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The Journey of How Fourth Reformed Church is Becoming an Externally Focused Ministry
Get PDFIn Paul’s missionary trips to Corinth, his ability to connect with the multicultural community in Corinth, and his letters to the Corinthian church, we can understand the meaning of crossing cultures when working in a multicultural setting. Though Paul crossed cultural and religious barriers in other places, the multicultural background of Corinth gives us an example of what it means to cross cultures. Paul not only became a messenger of the good news, but also an agent of transformation. Similarly, Fourth Reformed Church has listened to God’s call to cross cultural barriers to point the members of the community to the only one who can save them—Christ.
By understanding the Corinthian community and what Paul confronted there, we find the groundwork to work interculturally in a multicultural context. By becoming all things to all people, Paul created a path in which the cultures involved had the opportunity to understand and learn from each other. While God, through Paul’s writings, is calling Fourth Reformed Church to become all things to all people, he is not calling it to do it all at once. Also, Paul outlines some limitations to guard against the danger of losing ourselves in the process.
Today, in the same way God called Paul, he is calling Fourth Reformed Church to become agents of change and transformation for its community. Through Paul’s work, all those involved can gain a new identity in Christ. Fourth Reformed Church has understood the need of taking new steps in which we, like Paul, will learn how to live with those around us. Finally, through Paul, God is asking us to surrender our religious background, our expectations, our understanding of who he is, and the way we communicate to fully become intercultural human beings while living and working in a multicultural world
Pneumatic Hermeneutics: The Role of the Holy Spirit in Theological Interpretation of Scripture
No full textConversations on theological interpretation of Scripture suggest the significance of pneumatic hermeneutics in reading biblical texts. Despite the affirmation of divine guidance in reading Scripture and a few representative voices that recognize the role of the Holy Spirit, there is a substantial gap in the theological interpretation project regarding the role of the Spirit in biblical reading. This dissertation aims to fill this gap by exploring the Spirit’s interpretive work from the vantage point of theological interpretation. It argues that Pentecostal tradition has a remarkable contribution to the dialogue concerning the Spirit’s role. In order to put the Pentecostal hermeneutics in a wider theological framework and intensify the issue in a larger ecumenical context, the dissertation discusses Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant approaches on the Spirit and Scripture. The analysis of these major streams of Christian tradition provides a setting to examine Pentecostal hermeneutical practices and reflections on the Spirit’s role in biblical interpretation. Taking the Pentecostal hermeneutical insights that involve a three-way dialogue between the Spirit, Scripture, and community into account, the dissertation extends the trialectic interpretive approach by insisting that Christian community is an expression of the Spirit’s work through which the interpretive role of the Spirit is mediated. By offering a theological basis for understanding the Spirit’s interpretive role in light of pneumatic experiences of Christian community, the dissertation points a way forward to integrate the Spirit’s role in theological interpretation of Scripture
Tomorrow’s Church: Transforming the Body of Christ for the Mission to Come
Get PDFOrganizational transformation is unavoidable yet necessary for institutional health. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is at a crossroads today as it is coming to grips with this reality. The issue the ELCA will face in the coming decade concerns how it will be transformed to respond to the missio dei.
In this dissertation I will address this issue first by exploring the cultural landscape the ELCA occupies. By analyzing current religious trends from the Pew Research Center, self-reported numbers from the ELCA, and cultural commentaries from contemporary thinkers, I will argue the ELCA is in an unprecedented situation where it needs to be transformed.
Looking for a contemporary example from which the ELCA might be able to learn, I will argue the missional church movement is one area that offers the ELCA valuable insights. After a literary review, I will argue that an ecclesiology structured around the identity of being sent is the direction in which ELCA congregations should look to be transformed. This kind of transformation can be learned from Murray Bowen’s concept of self-differentiation. At the heart of this section is the conviction that personal transformation leads to corporate transformation.
Following this exploration of self-differentiation for cultural transformation, I will then apply these insights to ministry practices. I will present three tools that pastors and leaders can use to increase their self-differentiated leadership capacity, grow in understanding of where God has worked in the past and is currently leading, and help make sense of the current cultural situation.
In the conclusion, I will propose an ecclesiology for the future of the ELCA. I will assert that even though organizational transformation is difficult, it is the key to helping congregations breath life back into the ELCA as it seeks to join in the missio dei
COLLECTION 0043: Henry Venn Collection, 1835-1873
Get PDFThe Henry Venn Collection, c.1975 consists of 23 bound volumes related to Henry Venn’s collected writings. Thirteen volumes contain a bibliographic index of the Church Missionary Society correspondence by Clerical Secretary Henry Venn, dating from 1835 to 1873. The archival collections are available for research at the University of Birmingham, UK.
Nine volumes are photocopies of the Collected Writings of Henry Venn. The articles, sermons, etc. are numbered according to the Bibliography of Henry Venn’s Printed Writings with Index by Wilbert Shenk; Elkhart, Ind.: Institute of Mennonite Studies of the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries, [1975]. Not all materials listed in the Bibliography are present in the bound volumes.
All bound volumes were created and donated to the Fuller Theological Seminary Library by Professor Wilbert Shenk
Korean American Immigrant Parents and Adolescents in Relational Challenge: The Church as an Equipping and Empowering Community
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COLLECTION 0160: Paul W. Gaebelein Jr. Collection, 1919-1997
Get PDFPaul W. Gaebelein Jr. (b. May 7, 1919 - d. 1997) served as a professor of Old Testament and Akkadian at Fuller Theological Seminary from 1987 – 1991.
The Paul W. Gaebelein Jr. Collection contains correspondence, photographs, articles, newspaper clippings, and academic course work. A significant portion of the collection centers on subject specific files for personal and professional research. Topics include Ancient Near Eastern linguistics, theology, and archeological practices. Bulk dates range from 1987-1991