Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Rationale And Suggested Program For Workshop On Congregational Singing For Use In Local Church Or District, Christopher Ederesinghe

Professional Dissertations DMin

Problem

Congregational singing represents the part of corporate worship in which the entire group of worshipers present participates. It is therefore a vital and integral part of public worship. However, despite the availability of broad general guidelines at denominational level, these have not always been implemented in an effective manner at the level of the local church or pastoral district.

Method

This project report is presented in two parts. Part 1 comprises a position paper which which serves as the theo retical component of the project. This includes a biblical/ theological rationale for congregational singing, a denominational perspective, an historical …

An Experiment In Ministering To Felt Needs Of A Small Church Through Contemporary Sabbath Services, Dwayne Toppenberg

Professional Dissertations DMin

Problem

Jesus came to give fullness of life and yet people leave the church because of unsatisfying interpersonal relationships. It was the task of this project to measure the effects of Sabbath services upon the interpersonal relationships between church members.

Method

Ten Sabbath services were specifically designed to improve the interpersonal behaviors of inclusion, control, and openness, and to stimulate the interpersonal feelings of significance, competence, and love. The Schutz Measures instrument was administered before and after the ten services to determine whether these behaviors and feelings had improved.

Results

The scores on the Schutz instrument revealed that improvements were …

A Biblical Preaching Strategy For The Ministers Of The Seventh-Day Adventist Central Dominican Conference, Ramon Araujo C.

Professional Dissertations DMin

Problem

The problem of preaching in the Central Dominican Conference seems to be one of sermon content. Weaknesses in hermeneutical principles as well as rules applied to the biblical sermon can be detected. Even when preachers quote the Bible and try to explain the message, the biblical text is not properly discussed or explained. This situation results in poor sermon content. To correct this anomaly, this study provides a guide on Biblical Preaching to help the minister produce a better sermon to feed the church.

Method

In order to investigate the content of sermons and the principles applied to preaching …

Nurturing The Pastor's Spiritual Discipline Of Prayer Through The Dynamic Of Spiritual Direction, Derek John Morris

Professional Dissertations DMin

Problem

Current research demonstrates that we cannot assume that seminarians have received sufficient guidance in spiritual formation prior to the completion of their Seminary training. Therefore, there is a great need to explore ways of nurturing spiritual formation for those involved in pastoral ministry. It was the purpose of this present study to explore the potential of spiritual direction as a dynamic for nurturing the pastor's spiritual discipline of prayer.

Method

A spiritual friend, who had received training in spiritual direction, was selected with guidance from Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation. A twelve-month case study was established with the author …

A Program For Training In Personal Christian Witnessing To The Muslim Of Indonesia, Dumas Tambunan

Professional Dissertations DMin

This project was designed to develop a program of instruction for training layman in their personal Christian witnessing to the Muslims of Indonesia. The lay people involvement is very important at this time. Sharing Christian witnessing is a challenge to the lay people of Indonesia. They need to give their countrymen the good news of Jesus Christ. They need instruction to equip them for this great and rewarding service. The first chapter reviews passages from Scripture and from the writings of Ellen G. White about the functions of lay people in the church. The participation of the laity in the …

A History In Missiological Perspective Of The Seventh-Day Adventist Church In Japan From 1945 To 1985, Tadaomi Shinmyo

Professional Dissertations DMin

The purpose of this project is to study missiologically the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church history in Japan after World War II, because it has been often said that the Japanese church membership has not grown so fast as other countries in the Far Eastern Division. Why is the SDA mission so difficult in the country? In order to solve the problem, I surveyed, analyzed, and interpreted descriptively the work of the church.

After dealing with an overview of the prewar and postwar political, geographical, economic, social, and religious conditions of the country, the postwar church history was divided into four …

Preaching To An Institutional Congregation: An Analysis Of The Needs And Expectations For Preaching In The Newbury Park Adventist Church, Daniel G. Smith

Professional Dissertations DMin

Purpose

The impetus for the research was a transfer from a rural parish to the Newbury Park Seventh-day Adventist Church on the campus of Newbury Park Adventist Academy. Because a majority of the congregation are employed by denominational institutions, it was presumed that the institutional character of the congregation would influence their needs and expectations for preaching. Therefore the research was designed to ascertain those needs and expectations, and to find any difference between institutional and noninstitutional members.

The Case for a Congregational Analysis

The study presents a case for congregational analysis. The first line of argument is based upon …

Designing And Implementing A Curriculum For Developing The Prayer Life Of The Piedmont Park Church Congregation, Frank Albert Tochterman

Professional Dissertations DMin

Problem

While prayer is vital to every aspect of the Christian life, both laity and clergy fail in its practice. This may be due, in part, to a lack of understanding its importance, potential, and meaning. A study of the nature of prayer reveals that its primary intent is communion with God, not merely the means of registering requests. The task of this project was to lead the members of the Piedmont Park Church into developing stronger habits of personal prayer. To achieve this objective, a curriculum was designed and implemented to communicate four aspects of prayer: importance, meaning, potential, …

A Program For "Caring Church Ministry" In The Eugene, Oregon, Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Robert L. Heisler

Professional Dissertations DMin

Problem

Caring Church Ministry is a strategy for church growth which was developed by the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists. How that strategy might be implemented in the Eugene Seventh-day Adventist Church was the basic concern of this research project. How theology and management philosophy inform a caring church membership, how to implement a program involving the church membership, and dynamics of that church which favored or inhibited church growth were questions that had to be addressed.

Method

A theological investigation and an examination of contemporary concepts of caring in management literature form a basis for the study. Two …

A Study Of Creative Conflict Management And Christian Reconciliation With A Proposed Seminar For Seventh-Day Adventist Ministers In The Caribbean And West Indies Unions, Winston Anthony Richards

Professional Dissertations DMin

An important field of expanding interest is the management of differences in the church. Changes have taken place which challenge the very existence and fibre of organizational structure and relationship growth in the church setting. There are several reasons for the increasing need for efficiency in the field of conflict management. One basic reason is the potential for dysfunctional and functional effects that conflict can have on any congregation. Adequate conflict management can prove to be a critical skill for the healthy management of differences. Consequently, potential and practicing ministers need special and continuing training in this field. It was …

Towards A Model Of Congregational Evangelistic Campaigns In The Seventh-Day Adventist Churches In West Germany, Ekkehardt Muller

Professional Dissertations DMin

In the Western world it is a great challenge for churches to reach secular persons. This is true especially for West Germany where only an almost insignificant percentage of the population attends church regularly. Traditional methods to win people for Christ usually focus on this small percentage of people instead of on the vast majority of the unchurched people. Reaching the unchurched is a situation in which the laymen of the church are of special importance, for they are able to be in touch with persons clergymen will almost never reach. Thus laymen need to have a larger sphere of …