5860 research outputs found
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19 - Faculty Display Introduction
https://digitalcommons.fuller.edu/exhibit_70thanniversary/1018/thumbnail.jp
17 - President Emeritus Mouw and Current President Labberton
Richard Mouw, president emeritus and professor of faith and public life, discusses civil dialogue with Dr. Labbertson and how Christians with differing political commitments can discuss their views of grace.
For more on Dr. Mouw and political civility, click here.https://digitalcommons.fuller.edu/exhibit_70thanniversary/1016/thumbnail.jp
Relocating Holism: A Theology of Care for the Poor in Conversation with Sydney Anglicanism
CMS-Australia recruits many missionaries from the Anglican Diocese of Sydney and benefits enormously from the Diocese’s theological clarity and depth of discipleship. This dissertation aims to develop a theology of care for the poor that is consonant with theological distinctives of the Diocese and will inform CMS-Australia missionaries who work in contexts of poverty.
The study explores two specific themes of Sydney Anglican theology and asks how they inform a theology of care for the poor. The first theme is the ecclesiology of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney, developed by David Broughton Knox and Donald Robinson. The second theme is a prioritist view of mission as proclamation, articulated notably by Peter O’Brien. These themes and their relationship to a theology of care for the poor are explored using two research methodologies – a literature review of material published by Sydney Anglicans and ethnographic interviews conducted among faculty members of Moore Theological College. Based on this research, the dissertation proposes that care for the poor can be located in the life of the disciple and in the community of a local church. Holism is therefore relocated, from holistic mission to holistic disciples and holistic churches. The implications of this theological construction for the missiological thinking and praxis of CMS-Australia are explored.
Mentor: R. Daniel Sha
Empowering Mission Entrepreneurs: A Three Phase Support Model
Mission entrepreneurs (MEs) are the human agents of the missio Dei who start innovative contextually appropriate ministry initiatives (MIs) to address unmet spiritual needs. Only MIs with a primary objective that people increase their Christian discipleship and form into appropriate communities of faith for a given context were considered. The purpose and goal was to determine developmental factors, which empower MEs to start new initiatives and develop a ministry model that supports them. This dissertation soughtto determine what empowering developmental factors helped MEs identify their calling, and conceptualize and start new MIs. To increase the precision of the research questions I considered relevant literature in the Christian and secular fields of entrepreneurship, leadership development, spiritual formation, calling, contextualization, organizational structures, venture development and planning. As MEs development is underexplored, only generalized foundations emerged from the literature. Thus, I employed a grounded theory study, gathering and analyzing data from the six aforementioned Biblical, plus four historical and eleven contemporary MEs working in four continents to determine useful insights from their development.
I utilized appropriate Biblical exegetical and historical analytical practices and conducted semi-structured interviews respectively. Data collection ranged from just before MEs determined the unmet need until starting the MI. A 3-phase 12-step developmental pattern emerged from analysis of the data: Phases 1-3 Calling Identification, Alignment-Conceptualization, and Creation-Catalyzing.
In addition, I identified twelve developmental factors that cooperate with the developmental process: dissatisfaction with unmet need, God called and confirmed, divine and human support, ongoing guidance, purification and alignment, entrepreneurial mindset, MEs unique characteristics, values, general calling and desire correspond to MI, context informs, opposition, and accommodating ministry structure. God was the primary factor of MEs’ calling and MI conceptualization and creation. When synthesized, the pattern and factors identified a ME developmental process. In application of this process, I generated a 3-phase ministry model that helps determine potential ME developmental needs and offers a support menu for MEs and their mentors.
Mentor: Ryan K. Bolger, Ph
COLLECTION 0150: David Allan Hubbard: Presidential Papers, 1947-1996
David Allan Hubbard was President of Fuller Theological Seminary from 1963 to 1993. This collection of the President’s papers as gathered, stored and preserved by his assistants at the Seminary in Pasadena, complements Collection 18: Papers of David Allan Hubbard, which are of a more personal nature, having been stored at his home in Santa Barbara and given by his widow in 1999.
This collection of the Presidential papers includes Fuller Seminary Administrative documents including minutes, faculty and personnel files, campus organization files, campus property documents, Trustee files, Annual reports to the Board; a file of issues Hubbard dealt with as President of Fuller, the development of the Mission Beyond the Mission statement, basic biographical material, personal and institutional correspondence, scripts for the Joyful Sound radio programs, a small collection of his writings, his retirement and emeritus correspondence, and documents concerning his sudden death, including condolences and programs for memorial services at Fuller and at Montecito Covenant Church, Santa Barbara.
Also included in this collection are documents regarding celebrations in honor of his formative Presidency in 1993, 2008 and finally in 2009, with the opening of the David Allan Hubbard Library
COLLECTION 0049: Harald Bredesen Collection, 1962-2007
The Harald Bredesen Collection, 1962-2007 includes books, articles, tapes, news items, Prince of Peace Prize documents, awards, and audio and video recordings. Added materials include photos, collected publications, and correspondence
Domains of Vulnerable Behavior: The Multifactorial Structure and Influence of Intimate Safety
Administered during a marital enrichment seminar series, the self-report Intimate Safety Questionnaire (ISQ) was utilized to assess participants’ experience in 28 vulnerable couple behaviors, as a measure of marital intimacy from a behavioral perspective. Supporting a multifactorial theory of intimacy, four subscales of intimacy were developed in the first sample (N = 276 participants) and replicated and validated in a second sample ( N = 86 couples). Subscales illuminated gender differences in intimacy that were not reflected in total scores, as wives demonstrated higher comfort being vulnerable with both emotions and disagreement, but husbands demonstrated higher comfort being vulnerable with sex. No gender differences were found for comfort being vulnerable in public or total intimacy scores. Findings of actor partner interdependence models (APIM) indicated both significant actor and partner effects of both overall intimacy and subscales on couple satisfaction. However, husbands demonstrated a couple-oriented pattern for all measures of intimacy, suggesting that their wives’ intimacy influenced their relationship satisfaction as much as husbands’ own intimacy did, whereas wives demonstrated this couple-oriented pattern only for behaviors involving disagreement. Contributions to theoretical understandings of marital intimacy and clinical applications of the ISQ and the four subscales are discussed
Listening for Christ, Proclaiming Christ: Small Groups as a Catalyst of Transformation at Grace Covenant
The purpose of this paper is to develop a way for the membership of Grace Covenant to mature in Christ through a more participatory manner of discipleship. In particular, this paper seeks to move the church’s discipleship process into the homes of members where Scripture is actively engaged and discussed by all present. The spiritual discipline of lectio divina will foster this kind of engagement with Scripture during each meeting.
The first portion of this paper explores Grace Covenant’s unique context and opportunities for growth given its location. This portion also argues that the church’s current discipleship model is deficient and unable to engage the next generation of Christians in the area. Finally, this section provides a few reasons that the church can be hopeful about fresh, participatory expressions of discipleship emerging in the homes of members.
Part two of this paper entails a theological reflection about the Trinitarian nature of Christian community and the implications for Christian formation unfolding in home- based small groups. The paper will further show the ways in which the Reformed tradition both hinders and undergirds this new paradigm for discipleship. Themes of community, vulnerability, and the power of the Holy Spirit are prominent in the argument that the membership will most fully be transformed in and through home-based small groups that employ the lectio divina process with Scripture.
Part two concludes by outlining a practical strategy for building a church-wide small group experience. A central aspect of this process involves taking the necessary time to train and build a strong group of small group leaders from within the congregation. Once the church-wide effort is underway, the paper highlights the importance of listening for testimonies as the key indicator of the Spirit’s faithful work of transformation
A Strategy for Introducing Spiritual Formation at Cedar Hills Church
The purpose of this project was to introduce the paradigm and practices of spiritual formation through an intensive small group experience. The experience aimed to equip adults to initiate and sustain a lifetime of continuous spiritual growth. This approach was tested through two pilot projects at Cedar Hills Church in Sandpoint, Idaho, and was designed to serve as an ongoing part of Cedar Hills’ adult ministry.
To develop a theology of spiritual formation, this study begins with an examination of Scripture, highlighting transformation as a central concept for Christian growth. This transformation unfolds in divine-human partnership and progressively aligns a person’s beliefs, practices, and affections with Jesus Christ. Further scriptural study develops an active, reflective, and collaborative view of spiritual formation.
This theological framework guided the design of a small group intensive called Experiments in Spiritual Formation. A total of twenty-three participants engaged in two separate pilot projects. The first session of the intensive featured several inventories to help participants identify their season of spiritual growth. Following sessions utilized A Spiritual Formation Workbook, based on the six streams of spiritual formation identified by Richard Foster, to propel understanding of and engagement in spiritual formation traditions and practices. Concluding sessions celebrated progress and invited participants to formulate plans for their ongoing spiritual growth.
Based on participant feedback and the author’s observations, this project did effectively introduce participants to spiritual formation and spurred new levels of engagement in their spiritual growth. To translate the growth of participants during the intensive into ongoing growth, future iterations will provide resources to help participants engage in a small group community for collaborative spiritual growth. For the larger Christian community, the project confirms the importance of a spiritual formation framework, the significance of experimentation, and the value of collaborative communities of practice in promoting spiritual development.
Content Reader: A.J. Swoboda, Ph
Life with The Spirit: A Path to Renewal at Sonrise Christian Reformed Church
The purpose of this project is to reimagine the Reformed theology of Sonrise Christian Reformed Church, to encourage members to embrace a more integrated faith and life perspective through reclaiming a covenantal community identity, such that they will be better equipped to love neighbor and self as they represent Christ in the twenty–first century world. The project was developed and implemented in 2016–2017, with the congregation in Ponoka, Alberta.
The project began out of pastoral concerns. The edges of Reformed theology and practice have changed. Traditional structures that helped shape identity have collapsed or been subverted by competing Protestant theologies. The context for ministry has also changed in conjunction with the demise of Christendom. This congregation, like many others, needs a renewed faith formation theology and focus, to resist the pressures it faces.
The first stage of the project was to accurately evaluate the current theological and sociological ethos of the congregation. A discernment process ensued, summarizing common themes, traits and doctrinal understandings that still have traction in the congregation. The results specified the two primary themes, which are worship and covenant community, that ought to be the focus of the project. So, to address these themes, a home group program was begun. A year later, a series of messages on the two themes was presented. Closely followed by matching home group material that augments the sermon topics and instigates follow–up discussion.
The project concludes that congregation members recognize the need for change and accept the twin focus of the project. Change, however, is a difficult and slow process. Therefore, although the preliminary results are promising, realizing the goal of the project, which was to inspire a desire for change in these areas, will take more time