Practical Theology Commons^™

Looking Back To Move Forward: Youth Ministry And Its Effect On The Faith And Christian Practices Of Today's Adults, Andrew A. Taylor

Doctor of Ministry Theses

This mixed methods explanatory research project investigated the effectiveness of youth ministry practices in shaping, or failing to shape, adult Christian faith. Fifty-nine former youth group members from three congregations were surveyed, and six were interviewed: two active Christians, two inactive Christians, and two non-Christians. Results revealed the active Christians had experienced a personal sense of God’s presence and witnessed God’s activity in the public sphere. This suggests that youth ministry would do well to utilize practices that encourage adolescents to experience and articulate a sense of God’s presence in both their personal lives and in the world around them.

A Congregation Engaging In Missional Dialogue: Strengthening Discernment Amid Diversity Through Healthy Congregational Dialogue, Jeffrey M. Wilson

Doctor of Ministry Theses

This transformative mixed-methods modified Participatory Action Research (PAR) project was used to investigate and affect healthy and faithful discernment and decision-making in a diverse congregation within the reality of being the body of Christ in mission. Data were collected utilizing baseline and end-line surveys, recorded and transcribed meetings and interviews, and memos. The data revealed that people who engaged in the research process grew in their perception of the congregation as being healthy and faithful in discernment and decision-making. This research shows that mutual responsibility, respect, trust, and interdependence between leaders and congregation members helps us focus on God’s mission …

Generous Leaders, Generous Congregations: A Study Of The Relationship Between The Financial Generosity Of Congregational Leaders And The Financial Generosity Of Their Congregations, Ryan D. Brodin

Doctor of Ministry Theses

This sequential explanatory mixed methods comparative case study research project explores personal financial generosity in pastors and Congregational Council members of five suburban mainline congregations to discover what influence their generosity has on the congregations they lead. This research involved a survey of all the leaders, interviews with each pastor, focus groups with Congregational Council members, and financial statistics for each congregation. Although there are many insights in this research project regarding financial generosity in leaders and congregations, the results do not show a direct influence of the personal financial generosity of the leaders on the financial generosity of the …

Walk Me To The Gate: Christian Practices Of Accompaniment With People Who Are Dying And Their Families, Yolanda Kali Denson-Byers

Doctor of Ministry Theses

This mixed-methods concurrent triangulation research project asks, “What practices should we incorporate into the hospice ministry of Fellowship Lutheran Church in order to help dying people and their families experience a peaceful death with love?” Utilizing two focus groups, four interviews, and a congregational census, this project finds that research participants are terrorized by death and are hungry for hospice and bereavement ministries provided by their community of faith. This exploratory project illuminates the specific practices which missional congregations may utilize to empower the priesthood of all believers to create a beloved community which points to the hope of resurrection.

Empathy As Sacred Ethic: A Chaplain's Perspective On Difficult End Of Life Cases, Peter L. Bauck

Doctor of Philosophy Theses

Because of our increasingly intercultural world, it can be difficult for patients, families, and medical teams to decide on what they should do for patients who are, in the medical team’s opinion, near the end of life. The family and medical team can hold disparate beliefs and values around what they should do for the patient. Ethics committees often get involved in these difficult end of life cases.These cases are also emotionally charged, especially for the family as they wrestle with the intensity of their loved one’s situation and try to decide what to do. Because of the emotional intensity …

Countertransference As Koinonia, Karin A. Craven

Doctor of Philosophy Theses

This thesis inquires after the lived-through experience of community in the congregation by the pastoral leader. It is predicated upon the multiple self whose plurality is understood through psychoanalytical and postcolonial theories as well as by developmental processes illumined by interpersonal neurobiology. The phenomenological inquiry into one pastor’s experience of community in the congregation yielded in vivo themes – movement, joy, and open; connect, conflict, and centering; table, hospitality, love, and diversity -- that were understood broadly from the wondering perspective of desire. Closer theoretical analysis of these in vivo themes from theological, psychological, and interpersonal neurobiological conceptual categories was …

The Impact Of Social Media On Adolescent Grief, Kathryn Knutson

Children, Youth, and Family (CYF) Papers

No abstract provided.

I Believe, Lord Help My Unbelief: The Thin Christology Of Austin Adolescents, Brianna Morris-Brock

Children, Youth, and Family (CYF) Papers

No abstract provided.

Thoughts On The Importance Of Attending Church, Kerry Irish

Faculty Publications - Department of History and Politics

A short essay on the purpose and importance of church attendance.

Excerpt: "Today, many Christians have given up consistent attendance of worship services. This tendency is particularly pronounced among young adults. The reasons are numerous and varied. Among the complaints: the worship service is boring; it is impossible to find a church with both a style of worship and theology that is acceptable, and our lives are just too busy. There are surely more reasons for skipping church but these few will suffice to provide helpful and hopeful comment."

Keywords: worship, church, Hebrews 10:24-25, C. S. Lewis, Benedict of Nursia.

Apostasy, W. B. Godbey

William B. Godbey

No abstract provided.

Adoption, W. B. Godbey

William B. Godbey

No abstract provided.

Catholic Girls All Grown Up: A Practical Theological Exploration Of Sexuality Formation In Young Adult Women, Emily Susanne Kahm

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Roman Catholic Church promotes exacting norms about the sexual behavior expected of Catholics, but prior qualitative and quantitative studies have shown a mixed effect on the decisions made by young adult Catholics, especially women. This qualitative study interviewed young adult women who were raised Catholic and sought to determine both what they were taught about sex and sexuality while growing up Catholic and how they think those teachings affected their lives and decision-making as young adults. Analysis of their responses indicated an anxious climate in their childhood educational experiences where adults were hesitant to answer questions or engage in …

Luther Seminary: It Takes A Village, Adam J. Copeland, Jason Misselt

Faculty Publications

The authors describe how, framed within an initiative to equip faith leaders and congregations around matters of stewardship, Luther Seminary’s Economic Conditions Facing Future Ministers (ECFFM) program has emerged as part of the work of the seminary’s Center for Stewardship Leaders. The ECFFM initiative focused on conducting new research and strengthening current campus programs in order to decrease student debt through building financial literacy, stewardship training, and financial support.

Evangelism And The Work Of Discipline In Congolese Perspective: 'Evangelism In Congolese Context', Zalema Kuedituka

Seattle Pacific Seminary Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to discuss the ways the Congolese people received the Gospel from Protestant missionaries from England. I will also discuss how Congolese Christians nurture the Gospel through their own perspectives via teaching, discipleship, living it, and practicing its principles of power. This evangelism, in the Congolese perspective, goes hand in hand with the interpretation of the “Christus Victor Model” of atonement developed by Aulen. This model stands for a victory over the powers of darkness that detain humankind in bondage to sin, death, and the Devil. Irenaeus has pointed out that the problems of sin, …

Racial-Trauma Informed Ministry: A Process For Dominant Culture Ministries To Effectively Engage With Communities Impacted By Racial Trauma, Teylar Greer

Seattle Pacific Seminary Projects

Though the dominant culture church in the United States exists within the context of racialized society, often the church has not directly addressed its unjust and traumatic effects. It is the theory of this project that with a more accurate understanding of racialized society, trauma, and coping behaviors, dominant culture ministries will engage more fully in the process of reconciliation. Therefore, this thesis seeks to lay out a theologically anchored process of reconciliation by which dominant culture ministries can be equipped to respond to experiences of racial injustice and trauma in ways that lead to and facilitate healing, justice, and …

Shaped By Calling: Establishing A Healthy Trajectory For Discipleship, Chuck J. Shocki

Seattle Pacific Seminary Theses

The call of the first disciples reported in Mark 1:17 provides significant commentary on the essential attributes necessary for authentic life changing discipleship. In His words, "Follow Me and I will make you become fishers of men" Jesus establishes a paradigm for discipleship that is at once an invitation into a master/student relationship (i.e. "Follow me") that would engage his followers in a transformational process (i.e. "and I will make you become"), that would eventuate in their being shaped for a specific vocation (i.e. "fishers of men"). In this prototypical summons, these elements of following, becoming, and …

Hope In Addiction Recovery: Eschatological Foundations In Celebrate Recovery And The Genesis Process, Judith M. Naegeli

Seattle Pacific Seminary Projects

This project attempts to understand the theological foundations of two nationally known Christian addiction recovery programs currently operating in Seattle, Washington: Celebrate Recovery and The Genesis Process. Of particular focus is the presence or absence of Christianity’s unique sense of hope for the future, using eschatological themes of hope, resurrection, and shalom. The participant materials of each program were analyzed for their use of these themes, using Richard Osmer's framework of the four tasks of practical theology.

The Early Church’S Approach To The Poor In Society And Its Significance To The Church’S Social Engagement Today, Takanori Inoue

Papers

No abstract provided.

Public Theology Or Private Bewitchment?, Grant Miller, Reuben Lang’At

Papers

No abstract provided.

Korean-American Churches And Evangelism: An Immigrant Church As Evangelistic Community, Dae Sung Kim

Papers

No abstract provided.

Promoting Dignity, Community, And Reconciliation Among Refugees Through Diverse Musical Expression, Mark W. Lewis

Papers

No abstract provided.

Pastoral Address Of The Genesee Annual Conference Of The Methodist Episcopal Church, Adopted At Its Session In Perry, New York, October 20, 1858, Israel Chamberlayne

Books

No abstract provided.

Nazarite Review Of The Pastoral Address Of The Genesee Conference Of The M. E. Church, J. Bowman

Books

No abstract provided.

The Earnest Christian: Devoted To The Promotion Of Experimental And Practical Piety Volume I, B. T. Roberts A.M., Editor

Books

No abstract provided.

Distinctions With A Difference: Essays On Myth, History, And Scripture In Honor Of John N. Oswalt, Bill T. Arnold, Lawson G. Stone

Academic Books

Festschrift for John N. Oswalt.

Imagination & Artistic Human Expression: Toward A Beginning Theology, Byron Spradlin

Papers

No abstract provided.

Missiology Of Public Life As Resiliency, Geoff Whiteman

Papers

No abstract provided.

Migration/ Missionary Imagination, Robert A. Danielson, William L. Selvidge

Academic Books

Introduction / Robert Danielson
-- New missions in a new land: Korean-American churches and overseas missions / Dae Sung Kim
-- The migrant mandate: missiology, immigration, and the local church / Matthew Blanton
-- Korean-American churches and evangelism: an immigrant church as evangelistic community / Dae Sung Kim
-- Imagination and artistic human expression: toward a beginning theology / Byron Spradlin
-- Promoting dignity, community, and reconciliation among refugees through diverse musical expression / Mark W. Lewis
-- Missiology of public life as resiliency / Geoff Whiteman.

Rehearsing Justice: Theatre, Sexuality And The Sacred, Victoria Rue

Faculty Publications, Social Sciences

The theatre actor’s process in a rehearsal hall is reality and metaphor. It can be a rehearsal for justice, where we can live freely. In this laboratory the actor becomes all of us. Like the actor, we inhabit our bodies and our sexualities, sometimes as spiritual practice, or as sacred and creative, even as incarnations. In particular, women’s bodies remember what it is like to be no-body and what it is like to be a some-body. The texts of women’s bodies contain their history of pain, wellness and illness.In creating a character, the actor creates a biography, an inner life, …

Annihilation, W. B. Godbey

William B. Godbey

No abstract provided.