Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Outreach And Retention Methods Of Six Congregations Of The Brunswick Baptist Association, Jeffrey Gibby

Doctor of Ministry Projects

I chose two hypotheses to form a survey. The first hypothesis is that persons are reached by the style of building, existing relationships, or advertising. The second hypothesis is that persons maintain their membership based on the content of preaching, the quality of teaching programs, or fellowship.

I employed the Mann-Whitney Statistical Test to analyze the data.

The data revealed that good preaching, good worship, and good fellowship make a growing church. The data results also show the significance of the Pastor and revealed that age-graded Bible study groups are still valid in reaching and retaining members.

Helping The Parents Of Middle School Students Communicate Biblical Truths Of Sexuality At The First Baptist Church Of Lenoir, North Carolina, Thomas Russell Hinton

Doctor of Ministry Projects

An educational program was developed to discover the role of the church in promoting healthy parent/child communication about sexuality. Believing scripture affirms sexuality as a blessing from God, parents and middle school youth were recruited and led through the study. Surveys measured attitudes, opinions, and understanding of biblical knowledge, anatomy, and communication levels. After the program the families were given two months to observe parent/child communication. Final surveys indicated that the church can play an active role in promoting parent child communication about sexuality, and participants reflected a positive outcome by recommending the continuation of this program as a part …

Yahweh As Father: The Image In Ancient Israelite Context And Modern Appropriation, Joshua Wayne Lovelace

MA in Religion Theses

The goal of this thesis was to appropriate the image of Yahweh as father for modern Christendom in light of feminist critiques of the image. The methods in accomplishing this task were as follows: defining feminism and feminist biblical interpretation, conveying the critiques of Rosemary Radford Ruether and Julia M. O'Brien who were scholarly dialogue partners, studying the social milieu of ancient Israel, using historical, literary, textual, and social criticism to exegete texts that mention Yahweh as father, comparing findings of exegesis with social milieu of ancient Israel, responding to critiques of Ruether and O'Brien, and lastly taking the findings …