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Developing Thai Leaders for Long-term Fruitfulness within the Association of Churches Bangkok
Get PDFThe goal of this project is to develop an effective leadership-training program, partly through the use of a training manual for pastors and lay leaders within the Association of Churches in Thailand Bangkok (ACTB). This ministry focus paper will start with an examination of the context of Thai leadership development. There are historical, cultural and missiological factors that affect the growth of the Church in Thailand, particularly in Bangkok. Many young pastors left their churches due to discouragement and inability to overcome some barriers. Deeper reasons for attrition include lack of discipleship, consistent input, mentoring and peer-support.
Further reflection on theology of leadership reveals that in order for leaders to have a long and fruitful ministry, there must be a balance between dependency upon God and personal growth. Integration between inner transformation and missional outlook is crucial to vitality. Effective Thai leaders are also contextually sensitive and biblically grounded. A reexamination of how Jesus and the Apostles trained leaders is certainly applicable for the Thai context.
Having a training manual itself is not the main goal. Leadership seminars should not be merely content driven, but aim to bring together a cohort of leaders that can foster friendship and support for one another. Ministry coaching should also be implemented outside of classroom settings. The manual can be a tool to stimulate personal leadership growth, multiplication and development of leadership cohesiveness within the ACTB. It contains twelve lessons on biblical leadership, and is written specifically with a Thai church audience in mind. The manual will be translated into Thai and checked by native speakers for accuracy
Building Up the Whole Body: Discipleship in Diverse Urban Community
Get PDFThe purpose of this project is to create an assessment to be used by the leadership team of SOMA, a church plant in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. This assessment will help us understand how effectively we are equipping our increasingly diverse membership for missional discipleship in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. The first section explores SOMA’s community and ministry contexts. I discuss the marginalizing forces in Beaver Falls and explain the tension between SOMA’s roots in the Reformed tradition and its desire to equip its diverse membership for faithful witness in the city. This tension requires resistance to the culturally-conditioned tendency toward abstraction found in our theological tradition and an encouragement of practices of formation that equip the variety of people in our faith community.
In the second section I first review literature that reflects theologically on social and racial marginalization, on the church’s engagement with the city, and on the kind of discipleship that develops the church’s ministry of reconciliation. I then offer my theological reflections to understand churches as reconciling communities in which people are experiencing the table mutuality of faith in Christ, confessing and repenting of the Western tendency toward abstraction, and embodying Jesus’s incarnation to see discipleship as a whole-person practice that churches should encourage across the distinctive qualities of our members.
In the final section I describe the development of SOMA’s assessment process, by which an Assessment Team solicited, received, and interpreted feedback related to how effectively members of the congregation feel they are being equipped to participate in the missio Dei. The interpretation of that feedback culminated in four recommendations to SOMA’s leadership team regarding how to improve our discipleship ministry. These recommendations both encourage better accessibility for more of our members and highlight our need to continue growing in cultural competency as a church family
Factors Contributing to Attrition Among Depressed Ethnic Minority Patients Seen in a Primary Care Setting
No full textAttrition may pose a threat to the validity of a study, specifically in lengthy longitudinal studies in which retaining participants may be more difficult. The purpose of the present study was to determine, using retrospective data (n = 415), which variables (i.e., gender, ethnicity, level of education, primary language, alcohol dependence, and employment) may increase the probability of attrition in a study on depression among depressed ethnic minority patients seen in a public safety net primary care setting. Of the 6 variables explored, there were no specific hypotheses for gender, ethnicity, primary language, or employment. These variables were explorative. The following were specific hypotheses for the remaining 2 variables: (a) participants with more education would be less likely to drop out of the study, and (b) participants at high risk of alcohol abuse would be more likely to drop out of the study. Pearson chi-square analyses showed significant results only for ethnicity: participants who self-identified as Black/African American were the most likely to drop out at 33.7% (n = 29), whereas White participants were the least likely to drop out at 17.2% (n = 5). The 2 specific hypotheses were therefore not supported. Limitations and implications of the present study are discussed
