psychopathic Personality Traits In Students Entering Helping Professions, Sarah E. Gallup

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Psychopathy is often misrepresented as a sign of criminality and deviance. However, current literature suggests that psychopaths make up approximately one-fifth of the general population. Some people use these characterological traits to their benefit in positions of leadership. In this study, students from a Christian university in the Pacific Northwest were selected to participate in a survey, based upon their chosen major (Business, Psychology, and Religion). It was hypothesized that Business students would have the highest total levels of psychopathy and religion majors would show the lowest levels of psychopathy. Since religion often serves as a protective factor, it is …

Intuitive Wisdom In Leadership : Exploring The Exercise Of Intuitive Wisdom Among Ministry Leaders In New Zealand, Clinton J. Ussher

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Best Together : A Study On Best Practices For Developing Clergy Leaders In Groups, Matthew J. Pennington

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Question Of Power In African Pentecostalism, Alex R. Mayfield

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

Should the charismatic theology of anointing be considered a democratizing influence in Africa or a reiteration of mediatorial forms of power? Th is article seeks to answer this question by analyzing African traditional religious power structures in comparison to modern African theologies and practices of Pentecostal anointing. Th is comparison, however, highlights the problem of drawing direct lines from Africa’s past to its present; Pentecostal rupture from a traditional past is paradoxically both a break from and connection to pre-colonial conceptions of the self and community. Ultimately, this article argues that while both traditional religions and modern Pentecostal anointing favor …

Influences Of Tenure Among Church Of God Of Prophecy Pastors, Florida District, Romeika Ferguson-Adderley

Doctor of Education (Ed.D)

The factors that influence pastoral tenure are varied and complex, especially as men and women serve congregations with growing diversities and needs. However, in the past 30 years, the research on pastoral tenure typically examined congregations that were Protestant in organizational belief and structure. Little research on pastoral tenure among Pentecostal churches could be found in the current body of literature. The purpose of this quantitative, non-experimental study was to investigate the factors that influence pastoral tenure within three regional/subcultural areas of the state of Florida for the Pentecostal denomination of the Church of God of Prophecy (COGOP). All lead …

7 Essential Keys To Success: Developing The Spiritual Discipline In The Leader, Bernard Winchester

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

To deny that some leaders have problems, and others do not, is to deny Scripture, history, and experience. All leaders may not have as many problems as some, but all leaders do have problems. These problems are not always produced by the grass-roots membership. Leaders are often the cause of the very problems they see and deplore in the church. It is apparent that this is true when a leader has dishonored the moral standards or departed from sound doctrine. It is more often true when the leader has been indolent, failed to plan his work or work the plan, …

Leadership In The Creation Narrative, Jacques R. Doukhan

Journal of Applied Christian Leadership

In the very first verses of the Bible, we see God set an example of leadership through his creation of the world. In this article, the author examines different elements of leadership exemplified in the Genesis account of creation; he maintains that this account demonstrates that to lead is to initiate, relate, serve, communicate, share, and create. While divinely exemplified in the story of creation, each of these traits has application to human leadership— namely the servant leadership style.

Seven Key Steps In Planning And Implementing A Successful Church Merger, Andrew Pietrylo

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The hypothesis of this project is that merging of two churches is a viable option for some congregations who are seeking to advance the kingdom of Christ. However, an analysis of obtainable literature reveals that there is little material available to assist churches that are interested in such a pursuit. This project will provide churches with an effective process of determining, implementing and maintaining a successful church merger. Utilizing information from Scripture, current trends, advice from church growth experts, observations of actual church mergers, and a post-merger survey, this project will develop practical steps to navigate churches through a successful …

The Role Of Chaplains In Leadership Development And Conflict Management: A Reflection On Acts 15:36-41, Boubakar Sanou

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Servants And Friends: A Biblical Theology Of Leadership, Erich Baumgartner

Journal of Applied Christian Leadership

"In this groundbreaking volume published by andrews University Press, some 20 scholars examine the sacred text of the Old and New testaments, as well as a selection of six biblical leadership narratives, to lay the foundation for a biblical theology of leadership. Each of the first three sections is composed of six chapters, providing an array of fascinating studies of leadership in the Bible. the fourth section attempts to integrate the multiple facets of leadership insight unearthed throughout the various contributions into what the editor, Skip Bell, claims to be “the most complete biblical theology of leadership available.”

Oregon Conference Pathfinders' Teen Leadership Development Program As A Model For The North American Division, Tracy Leon Wood

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

The Pathfinder Teen Leadership Training (TLT) program was introduced in 1994 in the North American Division. Although the TLT Manual had gone through three revisions, there had never been any staff training or conference-level leader training resources developed. Because the TLT program was an NAD Pathfinder curriculum, it was imperative that the components of the Conference-level Leadership Skills Development Program be consistent throughout the division. The problem was that there were no developed processes or guidelines that conferences could follow to develop their TLT conference-sponsored program from the TLT Manual. The Oregon Conference had developed a TLT academic credit …

Doxology And Discipleship: Principles For How The Worship Leader Functions Pastorally, Robert Balentine

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Many Christian worshipers and clergy misunderstand or undervalue the role that the worship leader has as a pastor and one that helps shepherd and shape the doctrinal beliefs of the church. Likewise, this could lead the worship leader to fail to take an intentional approach to worship planning. This lack of understanding and intentionality helps to contribute to the shallow or flawed theology and biblical illiteracy that plagues the church in America. This topic was chosen to demonstrate how music and song are highly effective tools for pastoring and teaching. This project will highlight three principles for how the worship …

Cruciformity, Differentiation, And Christian Spiritual Formation, David Hooper

Discernment: Theology and the Practice of Ministry

This paper is an examination of two seemingly counterintuitive concepts in Christian spiritual formation. The concept of cruciformity presents the goal of spiritual formation as kenosis, or “emptying oneself of self.” The differentiation of self, as presented in Systems Theory, defines maturity as possessing a clear sense of self. Cruciformity, with its call to kenosis, does not seem to value individuality, making it susceptible to the trappings of enmeshment that emerge from an unbalanced focus on others. Cruciformity seems to judge differentiation as being too balanced, reserving for itself a degree of self-focus that would be deemed inappropriate. It is …