Digital Commons Network^™

180° Symposium 2022 Focus Group—Administrators, Tracy Wood

Journal of Adventist Youth and Young Adult Ministries

Participants: Brad Forbes (President, AdventSource), Vandeon Griffin (Assoc Youth Director, NAD), Lyle Notice (Youth Director, Alberta Conf), Andrew Nugent (Assoc Youth Director, Florida Conf), David Salazar (Youth Director, Washington Conf), Ron Whitehead Youth Director, Lake Union).

The Banner - V. 158, No. 6 - (June 2023), Christian Reformed Church In North America

The Banner

No abstract provided.

Restoration Of Key Middle Age Demographic Can Save The African Methodist Episcopal Church, Geromy D. Johnson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

St. Luke faced years of struggles resulting in a dwindling ministry and membership with specific impacts resulting in missing generations within the church. The missing generations include Generation X who were born between 1965-1980, Generation Y who were born between 1981-1996, and generation Z who were born between 1997-2012. There are many methods used to combat church decline and incentivize membership growth including evangelism, mega facilities, appealing ministry, and church legacy attracting the community. This research sought to prove that if ministries were developed specifically targeting the wants and needs of the missing generations souls would be won for Christ …

Becoming Who You Already Are In Christ: An Eight-Week Discipleship Plan To Equip Members Of Crossline Church To Live Out Their Identity In Christ, John Paul Jones

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This action-research project focused on equipping members of Crossline Community Church to live out their identity in Christ. The intervention was an eight-week discipleship plan, “Becoming who you already are in Christ.” The action-research project aimed to evaluate the impact of equipping believers with their identity in Christ upon their transformation into Christ-likeness. The project incorporated biblical, theological, and devotional content with a comprehensive pedagogy designed for maximum influence toward progressive sanctification. The twelve participants in the intervention engaged in sermons, training classes, small groups, and personal Bible studies as a part of the action research. Triangulated evaluation tools were …

A Phenomenological Study Of Church Growth Strategies Used By Pastors Of Digital Churches During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Nicholas D. Cole

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the digital church growth methods that pastors of digital churches in the United States used to increase church attendance during the 2020-2022 COVID-19 pandemic. For the purpose of this study, pastors of digital/online churches were studied. Since the 1950s, the church growth strategy for many Christian churches has been to attract as many people as possible for in-person worship services. However, in-person church attendance has declined consistently for the past 20 years. The shutdowns of churches worldwide during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic amplified this trend. The only option available …

Small Groups That Fuel Active Service In The Local Church, Stephen Jerel Love

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Manna Church prioritizes empowering and developing leaders as an imperative objective of the local church. Such development is fueled through various avenues, including small groups. This thesis project will survey the purpose of small groups within Manna Church and how newly designed groups can address the problem of low voluntary participation in weekly services. The need for more active serve team members problematically exists among six site locations in the Fayetteville-Fort Bragg region. Furthermore, each ministry leader seeks innovative strategies to initiate and maintain involvement during weekly services. However, numbers are at an unprecedented low point. The effects of these …

The Development Of The Holistic Pastoral Wellbeing Assessment: A Mixed Methods Study, Timothy Captain

Dissertations

Some pastors are clearly in crisis. Research has indicated that clergy struggle to cope with the stressors of their profession. While pastoral work is overtly spiritual in nature, day-to-day tasks include interactions with God, themselves, congregants, and the world at large. Without multi-dimensional tools to consider their wellbeing, specifically assessments that reflect their worldview and role, pastors may remain unaware of dangerously low levels of wellbeing until they reach a place of crisis. Therefore, in this mixed methods study, the Holistic Pastoral Wellbeing Assessment (HPWA) was developed and tested to offer a validated, useful tool for pastors and those who …

Positive Factors Related To The Decision To Study For The Office Of The Ministry By Men Of The Lutheran Synod Of Nicaragua (Iglesia Luterana Sínodo De Nicaragua/Lutheran Church—Canada), Edmund Auger

Doctor of Ministry Major Applied Project

Auger, Edmund D. “Positive Factors Related to the Decision to Study for the Office of the Ministry by Men of The Lutheran Synod of Nicaragua (Iglesia Luterana Sínodo de Nicaragua / Lutheran Church—Canada).” Doctor of Ministry. Major Applied Project, Concordia Seminary, 2023. 128 pages.

The Lutheran Church throughout the world needs a continuing supply of men to serve as faithful pastors in the public ministry of the Gospel. The identification and spiritual formation of candidates for Word and Sacrament ministry is critical for the young national church body, Iglesia Luterana Sínodo de Nicaragua (Lutheran Synod of Nicaragua).

This project is …

Behind The Numbers: A Traditional Church Faces A New America, Larry Vogel

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

The dissertation examines membership data for The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) from the mid-1970s to the present. It considers the analysis of LCMS decline by two scholars, George Hawley and Ryan MacPherson, who independently proposed that LCMS membership decline was internal in causation due to diminished birthrates and fewer young families. While acknowledging the reality of such internal decline, this dissertation argues that the lack of external growth is a greater cause for LCMS decline. Its lack of external growth is due primarily to the racial and ethnic homogeneity of the LCMS and its failure effectively to evangelize the increasingly …

Recovering A Missional Ecclesiology: A Framework For Reviving Congregational Mission Within The Baptist Union Of Victoria, Gayle Hill

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT This project is an intervention to develop a theological and theoretical framework

that will become the foundation for a future curriculum for recovering a missional ecclesiology for the pastors of the Baptist Union of Victoria (BUV). Despite mission being central to the overall vision of the BUV, declining numbers, the post-COVID context in Victoria, and an overarching post-Christian and pluralistic context have significantly challenged the centrality and functioning of mission across our denomination. The impetus of this project was the observation that our churches were floundering rather than flourishing in the missional space. Many chronic and acute provocations were …

Gardner-Webb Teams Prepare To Serve People In Kentucky, Greece And Kenya, Office Of University Communications

Gardner-Webb NewsCenter Archive

The mission of Gardner-Webb University is to prepare graduates for leadership and service in their professional careers and personal lives. To fulfill this vision and the University’s motto, Pro Deo et Humanitate (For God and Humanity), the Office of Christian Life and Service sponsors mission trips each year. In response to needs in America and internationally, three groups will be embarking on mission trips during May to provide medical care, clothing, food and shelter to those in need.

Equipping Christians With A Post-Christian Evangelism Paradigm At Great Oaks Church Of Christ, Tim Alsup

Harding School of Theology Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Missional Renewal In A Large And Established Suburban Western Church, Michael Stevens

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

This thesis addresses the topic of missional renewal at Clovercrest Baptist Church (CBC), specifically focusing on participating in the mission of God through simple, memorable, and reproducible missional practices. The identified problem is a lack of process or framework for enhancing participation in God’s mission and churchwide missional renewal at CBC, a large suburban Western church. The purpose of this project intervention is to develop a resource guide of missional practices that facilitate participation in the mission of God at CBC towards missional renewal. This intervention is guided by the theological foundation that God is a God of mission. He …

TíNh ThốNg NhấT Trong Sự Đa DạNg: Hanoi International Fellowship Ethnography, Ariel Marie Bloomer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Hanoi International Fellowship (HIF) is a multinational, multiethnic International Church (IC) in Hanoi, Vietnam. This thesis investigates how HIF constitutes unity among such lived diversity in its congregation. Chapter one reviews existing literature and provides the methodology of the study. Chapter two investigates where unity and diversity are present in HIF, focusing specifically on its mission and values, ministries, and leadership. Chapter three provides a theological basis for unity in diversity. Chapter four presents the research findings from this study. Lastly, Chapter five expresses the study’s limitations, summarizes the findings, offers suggestions to HIF and other Christian communities, recommends future …

Christian Volunteer Leadership In The Megachurch: A Quantitative Study Of Transformational Leadership And Training, Matthew Alexander Freyre

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this correlational study was to determine if a relationship exists between training volunteer leaders undergo to take on a leadership role in the Megachurch and the number of hours volunteers invest in the church, controlling for the quality of leadership for volunteers in the Megachurch who take on a leadership role. Further, this study sought to determine what, if any, relationship exists between volunteer leadership behavior and volunteer leadership quality in the select megachurches. Megachurches have developed stigmas pertaining to leadership involving its quality and the lack of quantity of leadership for attendees. This study examines if …

The Christian Entrepreneur: A Phenomenological Study On The Impact Of Christian Entrepreneurs As Disciple-Makers, Charis Meegan Rooks

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

While Christian entrepreneurs have a diverse range of life experiences and perspectives, there is often an unawareness of the vital role they play in supporting the church, workplace, and community in discipleship. This phenomenological qualitative study was conducted to explore the formative life experiences (positive and negative) that shape Christian entrepreneurs’ ability to promote discipleship in the church, workplace, and community. The grounding theory underlying this study was servant leadership, which was used to understand if the church’s growth, necessary to fulfill God’s Great Commission, can be aided by Christian entrepreneurs willing to serve. Through in-depth interviews with Christian entrepreneurs …

Effective Decision-Making And Conflict Resolution For Church Leadership Teams And Governing Boards, Frederick Chambers

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Conflict is one of the primary reasons church leaders leave churches, quit vocational ministry, are terminated or are ineffective in their leadership and Christian service. Church leaders become discouraged, less effective, quit their leadership positions, or even leave congregations because of conflict or disagreements over decisions. Ineffective decision-making and conflict within the leadership team harm the ministry organization and the leaders. The problem this action research project addresses is the need for a clearly defined process of group decision-making and conflict resolution among church and ministry leadership boards. The purpose of this project was to evaluate and improve the tools …

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 Creation Of A Handbook For The Family Church Internship In South Florida, Garrett S. Haywood

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this DMIN action research project was to create a handbook for the Family Church Internship in South Florida. The internship at Family Church is a thriving and growing program. However, it lacked a guiding handbook. This project created an internship handbook through a series of careful interviews. Eighteen individual interviews were conducted with project participants. Six interviewees were current interns, six were intern alumni, and six were intern supervisors. A first draft of the handbook was written and distributed to participants. Eighteen follow-up interviews were conducted with the same interviewees. A final draft of the handbook was …

Organic Leadership Training: A Training And Assessment Program For Potential House Church Leaders, David Glenn Bailey

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This action research thesis project engaged non-professionally trained Christians who worked through the early stages of Christian leadership development and house church planting. The project utilized a six-week training program in which participants hosted a prayer meeting, chose a confession, led a Bible study, designed an outreach ministry, hosted a worship meeting, and drafted future house church resolutions and a community rule. The participants engaged in a weekly targeted spiritual discipline to foster spiritual formation. Data were collected through journaling, entrance and exit questionnaires, activity guides, post-activity questionnaires, and participant-observations. The research indicates that organic leadership training inspires confidence in …

Women In Silence: Paul's Words About Disruptive Women In Church Gatherings, Charles Davenport

Global Tides

This research seeks to understand the meaning behind Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 14:31-35. Paul's direct command, "women should keep silent," seems quite clear on paper, but more context is needed when contemporary churches decide how to apply these words. This article examines three theories: the passage being a rebuttal, the passage being an interpolation, and the passage having significant cultural context. After reviewing the three theories, the proposed interpretation is that Paul's command was to a specific people in one particular cultural context, not a universal command for all churches of all generations.

School Of Education And Social Sciences, Savonna Greer

Annual Faculty Research Symposium

Marcial Serna: First Hispanic Seventh-Day Adventist Pastor in North America

God Our Neighbor: Discerning Our Calling By Discovering God's Life In Our Neighborhood, Wayne D. Beason Ii

DMin Project Theses

This April 2023 Doctor of Ministry project thesis at Lipscomb University presents the results of research completed with congregants and neighbors of Parkside Church of Christ in Dearborn Heights, MI. The research question driving this project is: How might a congregation’s missional identity be reshaped by attentiveness to God’s activity among their neighbors? The missional activity of the Holy Spirit makes God’s future accessible in the present both within and beyond the church; thus, the Spirit is discernible in the particularity of a neighborhood. For this reason, the local neighborhood functions as an arena of the Spirit’s activity, a source …

The Communication Culture Of Flourishing Churches, Ronald Drake Jenkins

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This study provides qualitative phenomenological observations that analyze and describe communication styles in ten flourishing churches. Practicing Christians contribute significantly to our society and culture. The primary goal of this study was to investigate the communication cultural themes within healthy and flourishing churches. The parameters of this study were limited to ten churches found on the Outreach Magazine Top-100 largest and fastest growing churches in America. Each of these churches was visited one time during a Sunday morning service. During this process, this researcher was a participant observer, examining and flourishing themes in real-time while observing the ten churches. People …

Understanding An Urban Black Worldview: A Phenomenological Examination Of 2020, Gershwin Francis Grant

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This action research project was designed to surface and codify a worldview that emerged among black people as a result of the traumatic phenomena of 2020. The program sought to help white pastors in New York’s Lower Hudson Valley recognize this new worldview, understand its implications, and desire to intentionally develop their level of Cultural Competence to more effectively counsel and disciple black congregants holding this worldview. The detrimental effects of the phenomena of 2020 exacerbated existing trauma caused by social and institutional racism and resulted in an altered worldview among urban blacks affecting relationships in communities and within church …

Final Report: Turtle Creek Park, Auden Block, Juliette Chandler, Bethany Fitch, Haley Dickinson, Will Earley

Final Reports in ENST 411: Environmental Community Projects

During the Spring 2023 semester, we worked as a group with East Buffalo Township supervisors to develop plans for newly-acquired Turtle Creek Park. Specifically, our project centered on facilitating community engagement with Phase One of the restoration plan and helping the Supervisors lay a foundation for future phases of the park's revitalization. Our report details our work on mapping the park's trail system, identifying and mapping areas of poor drainage, and creating a series of interpretive signs for public education about the park, its natural history, and its ecology.

The Southern Baptist Convention’S Perception Of Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion Compared To African American Pastors’ And Leaders’ Lived Experiences, Jeffrey J. Wallace

PhD in Organizational Leadership

The study of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is complex and multilayered. Similarly, the study of DEI within an ecclesiastical and ecumenical Christian movement like the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) has its challenges. Challenges and tensions surrounding the SBC, relating to women's leadership issues, the infiltration of partisanship and politics in the pulpits, racial injustice flashpoint moments, and the lack of ethnic diversity in a crucial leadership position have impacted the overall lived experience of African American pastors and leaders. This phenomenological study explored the Southern Baptist Convention's perception of diversity, equity, and inclusion compared to African American pastors’ and …

The Banner - V. 158, No. 4 - (April 2023), Christian Reformed Church In North America

The Banner

No abstract provided.

Trust, Scripture, And The Spirit As Core Values Of Evangelism In A Chinantec Village In Oaxaca, Mexico, Eliseo Arce Hernandez, Ashley Stamper

Great Commission Research Journal

The paper provides both a rationale for an approach to evangelism and a practical, replicable ministry model focusing on three core values (trust, Scripture, and the Spirit) in order for churches and individuals to effectively fulfill the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20), particularly in cross-cultural contexts. A case study using this model in an indigenous Chinantec community in Oaxaca, Mexico, is presented. In contrast to modern evangelistic strategies that emphasize speed and numbers, this model and field example offer an alternative approach to church planting, an approach with a long-term focus and a goal of mature disciples and healthy churches.

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