Religion Commons^™

The Effectiveness Of The African American Church Evangelism Outreach Process, Jeffrey Lawrance Dennis

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Many African American churches are on a continual decline or have become stagnant in membership due to a lack of relational and spiritual community evangelism. The focus of this project reflects that African American churches in North Carolina are not growing because they do not focus on Jesus Christ’s central mandate to his disciples and the church to evangelize the community and the world around it. The researcher performs applied research on African American churches that directly interacted with these communities and investigates positive and negative data by surveying twenty African American churches in Winston Salem, Greensboro, High Point, and …

Church Leadership: Examining The Role Of Non-Pastoral Leadership In A New Church Plant, Douglas Martin Beckman

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

In today’s western Christianity, many small churches are closing their doors; hundreds of pastors are quitting the ministry. Churches are planted quickly, and just as quickly close and disappear. What can be done to bring a halt to this downhill slide? The great message of Jesus Christ is as important and powerful as it always has been. However, in many churches today, there are dissident elements working to take attention away from the gospel. Dissident non-pastoral leadership (a person or persons who undermine the Pastor’s authority and cause disruption for their own benefit) can destroy the entire vision of a …

Engaging The Poor: Leveraging Local Poverty Assistance Programs To Prepare For Global Engagement, Darren Hercyk

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

With globalization, there has been an explosion in travel by academic institutions and the church. For the church, this growth has been in short-term mission trips. Unlike traditional missionaries, most short-term travelers are untrained or lightly trained laypersons. The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to understand how local poverty assistance programs could be leveraged to prepare the church today for global engagement. This study provided ten church volunteers with training that included a Scripture overview of the poor, the multidimensional factors of poverty, reducing harm in poverty programs, and the skills for affirming dignity during an interview. Following …

Exemplary Nonvocational Ministry Leadership Practices In Predominantly Black Southeastern Connecticut Churches: A Quantitative Study, Stephenie R. Guess

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine how nonvocational (unpaid) ministry leaders demonstrated exemplary leadership practices while ministering in predominantly Black Southeastern Connecticut churches. The study also showed how much theological training nonvocational ministry leaders received. Volunteer leadership is a critical resource for the church. Purposive nonprobability sampling produced a sample from an unknown population of nonvocational ministry leaders serving predominantly Black Southeastern Connecticut churches. Surveys distribution was via U.S. mail to pastors at 20 churches identified from e-mail distribution lists and social media posts. Sixty-eight participants completed the survey, which incorporated a demographic questionnaire and the Leadership …

A Comparative Analysis Of The Discipleship Practices Of Selected Mississippi Baptist Convention Pastors And Churches, Robert David Haynes

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative, interview-based-study was to explore the personal discipleship practices of pastors and compare those practices to the personal discipleship practices of Mississippi Baptist Convention churches with an average Sunday school attendance greater than 400 by collecting qualitative data from pastors, other staff members, and church members. This qualitative research design called for research to be conducted for the purpose of describing the personal discipleship practices of pastors through interviewing pastors and then comparing those practices to the practices of the two interviewed staff members and the two interviewed church members of those same pastors. This study …

Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University: Fpu's Effect On Tithes And Offerings In The Evangelical Church, Jay Forseth

Doctor of Ministry

In The Evangelical Church, giving actually went down after FPU in 23 out of our 42 churches (55%) the year the class was held. Nevertheless, our overall average increase in giving to the 42 churches was +2.39% the same year. The following year, giving further increased a total of 4.24% over the year before the class was taught, which supports Ramsey’s claim of a 4% giving increase. In year three after the class, total giving reached a remarkable increase of 7.06%, while 67% of our churches saw a positive net increase in giving after hosting FPU.

However, in the fourth …

Partners In Ministry: Practical Advice For Ministers And Their Spouses, Nancy Rockey, Ron Rockey, Petr Cincala

Journal of Applied Christian Leadership

No abstract provided.

William Carey's Expectation For Missionary Cooperation : An Inquiry Into The Significance Of Interdependence In The Missionary Partnerships And Collaborative Efforts Of The First Baptist Mission In India, Andrew D. Mcfarland

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Incomparable? : Authenticating Criteria In Historical Jesus Scholarship And General Historical Methodology, Kevin B. Burr

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Early Christian Responses To Persecution And Their Implications For Christians In Northern Nigeria, Yakubu Tanko Jakada

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Ancestors In The Asia-Pacific Context, Cristian Dumitrescu

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies

No abstract provided.

Ancestor Worship And The Gadarene Demoniacs, Cedric Vine

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies

No abstract provided.

Rituals And Beliefs Surrounding Death In Islam, Petras Bahadur

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies

No abstract provided.

Theological Education Of Seventh-Day Adventist Women In Nigeria, Harriet O. Ikhane

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies

No abstract provided.

The Phenomenon Of Ancestor Cults With Missiological Implications, Richard Doss

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies

No abstract provided.

Adventist Devotional Theology In Mission: An Emphasis On Spiritual Life In The Encounter With The Buddhist Karmic Understanding Of God And The Afterlife, Regine Rimarzik

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies

No abstract provided.

Book Review Of Intercultural Discipleship: Learning From Global Approaches To Spiritual Formation, By W. Jay Moon, Daniel Matthew Duffis Gordon

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies

No abstract provided.

Editorial, Bruce L. Bauer

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies

No abstract provided.

Towards A Biblical And Missiological Model Of Cross-Cultural Contextualization Among Chinese Immigrants In “Barrio Chino” Duarte Of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Samuel Telemaque

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies

No abstract provided.

Book Review Of The Church On Mission: A Biblical Vision For Transformation Among All People, By Craig Ott, Kerth Payne

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies

No abstract provided.

St. Ignatius As Psychotherapist? How Jesuit Spirituality And Wisdom Can Enhance Psychotherapy, Thomas G. Plante

Psychology

The great wisdom traditions associated with various religious and spiritual practices and institutions have offered a variety of helpful strategies for more effective living and coping with life’s many challenges. In most recent times, efforts to secularize these strategies have been made in order to appeal to the general population as well as to secular mental health professionals as tools for their clinical practices. Although mindfulness meditation and yoga are perhaps the most notable examples, many other intervention strategies have been and can be borrowed from various religious and spiritual traditions to use in a secular manner if so desired. …

Frontmatter, Quaker Religious Thought, No. 134, Jon R. Kershner

Quaker Religious Thought

Welcome to the Spring issue of Quaker Religious Thought! In November, the Quaker Theological Discussion Group (QTDG) convened in San Diego, CA, along with the American Academy of Religion. Papers from one of the two QTDG sessions, “Quakers Reading Scripture,” are printed in this issue. As the name suggests, the panel reflected on the ways Quakers have read the Bible. Michael Birkel’s article on Margaret Fell shows how early Friends practiced an associative form of reading the Bible that informed the symbols and images so important to their spiritual experiences. Paul Anderson continued the investigation of early Quaker practices by …

"Hearing To Speech": A Participatory Theology Of World-Dwelling As Congregational Formation In God's Mission, David Hahn

Quaker Religious Thought

Allow me initial place to recognize my own social location as a the US, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.1 From a personal and professional perspective, my thoughts below have in mind the continuing impact of whiteness as a pervasive preoccupation with mastery over others that subsumes both difference and distinctions.2 As a leader of congregations, I have witnessed this implicit bias present among them, and I see how it continues to inform both the theory and practice of much of our faith communities. Congregational reticence to engage spiritual practices of listening may, in fact, be tied into these larger …

Not A Megachurch? Creative Methods Toward Intergenerational Worship Within A Small Evangelical Church: A Case Study, Brenda L. Widger

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Larger churches have historically had the advantage in the realm of creative worship ministry due to larger budgets, more volunteers and dedicated professional staff. While megachurches have dominated the creative worship model, smaller evangelical churches have struggled to capture the essence of creativity in their services. There is a need to explore the obstacles faced by the smaller church along with methods that can be applied to overcome the challenges to offer effective worship experiences that include creative worship elements in a multigenerational model. In this qualitative historical case study, insight into the processes and resources necessary to move the …

The Ministry Of Ezra: A Biblical Model Of Intergenerational Worship, Matthew Ryan Nix

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Despite many studies on intergenerational worship, there is little focus on a specific biblical character with the aim to edify the Church family as a whole in terms of intergenerational worship and how it impacts all generations and family types in the Church today. This study focuses on the ministry of Ezra and how he led others through a time of intergenerational worship and transition. Guided by examples from Ezra’s ministry, along with historical research, this study will seek to discover ways that Ezra taught worship across generational lines, lessons that the 21st-century church can glean from his ministry, and …

Ancestors And Death

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies

No abstract provided.

Frontmatter (Volume 40, Issue 2)

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Giftive Mission Lives : Verbeck, Judson, Ricci & Timothy I, Zonia Mitchell

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Spirit Possession In Luke-Acts And Modern Eyewitnesses : An Analysis Of Anthropological Accounts As Evidence For The Plausibility Of The Lukan Accounts, Joy L. Vaughan

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Review Of The Syrian Orthodox Christians In The Late Ottoman Period And Beyond: Crisis Then Revival, Jeanne-Nicole Mellon Saint-Laurent

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.