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COLLECTION 0180: Berlin Fellowship Collection, 1952-2015
Get PDFThe Berlin Fellowship Collection, 1952-2015 consists of physical and digital materials received from the Berlin Fellowship U.S.A. and Berlin Fellowship, Germany. The records document the activities of an informal group of Presbyterian laypeople and pastors who maintained an ecumenical visitation ministry with Christians in the German Democratic Republic, 1961-1996.
Formats include subject files, correspondence, photographs, reports, minutes, financial records, clippings, scrapbooks, publications, audio cassettes, and digital files. Materials were created from 1952-1996
The Epistle of St. Theresa: The Relationship of a Pastor and a Congregation Navigating Change
Get PDFThe purpose of this doctoral project is to develop a framework of how St. John’s Presbyterian Church in San Francisco moves from a mono-cultural community to an intercultural and intergenerational community by examining the adaptive changes of leadership and ministry already navigated in an ever-changing culture.
The first section explores how personal and congregational identity interacts within the pastoral and ministry context. A pastor’s identity and leadership style influences the capacity a church has to adapt to the changing needs of congregation and community—causing the community to reflect on its shared identity. Therefore, the second part examines the process of change as managing pain and loss as that relates to pastoral and congregational identity. Koreans call this han and the untangling of pain, han-pu-ri. The first change is how identity is understood. Identity holds many intersections of race, culture, class, gender, and theology. These identities intersect in diverse faith communities—making it both challenging and beneficial as it navigates through adaptive changes. Churches also carry the gravity of pain and loss. Without untangling it, it can be difficult for churches to make necessary adaptive changes. Finally, using the concept of third place/space, a framework of how St. John’s church moves from a mono-cultural to an intercultural and intergenerational community is developed.
Ray Oldenburg defines third places as informal gathering areas where strangers and neighbors intersect. The term third space used in Asian American feminist theology refers to the in-between place where identity is tested, erased, and recreated. In order for a congregation to exist as a third place where people intersect their needs and passions as well as embrace its changing identity from a mono-cultural to an intercultural community, a pastor must also have self-understanding and embrace where one stands in the in-between space of congregational and pastoral identity
COLLECTION 0200: Old Fashioned Revival Hour and Joyful Sound Audio Collection, 1935-1981
Get PDFThe Old Fashioned Revival Hour and Joyful Sound Audio Collection contains the broadcast recordings of Charles E Fuller (1887-1968), one of the leading Christian radio evangelists of the 20th century and co-founder of Fuller Theological Seminary.
The collection contains an almost full-run of Old Fashioned Revival Hour (OFRH, 1121 programs) and the Joyful Sound (JS, 586 programs) radio broadcasts. The collection also contains some related episodes from the pre-cursor program, the Pilgrims’ Hour and music by the OFRH choir and quartet. It also contains early recordings of Fuller Seminary events and founding faculty, including the Seminary’s first Convocation from October 1, 1947 and Billy Graham spot announcements for the Rose Bowl Crusade.
Additional radio programs may be found in this collection, including those from the Armed Forces Radio Services: Midweek Devotions & the Protestant Hour, the Lutheran Hour, and Haven of Rest.
Since the early 1990s, the audio content has been transferred forward into formats deemed most accessible at the time. Media formats include electrical transcriptions, audiocassettes, CDs, and MP3/WAV digital files.
The collection provides a resource regarding American religious history, evangelicalism, and twentieth-century popular culture, and the formative years of Fuller Theological Seminary
The Justice Thread: A Curriculum for Ghanaian Churches on Biblical Justice and Child Trafficking
Get PDFThe goal of this project is to support the work of International Justice Mission in Ghana to end child trafficking by developing a compelling curriculum on biblical justice. The Justice Thread is an eight-week Bible study tracing the theme of biblical justice as it unfolds throughout the Bible. The curriculum aims to be a practical and contextually appropriate tool for churches in Ghana, which currently lack resources, training, and emphasis on justice-related ministry. The Justice Thread seeks to introduce participants to the God of justice while also educating them about the injustice of child trafficking in their midst. Ultimately, participants are urged toward action on behalf of the oppressed in their community.
This study demonstrates the prominence and prevalence of the theme of justice throughout the various sections of the Bible. It is argued that justice in human affairs is of utmost importance to God and therefore to the Christian mission of the church. The exegetical study introduces concepts related to justice such as shalom, holistic ministry, the purpose of authority, the role of a prophet, and God’s particular concern for the vulnerable. The study seeks to inspire greater familiarity with God’s heart for justice, increased commitment to the oppressed, and growing courage to stand up to oppressors.
Recognizing the importance of contextualization, the study includes cultural exegesis and ministry context analysis drawn from the author’s two years of experience in the field and input from Ghanaian scholars and International Justice Mission national staff. The curriculum was field tested with approximately two hundred pastors and church leaders from fishing villages along the shores of Lake Volta, an area with a high prevalence of child trafficking. The curriculum has been well received by churches from many different denominations making plans for implementation
Training Tribal Facilitators for Peacemaking in Mindanao: An Experimental Study
No full textConflicts in Mindanao can be caused by incidents such as adultery, land disputes, even jealousy within dominant clan groups. The incidents may emerge as an interpersonal conflict, but may result in wider aggression, escalating into interclan conflict when the victim’s relatives or ethnic group get involved. Though the initial conflict is interpersonal, it might affect the inter-societal level and even the international level.
The central issue that directed this research was to discover the factors influencing Mindanao tribal students who seek rido, “interclan revenge,” and to revise “Peace Generation” from Indonesia in order to implement contextual methods of “Training Tribal Students to Be Peacemakers” that uses insiders to facilitate tribal students for conflict transformation in Mindanao.
As a missionary, I have attempted to equip mature Muslim-background believers associated with Yoido Full Gospel Mission in Mindanao to become facilitators of a program of training tribal people to be peacemakers and to mobilize some to become agents for peacemaking in Mindanao.
In order to implement sustainable peace among the entire Moro ethnic group, I adapted Lederach’s conceptual framework to establish the foundation of trust or to restore trust among interclan or intertribal relationships. This process guided the research in light of historical perspectives recognizing colonial factors affecting the population in Mindanao. This research employs narrative interviews to listen to participants and develop deeper interaction regarding the issues that are verbalized in intergroup conflicts.
In order to train these Christian peace facilitators for the revised process, I chose Tablig: A Compilation of Resources for Understanding the Muslim Mindset. Over about a year and a half in three rounds of field research, I discovered factors in Peace Generation training that might be perceived differently from tribal students’ perspectives. All three of the facilitators agreed in Training Group interviews that love is always the main factor in conflict transformation. Furthermore, all three of the Tausug villagers affirmed love, justice, and God’s guidance as factors in their marital conflict transformation.
After reflection on these three research periods, I chose to step back as an outsider facilitator and trainer and to empower “voluntary insiders” and “insiders” to facilitate tribal students in peacemaker training. I have clearly separated findings—peacebuilding facilitated by one of the insiders—that are significant from ones that are not. In my analysis, my leadership has not shifted appropriately in recognition of tribal people groups, which need indigenization. Hence, it is significant to note that transforming conflicts only through scriptural studies is not feasible; it should be conducted by an insider innovator/transformer, rather than by my entrepreneurship.
Indeed, if I did not step back from being a peace facilitator and did not train insider or voluntary peace facilitators, we would not have seen the remarkable result in the lifecycle of organizational leadership transition. The main factor influencing and equipping tribal students and adults to be peacemakers, as carried out by insider facilitators, is “love and forgiveness,” as Romans 13:10 says, “therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
Developing Spiritually Healthy Leaders for the Vineyard Churches in Russia
No full textThe purpose of this study is to explore and address the spiritual formation needs of Russian Vineyard leaders. This study arose from the author\u27s observation of the moral and/or spiritual failure of many Russian Christian leaders and recognition of the need for contextualized leadership training in Russia. Part I establishes that optimal spiritual formation occurs via the intentional practice of spiritual disciplines in the context of authentic community, and that pursuit of spiritual formation is crucial for leaders hoping to finish well. Obstacles to spiritual formation at the intersection of the Vineyard and post-Soviet Russian contexts are examined. An instructional design model based on Dialogue Education is proposed for designing spiritual formation training. Part II outlines the author\u27s twenty-one semistructured, in-depth interviews with current and former Russian Vineyard leaders revealing their spiritual formation needs. Analysis of the data yielded four findings: (1) the Russian Vineyard leaders suffer from a lack of spiritual vitality; (2) their lack of spiritual vitality corresponds with lack of relational intimacy; (3) the predominant leadership paradigm practiced in the Vineyard likely fosters lack of relational intimacy; and (4) the Russian Vineyard has a gap in their leadership-training curriculum regarding spiritual formation. Part III describes the design of a spiritual-formation retreat and proposes a long-term strategy for improving the health of the Russian Vineyard. The expectation is that this study will help to improve the spiritual vitality of the Russian Vineyard leaders and, subsequently, their churches
The Hero\u27s Journey as Transformative Church Leadership
Get PDFThis dissertation explored the intersection of leadership of the church as an epic, visionary and transformational journey. Using the insights of Joseph Campbell’s work on cross-cultural mythology, A Hero with a Thousand Faces,presents what he calls, “The Hero’s Journey” or “Mono-myth” is a pattern of narrative that appears in dramas, storytelling, literature, ancient myths, movies, the world’s religions and psychological development. It is a map of the journeys taken by humans since the beginning and is found throughout the world as a blueprint of the growth and experience in life. Visionary leadership is about hope. Archetypes and mythology have heroes who are often seeking transformation. Visionary leadership creates a shared vision, purpose and strategy to accomplish the mission of the church. Visionary Leadership is an adventure to discover the personal and collective power of a church to navigate conflict, trauma, to make heroic transformative changes.
Part One explored the state of the Church today as paradigm of mission and transformation. Part Two will examine the basic stages in the Hero’s Journey. Part Three will explore the Hero’s Journey as a metaphor of visionary leadership as it seeks so to create shared vision, purpose and strategy to accomplish the mission of the church. Because church leaders often deal with conflict in churches, we have devoted time to explore conflict transformation and the healing of trauma in making more effective pastors. Finally, we explored the Hero’s Journey as a model of Christian spirituality and its implications for church leadership
Spiritual Disciplines for Spiritual Directors
Get PDFFor centuries, Christ followers have sought places of silence and solitude in order to hear God’s voice more clearly. They also have sought the spiritual wisdom of those who have spent time in silence and solitude. Today is no different. To face the challenges of ministry, clergy, lay leaders, missionaries, and leaders of non-profit organizations seek places of refuge to prayerfully listen and discern.
Quiet Oaks, the retreat space for Come, Learn, Rest Ministries, is a place where ministry leaders escape the daily rigors of ministry and find rest for their souls in the practice of spiritual direction. More specifically, Quiet Oaks invites directors to come, discuss their unique ministry challenges, and try new spiritual practices.
Time at Quiet Oaks or another retreat space can help spiritual directors become refreshed and renewed for ministry. It is not always feasible to physically go to places of silence and solitude for spiritual renewal. Consequently, this project identifies specific spiritual practices that consecrate spiritual directors in their ministry of spiritual direction.
After specifically defining and reflecting theologically on spiritual direction through the readings on ancient spirituality, Ignatian spirituality, and the thoughts of Dallas Willard, a theology of spiritual direction will be gleaned. With this firmly established, an exploration of spiritual practices for spiritual directors can be made.
To fully implement this project, two small groups of spiritual directors will meet over a period of four months to discuss spiritual practices. The first month’s discussions surround spiritual practices in general. In subsequent months, participants will share reflections on a specific spiritual practice identified within the theological construct of the paper. The final assessment of these reflections will identify three specific spiritual practices that Come, Learn, Rest Ministries can encourage spiritual directors to practice as a means that offer a more efficacious spiritual direction experience
Listening Prayer for Talkative Evangelicals
Get PDFThe goal of this study is to introduce evangelicals at Evergreen Covenant Church to contemplative listening prayer practices. Through the setting of a three-day retreat, seven seminars, and two sessions of spiritual direction, participants were introduced to these disciplines. The three-day Sabbath retreat included four seminars presenting the concepts of Sabbath, Shema (hearing God), solitude, and silence. Solitude and silence were practiced throughout the majority of the retreat. The following weekly seminars introduced seven listening prayer practices, including Lectio Divina (Divine Reading), the Examen Prayer, imaginative prayer, and others. Participants were also invited to experience two spiritual direction sessions to both introduce them to spiritual direction and to reflect on their experience of the listening prayer practices.
All of the participants had little or no personal experience with contemplative prayer practices. Because this program was intended to introduce evangelicals to contemplative prayer practices, it was designed using evangelical concepts such as deepening a personal relationship with God and provided an extensive biblical basis throughout. Participants not only learned about the prayer practices but were invited to experience and debrief both within the seminar sessions themselves and independently between sessions.
This study has determined that evangelicals at Evergreen Covenant Church both embraced the biblical nature and necessity of listening prayer practices as relates to personal spiritual development and a deepening sense of intimacy with God. One major hindrance to the study concerned the time commitment required by participants. None of the participants were able to completely fulfill the objective of attending the retreat, all seven seminars, and two sessions of spiritual direction. Considerations will need to be made as to condensing the program experience to a more manageable time frame and commitment to accommodate for the challenges of personal scheduling demands
From Insight to Encounter: The Ignatian Spiritual Exercises and the Transformation of the Heart
Get PDFThe goal of this project is to help the people of Longview Community Church deepen their ability to encounter and respond to the love of God through participating in an introductory experience of Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises. This project explores how the Ignatian practices of reflective meditation on Scripture, imaginative contemplation of Scripture, and the prayer of examen help people not only gain theological insights but also have a transformative encounter with God.
The Spiritual Exercises provides a corrective to the predominant models of discipleship in the contemporary Protestant church, which often focus more on informing minds than transforming hearts. Informational models of discipleship fall short of the New Testament vision of the spiritual life, which calls people into a transformative love relationship with God. Jesus invites people to love God with all their heart, mind, soul and strength, and love their neighbors as themselves.
This project culminates in a nine-week spiritual formation experience titled, Encounter: A Spiritual Formation Retreat in Daily Life. Encounter consists of an orientation day, daily Ignatian prayer practices, individual spiritual direction, and contemplative sharing groups. The five desired outcomes of the Encounter retreat are to help participants increase their capacity for an experiential encounter with God in Scripture, awareness of God in daily life, openness to God, freedom from unhealthy attachments, and desire to love and serve God.
Overall the Encounter retreat has proven to be effective in helping people grow in their ability to encounter and respond to God. There is evidence to show participants experienced growth in each of the five desired outcomes. The results of this project suggest that an Ignatian approach to spiritual formation has the potential to form disciples who actively love God and others