Practical Theology Commons^™

Guilt In The Parish Ministry-A Pastoral Perspective, Dale Kleimola

Master of Divinity Thesis

This paper is divided into four major sections. The first presents the nature of the illness from a personal and mec7icalperspective. This will be helpful in revealing to an interested pastor the symptoms of, the- illness. The second section deals with the illness from a theological perspective, especially in terms of how depression is influenced by the tension that exists between Law and Gospel. The third section deals with depression as a psychological illness and discusses how some schools of psychiatric medicine deal with the relationship between personal religious faith and psychological disorder. The fourth section considers how a pastor …

Toward A Theological Understanding Of The Psychological Implications Accompanying Death, Ralph Wentzel

Master of Sacred Theology Thesis

This thesis is an attempt not only to understand the bereavement and grief of loved ones who are left behind, but it is also an uncompromising work depicting the reality of death and the pressing needs that arise when it is imminent, needs that are unique to every individual and that must be treated as such. As a Christian, I hope to convey thoughts that will relate to the personal needs of both the bereaved and to the suffering and dying patient. It is hoped that this paper will help the pastor to realize that he is not the "living" …

Developing A Multi-Media Program Within The Local Lutheran Parish, Donald Loos

Master of Divinity Thesis

First, this paper is dealing with multi-media presentations, not just multi-media. This could mean the use of one, two, or three slide projectors and thepossible use of 8mm film projector to get across your message. Of course, includedin this, is the use of some type of sound equipment.

Evangelistic Preaching In The Missouri Synod, Donald Ehlers

Master of Sacred Theology Thesis

I decided, therefore, to look further into this matter of evangelistic preaching. What is evangelistic preaching? After arriving at my own definition of evangelistic preaching, I want to determine if evangelistic preaching, so defined, has Biblical precedent. I also want to determine how my definition squares with Lutheran theology on conversion. Based on my definition, I want to develop criteria for evaluating Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod preaching as to its evangelistic nature. Using these criteria, I propose to study sermons written and preached by Missouri Synod pastors.

The Development And Significance Of Confirmation In The Lutheran Church, Richard Rist

Master of Divinity Thesis

In the past few years it has come to the attention of many people that the practice of confirmation in the Lutheran Church may need some revision, or At, least some restudy, in order for it to remain in a proper perspective that would be a clear witness to the Holy Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions. The purpose of this study is to explore the rite of confirmation as practiced in the Lutheran Church. Much emphasis will be given to the development of confirmation from the early Church until the present practice of Lutheran confirmation in the United States. This …

Preaching In The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod-To The Goal Of Stewardship Of Money, 1930 To 1970, George H. Rattelmuller

Master of Sacred Theology Thesis

This study is based on 40 sermons on the stewardship of money, taken from selected volumes of The Concordia Pulpit, from 1930 to 1970.

Preaching In The World Of Electronic Technology-Implicatiions For Homiletics In The Message Of H. Marshall Mcluhan, Clifford Allen Winter

Master of Sacred Theology Thesis

The contemporary communications environment is described in this thesis for the purpose of determining the ways in which it conditions the learning and perception of modern man. The basic resource is the writing of Herbert Marshall McLuhan, Director of the Center for Culture and Technology at the University of Toronto and author of several books about the media. His understanding of the history of media and his descriptions of the electronic environment and modern man constitute a comprehensive analysis of communications in the current era. McLuhan's background, his expressed assumptions, and basic resources are described in order to provide a …

The Role Of The Old Testament In High School Level Curricula Of The American Lutheran Church, The Lutheran Church In America, And The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod 1964-1970, Harold W. Rast

Doctor of Theology Dissertation

The aim of this study is to determine how the various curriculum materials present Word of God in the Old Testament. Accordingly, topics or categories to be dealt with include revelation, Bible, the unity of the testaments, salvation, morality, and historical-critical exegesis.

In a general way, then, this study proposes to engage in what educators would call descriptive research. One type of descriptive research is content analysis, the use of a set of techniques to determine certain specified characteristics of verbal communication. According to Gephart and Ingle, education professors at Indiana University and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the purpose of …

The Role Of The Lutheran Parish Pastor In The Classrooms Of His Congregation’S Christian Day School, Gregory Wismar

Master of Divinity Thesis

What factors, then, should be considered as being the determinative dynamics of this role? This study will seek the basis for an approach in the historical precedents, the facts of contemporary situations and the expressions of future possibilities that have been suggested by some pastors, and church educators. Emanating from this discussion is a challenge to mutual involvement and understanding on the part of all educators in the church -- be they pastors, teachers or administrators. Much of the research for this paper comes from people who have shared ideas and excitement and dreams about Christian education; from their responsiveness …

Spiritual Formation For Ministry, Eugene I. Van Antwerp

Concordia Theological Monthly

Dimiui Shostakovich has described his Fifth Symphony (D Major, Opus 47), composed just 30 years ago, as "the assertion of personality. It is man with all his emotions and experiences that I saw as the focus of design in this work."

Sharing The Body In The Body, Arthur Simon

Concordia Theological Monthly

I have little to share with you on the Eucharist and the Christian life other than my own odyssey in this respect, so let me be frankly biographical. What I have learned about the holy meal and the holy life cannot be separated from the agonies and joys of those who have shared the way of Jesus with me, so I am indebted especially to the people of my parish, including, and above all, my colleague John Puelle.

The Diakonis Function Of The Church In Hong Kong, Manfred Helmuth Berndt

Doctor of Theology Dissertation

The burden of the study was an attempt to answer the general question of the church's servant attitude by answering specific questions, within the limited framework of one methodology.

The Gospel And Mass Communication, Martin E. Marty

Concordia Theological Monthly

The gospel and its mission are effected in a world which they do not have to themselves. Others also build community by offering sôtêria and shalôm. In our time the mass communicators are decisive, and those who care both for gospel and world have to come to some sort of understanding of communication.

The Gospel, The Pastor, And "Culture.", Warren Rubel

Concordia Theological Monthly

Actually the word "culture" continues to evoke an unmanageable number of responses from most of us. So much so that we need to distinguish quickly among a number of ideas clustering around the term in order to place the understandably complex relationships among the Christian gospel, the pastor, and culture in a meaningful if limited perspective. Here, after offering a quick sketch of some of the main currents and crosscurrents surrounding culture today, we attempt to suggest a rough plot for personal action. Our assumption is that the pastor as perpetual "student and literary worker" will fill in the details …

The Gospel Approach To Counseling, Kenneth Siess

Concordia Theological Monthly

Pastors are discovering today that the issue of pastoral counseling comes up repeatedly, both in their pastoral practice and in their study. A survey conducted several years ago revealed that of the people interviewed 42 percent indicated that they sought out a clergyman as their first source for help in an emotional crisis in their lives. Most pastors can attest readily to the reality of such a statistic. Day after day they are being sought out by people who find themselves in some kind of stress and are looking for help. In response to this demand pastors are becoming increasingly …

Wholeness-Oneness, William H. Kohn

Concordia Theological Monthly

Perhaps we have "a thing" going in our church. In a memorable convention in Detroit four years ago our church acted in a most distinctive way. Aside from several bold administrative decisions, such as recognizing the autonomy of developing national churches overseas and creating a unified Board for Missions, our church collectively penned and proclaimed the total mission of the church in six brief resolutions and then summarized them in six concise but meaningful statements. We called them the Affirmations on God's Mission.

The Christian World View And The New Era In Science, August C. Rehwaldt

Concordia Theological Monthly

The present article will concern itself chiefly with man's mastery over nature by means of the intellectual capacities which God has so lavishly bestowed on him and which God preserves even today, even though man has not fulfilled the intentions of God for the created world. It will also show that the vitiation of God's intentions and purposes for man and the created world is in the process of being resolved even now.

Consolation In 2 Cor. 5:1-10, Frederick W. Danker

Concordia Theological Monthly

Commentators, lexicographers, and grammarians, almost by consensus, render έφ’ ᾠ in 2 Cor. 5:4 in a causal sense, with such variations as "because," "inasmuch as," "in view of the fact that." Exceptional is Margaret Thrall's rendering "on condition that." She paraphrases: "For indeed, we who exist in the physical body groan with weariness. (But, for the Christian, this is a legitimate attitude to our physical existence only on condition that we do not want to be divested of somatic existence altogether, but rather to be further incorporated in the Body of Christ.)" The paraphrase is obscure, but the reminder that …

A Topical Sermon, Andrew Weyermann

Concordia Theological Monthly

The sermon in this issue calls attention to the possibility of dealing with very specific and even rather difficult subjects from the pulpit. It is not necessary for sermons to restrict themselves to generalities, and it is possible for preachers to build on, rather than continually repeat, the “foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God." (Heb. 6:1)

The Plight Of Man: A Study In Contemporary Preaching, Lary Misner

Master of Sacred Theology Thesis

This study comprises an examination of sermonic material for clues to the plight of man. Initially the research involves an assessment of the signs of man's plight and places these signs into significant categories of man's existence. After locating and classifying the plight of man, the analysis shifts to the meaning of the plight of man in all of the plight's dimensions. After summarizing various aspects of man's plight and its meaning, the analysis moves to detect the implications of plight and meaning for man and for the preaching task. Finally, several areas for further study are suggested on the …

A Survey And Evaluation Of Audio-Visual Education In Kentucky Churches Of The Southern Baptist Convention And The Church Of The Nazarene, W. Wayne Kirk

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Fellowship, Thomas Coates

Concordia Theological Monthly

On the morning of New Year's Day several years ago I stood in the outer court of Yasukuni Shrine in the city of Tokyo. New Year's Day, of course, is the highest festival day of the Shinto religion, when virtually all of the Japanese go to the shrines to pay their respects to their ancestors and begin the new year with "'a clean slate." For some time I watched with fascination as the worshipers bowed before the sanctuary, clapped their hands three times to awaken the attention of the spirits, cast their coins into the coffer, bought their good luck …

Principles For The Development Of Adult Premembership Instruction, Robert L. Conrad

Concordia Theological Monthly

The need for a study was brought forcibly to the author's attention by his membership on a subcommittee of the Board of Parish Education of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. The responsibility of the subcommittee is to formulate principles for adult premembership instruction in The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod. The subcommittee could find no existing statement of principles, so it was forced to make a beginning on such a formulation.

What Are The Contrasting Contributions To The Problem Of Guilt In Pastoral Counseling Of Client-Centered Therapy And Reality Therapy, Marc Kluender

Bachelor of Divinity

This research paper is an investigation of the following question: What are the contrasting contributions to the problem of guilt in pastoral counseling of client-centered therapy and reality therapy? It is important for the reader to know why the area of guilt was chosen for study. First of all, guilt is a universal problem of mankind. Paul Tournier says, "It is abundantly clear that no man lives free of guilt. Guilt is universal." This does not mean that modern man is constantly asking about his guilt

Principles For The Development Of Adult Premembership Instruction, Robert Conrad

Master of Sacred Theology Thesis

The responsibility of preparing interested persons for membership in the congregation is a task that faces every parish pastor. In carrying out that responsibility, he needs to make decisions as to what his goals for such instruction shall be and how those goals shall be attained. There is nothing in writing in The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod that will help a pastor think through what the goals of the premembership process should be and what is the best way of attaining those goals. There are manuals available for the instruction of adults but there are no studies which investigate the underlying …

Lutheran Social Welfare Work And The Emotionally Disturbed Child, Dennis Pegorsch

Bachelor of Divinity

In: this research paper there will be an examination of the theology and the responsibility of the Lutheran Church in social welfare work and particularly in its mission to emotionally disturbed children.

Although much has been said and written in the area of church and youth, little emphasis has been placed on reexamining the church's concern for emotionally disturbed children. This paper will not deal with juvenile delinquency per se even though there is a very fine distinction between juvenile delinquents and emotionally disturbed children since many juvenile delinquents are emotionally disturbed. But duet the limited amount of materials dealing …

The Church's Approach To Death And The Funeral, William Matzat

Master of Divinity Thesis

This paper, therefore, will attempt to point out the approach which the church should take regarding the various cultural practices prevalent in the American funeral rite. After a brief historical perspective, it will examine the theological concepts of the body, death and the resurrection, and the psychological concepts of grief and mourning. With this as a basis for analysis, some of the cultural practices of the American funeral rite will be considered.

The Constitutive Nature Of A Christian Marriage And Its Application Toward Pastoral Practice In A Remarriage Situation, Walter Koehler

Master of Sacred Theology Thesis

It is the thesis of this paper that there is a further dimension of love and faith which is operative among Christian spouses within their marriage relationship by virtue of their relationship to God in Christ Jesus that warrants the appellation “Christian marriage" in the fullest sense of the term. The term "marriage" will be understood in this paper within the context and dimension of this distinctive feature.

Principles Of Christian Leadership, Kenneth Gangel

Master of Sacred Theology Thesis

The purpose at hand is therefore to attempt an analysis of the problem. It must be determined if the problem is a genuine one, and some of the philosophical, biblical and organizational implications raised in consideration of church leadership will be examined. One of the difficulties of the subject is the absence of Christian literature which speaks to the question. In another section of this monograph there will appear a brief survey of secular literature available in the field of leadership training, but books on leadership written from a Christian and biblical viewpoint are scarce. When they are found, the …

Categories Of Lutheran Preaching In America And Their Communication Systems For Apprehending Revealed Truth, Harlan Wendler

Master of Sacred Theology Thesis

What is good Lutheran preaching? What are its components? The quest for successful proclamation of divinely revealed truth which enables men to apprehend it must be a humble prayer on the part of the preacher to God to make the ways of grace apprehensible. While the full answer to this quest will never be known this side of Judgment Day, some facets of the answer appear to have been given by God to His faithful heralds and need to be searched out. This paper is such a quest. It proposes to investigate, analyze and evaluate the relationship between the message, …