Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Factors Leading To Student Ministry Retention In Mid And Large Sized Southern Baptist Churches: A Phenomenological Study, Baylor Clark Whitney Sr.

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Over the past 15 years, the exodus of students from the church after high school graduation has emerged as a pressing issue in Christian leadership and education. Much research has focused on the quantitative rate of students leaving church after graduation (Barna, 2011; Earls, 2019; “Reasons 18- to 22-Year-Olds Drop Out of Church,” 2007; Trueblood, 2019). Researchers have cited the need for qualitative research to better understand the student ministry retention phenomena (Shields, 2008). The purpose of this phenomenological study was to discover some factors which led to post-student ministry retention among young adults who participated in student ministry at …

A Phenomenological Study Of Scripture-Based Ethical Principles Embedded Within Corporate Leadership Practices, Steven T. Smith

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The ethical treatment of others within the corporate working environment is essential for that corporation's success. Ethical treatment of others applies to business transactions with customers and clients and engages the policies designed to formulate the ethical treatment of company employees. Although most major corporation documentation includes corporate code of conduct policies, the ethical principles used to define those policies and enact leadership based upon those policies are not always consistent. Four research questions defined the structure of this qualitative phenomenological study. The study’s purpose was to define the nature of Scripture-based ethics within the corporate environment. The theory guiding …

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 …

An Assessment Of Dropout Rates Of Former Student Ministry Participants In Self-Identified Evangelical Churches With 500-2000 In Weekly Attendance, Derik Wade Idol

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Over the last quarter-century, there has been a consistent call to reconceptualization and at times reject the youth ministry task resulting from the universally accepted church dropout statistic post-high school graduation. In 2008, Brandon Shields presented a falsification study that disproved the theory that high school graduates are leaving the church at a rate of 70-90% at Southern Baptist Megachurches. The purpose of this study was to examine the claim that 70-90% of youth ministry graduates are leaving the church by researching 17 self-identified Evangelical churches of 500-2000 in average church attendance. The research design was a quantitative replication study …

An Assessment Of The Millennial Body And Its Place In The Local Church, Jonette L. Camp

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Millennial members’ waning attendance and involvement at Simon Temple African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church is a growing concern for the church universal. This project focuses on Simon Temple’s ability to attract and retain millennials and draw on their church programs and leadership gifts. This study’s purpose was to understand better why millennials do not become or remain active members at Simon Temple. If the church implemented a strategic evangelism and discipleship plan for millennials, could it help attract, retain, and involve millennials? This study evaluates the concerns of Simon Temple leadership and millennial members as they relate to millennial involvement …

Rescue Mission: Transformational Recovery Through Expository Preaching And Teaching, David Allen Mayes Ii

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The declining church stands in desperate need of regeneration, recovery, and revitalization. The primary goal for this thesis project is to lead Unity Missionary Baptist Church to a Christ-oriented, gospel-centered, and fruit-focused ministry. This endeavor implements an eight-week reconciling gospel program consisting of the sermon series Rescue Mission, eight small group discussions focused on the early church in the book of Acts, and forty-eight devotional verses for the congregation to experience spiritual growth and health. The church will discover that God’s Declaration is essential for a kingdom ministry. Ultimately becoming doers of the Word and not simply hearers. The quantitative …

An Abductive Argument From Depression And Anxiety To Christian Personal Holiness, Kelly Douglas Burchett

Masters Theses

The science on pathological depression and anxiety (D&A) describes religion and spirituality's (R/S) insulating and immunizing effects in roughly 72 to 85 percent of all relevant articles. But the descriptivism of science cannot assign any normative value to a theological worldview. Deductive logic favors theism via Leibnizian contingency, Kalām cosmology, objective morality, fine-tuning of the universe, and abstract conceptualism. The information in DNA, the irreducible complexity of intracellular machinery, the improbability of folded proteins, and the support for common modular design over common ancestry establish a design inference for all of life. Unguided naturalistic simulations fail to surmount the complexity …

Equipping College Students For A Marching Percussion Career In The United States, Thomas Paul Goddard

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Despite the traditional American percussion curriculum being valuable to the college percussionist, there is an unclear path toward preparing students for a career in the field of marching percussion. Every year, students graduate with a desire to pursue the marching arts as a vocation without sufficient guidance. This study examined the perspectives of marching band professionals (N=107) who have carved their path in the industry. Guided by Creswell’s research design model, this qualitative inquiry identifies viewpoints from marching percussionists that can create a comprehensive percussion curriculum. Outlooks on performing, teaching, composing/arranging, and the industry have emerged as themes integral to …

The Effects Of The Global Covid-19 Pandemic On Pastors In The Church Of The Nazarene, Beth Bleadingheiser Heath

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the experience of living through and ministering during the global COVID-19 pandemic for Nazarene pastors in Ohio. The theoretical framework that guided the research was Hope Theory and Resilience. The Conceptual Mapping Task was used to conduct interviews of eight ordained Nazarene pastors. Pastors described their experience and then worked with a researcher to create a concept map to organize their story. Pastors were asked to describe their story of living through and ministering during the global COVID-19 pandemic. Pastors were also asked how the global COVID-19 pandemic affected their church …

Connecting Youth To The Gospel: The Role Of Theology And Apologetics, John Wesley Sales Iv

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Connecting youth to the Gospel sounds like a basic undertaking. However, evidence shows students know very little about the Gospel. While they grow up in church and attend Sunday school, there is still a lack of desire from students to want to know who God is. There needs to be a path to teaching students the genuine and deep teachings of the Gospel. This topic is important because as students grow older, they may grow apart from what they learned in Sunday school. When they are challenged and distracted by the world, they need a strong anchor to keep them …

Increasing Church Growth Potential Through Education And Implementation Of The Biblically Defined Roles Of The Pastor And The Body Of Christ, Gregory Alan Kincaid

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This action research project focuses on church growth. It posits that if a congregation is taught and implements the biblical roles of the pastor and the church Body, then the church should grow quantitatively and qualitatively. To test this assumption, the roles of the pastor and that of the Body were delineated, taught, and practiced throughout a year-long study. Emphasis was placed on how God equipped every member of the Body to perform ministry within the church and outreach from the church. To reinforce the differences in the roles, study participants were required to actively participate in life groups with …

The Five Ministries Of The Church That Have Changed In Post-Covid-19 [To Compare The Church's Five Ministries Before And During Covid-19 And To Predict The Ministries Of The Church In Post-Covid-19], Euntaik Kim

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this thesis project is to find answers to what is the appropriate response to the post-Covid-19 era for the church. To achieve that purpose, this thesis project attempted to predict the direction of the church's ministry after Covid-19 by comparing changes in five important ministries of the church in pre-Covid-19 and during Covid-19. The five major ministries of the church—worship, education, fellowship, evangelism(mission), and service— have been explained in detail in the literature, and the impact of Covid-19 on these five ministries has also been closely investigated. In determining the direction of church ministry in the post-Covid-19 …

Holy Manna: How Old Harp Singing In East Tennessee Is Surviving In A New Wilderness, Amanda Leigh Rogers

Masters Theses

This project explores the identity and sustainability of the shaped note singing tradition among the community of the Friends of the New Harp of Columbia. A pattern emerged in fieldwork of song ownership, songs that each member considered to be “theirs.” Songs of ownership intertwine with education, preservation, and mediation of multiple realities to provide a link between identity and preservation and between the past, present, and future. The community actively preserves their musical tradition through song ownership. The sustainability and survival of songs of ownership is emphasized in two ways: an emphasis on participation, not performance, and an emphasis …

Middle East Lessons For America, Will Gunzelman

Faculty Publications and Presentations

This presentation provides the talking points from a discussion on the Middle East, Russian “Siege and Starve” tactics, and the need to recognize agriculture as a U.S. national security issue. Presented to the Cattleman’s Association on February 21, 2022; two days prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Author, Will Gunzelman, retired from U.S. Army Special Forces (“Green Berets”) after 27 years of service and numerous combat deployments.

Keywords: Middle East, Russia, Ukraine, Agriculture, National Security, National Defense, Foreign Policy, Political Science, Farming, Ranching, Great Power Competition (GPC), Warfare, Economics, Egypt, Iraq, Afghanistan , NATO, Food Shortage

Kingdom Millennials Infiltrating Culture: Reaching In Toward Generation Y To Reach Out To The World, Daniel Clark Iv

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

As protestant Christianity meanders through time from its roots as a light post of religious ritualism to a contemporary beacon of Christ-centered worship, there has been a noticeable scattering of a critical portion of its congregants commonly known as the Millennial generation. While their absence is obvious across the entire Christian landscape, the evidence of their displacement is most definite in the small inner-city Black Church context. The writer attributes the cause of the Millennial diaspora to the unconscious loss of humanity’s God-given purpose: to exclusively worship Him forever. It is apparent that an absent generation will garner a ripple …

A Study Of Soteriology: A Commentary, Course, And Conclusion Of Brown’S Creek Baptist Church’S Soteriological Beliefs, David Shawn Head

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This thesis identifies a church’s lack of theological awareness of biblical soteriology, investigates the literature for solutions to the ministerial problem, implements the review of literature into a course with curriculum, and the influences on the congregation’s beliefs. The church was a hodgepodge of soteriological beliefs. More specifically, the congregants purported to believe in Calvinism, Arminianism, and Semi-Pelagianism but could not accurately define, adequately describe, or appropriately defend said beliefs. A review of literature led this student to be selective of the soteriological literature known to exist. Simply, the ministerial problem was not because of a lack of literature but …

Overcoming Obstacles To Dna Group Engagement, Charles Edward Kelly

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Discipleship is the primary command given by Jesus to his disciples. The elements of discipleship growth are best carried out in smaller cell groups of ten to twenty people. In the model used by the researcher, these cell groups (called missional communities) are subdivided into groups of three comprised of the same gender. These subdivided groups are called DNA groups. It is within DNA groups that a more intimate environment is created for transparency, biblical learning, and accountability. The researcher found three primary obstacles to engagement in a previous iteration of DNA groups. Those three obstacles are overscheduling / busyness, …

A Quantitative Validation Study Evaluating A Proposed Three-Step Practical Model For Discerning God's Ordained Individual Vocational Will, Keith Allen Oglesby

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Discerning God's vocational will for one's life is a question that most people have faced. Many books, publications, and sermons have been written on this subject. The problem examined in this study is whether or not a proposed biblically-based, practical, three-step model utilizing the intersection point of one's passion, spiritual gift, and need for helping college students discern God's vocational will for their lives is empirically valid. There is a gap in the literature in this regard. The research reveals that a few authors mention one or perhaps even two critical elements for determining God's vocational will, but no current …

Using Intentional Relationship Building And Community Presence To Minister To An Addicted Population In Cookeville, Tennessee, James Bailey Simpson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Addiction and substance abuse are banes in American society as they destroy lives, families, hopes and dreams. Individuals with potential for productive lives and societal contributions are reduced to hollow shells and find themselves laser-focused on their next fix. Cookeville, Tennessee, is no different than any other rural American town as addiction and substance abuse are prevalent, especially within the northwestern areas of the city. West View Baptist Church was planted in this area in 1950 and has actively attempted to minister to the community's residents for the last 71 years. Recently, internal issues in the congregation and increasing disconnections …

A Contemporary Model Of An Outreach Training Manual For The New Light Church, Antonio Orlando Beckford

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The life of a Christian church goes through cycles. New Light Church has experienced a few of them. The thesis project reveals the growth cycles and declines in membership of NL. The researcher believes that the church’s steady membership growth dropped because of the abstaining of regular and deliberate practice of New Testament church growth methods. Church growth is grounded in the work of God. The church engaged in hearing and obeying God will see his fruit manifested through in their local assembly. The researcher created a manual for evangelism as a training template for the Christian church to follow. …

Christian Education And The Examination Of Apologetics Curriculum, Sara Elizabeth Boyd

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this action research project was to evaluate the ability of Christian high school students to explain and defend their faith. The main focus of the project was to compare the current apologetics curriculum used by Cedar Park Christian School to a new curriculum designed for the sake of this study. The new curriculum sought to provide grade-level resources as source material for each student. Additionally, it approached the course with the expectation for students to articulate their learned knowledge conversationally. There were forty-nine total participants, all who were either a junior or senior at the start of …

Engaging Middle School Students Through Music History Mini-Lessons: A Mixed-Methods Study, Jessica Bentley Frerich

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Understanding history is a vital part of learning. Nearly every question asked in a music classroom about musical context involves its history, from notation to gestures or technicality to aural listening. History can bring music to life for both the performers and listeners. Despite multiple studies on specific historical music events, music history perspectives have not been addressed in the choral classroom. Moreover, research forums have yet to explore engagement factors of middle school students through a music history curriculum in the choir classrooms. Such research could provide a valid model for educators. This mixed-methods research study seeks to determine …

"O Expunere A Fiinta Istorica A Lui Blaga", Michael Jones

Faculty Publications and Presentations

This chapter is an overview and explanation of Lucian Blaga's book Fiinta Istorica (The Historical Being). It is written in Romanian.

The Benefits Of Offering Classroom Piano Lessons As Part Of The Curriculum In Public Elementary School, Denise Cheeks Mundy

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study is to determine the potential benefits of offering classroom piano lessons as part of the curriculum in public elementary schools. The research reviews the educational, neurological, and cultural potential benefits a child may receive if they study the piano. Further study examines the availability for teachers to receive training in teaching group piano, the methods of setting up a piano classroom, and materials needed for such a program in the school system. Records of the history of group lessons showed that this method of teaching has had periods of success and periods of decline in …

Rewired: Utilizing An Integrated Design Campaign To Persuade Generation Z To Rethink Their Hyper-Connected World, Madison Jude Fogarty

Masters Theses

Twenty first century youth have never known a world without the Internet. From childhood they are increasingly reliant on the Internet for their sense of connectivity, play, communication, and socialization. These habits that are formed at a young age are rewiring children’s brains in a negative light. Psychological effects such as narcissism, escapism, instant gratification, and social comparison have become common issues that the current generation faces every day. This thesis will examine how increased dependency on social media and the Internet affects Generation Z and beyond. To better understand how media is affecting childhood and beyond, research was conducted …

True Pauline Worship Is Trinitarian: A Look At Paul’S Trinitarian Presuppositions, Connie Heberlein

Masters Theses

This thesis seeks to show that true Pauline worship is Trinitarian. Thus, proper Christian worship must be Trinitarian. This work begins by examining the Shema and exploring the unique identity of God presented in the Old Testament and the literature of Second Temple Judaism. Building on this foundation, this work evaluates statements found in Paul’s letters in which Paul reformulates the Shema to include Christ and the Spirit in the divine identity of God. The goal is to understand how the first Christians, who were Jews committed to the exclusive worship of Yahweh, moved from monotheistic worship to Trinitarian worship …

A Defense Of The Resurrection Miracle And Critique Of The Hallucination Theory, Joshua James Smothers

Masters Theses

Many Christian scholars simply laugh at the notion of the Hallucination theory. However, while it is laughable that the hallucination theory claims the disciples of Jesus all shared a hallucination in which they saw their beloved friend risen from the grave, there is more to the hallucination theory than meets the eye. This thesis defends the resurrection using history while critiquing the hallucination theory. Jesus did rise from the grave in the same physical body that was crucified at Calvary, and the disciple's claims of seeing a risen Jesus are true and can be proven with fact and evidence.

"The Women's Hell": Distinctions Between Forms Of Sexual Violence At The Ravensbrück Concentration Camp, The Liberalization Of Sexuality In The Weimar Republic, And The Exploitation Of Sexuality In The Third Reich, Ashley Ruth Lamoureux

Masters Theses

The Ravensbrück concentration camp located in northern Germany acted as the only Nazi concentration camp designated exclusively for women following the closure of the Lichtenburg camp. Beginning in 1939, women held in other camps, ghettos, prisons, and sanatoriums across the Reich were transported to Ravensbrück, “the women’s hell”. Until recently, Holocaust scholarship has largely overlooked the history of Ravensbrück as well as the complicated demographics of prisoners in the camp. A majority of the female prisoners at Ravensbrück were asocials or political and religious dissidents. The distinction of asocials as a separate prisoner categorization was not invented by the Nazi …

Systematic Approach To Recruiting And Retention Of Instrumental Students In Division One University Marching Band, Michael G. Yopp

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This study examines recruitment and retention in Division One (D1) university marching bands, while understanding high school and university directors’ perspectives and impact on student choice. This project surveyed university band directors, seeking commonalities for recruiting and retention of instrumental students. Based on the results, universities will have better strategies on what, how, and why recruitment and retention issues should be addressed. Student enrollment is important to the well-being, development, and continuity of marching band programs. They may result in better recruitment and retention for other university ensembles, applied studios, the music department, and the university enrollment overall. This study …

Best Books Of The Past 20 Years For Ages 3-6, Rachel Schwedt, Janice A. Delong

Ages 3-6

Selecting books for preschoolers and beginning readers that engage their attention while teaching values, can be an elusive task. We have chosen some titles that that will cause giggles of amusement, some that may bring wrinkles of concentration to little brows, and others that may raise questions for them to ask adults. All are well-written.

Title reviews are taken from See Me Shine: Developing Character Through Books: Ages 3-6