Practical Theology Commons^™

A Practical Christian Ministry For Parental Grief And Loss, Donnagillian Bailey

Doctor of Ministry (DMin)

In the aftermath of a child's death, the researcher's personal experience revealed a gap between the need for holistic spiritually based support and the availability of such resources from the local church. People, including the local church, maybe unaware of such a gap until support is required. When a congregant experiences a child's death, their spiritual support system may not be prepared to offer the necessary support and guidance. The church's insufficient preparation to minister to grieving people became the "elephant in the room" for the researcher and needed to be discussed. This research developed and applied a standardized grief …

Complete Issue, David R. Dunaetz Editor

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

How Research On Young Adults Informs Evangelism, Gary Comer

Great Commission Research Journal

In a time when the church is missing members of the younger generations, it is important to look to generational research and listen to compelling voices regarding currents in the culture, with the aim of informing evangelism among these generations. This treatise provides an analysis of two missiological-relevant aspects of these generations: profile and receptivity. Based on this analysis, the author proposes correctives to increase the effectiveness of evangelistic efforts.

Book Review: Honor, Shame, And Gospel: Reframing Our Message And Ministry Edited By Flanders, C., And Mischke, W., Cameron D. Armstrong

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Catholics & Cultures As An Act Of Improvisation: A Response, Thomas M. Landy

Journal of Global Catholicism

This essay responds to seven articles published in the same issue of the Journal of Global Catholicism on the use of Catholics & Cultures, a multimedia website, as a pedagogical resource for college classrooms. The site is deliberately presented in a fashion that undermines notions of center and periphery and presents Catholicism from a lay, lived-religion perspective as the multicultural faith that it is, minimizing reference to religious typologies. Particular attention is given to how to navigate tensions around theorizing, categorizing and sorting information for cross-cultural comparison. Given scholars’ current state of knowledge, writing about and teaching about global Catholicism …

Catholics & Cultures: A Panoramic View In Search Of Greater Understanding, Stephanie M. Wong

Journal of Global Catholicism

While internet-based technologies can open up greater awareness of the world or create self-perpetuating echo-chambers, the Catholics & Cultures project aspires to do the former. Aiming to ‘widen the lens’ on the variety of Catholic communities and practices, the site delivers on this goal by introducing viewers to a vast array of articles, pictures and videos from around the world. The organization of the site by country and by certain key features of lived Catholicism offers some interpretive guidance. However, the project could be strengthened as a pedagogical resource if it were more extensively thematized and hosted reflections on potential …

The Value Of Online Resources: Reflections On Teaching An Introduction To Global Christianity, Hillary Kaell

Journal of Global Catholicism

Reflecting on my experience teaching Introduction to Global Christianity, this essay ponders questions at the heart of undergraduate teaching: How can we encourage students to utilize online sources? How can we empower them to seek out answers to their questions? It offers practical examples of how I have used the Catholics & Cultures website in my classroom at a large public university. In particular, I reflect on my experience working with students who are mostly of Catholic heritage, but from many cultural and social contexts.

Teaching Sexuality On The Catholics & Cultures Website: A Refreshing Turn Toward The Longue Durée, Marc Roscoe Loustau

Journal of Global Catholicism

I present a close reading of the Catholics & Cultures (C&C) website’s treatment of sexuality-related issues and discuss this material in relation to debates about how to teach sexuality in religious studies and theology classrooms. The C&C website occasionally and intermittently uses a typical “contemporary issues” approach that considers sexuality in relation to legal and legislative decisions and government policies. In contrast, country profiles consistently situate sexuality in relation processes like nation building, urbanization, and lay Catholics’ growing authority. My interpretation highlights the site’s decision to emphasize the longue durée, long-term and deep structural processes driving cultural and religious changes. …

Ritual Among The Scilohtac: Global Catholicism, The Nacirema, And Interfaith Studies, Anita Houck

Journal of Global Catholicism

More than six decades after its publication, Horace Miner’s 1956 article “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” remains a reliable pedagogical tool, remarkably successful in helping students see their own ethnocentric biases. Catholics & Cultures has potential to do similar work. The site lacks some of what makes Miner’s text so effective, in particular its capacity to bring about a sudden shift in perception. The site also shares some of the article’s limitations, particularly in focusing on ritual to the relative exclusion of other aspects of religion. That said, the site can help students gain the religious literacy and develop the …

Focus On The Busy Intersections Of Culture And Cultural Change, Laura Elder

Journal of Global Catholicism

The dynamics of religious resurgence reveal the important ways that religious ritual and performance are meaning making spaces which are not self-contained or cut off from the rest of culture, but rather are a key locus of cultural change. A renewed emphasis on the busy intersections of meaning making – as rituals are connected, disconnected, and reconnected to other domains of social life – would improve the utility of the Catholics & Cultures website for understanding global cultural change. And a renewed emphasis on cultural change would also provide a better means for exploring reflexively by seeking to understand both …

A Widened Angle Of View: Teaching Theology And Racial Embodiment, Mara Brecht

Journal of Global Catholicism

Today’s undergraduate students are digital natives, shaped by constant access to information and countless experiences of encountering the world through the convenience of a screen. The ostensible comfort students have with difference gives way to a paradox, and one that’s made especially apparent in the theology classroom: Students are comfortable with seeing difference and particularity at a distance, but not adept at locating difference and particularity “at home.” I contend that Catholics & Cultures can help students from the dominant culture—namely, white students who comprise the vast majority of Catholic college students—destabilize their notion of the Catholic tradition as tightly …

Introducing Catholics & Cultures: Ethnography, Encyclopedia, Cyborg, Mathew N. Schmalz

Journal of Global Catholicism

In introducing the Catholics & Cultures site and the articles in this special issue, this essay initially locates the overall Catholic & Cultures project within the traditions of ethnography and encyclopedia. Drawing extensively on the work of J. Z. Smith, this essay reflects upon the theoretical implications of emphasizing the diversity of Catholicism in and through a web-based platform that facilitates comparative study and pedagogy. This essay then more specifically considers the web-based aspects of Catholics & Cultures by identifying a nascent cyborgian aesthetic in the site and considering how the site might eventually engage post-modern themes and concerns.

‘Sisters In Strength’: Re-Evaluating Agency Among Women In Two Low-Income Congregations In South Los Angeles, Lane Valley, Makaela Brass, Isaac Voss

Essays

No abstract provided.

Contemporaries & Other Inklings Collection Finding Aid, Taylor University

Finding Aids

The Contemporaries & Other Inklings Collection features a variety of rare books, pamphlets, and articles written by and about members of the Inklings and those who were their friends or inspirations. Please refer to the separate finding aids for these authors: C. S. Lewis, Charles Williams, Dorothy L. Sayers, George MacDonald, and Owen Barfield.
Last Updated: August 29, 2022

Avoiding Compassion Fatigue In Hospice Chaplains Through Cultivating Sabbath As An Element Of Self-Care, A. Milton Stanley

Harding School of Theology Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Leadership Development And Succession: A Review Of Best Practices With Insights For Mission Leadership, Boubakar Sanou

Journal of Applied Christian Leadership

Leadership development and succession planning are of critical importance to any organization’s performance and long-term sustenance. Unfortunately, the need to plan for leadership succession remains a challenge to most organizations, both secular and faith-based. This article explores the risks of not having a succession plan in organizations, the inhibitors of successful leadership transition management, and best practices for leadership development and transition. The last section explores ways to prepare the next generations for missions. The emphasis is on how intentional mentoring can help address the challenge of leadership development and succession at all levels of an organization.

Cultivating Ethnically Diverse Leaders: An Exploration Of The Need For Ethnic Diversity In Leadership Positions And Its Potential Impact On The Mission Work Of The Seventh-Day Adventist Church In Guatemala, Benjamin M. Bonilla López

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies

This article explores the issue of ethnic diversity in leadership, especially in the context of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Guatemala. Different conceptualizations regarding the contributions that ethnic diversity in leadership positions can bring into an organization will be analyzed. The analysis will be combined with my personal observations made from a fieldwork visit to Guatemala during the months of October and November in 2017. Moreover, it will be argued that based on observations made during that fieldwork, the Adventist Church in Guatemala has an issue with a lack of diversity among its leadership since its membership in some locations …

Facets Of Christian Leadership, Petr Cincala

Journal of Applied Christian Leadership

No abstract provided.

Complete Spring Issue

Journal of Applied Christian Leadership

No abstract provided.

New Perspectives On Church Planting, W. Jay Moon, Richard Doss

Journal of Applied Christian Leadership

No abstract provided.

A Theory Of Virtuous Leadership And Its Influence On Organizational Performance In Christian Organizations: A Classic Grounded Theory Study, Simon Lasu, Carlos Ernesto Biaggi

Journal of Applied Christian Leadership

Even though the leadership literature has studied the antecedents and outcomes of virtuous leadership, there is a scarcity of research on the influence of virtuous leadership on organizational performance in Christian organizations. Therefore, this study developed a theory of virtuous leadership and its influence on organizational performance grounded in the perceptions of leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Using classic grounded theory methodology, data was collected by interviewing eight leaders of the Adventist Church from the MENA region. The emergent theory of virtuous leadership revolves around the key role of spirituality (source) …

Societal Emotional Process, Emotional Reactivity, And Their Increasing Challenge For Ministry Leadership, Douglas U. Schonberg

Journal of Applied Christian Leadership

The increasing anxiety and reactivity across society witnessed in elections, responses to COVID-19, and even within personal posts on social media platforms is a phenomenon that is growing invasively and pervasively present in ministry leadership. Murray Bowen’s family systems theory (1978) seminal concepts of societal emotional process and emotional reactivity describe the phenomenon with acumen. This article outlines these two concepts and provides current examples of how they are being experienced by ministry leaders. Biblical examples demonstrate that the phenomenon has always been present in ministry leadership. Practical guidance is provided for ministry leaders to address this growing challenge by …

Leadership Fueled By Glory: His Or Mine?, Lindsey Wilkerson

Journal of Applied Christian Leadership

No abstract provided.

Review Of The Legacy Of A Hero Maker, By Dave Ferguson & Todd Wilson, Sergio Ochaeta

Journal of Applied Christian Leadership

No abstract provided.

Review Of Leadership In Christian Perspective: Biblical Foundations And Contemporary Practices For Servant Leaders, By Justin Irving & Mark L. Strauss, Obed Yamasombi

Journal of Applied Christian Leadership

No abstract provided.

Dissertation Notices, A. S. Chen, Z. C. Ellis, D. Kim, H. L. Lewis, D. E. Reinhardt

Journal of Applied Christian Leadership

No abstract provided.

Church Revitalization: Fashioning Church For Growth, Willie Lee Wormack

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This thesis research project is an approach to resolve the issues of the critically declined and dying Friendship Baptist Church whose membership cannot support a viable ministry. Friendship Baptist Church exists with minimal infrastructure at 38503 Mosstown Road, Dade City, Florida, in the rural Lacoochee, Florida area. Friendship Baptist Church needs a visionary plan with leadership and team support directed to assist with church development and growth. The case study approach will implement exploration on the meanings and beliefs of Christianity for the church in the church’s social setting. Investigations about cultural associations of faith with the church is engaged …

The Decline And Recovery Of Apostolic Leadership In Adventist Ministry, Anthony Wagenersmith

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies

There are broad patterns of growth: plateau, decline, and ultimately renewal or death among Christian denominations and networks. One of the factors that catalyze movement dynamics early on—as well as their potential renewal—is the degree to which a church’s founding leaders embody and transfer the apostolic function for future generations (cf. Saarinen 1994; Morgan 2017). This article traces the initial function and decline of apostolicity among Seventh-day Adventist ministers as a case study with implications for contemporary Adventism and beyond.

After providing an analysis of leadership in the New Testament—with particular emphasis on apostles, apostolicity, and their relationship with elders—an …

Intercultural Mentorship As A Leadership Role, Daniel Nae

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies

Intercultural mentorship requires special knowledge, skills, and attitudes (Osula and Irvin 2009; Dominguez Garcia 2012:109-116; Crutcher 2006:67- 74). Leader mentoring in intercultural contexts entails a way of living that inspires the mentee to develop a “similar mentoring mindset” (Rayford 2014:15). This article describes the importance of intercultural mentoring as a leadership role. The study starts with an evaluation of Osuna and Irvin’s model of cultural awareness. Then, it explores the concept of intercultural competence in mentoring, describes and illustrates the leader mentoring relationship in an intercultural context, and applies the concept to a university setting.

Mission Leadership Development In The Chinese Adventist Church: Reflections In The Light Of Traditional Chinese Philosophies Of Leadership, E P

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies

Different schools of thought have emphasized multiples aspects of leadership, preeminently in the western hemisphere for the last decades (Bennis 1959; Greenleaf 1977; Malphus 2003). As China more decisively steps into the global arena through internationalization of its economy and political influence, scholars are only scratching the surface in exploring the pluralistic styles of Chinese indigenous leadership in both national and international organizations where the Chinese play significant leadership roles (Chen and Lee 2008: xv; Zhang, Chen, and Chen, and Ang 2014).

Contextual leadership is essential for the healthy development of any organization and that is equally true when it …