Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons^™

Providing Relevant And Effective Leadership For Millennials, Valorie Cannon Nordbye

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis surveyed the leadership style preference of Millennials. Other areas focused on their loyalty to bosses, the importance of a company’s values and social practices, and their preferences about working independently or collaboratively. Members of an American college ministry were surveyed using an online survey tool. Based on 261 surveys, 85 percent chose servant leadership as their preferred style. The majority indicated that the values and social practices of their employer were important to them and that they would leave a job to remain with a boss they liked. There was no clear preference on working collaboratively or independently.

Chaplain, Pastor, Leader: A Biographical Study Of Leadership Transitions In The Life Of Chaplain (Colonel) James E. Wright, Brian P. Wright

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A distinct transition occurs when military chaplains return to civilian service as pastoral leaders. This project engaged in a biographical study of (Colonel) Chaplain James E. Wright in order to understand the effect service as a military chaplain has on the chaplain’s transition to service as a pastoral leader in civilian service. It identified the impact of his military chaplain service on his civilian pastoral leadership, examined the correlation between the pastoral leadership demonstrated by Chaplain Wright and biblical descriptions of pastoral leadership and reviewed literature related to the service of military chaplains as civilian pastors. Old and New Testaments …

Leadership Development Through Theological Education In The Theological Education Initiative Of Central Missouri, April A. Welch

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Access to leadership development through theological education is limited in places without seminaries. The Theological Education Initiative of Central Missouri started the Emerging Church Leadership Institute to fill that gap. Utilizing phenomenology, the researcher discovered the program’s impact from the graduates. The field research determined the program accomplished its’ goals. The biblical/theological research unearthed a history of education for leadership development in non-traditional settings. Finally, academia argued for/against these types of educational settings. However, a new approach could be successful and, given the many positive results of ECLI, their model can be effective across a range of ministry settings.

A Theology And Practice For Implementing Pastoral Care Through Community Groups At Calvary Church, Joshua Paul Mateer

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As a church of over 4000 attenders, Calvary Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan was in need of a system and structure that would provide care for all who were in need. This project developed a system of care based on the biblical principles of care and community. This newly designed care structure infused care into community groups by mobilizing the people of Calvary to care for one another rather than solely relying on the Pastoral Care Department to accomplish the care. This project addressed the problem that exists for a Pastoral Care Department in a large church (4,000+) to care …

Exploring The Principles Behind Effective Collaborative Ministry On Multi-Point Charges In The Peninsula-Delaware Conference Of The United Methodist Church, Drew Mitchell Christian

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Peninsula-Delaware Conference of the United Methodist Church covers the Eastern Shore of Maryland and the State of Delaware. The area, known as the “Birthplace of Methodism,” has 451 churches. Many churches are older, small membership congregations and are not able to afford their own pastor. Many pastors serve multiple congregations as part of a United Methodist Charge. As issues in surrounding communities become more complex, attendance declines, and resources diminish, congregations must work together in order to make a significant impact on their communities and fulfil the Great Commission. Throughout biblical history there are examples of God calling His …

Building Sustainable Faith Experience For Urban Youth, Stephen James Crawford

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Every generation of believers face obstacles in figuring out how to pass on the Christian faith to the next generation. The North American urban church is currently experiencing attrition rates that are startling to the researcher. It is critical that urban Christian believers not take for granted faith transmission will pass to their children similar to how they experience it from their parents. This project is designed to ask questions that will engage the urban Christian community in a productive dialogue to reverse the trend of youth who are rejecting faith at alarming rates. From the conversation, the researcher has …

Toward Permanence: Addressing The Need For Accessible Premarital Care For Deaf Couples, Peter Christopher Myers

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Deaf people in America have become increasingly recognized in recent years as a distinct community. While Christianity within the Deaf community has a recorded history dating back some five hundred years, little is known regarding pastoral care for Deaf people and in particular, guidance in marriage preparation. In spite of the plethora of research on marriage preparation, little attention has been paid to Deaf couples and marriage preparation-its efficacy for them in enhancing marital satisfaction and avoiding divorce. This project addressed the inaccessibility of premarital-care resources in the church for Deaf couples whose first language is American Sign Language (ASL). …

Resiliency And Self-Care For Pastors In Japan Facing A Disaster, John G. Houlette

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For Japanese pastors facing a disaster, exercising resiliency and self-care is an enormous task as clergy deal with varying disaster-related attitudes, impact within the church and overwhelming need and opportunity in the community. In addition to surveying seminary students, pastors who experienced the 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake as well as pastors who lived through the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and seminary professors who train next generation pastors were interviewed using co-inquiry and a 360-degree data gathering approach. Results showed that managing stress, loss, relationships, compassion fatigue and burnout were common challenges. The data indicated that practicing resilient leadership entails …

Rediscovering The Urgency Of Intentional Discipleship In The Naga Churches In Nagaland, Orenvungo Ngullie

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The problem this research addressed was the lack of intentional discipleship which has resulted in spiritual apathy and has hampered the development of leadership in the local churches in Nagaland, rendering Christians ineffective to impact the community. The study involved evangelical churches in Nagaland from various denominations, such as Baptist, Pentecostal, Revival and a couple of independent churches. In response to this problem, the researcher drew important lessons from the Great Commission passage (Matt. 28:19-20) highlighting the importance of discipleship as an intentional pursuit instead of an accidental venture. The literature review dealt with the current and relevant issues that …

Exploring Leader Anxiety Within The Family System When Implementing Organic Leadership Development, Bruce Michael Sexton

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to develop a theory regarding the level of anxiety in the church family system when implementing organic leadership development. The researcher analyzed three biblical leaders’ developments while considering the effects on family system: Joseph’s stages of leadership development, the methods Jesus used in developing his disciples into leaders, and the leadership gift mix demonstrated by Peter and Barnabas. To further develop a theory, relevant literature of leadership development and family systems was explored. Focusing on the work of J. Robert Clinton, the researcher explored the development of leadership and gift mix. Then researcher considered …

The New Reformed Pastor: Zwinglian Wisdom For Modern Ministers, Scotty Jermaine Williams

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Throughout churches in the Reformed tradition, there is a growing interest in renewing Eucharistic practices. This growing interest has led to a series of discussions among Reformed clergy regarding the role of pastors in the Eucharistic context. According to some church leaders, many Reformed pastors have a faulty sacramentality that stems from a misunderstanding of John Calvin’s pastoral vision. Instead of compelling faith in action through the Eucharist, where communicants share the grace they receive, this sacramentality leads them to be passive recipients that keep Eucharistic grace within the church. Unlike other research, which addresses the aforementioned issue by only …

A Qualitative Study Of Doubt In The Evangelical Tradition, Benjamin B. Young

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project explored the difference between evangelicals who doubted and stayed in the evangelical Christian faith and those who left the fold. Grounded theory was the primary research methodology and data was gathered from interviews with people who struggled with doubt. This data was used to develop a strategy for people going through doubt and for pastors helping others process doubt. Pastors need to provide a safe a place to doubt by listening and being patient, and by waiting to see how God will work in the lives of the people who are struggling with doubt.

A Co-Created Incarnational Missiology For Evangelizing Hip-Hoppers, Ferguson Lee Harris

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research project contextualized the gospel of Jesus Christ for unbelieving hip-hoppers. The research showed that hip-hop culture is a distinct culture that is worthy of contextualization by Christian evangelists. The literary review and the biblical implications suggest that it is the Christian’s duty to contextualize the gospel for unbelieving hip-hoppers. This was concluded by presenting God’s incarnational pursuit of sinful humanity in both the Old and New Testaments. God’s self-initiated pursuit served as an example and mandate for believers to pursue unbelieving hip-hoppers. In his quest to contextualizing the gospel, the researcher conducted a phenomenological investigation. The results of …

The Systemic Integration Of Kenyan Immigrants Into The American Culture, Yabesh Nyakang'o Maroko

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Important social transformation has occurred for many Kenyans migrating from Africa to the Twin Cities, Minnesota in the last two decades of the 1900s. This influx of immigrant singles and families migrated to the West in hope of transforming their lives. However, little is known about how these immigrants can integrate into the American culture. This project is an attempt to find strategies on how these groups can smoothly integrate and help their children retain good Kenyan traditional values. The researcher studied the Kenyan and American cultures and drew conclusions based on the findings. The project analyzed the relationship between …

A Qualitative Analysis Of Moral Leadership Crises In Kenyan Evangelical Churches As It Relates To Developing Authentic Leaders, Peter N. Mulinge

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project addressed the moral leadership crises among the evangelical churches of Kenya. Evangelicalism is the fastest growing religious movement in Kenya, a country that already has Africa’s largest percentage of evangelicals overall. This makes it imperative to promote authentic leadership in Kenyan churches. But the concept of leadership development there is overlooked, and as a result churches suffer from a lack of authentic leaders. In this vacuum, Kenyan churches are heavily influenced by traditional African leadership models that can be authoritarian, hereditary, and overwhelmingly corrupt. The latest Corruption Perception Index of 2013, launched by the global agency of Transparency …

Preaching As A Cultural Formation Tool, Jason P. Esposito

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The problem addressed by this project is a lack of awareness some pastors have of the power their preaching has to shape their church culture. In response to this problem the researcher explored the biblical foundations of preaching with a special interest in the Hebrew understanding of learning and its role as a culture creator. He reviewed literature related to homiletics and communication theory with special attention to cultural formation in organizations and churches. He conducted case studies by way of interviews to determine whether members of his church, Crossway, perceived this connection between preaching and cultural formation. He interviewed …

A Petition For God's Forgiveness In Gambella Ethiopia, Omot Olopk Aganya

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis project explored the root causes of the ethnic conflicts in the Gambella region of Ethiopia. It examined the issues of ethnic, social, political, and historical conflict occurring at the regional level, which are vital to comprehensively understanding the nature and outcome of the local conflicts. These are embedded in geopolitics, the politics of established administrative agencies established in Gambella by different empires and governments, militarization, ethnicity, socio-economics, deprivation, inequality, marginalization, discrimination, racism, and the undemocratic institutions of the region, as well as the absence of effective mechanisms for national and sub-regional dispute resolution. The lack of implementation and …

The Discipline Of Applying The Gospel For Servant Leadership Development, Matthew P. Anderson

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project examined the relationship between the gospel and servant leadership development. The purpose of the project was to show the need for a process to develop servant leaders at the heart level and propose a model for developing servant leaders through the discipline of applying the gospel. A theological and biblical study showed the heart to be central to faith and practice. The affective tradition of Christianity posits that a person’s action flows from a heart that loves God as response to the revealed love of God in the gospel by the Holy Spirit. A God-moved heart through the …

The End(S) Of Art: Faith-Learning Integration Statement, Lex Thompson

Faith Learning Integration Papers

This essay demands something that is a little bit theology and a little bit art, and can only address a little bit of each. The material that follows does not presume to speak universally or systematically for either. Not only would such a thing be folly, but it would also be impossible. Systematic theology and systematic aesthetics are always a mess. Multiple volumes are written trying to sort out impossible situations gotten into by trying to systematize God, humanity, the world, the imagination, images and the complex of relationships that exist between them. We need to hold onto some of …

On A Knife's Edge: Imagination And Ἐπίνοια In The Eunomian Controversy, Tim Anderson

Biblical & Theological Studies Student Works

According to Paul Avis, the imagination has gone through the ringer in both modernity and post modernity. Modernity “assumes a dichotomy between rational discourse, on the one hand, and imagistic thinking, on the other. It privileges logos over against eidos. The former is hailed as the vehicle of knowledge, mastery and progress; the latter dismissed as the source of ignorance, superstition and illusion.”1 Post modernity, on the other hand, has attacked narrative and “An attack on narrative is an attack on metaphor, symbol and myth…Post modernity is clearly as inhospitable to a realist (reality-referring, truth-bearing) concept of imaginative truth as …

A God Of Faithfulness : Essays In Honour Of J. Gordon Mcconville On His 60th Birthday, Jamie A. Grant, Alison Lo, Gordon J. Wenham

Seminary Faculty Publications

This is a Festschrift dedicated to J. Gordon McConville on the occasion of his 60th birthday. This Festschrift is published on the occasion of J. Gordon McConville's 60th birthday in recognition of the outstanding contribution that he has made to the field of Old Testament studies over the last 25 years. The collection incorporates 13 essays written by colleagues, friends and former research students along with an introduction and complete list of McConville's publications. The essays focus on Pentateuch, History, Prophets and Writings with each paper addressing key issues of interpretation of the biblical text. The breadth of subject matter …

Alcuin And Vikings: A Theology Of Carolingian Election, Chastisement, And Exaltation, Taylor Ferda

Library Research Prize Student Works

Throughout the long history of the Church's struggle to take seriously the biblical precepts for peacemaking, the changing context has always brought with it a difficulty in being a witness to peace in a world gripped by violence. The Viking raids of the ninth and tenth centuries are no exception. In this paper, I will attempt to reveal how Alcuin of York, Charlemagne?s finest theologian and clergyman, grapples with this question of violence by looking specifically at the Viking raids of two English monasteries in the last decade of the eighth century. I will show that Alcuin employs an Old …

Sojourn Through Spiritual And Religious Tension: A Quantitative Study Of Intercultural Competence And Worldview Development, Naomi Ludeman Joy Smith

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In today’s increasingly interculturally connected world, educators are charged to prepare students to be productive global citizens. The dilemma is determining pedagogy to effectively support students through the intercultural challenges they face during crosscultural experiences. This quantitative study investigated intercultural competence and worldview development, based on Milton Bennett’s Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity, and the relationship to students’ reflective processing of their spiritual and religious tension during a semester study abroad. To explore this relationship, the researcher applied a quasi-experimental strategy of inquiry using nonrandomized control (N=56) and treatment (N=42) groups. The voluntary participants were undergraduate students from a liberal …

Epistemology As Theology : An Evaluation Of Alvin Plantinga's Religious Epistemology, James K. Beilby

Faculty Books

Alvin Plantinga is arguably one of the most influential philosophers of our time. Much of his career has been devoted to explaining and defending the intellectual acceptability of Christian belief. Recently he has developed a comprehensive, rigorous, and distinctively Christian religious epistemology. This book presents the development of Plantinga's religious epistemology before considering Plantinga's mature religious epistemology in detail. Locating Plantinga's most recent work in the context of his theological assumptions, his previous work on religious epistemology, and in the context of the current debate over how knowledge should be characterized, Beilby blends theological and philosophical discussion to offer a …

Group Spiritual Direction For Pastors In Sioux County, Iowa, Jeff L. Sajdak

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The assumption is often made that seminary students and pastors are prepared to care for their own souls. It is assumed that they will be able to nurture their own spiritual formation, becoming conformed to the image of Christ for the sake of others. The reality is that pastors often do not have preparation to provide themselves with such care. Pastors will sometimes identify a longing for “something more” in their spiritual lives, without knowing exactly what they are seeking or how to gain it.

One resource that can promote effective Christian spiritual formation for pastors is spiritual direction. However, …

Divine Aseity, Divine Freedom : A Conceptual Problem For Edwardsian-Calvinism, James K. Beilby

Biblical and Theological Studies Faculty Works

The purpose of this paper is to consider whether the Calvinist's typical understanding of why God created the world is consistent with the assertion of God's independence and self-sufficiency—an attribute theologians have labeled "aseity." The essence of the problem is this: the Calvinist's typical assertion that God's fundamental purpose in creation is to demonstrate his glory seems to entail that God have an "other" to whom his glory must be demonstrated. But if this is the case, then God is dependent in some sense on this "other" for the demonstration of his glory and, ironically, less sovereign than in a …

Dictionary Of Contemporary Religion In The Western World: Exploring Living Faiths In Postmodern Contexts (Review), James F. Lewis

Biblical and Theological Studies Faculty Works

When Samuel Clemens heard that a journalist had reported his passing, he quipped: “Rumors of my death, have been greatly exaggerated.” In a similar vein, the Dictionary serves to lay to rest the antiquated but oft-believed claim of secular elites concerning the imminent demise of religion. In 100 articles, written by 61 gifted contributors (18 of whom are from North America) the reader is informed of the staggering breadth, growing profusion and zealous tenacity of religion in modern human culture and its ability to ever morph into new and creative expressions. The authors are committed to the Christian tradition but …

Christianity At The Religious Roundtable: Evangelicalism In Conversation With Hinduism, Buddhism And Islam, Jim Lewis, Micah A, Thompson

Biblical and Theological Studies Faculty Works

Reminiscent of E. Stanley Jones's technique of utilizing a roundtable for religious dialogue, Timothy C. Tennent's Christianity st the Religious Roundtable seeks to engage Hindu, Buddhist, and Muslim ideas on issues he regards as central to interreligious dialogue. In addition to the doctrine of supreme reality, which he treats in connection with all three traditions, he adds chapters on the topics of the doctrine of creation (Hindu), ethics (Buddhist) and Christ and Incarnation (Muslim). After treating each tradition in these six chapters, he provides three case studies and a conclusion. Beginning with an opening chapter entitled "lnterreligious dialogue: an Evangelical …