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Multiplying Apostolic Mission Movements in Cambodia and Asia: A Strategy for Equipping and Empowering Leaders through Training and Coaching
Get PDFThe goal of this study was to explore the current reality of the potential of the Church in Asia. This project will argue that what was once a mission field could, in this generation become one of the greatest mission forces in history. This thesis was tested in Cambodia, as over the last two decades church growth has been exponential. In recent years the ministry of Youth With A Mission in Battambang, Cambodia has trained and sent Khmer as long-term missionaries within Cambodia and to some of the most unreached nations.
Through an examination of Scripture, this study identifies character traits, integrity, and leadership development as keys for raising up apostolic leaders in Asia to release mission movements. Furthermore, biblical exegesis argues that missional hubs like a modern day “Antioch” or “Ephesus” need to become strategic sending centers for the Church in Asia. To test this hypothesis a literature review of resources about mission movements was conducted that produced incredible insight into multiplying leaders, specifically in the context of Asia and with the ability to be replicated rapidly.
This project concludes with ministry practice and implementation that identifies a field-tested model proven with success over recent years through pioneering teams sent out from YWAM Battambang. The new ministry project has specific goals that will create a leadership pipeline to empower and release teams to pioneer into unreached provinces in Cambodia and beyond. This project commends the larger church in Asia to partner across denominational and organizational boundaries, to join with God’s desire to see an apostolic mission movement of Asians raised up and released that will transform Cambodia and the continent of Asia and beyond in this generation
Rise of the Reconcilers: Developing a Multiethnic and Reconciling Church Through the Equipping of Cross Cultural and Justice-oriented Disciple Makers
Get PDFThe city of Sacramento is one of the most multicultural and multiethnic cities in the United States, and yet within the last year has been facing deep racial tensions. These tensions have risen in the aftermath of the shooting death of unarmed African American Stephon Clark, at the hands of two Sacramento police officers. What is taking place in Sacramento is just part of the broader divisiveness, polarization, and dehumanization plaguing the entire United States.
Demonizing rhetoric targeted towards Black and brown people connected to the social issues of immigration, racial profiling, and religion dominates social media. Women within the arts, the marketplace, and politics are coming forward to tell their stories of sexual harassment and abuse.
With the nation being deeply polarized and socially suffocating from injustice, it is important to ask what evangelistic, disciple-making, and mission credibility the Church has, even a diverse church. The development of the multiethnic Church alone is not enough to bring transformation to a diverse, divided, and polarizing mission field. Therefore, this project seeks to answer the question, “Will the development of cross-cultural and justice-oriented disciple makers in a multiethnic congregation increase the credibility and relevancy of a church located in an urban and multicultural context to advance reconciliation?”
The multiethnic and reconciling church must equip and release cross-cultural and justice-oriented disciple-makers who forge unity, transformation, and social justice in their local communities and who innovate new paths of evangelism and missions. This doctoral project connects reconciliation theology, Black liberation theology, and urban apologetics in order to present a more robust ecclesiology that leads to a reconciling church. It also utilizes a sermon series, the development of a four-week class on reconciliation theology and the development of staff values for moving a diverse congregation to a multiethnic and reconciling church
A Practical Theology of Adolescent Discipleship: Integrating Developmental Science and Theology to Guide Congregational Ministry
Get PDFThis project was developed to help Community Presbyterian Church of Danville, California, establish a more holistic and formative approach to adolescent discipleship by focusing on the developmental needs of young people and leveraging greater congregational support to address those needs. A practical theology of adolescent discipleships was built around both biblical mandates and insights from the developmental sciences. The integration of these perspectives offered greater clarity on adolescence as a crucial context for ministry. The alignment between the normative developmental tasks of adolescence and the formative directives for discipleship found in Scripture illuminated those aspects of personal and spiritual formation that must become the focus of adolescent discipleship.
Research revealing the levels of social support adolescents need to thrive in these developmental processes indicate that effective ministry with teens requires the engagement of not just those serving in the church’s student ministries department but the engagement of the congregation as a whole. To facilitate that broader engagement, an ecclesiology focused on the biblical metaphors of family and adoption has been proposed as a means to shape a church culture that prioritizes active efforts to welcome adolescents into the life of the church.
This project initiated an array of strategies at Community Presbyterian Church designed to strengthen the church’s approach to adolescent discipleship in ways that take seriously the developmental needs of adolescents and the biblical mandate for the whole church to share in the responsibility and calling to embody God’s adoption of younger brothers and sisters into the family of faith. These strategies, which targeted both the student ministries department and the congregation, have been successfully implemented with preliminary indications of effectiveness. However, the longer-term results have yet to be assessed, while the implementation of this praxis continues to be refined and reinforced
Leadershift: Equipping Transformational Leadership at Summit Avenue Presbyterian Church
Get PDFThe goal of this project was to design a training manual for the purpose of equipping leaders of the local church to move from upholding the status quo to leading transformational change. The project was grounded in a theology of transformation and the principle that personal renewal of leaders precedes corporate renewal of churches. The thesis was tested at Summit Avenue Presbyterian Church.
Through an examination of Scripture and the Reformed tradition, this paper develops a theology of change. This study also explores eight principles of leading change as identified by Harvard Business professor John Kotter, asserting that these principles can be seen throughout the biblical narrative. To test this hypothesis, a series of stories from the Old and New Testaments were presented to four groups of leaders and church members over a six-week period. Principles of leading change from Kotter’s book were studied alongside these stories. Participants explored connections between the biblical narrative, principles of leading change, and their own ministry context at Summit.
This study concludes that the study of change events in Scripture and the principles of leading change increased participants’ confidence in their knowledge of leaders in the Bible and their own capacity for leading change. However, due to the limited size of the test sample and test period, these findings will require further research before a definite conclusion can be made. The training manual offered in this project will nevertheless provide a valuable resource for beginning the dialogue of leading change in the local church
Comedor Comunitario: Modelo de Formación Misional para Líderes de Células Dinámicas en Playa del Carmen
No full textEl objetivo de este proyecto fue desarrollar un modelo de formación misional para líderes de Células Dinámicas que mejore la comunidad, involucrándolos en ayudar a personas necesitadas del vecindario inmediato a la iglesia, atendiendo sus necesidades alimenticias y espirituales urgentes, en el comedor comunitario “A mí lo hicisteis”, instalado en la iglesia La Colosio en Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, México.
La primera parte del proyecto alcanza la comprensión del contexto ministerial de la iglesia La Colosio, así como las necesidades urgentes de la población próxima a su ubicación. La segunda parte se dedica a la investigación bíblica y bibliográfica, que ayude en la formación de un marco teórico del liderazgo misional, en los dirigentes de las Células Dinámicas. La tercera parte presenta un modelo de misión enfocado en la capacitación y la experimentación, que responda al desafío de ayudar con el almuerzo, a personas en crisis económica, con la instalación, funcionamiento y evaluación de un comedor comunitario gratuito por dieciocho meses. Este proyecto incluyó la formación de un equipo de coordinación, motivación, de los líderes de Células Dinámicas, prácticas de servicios alimenticios comunitarios, reflexión bíblica a visitantes y acompañamiento espiritual. Los resultados observados muestran una correlación entre la formación misional del líder de una Célula Dinámica y su participación efectiva en el comedor comunitario. Tras la apertura del comedor, se advirtió una reducción de la presencia de adictos a las drogas, alcohólicos y bandas callejeras en la ubicación del mismo. También sugieren, la necesidad de más investigaciones en los campos de salud comunitaria, atención a menores huérfanos, personas explotadas, adictos y su relación con el mejoramiento del entorno social inmediato a centros de servicios comunitarios adventistas, ubicados en iglesias de la zona
Churches Seeking the Shalom of the City
No full textIn this research, I explore the calling of four selected churches seeking the shalom of their cities. The argument is made for churches to seek the shalom of their cities, and the findings provide practical tools to help them do so. The questions What is shalom? and Why the city? are first answered through a thorough review of the precedent literature. The answers to those questions paint a vivid picture of why seeking the shalom of the city matters biblically and practically in our world today.
As the founder of a church that is seeking the shalom of our city in Benton Harbor, Michigan, I am also a participant observer. My desire to research and write on seeking the shalom of the city has grown through years of serving as a practitioner who has been hungry to learn and apply anything related to the subject that would help our ministry and city. Over the years, I have found very little in academia and mainstream work around seeking the shalom of the city. Shalom is complex, as is the city. The work of this research has sought to provide simplicity and clarity for those churches that would like to seek the shalom of their cities.
The focus of the research with the four selected churches involved the key leadership in each locale as defined and invited by the senior leader. The leaders were as diverse in age, ethnicity, and backgrounds as the cities in which I did the research. The churches were also each very different from one another in size, age, and approach to seeking the shalom of their cities. As a result, the paradigms, principles, and practices (personal and group) that are identified emerge from a rich cross section of people, places, and data. The goal of this work is to serve as a witness and a practical application guide to a very bright future for churches that have been called to seek the shalom of their cities. Seeking the shalom of the city will lead to meaningful and transformational ministry for many churches in the years ahead. The paradigms, principles, and practices outlined in this research will chart a new course for relevant city ministry in the twenty-first century
Postcolonial Cultural Hybridity and the Influence of the Gospel in Transnational French-Speaking Networks
No full textA central feature of Christianity is the observable historical fact that the gospel of Jesus travels across cultural and geographic boundaries, influencing and transforming each new culture and place it touches. Postcolonial migration, urbanization, and the simultaneous development of global communication and transportation technologies have radically increased the frequency and duration of cross-cultural contact worldwide.
This study explores hybrid identity construction in a multicultural church in the Paris Region in order to understand the influence of the gospel within transnational French-speaking networks. I found that French hegemony, historically rooted in the colonial project, contributes both to the cohesion of multicultural churches and to the cross-cultural spread of the gospel within French-speaking networks.
Cultural hybrids serve as bridge people within transcultural, transnational, French-speaking networks. They maintain identities and social networks on both sides of given cultural, linguistic, geographic, and national frontiers. Unique hybrid identities offer equally unique opportunities to influence for Christ on both sides of a given boundary.
Cultural hybridity can be a privileged in-between space where the distinct nature of Christian faith becomes manifest. When observing one’s original culture as an outsider and taking on a new culture as an insider, both cultures are relativized. This critical posture unmasks totalistic ideologies and sends the cultural hybrid in search of a coherent identity, which participants found in Christ and his church.
While transnational French-speaking networks and cultural hybridity contribute providentially to the spread of the gospel, they can also be pursued as strategic resources for the mission enterprise. Transnational French-speaking social links can be intentionally followed across missional boundaries. These networks take many forms, each pregnant with unique opportunities. Cultural hybrids can lead strategically between diverse peoples for specific missional purposes within transcultural and transnational French-speaking networks. Hybrid leadership stands on a two-way bridge, bringing diverse peoples across in both directions for reconciliation, for cross-cultural collaboration, and to announce the good news where Jesus is not yet known