Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Friendship With All – But Especially With Muslims, Laurie Johnston

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Fratelli Tutti And Interreligious Friendship: An Indonesian Christian Reflection, Hans A. Harmakaputra

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Creating A Social Covenant: Fratelli Tutti As A Roadmap For Overcoming Structural Violence In Northern Ireland, Maria Power

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

The Boldness Of Fratelli Tutti, Guadalupe “Adie” R. Isidro

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Introduction To Issue 5, Number 1, Ronald Pagnucco, Joseph O. Okumu

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Easter Vigil, Anthony Elia

Bridwell Library Research

Written for organ and church choir (SATB), specifically for the congregation of the Episcopal Church of the Annunciation in honor of the composer's mother on her birthday.

Faithfully Reading Scripture With Kids, Rebekah Earnshaw

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Children have a knack for reflecting our actions and attitudes, so cultivating our own love and reading of Scripture is vital."

Posting about shaping our children's spiritual growth from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

https://inallthings.org/faithfully-reading-scripture-with-kids/

Faith Development Theory And A Developmental Approach To Spiritual Formation For The, Joshua Nolt

Doctor of Ministry

The Church has a strong vision of the beginning of a life of faith as men and women come to Christ, but it lacks a framework and language to articulate the continued development, growth, and formation of faith over a lifetime. The result is a group of leaders and followers who lack direction to facilitate a deeper participation in and formation of life with God. The external tools provided by the church do not quench the questions of their inward reality. This leads to identifying faith as doing and believing the right things, on one hand, or becoming disillusioned on …

Service Matters: Integrating Faith And Vocation In Evangelical Christian Higher Education, Karen Rouggly

Doctor of Ministry

Evangelical colleges and universities in North America are at a tipping point. Schools are struggling to demonstrate their relevance to a culture that separates faith from work. This research demonstrates that using the pedagogical approach of service learning, colleges and universities can empower students to integrate their faith and vocation, ultimately producing locally and globally engaged citizens. The sections begin with a description of the ministry problem, noting the educational problems as well as the theological problems which produce systems of disintegration in faith and vocation for traditional undergraduate students. Next, the biblical foundation of symbiotic relationships between Godself, humanity, …

Meshed Ministry: Retaining Young Adults During Their Complex Migration Into Adulthood, Randy Jumper

Doctor of Ministry

Most studies indicate over two-thirds of churched young adults stop participating in church life one year after high school graduation. This generation represents one of the least churched generations in American history. After spending millions of dollars on elaborate children’s and youth programs, churches experience young adult attrition. Young adults themselves seem ill prepared for this life stage. Churches who do not intentionally address the needs of young adults or view the exodus as inevitable miss the mandate to facilitate lifelong followers of Jesus.

In Section One, a review of developmental markers, faith stage development theory, and the uniqueness of …

Vile Methods: Bridging Divides And Expanding Churches' Understanding Of Creativity, Tyler Jack Kaufmann

Doctor of Ministry

Over the last 25 years, technology has made learning, sharing information, and connecting easier than ever before. Humans, especially in North America, have access to unprecedented amounts of information, ways to interact, and tools for relationship building. Yet, in the United States, humans find themselves in one of the most polarized times of the last 50 years. At the same time, the US church has been in major membership decline and its societal influence has decreased. Great numbers of the poorest US Americans are leaving the church and with that exodus gaps between social classes are widening as less spaces …

A Culture Of Scarcity And A God Of Abundance: Leading A Church Into A Bigger, Better, More Beautiful Story, Jamie Mccallum

Doctor of Ministry

Christians live in the ever-present tension of two competing stories. The first is the story our culture promotes. It is one of scarcity. In this story, there is never enough money, resources, time, or love to go around. The other story is the one God tells in Scripture. It is a story of an abundant Creator who gives more than enough for life, love, purpose, and enjoyment in this world. This paper explores my journey in leading Belfair Community Church away from a mindset of scarcity and into a living theology of abundance. When we truly trust that God is …

Wayfinding: Spiritual Resilience For Global Servants, Joyce Reed

Doctor of Ministry

This dissertation proposes that mission agencies who develop a spiritual formation paradigm that incorporates the principles of wayfinding to navigate personal, vocational, and spiritual shifts enhance cross-cultural resiliency for missionaries (also known as global servants). Section One highlights the problem: mission agencies are not adequately addressing the numerous stressors that global servants constantly manage resulting in less healthy, unhealthy or toxic behaviors. In addition, organizational and historical mission culture often creates untenable expectations that contribute to the global servant's stress. Section Two analyzes how stressors might alternatively be addressed via pre-assignment counseling, sending churches, corporate support structures, or enhanced self-care. …

Winsome Wounds: A New Perception Of Pastoral Suffering, Stephanie Hurd

Doctor of Ministry

Pastors may view their divine calling as quid pro quo assurance against personal suffering. Yet everyone suffers. Seminaries train pastors in the technical skills required for ministry, but hermeneutics and homiletics do not help a pastor who is wounded. Churchcraft is about thriving as a leader in a church environment and acquiring the navigational tools, experiential knowledge, and soft skills to do so. Section 1 establishes the problem: Misperceptions about typical pastoral suffering, the disorientation it causes, and the lack of tools needed to respond in a productive way. Section 2 presents possible responses such as Stoicism, Legalism, Epicureanism, increasing …

The Development Of A Robust, Self-Sustaining Internal Coaching Network, Harry Fritzenschaft

Doctor of Ministry

The problem this dissertation addresses is, like most problems, complex, multilayered, and contextual. In essence, I inherited the Multiply Vineyard (MV) internal coaching network, which was in decline, demotivated, not performing well, and in drastic need of refurbishing. The contextual realities of MV’s drastically reduced budgets and pandemic virtual training imperatives compelled me to be more innovative and adaptive. This paper's thesis is the entire MV coaching network infrastructure needs to be renovated and restructured to support MV’s church planting mission.

Section 2 describes MV's alternatives, including continuing our current communications and operations approach and framework. Another proposed solution option …

A Community's Responsibility To Help Unaccompanied Homeless Teens, Spokane Valley, Calvin Bruce Coblentz

Doctor of Ministry

Homelessness is ubiquitous in communities across America. There are 1.5 million homeless school children annually. Over 125,000 are unaccompanied homeless youth detached from family. Many factors contribute to their homelessness, such as poverty, physical and sexual abuse, neglect, family conflict, addictions, mental illness, and sexual orientation. As difficult as it is in an abusive home, life does not usually improve when they depart. Homeless teens experience high rates of violence, sexual assault and exploitation, substance abuse, pregnancy, disease, leaving school, incarceration, unemployment, suicide, and dependency as adults.

This study explored the problem of unaccompanied teen homelessness in Eastern Spokane County, …

Dynamic Expansion: An Exploration Of Hospitality And Its Application To Foster Children And Families In Crisis, Sean Dean

Doctor of Ministry

The concept of hospitality has many applications. This dissertation is an exploration of hospitality using the American foster system as an example of how hospitality can be applied to an at-risk group.

Chapter 1 looks at the state foster care. There is an exploration of the two main reasons children enter foster care: neglect and drug offenses. Lastly, there is a look at the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) study and how its results are contributing factors to the current state of foster care in the United States. Chapters 2 and 3 delve into the concept of hospitality, what it is …

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 …

Transitional Ministry 2.0: When Transitional Ministry Finds Itself In Transition, Brian Craker

Doctor of Ministry

For churches within the Presbyterian tradition, as well as other mainline denominations, the use of interim and transitional pastors has been a mainstay for congregations between permanent pastors. The current use of transitional pastors as a specialized pastoral position dates back to the original model and framework established by Loren Mead and the Interim Ministry Network in the 1970s and 1980s. This model has remained relatively untouched since its introduction but is no longer adequately addressing many of the issues facing local churches today. To help congregations navigate new and complex challenges, there is a need to reimagine the purpose …

The Green Lectionary: Creation Care And The Revised Common Lectionary, George Jacob Bolton V

Doctor of Ministry

As Christian communities become increasingly interested in engaging with humanity’s biblical connection to the earth, and the spiritual response to this relationship, there is uncertainty regarding the most contextually appropriate methods to pursue. Impressive projects that conserve and honor elements of creation, activities such as community gardens or solar panel installation projects, are often disconnected from the liturgical life of the congregation. Conversely, honoring creation and the biblical connection people of faith have with nature is a widely under practiced liturgical activity. This paper argues that the most direct and practical method to enhance a congregation’s awareness of their spiritual …

Cultivating A Disciple-Centric Growth Culture In The International Church Of The Foursquare Gospel, Tammy Dunahoo

Doctor of Ministry

Jesus said to his followers, “Go, make disciples of all nations,” and, “I will build my Church.”1 Through fifty years of emphasis on church growth, it would seem these roles have been reversed with pastors more focused on building big churches than equipping “the saints for the work of the ministry.”2 It begs the question, “Do we use people to grow the church instead of the church to grow the people?”

This dissertation focuses on the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel (ICFG) which has been affected by this mindset and now faces an aging ministerium and fewer potential young …

A Taste Of The Kingdom: Re-Imaging And Re-Articulating Kingdom Community, Jay J. Anderson

Doctor of Ministry

Modern churches find themselves in liminal cultures, requiring new understandings of ecclesia (re-imaging) and new approaches to communication (resigning). They also find themselves in the midst of a collapse of traditional community realities, including neighborhoods. The express intention of this researcher of lifetime PNW zip-codes is to encourage and inspire Pacific Northwest Jesus gatherings to reimage kingdom community. Each zip code contains unique cultural components, all of which need the life-giving inbreaking of the Kingdom of God. My contention is that when Jesus gatherings re-image kingdom community, freshly articulate ecclesiology, and appropriately flavor their communities with local terroir, each zip …

Combating Ministry Burnout By Honoring Human Limitations, Dominic Abaria

Doctor of Ministry

The risk of burnout threatens anyone working in human-service vocations but presents an especially volatile risk for those in ministry. This threat is compounded by the confluence of technological advances, performance-based identities, and a frugality mentality prevalent within nonprofit organizations, including churches and parachurch organizations. Since the early 1980s, the three common elements of burnout have been observed and analyzed in the field of psychology: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment. However, most approaches to treating burnout only seek to mitigate symptomology without treating the underlying cause.

This dissertation explores the development of a burnout culture in the United …

A Mentoring Ministry For The Spiritual Development Of Youth In Rural Congregations Of North Central And Northeast Arkansas, Glen Knabe

Harding School of Theology Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

The Religious Aspect Of The Macedonian Society In The Condition Of The Crisis Caused By Covid 19, Gjoko Gjorgjevski, Ivan Blazhevski

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus pandemic has influenced all spheres of social life of the Republic of North Macedonia. Introduction of precautionary and restrictive measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus impacted on the religious life of citizens-believers. The attitudes of the religious communities towards these measures impacted the behavior of the believers, but also on the opinion and attitudes of the general public. In order to give a clear picture of the religious aspect of the Macedonian society, this paper is divided into two parts. The first part presents the action of the larger religious communities during conditions of the …

Specifics Of State-Religious Relationships During Covid-19: Eastern Europe Vs Western Europe, Sergii Rudenko, Vitalii Turenko

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This paper highlights the peculiarities of the implementation of relations between the authorities and religious organizations in Eastern and Western Europe during the coronavirus pandemic. It has been proven that Western European countries have relatively quickly adapted to the new model of state-religious relations during the pandemic. At the same time, local protests and/or ignorance of the quarantine measures taken by the authorities of a particular country should be noted, which led to the detention of those responsible and/or an increase in the incidence of diseases among the population. It was revealed that the relationship between the authorities and religious …

Conflict Between The Clergy And The Laity In The Quaker Church In Kenya, John Muhanji

Doctor of Ministry

The Quaker church missionaries came to Kenya as part of the West's Christian movement to the dark continent. Historians have usually referred to the Society of Friends' spiritual life as quietism, which did not resonate well with African spirituality which was disregarded by the missionaries as evil. Africans unquestioningly believe in the supreme creator of the universe and humanity. There is no ethnic group in Africa that does not have a specific name for a supreme God.1 Therefore, the Quaker belief that "there is that of God in everyone" was not considered by the Western missionaries that Africans believed in …

Changing The Story Of White Supremacy In The Church: Towards A Trauma-Informed Model Of Racial Reconciliation, Andrea Saccoccio

Doctor of Ministry

The lack of identifiable progress regarding racial reconciliation since the 1960s has become increasingly evident in the growing mainstream appeal of extremist views on race in the wake of the Obama administration and intense rise in racial tensions across the country. The seeming impotence of the church to effectively speak into this climate has sparked renewed conversation in how the church engages racial reconciliation, particularly in an approach that considers how white evangelicals can recognize themselves as key factors in both the problem and the solution. Additionally, there is a growing interest in the role that trauma plays in these …

Attitudes Of Medical Students Towards Artificial Termination Of Pregnancy And Euthanasia In The Context Of Christian Ethics, Iryna Vasylieva, Kateryna Hololobova, Olha Nechushkina, Viacheslav Kobrzhytskyi, Serhii Kiriienko, Anna Laputko

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Medical students’ attitudes towards issues associated with the beginning and end of human life are analyzed using interdisciplinary approaches and empirical material (statistics, sociological surveys). The purpose of this article is to determine the peculiarities of Christian morality’s influence on the attitudes of contemporary Ukrainian medical students towards the issues of artificial termination of pregnancy and euthanasia. Based on a comparative analysis of the evaluative judgments of three groups of respondents (group 1 — those who consider themselves Christians; group 2 — respondents who are undecided about religious belief; group 3 — those who consider themselves non-believers), a complex relationship …

From Spectator To Servant: Addressing The Heart Of The Christian For Service Within The Church Based Upon Ephesians 5:18-21 And Biblical Principles Of Servanthood, David Warren Di Raddo

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

In the ninth chapter of Matthew's Gospel, verses thirty-six through thirty-eight, Jesus said to His disciples that the fields were ripe for harvest, but the workers are few. This dissertation project will address the question of why today, as in the days of Jesus, workers in the church continue to be few in number. Specifically, what factors have contributed to the majority of those who attend church becoming spectators rather than servants, and what will change the heart of the individual? This study will include three primary data collection methods comprised of a pre- and post-intervention questionnaire, a ten-question survey …