Religion Commons^™

Temples Of The Imagination, Jeffrey Thayne, Nathan Richardson

Interpreter Foundation Books

To the left, you see a temple that resembles those built by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints. However, this temple is not one that has ever been built by the Church—it is an imaginary temple. But what is so interesting about that? We can all close our eyes and imagine in our mind’s eye temples that do not currently exist. Talented artists could then put that to canvas and create a depiction. What is special is that this image

Steadfast In Defense Of Faith, Shirley S. Ricks, Stephen D. Ricks, Louis C. Midgley

Interpreter Foundation Books

The title of this volume of essays in honor of Daniel C. Peterson, Steadfast in Defense of Faith, was not idly chosen. It reflects his most widely known public role as an apologist. Over the years, Dan has had not only to defend the faith but also frequently has been required to define and justify the legitimacy of apologetics as a scholarly endeavor. On one such occasion he wrote: The Greek word from which our English term apologetics derives means “defense.” The notion of saying that one is “sorry” is a much later linguistic development. (In Plato’s Apology, his hero …

Dialogue After Dobbs: Introduction, M. Therese Lysaught, Mari Rapela Heidt, Mary Doyle Roche, Kate Ward

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Seminario Para Fortalecer La Dadivosidad En Las Ofrenda En La Iglesia Adventista Del Séptimo Día De Perth Amboy, Nueva Jersey, Ricardo Cala

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

Finances have suffered a collapse in the world economy and this experience has reached the local Church, leading to a decrease in the operational resources needed to function effectively. The Adventist Church in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, has been a faithful tithing congregation; however not so with offerings, which have declined in the past few years. The Perth Amboy church, being a multicultural church, is made up of members mostly from the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Peru, Mexico, and has representation from other countries in Central America and the Caribbean. Just as language is a barrier for the majority …

Finding A Voice: A Preaching Model To Address The Postmodern And Post-Soviet Young Adults At The Compass Seventh-Day Adventist Church In Tallinn, Estonia, Mervi Cederstrom

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

In Northern and Eastern Europe, probably more than in any other part of the world, the gap between the inner culture of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and that of the surrounding culture has grown large, hindering the church’s ability to share the Gospel to young adults (ages 16-29) in a meaningful and clear way. It is especially true about people who have grown up in the Postmodern and Post-Soviet context of Estonia and have very little biblical knowledge. This present study concentrates on homiletics and how this culture gap can be bridged via preaching.

Method

A five-part preaching series …

Creating A Mission-Focused Stewardship Plan For The Shiloh Bilingual French Seventh-Day Adventist Church In Brooklyn, New York, Herode J. Thomas

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

A review of administrative data reveals that Shiloh French Seventh-day Adventist Church has lost 25% of its members over the past 5 years, while only 15% joined by baptism. Most new members come from transfers and profession of faith. The purpose of the present work is to address the issue of lack of motivation to carry out the mission of the worldwide church by asking the following question: How can a mission-focused stewardship plan help church leaders and members refocus? --

Methodology

Based on the context, theological reflection, and literature review, the initiative was presented in four phases: Mission-Focused …

A Strategy To Increase Spiritual Maturity By Practicing Spiritual Disciplines At Berean Seventh-Day Adventist Church In Houston, Texas, Robert W. Norwood

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church has been a pillar in the Third Ward community of Houston since the 1900s. Berean has two distinctions. It is the only Seventh-day Adventist church in downtown Houston. It is also the only predominantly African American Seventh-day church in the area. Its DNA has always been community and civic minded. Like many other churches, Berean is a commuter church. There are two individuals who live near the church; however, the majority of the members who attend Berean commute to the church to minister to the community. Berean was established by individuals who had a desire …

The Creation Of Virtual Online Small Groups To Increase Member Participation And Build Community At The Redding Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Robert Fisher

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

Many churches have struggled to continue to accomplish mission in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic while complying with the mandated restrictions. The Redding Seventh-day Adventist Church already struggled with no small group ministry prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, and the “stay at home” requirements for churches only increased feelings of isolation in the Redding Church members. These feelings of isolation created a hindrance to mission and resulted in a severe lack of biblical community.

Method

The research method employed in the design of this project was a qualitative one. It explored the question under examination by using NCD …

Creating A Culture Shift In The Tracy Seventh-Day Adventist Church To Attract Millennials And Generation Z, Tyler Kraft

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

The Tracy Seventh-day Adventist Church is facing a shortage of committed leaders and volunteers. Most of the current ones have been serving for several decades and they desire to train and mentor potential replacements, but there are not enough people from the younger generations to take up the mantle. The demographics of the church do not represent the demographics of the community; older adults are overrepresented and younger adults are underrepresented. The church needs more youth and young adults to relieve the older members, or else the church's existence could be in jeopardy.

Method

In consultation with my advisor …

Building Intergenerational Relationships With Mutual Benefits At North Port Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Breath Of Life Seventh-Day Adventist Church, And Conyers Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Paul David Lincoln Wilson

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

Within our churches, North Port Seventh-day Adventist Church (North Port, Florida), Breath of Life Seventh-day Adventist Church (Fort Washington, Maryland), and Conyers Seventh-day Adventist Church (Conyers, Georgia), there is a real problem between adults and youth. There is a need to build intentional intergenerational relationships and to examine their effects on spiritual growth/development on both adults and youth. As the adults and the youth of our congregations begin intentional intergenerational relationships (building greater intergenerational bonding) with each other, I believe that greater spiritual growth will be realized by both. While there are relationships that have been developed between the …

Developing Small Group Ministry Based On Spiritual Temperaments In The Olympic Korean Seventh-Day Adventist Church In Los Angeles, California, Young Rin Kim

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

Pastoral observation revealed that members of the Olympic Korean Seventh-day Adventist Church struggle to develop their own spirituality due to a lack of understanding regarding spiritual temperaments. Discerning one's own spiritual temperament or style is needed at both the individual and the church level in order to understand that there are more styles than those in the corporate doctrinal focus reflected in Adventism. Approaches to relationships with church attendees and responses to church-sponsored activities can be transformed by a better understanding of these temperaments/styles. Steps must be taken to expand Adventism to accept all different styles. A variety of …

Premarital Education : A Comprehensive Approach For Seventh-Day Adventist Pastors In The Italian Union, Roberto Ianno

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

Although the Adventist Church upholds the importance of a Christlike and stable marriage, the Italian Union historically never developed a systematic and comprehensive approach to both premarital counseling and enrichment programs for married couples, whose preparation is aleatory and depends on both/either the pastor’s approach and/or the couple’s request. The results could be a weakening of both marital stability and marital satisfaction. We assume that the root problem is a naïve understanding of marriage which causes couples to put more effort into preparing for the wedding day rather than for the marital journey.

Method

An action research intervention was …

A Leadership Strategy To Identify And Reverse The Effects Of Consumerism On The Commitment To The Mission And Management Of The Village Seventh-Day Adventist Church Members, Ronald Paul Kelly Jr.

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

Low levels of commitment have detrimentally affected many aspects of the Village Church's health and vitality. The present study was developed to see to what degree the leaders of the Village Church had imbibed consumer constructs of identity and ministry and to what degree those constructs could be changed when presented with a biblical construct of identity and ministry.

Method

A week of spiritual emphasis entitled "Built on the Rock" examined the principles of the church growth movement as manifest in the megachurch movement. By contrast, the scriptural paradigm of the church as a family was presented as a …

Programa De Discipulado Para Líderes De Las Unidades De Acción Del Distrito Misonero De "La Era" De La Iglesia Adventista Del Séptimo Día, Lima Este 2022, Hector Willy Roncal Salazar

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

Since 2018, North Peru Union Mission (NPU) has promoted discipleship through the structure of the Sabbath School made up by the Action Unit teachers who shepherd their members through friendship, relationship, and the missionary action units that also have the function of small groups in the district mentioned above, the leaders of the action units focus on fulfilling traditional Sabbath School teachers and not on being leaders who shepherd their small group members. For this reason, the leaders of these units are required to have a disciple-makers profile. Several authors affirm that if you learn how to make disciples …

Programa De Capacitación Evangelística Para La Iglesia Adventista Hispana De Poughkeepsie, New York, Fernando Rosario Castro

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

An investigation conducted along with the church board revealed that the congregation has not had an evangelistic training program in the last 5 years. Consequently, only 5 of the 347 members are involved in the evangelistic work of the local community. An evangelistic training program has the potential to involve members fully equipped to evangelize the people in their community.

Purpose

The purpose of this project is to develop an evangelistic training program to involve more church members in the evangelization of the community and to involve church members in holistic growth.

Methodology

This investigation belongs to the discipline …

Using Christ's Method: Reshaping Evangelism In Milton Keynes International Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Sampson Osei Aboagye

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

Milton Keynes International Seventh-day Adventist Church (MKI) is not able to evangelize its multiethnic/multicultural neighbors. This is because individual members of the church consider evangelism to be an annual event where speakers are invited from abroad to hold two- or three-week campaigns. Despite the high cost involved in this method, few people are baptized and even then, it is difficult to retain the new members. The culprit is the church's inability to connect with its multiethnic and multicultural community because of not using the evangelistic method of Jesus Christ effectively.

Method

A total of six hours over four Sabbaths …

Intergenerational Community Engagement Strategy To Minority Families In Urban Housing Developments Suffering From Generational Issues In The Pioneer Homes And Central Village On The Southside Of Syracuse, New York, Aaron V. Chancy

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

In the Seventh-day Adventist Churches Fundamental Beliefs, Fundamental Belief #13 The Remnant and Its Mission, pages 168-178 of the Seventh-day Adventist Church Manual (Church Manual, 172), there is no mention pertaining to the closing versus of Matthew 28. Yet within the evangelism endeavors, there is a lack of the elements of intergenerational ministry to families in low-income housing as a methodology in which to fulfill this mission. While the adage "If we get the children, we will get the parents" has been used in attempts to do ministry among low-income households, the lack of a systematic intergenerational evangelistic method …

Growing Inclusive Churches Of Belonging For Families Living With Autism In The Ontario Conference Of The Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Elizabeth Rosete-Pule

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

An assessment of the 181 congregations in the Ontario Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church revealed that there were no churches, companies, or groups working towards the inclusion of families living with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The lack of education, resources and ministry for ASD children and individuals isolates them from the life and ministry of the church community. In addition, there are no accommodations or supports available that are required for the wide range of developmental disabilities that ASD children have. Tools, education, training, and a resource guide are necessary to equip leaders and churches to grow inclusive …

A Strategy To Improve Contextualization At Hope Channel International, Vyacheslav Demyan

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

Hope Channel International was created by the Seventh-day Adventist Church with the mission “to offer God’s good news for a better life today and for eternity through the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s wholistic understanding of the Bible” (General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists 2019–2020, 459). However, as many other evangelical media ministries in North America who are mainly “preaching to the choir,” creating their own “gospel ghettos” (Woods 2013, 22), Hope Channel’s audience mainly are the members of the Adventist Church. This compromises the scope of the existence of Hope Channel as a media brand. From the structural perspective, Hope Channel …

To Make The Attempt, Isaac James Richards

BYU Studies

Fall, not spring.

Idaho, not New York.

Dusk, not dawn.

Still, a prayer

Reclaiming The “Primary Question”: A New Beginning For Joseph Smith’S First Vision, William G. Perez

BYU Studies

In October 2019, Russell M. Nelson, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, reminded Church members that “in the springtime of the year 2020, it will be exactly 200 years since Joseph Smith experienced the theophany that we now know as the First Vision. God the Father and His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, appeared to Joseph, a 14-year- old youth. That event marked the onset of the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ in its fulness, precisely as foretold in the Holy Bible.” President Nelson then designated 2020 as a bicentennial year and invited listeners to …

Toward A Greater Appreciation Of The Word Adieu In Jacob 7:27, Godfrey J. Ellis

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

The phrase “Brethren, adieu” (Jacob 7:27) has been criticized over the years as an obvious anachronism in the Book of Mormon. That criticism holds no validity whatsoever, as others have pointed out, since many English words have French origins. It’s worth considering, though, a deeper meaning of the word. In French, it carries a nuance of finality — that the separation will last until a reunion following death (à Dieu, or until God). This deeper meaning of adieu appears to have been known by Shakespeare and frontier Americans although the second meaning is not generally recognized by English speakers today. …

How Things Look From Here, Daniel C. Peterson

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Do defenders of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ see themselves as fighting a desperate rearguard battle against the evidence, hoping to save at least a faint shred of credibility for its claims? Hardly. But, at the same time, we don’t pretend to be able to prove those claims beyond any possibility of doubt. Such a prospect, we think, was never God’s intent. “For now we see through a glass, darkly,” as the prophet and apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:12. “Now [we] know in part.” That is an important part of the plan. There is abundant evidence to …

Joseph Smith’S Education And Intellect As Described In Documentary Sources, Brian C. Hales

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Although Joseph Smith has been credited with “approximately seven full school years” of district schooling, further research supports that his education consisted of basic instruction in “reading, writing and the ground rules of arithmetic” comprising “less than two years of formal schooling.” The actual number of terms he experienced in common schools in upstate New York is probably less critical since the curricula in district schools did not then teach creative writing, composition, or extemporaneous speaking. If Joseph Smith learned how to compose and dictate a book, extracurricular activities would likely have been the training source. Six of those can …

A New Look At The Miracles Of The Resurrection And The Book Of Mormon, Spencer Kraus

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Joshua Gehly, an ordained Evangelist of the Church of Jesus Christ, offers a compelling case for the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon. Gehly uses the historical methods used by William Lane Craig, Gary Habermas, and Michael Licona to demonstrate the historicity of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and applies them to the Book of Mormon, concluding there to be greater evidence for the Book of Mormon using these methods than the Resurrection. He likewise concludes that the Book of Mormon serves to strengthen the reality of the Resurrection, bearing testimony of a historical people’s interactions with a historical …

Delivering The Family Proclamation Insights From Former Relief Society President Elaine L. Jack, Barbara Morgan Gardner, Olivia Osguthorpe

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

On September 23, 1995, President Gordon B. Hinckley presented “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” at the general Relief Society meeting of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Regarding this document, Sheri Dew, biographer for both President Gordon B. Hinckley and President Russell M. Nelson, writes, “Seership and the proclamation on the family are inextricably connected.”[1] Due to the impact and increasingly controversial nature of the family proclamation, as well as other narratives that have surfaced in various forms (such as books, social media posts, YouTube videos, and interviews), clarity regarding its inception and presentation is critical.

Front Matter

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

How Do I Teach The Fall? Distinction And Harmonization, Mark T. Lewis

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

At least every other year, if not more frequently, Sunday School teachers throughout The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints share core doctrines drawn from the Fall of Adam and Eve with their students. The sacred story of what transpired in Eden is recorded in multiple scripture passages (Genesis 3, Moses 4, and 2 Nephi 2) and is represented in Latter-day Saint temples. While essential doctrines related to the Fall’s necessary and beneficial impact on human progress towards exaltation are clear,[1] some conflicting narrative details can be difficult to sort out—especially for younger students. One interpretive strategy that teachers …

What To Do When "I Don't Know" Is The Only Answer, Brent D. Fillmore, Joan W. Fillmore

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

About seven months into our service as mission leaders, we attended a district conference on one of the islands in our mission. We flew in on Friday and intended to spend some time with the missionaries after the conference ended. At about ten thirty on Monday morning, one of our assistants called from the mainland. He was very emotional. He told us that while four elders had been playing soccer at the church, suddenly and for no apparent reason, one of them had collapsed. We got a few more details, and we asked him to call an ambulance, get over …

"I Say Unto You, My Brethren" Helping Female Students See Themselves In The Book Of Mormon, Cassidy Nichole Pyper

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

In 1 Nephi 14, an angel prophesied to Nephi that if the Gentiles heeded the words of the Savior, he would “manifest himself unto them in word, and also in power, and in very deed, unto the taking away of their stumbling blocks” (verse 1). The Book of Mormon uses the expression “stumbling blocks” multiple times throughout its text to describe obstacles that could cause someone to “stumble” or “err”[1] on their path to Christ and salvation. Like all of us, the youth and young adults of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints encounter stumbling blocks on their …