Boyce Digital Repository (Southern Baptist Theological Seminary)
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Equipping Young Parents To Disciple Their Children Through Catechesis At First Baptist Church of Moody, Alabama
Get PDFThis project’s purpose was to equip the young parents of FBCM to disciple their children through the method of catechesis. However, before simply exhorting the parents to engage their children’s spiritual lives, the parents needed to grow in their doctrinal understanding. The project included a pre- and post-series survey that measured a statistical change in the parents’ perception of discipleship and their theological proficiency. Chapter 1 introduces the ministry context as well as the rationale for the given project. This initial chapter outlined the project’s goals, research methodology, purpose, definitions, delimitations, and limitations. Chapter 2 supplies strong biblical support for the parents’ primary role in a child’s discipleship and the church’s primary responsibility to equip these parents for the work of ministry. The chapter provides an exegesis of Deuteronomy 6:1-9, Psalm 78:1-8, Ephesians 6:1-4, and Ephesians 4:11-13. Chapter 3 demonstrates the long-standing pedagogical strategy of catechesis throughout church history. Further, this chapter advocates the family-equipping model of ministry as ideal for catechesis. Chapter 4 recounts the preparation and implementation of the curriculum. Chapter 5 concludes the project with an evaluation of the project’s goals and purpose
Developing a Multisite Plan for Mount Ararat Baptist Church Stafford, Virginia
Get PDFThe project was designed to create a plan to launch future multisite campuses for Mount Ararat Baptist Church. In addition to detailing the required steps and milestones for a successful church launch, the project lays out a proposed organizational structure to ensure management efficiency and cultural transference. As with any multisite venture, the motivating factor is the growth of the kingdom through spreading the gospel. Because of this, scalability is integral to organizational structure. With that in mind, the project’s final goal is to sketch out a structure that supports growth for the years to come.Chapter 1 outlines the context, goals, rationale, research methodologies, definitions, and delimitations for the project. Chapter 2 provides the biblical and theological basis for church planting, extensively utilizing passages in Acts as a foundation for the basis. This chapter also gives a biblical basis for organizational structure, as well as for measuring church health. Chapter 3 explores the praxis of multisite planting, the current literature on organizational clarity, and the importance to the church of gathering and interpreting data. Chapter 4 covers the details and descriptions of the project. Finally, chapter 5 evaluates the project and suggests improvements
John Calvin, The Puritans, and John Frame: Worship Theology and Praxis Among Regulative Principle Adherents
Get PDFThis thesis presents a taxonomy of views concerning the regulative principle of worship among John Calvin, John Frame, and the Puritans. Chapter 2 explores Calvin’s impact on worship regulation, and his theology is mapped through communion with God, liturgical sins, and material pessimism before exploring discontinuities between Calvin and the Puritans. Chapter 3 highlights the emergence of the Puritans within the Church of England before the Westminster Assembly. Core motivations are revealed in the debates and theological concerns during the Assembly. Chapter 4 highlights John Frame’s broad view of the regulative principle and identifies Frame’s unique view of elements and circumstances and his interaction with the Westminster formulations. Chapter 5 analyzes and synthesizes disparities regarding the application of the regulative principle. Implications are drawn from unwarranted hierarchies and their impact on worship praxis
E.K. Bailey's Hermeneutic for Preaching
Get PDFE. K. Bailey’s (1945-2003) pulpit ministry at Concord Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas, demonstrated the non-monolithic nature of Black Sacred Rhetoric. Bailey’s preaching employed an author-centered hermeneutic while attending to the life situation of the Concord congregation. This dissertation will argue that Bailey’s expository preaching was supported by a twofold interpretive lens, Afro-ethnic Ecclesial Kinship and Bibliocentric Christoformity. Bailey preached the Christian Scriptures (1) in connection with his ethnic and ecclesial community and (2) in submission to Scripture’s authorial intent for communal formation in Christ. Bailey valued the pursuit of the biblical authors’ meanings and their applications to the congregation he served. Chapter 1 introduces Bailey’s significance and pulpit legacy as an expository preacher. Chapter 2 discusses his life, education, and ministry years at Concord Church. Chapter 3 situates Bailey’s hermeneutic in the landscape of six major hermeneutical districts of Black Sacred Rhetoric and locates him in biblical exposition within his African-American ethnicity. Chapter 4 explains Bailey’s two principal hermeneutical influencers: A. Louis Patterson, Jr., and Henry H. Mitchell. Chapters 5 and 6 explicate Bailey’s twofold lens, which the reader will see in Bailey’s homiletical expositions on Ephesians in addition to other sermons preached during Bailey’s most experienced years at Concord. Chapter 7 discusses implications for expository preaching based on Bailey’s life and ministry. Chapter 8 concludes with further research opportunities on Bailey.
The dissertation amplifies the overlooked and under-published author-centered hermeneutic in Black Sacred Rhetoric. It presents Bailey as an echo of W. E. B. Du Bois’s “Black Pastor” and a contemporary complement to Daniel R. Bare’s “Black Fundamentalist” pastor during Segregation. It shows how Bailey was able to incorporate biblical exegesis grounded in authorial intent without neglecting the unique, historical context of the African-American community he was called to pastor. Through the interpretive assumptions that grounded his preaching, Bailey trailblazed a path for a future generation of author-centered hermeneutics in Black Sacred Rhetoric
Developing A Biblical Approach To Counseling Students On Gender And Sexuality At Rhody Christian Fellowship
Get PDFThis project sought to help a college ministry in Rhode Island gain a biblical understanding of gender and sexuality, and to apply biblical counseling principles. Chapter 1 highlights the history of the ministry and the reason for the project. Chapter 2 examines the biblical foundation for gender and sexuality, giving particular attention to Genesis 1-3, as well as Romans 1. Chapter 3 provides practical application to help students with gender and sexuality issues, while also equipping them to counsel one another. Chapter 4 is an overview of the process used to implement the project, as well as the content of the teaching series. Chapter 5 includes the results and analysis of the project and its outcome
Breath of Life: A Biblical Understanding of the Human–Animal Distinction and a Critique of Contemporary Theological Anthropology
Get PDF“If you have no doctrine of creation, you have no doctrine of salvation.” With one pithy sentence, Peter Gentry exposes the foundational support for my dissertation. It has become popular recently in the interaction between theology and science to diminish the distinction between humans and animals. This is problematic. Starting from a basis of sola Scriptura, I look through the biblical data on humans and animals. The first chapters of Genesis are very important and are reviewed in detail. The following two chapters look at the rest of the Old Testament and the New Testament. From this data, it is clear that though humans are similar to animals, they are also distinct. Central to this distinction is the “breath of life” in man. This is an ontological distinction that includes both the physical capacities and immaterial aspect of man that are not found in animals. This includes man being made in the image of God, man’s moral stance before God, and the connection to Christ’s work as a man. Four modern theologians are reviewed who take a different methodological path with the result that they come to different theological conclusions. A final chapter brings together the biblical data with its implications for theology
The Tyndale House Greek New Testament and Nestle-Aland Tradition as Complementary, Not Competitive Critical Editions
No full textThis dissertation is a detailed comparison of the texts and textual apparatuses of the Tyndale House Greek New Testament (THGNT) and Nestle-Aland tradition (especially the NA27 and NA28). Its thesis is that these two editions should be viewed as complementary rather than competitive editions of the GNT; each has their own unique strengths and weaknesses and the reader who understands these strengths and weaknesses can better use both to their full potential.
Chapter 1 surveys three positives and four negatives about the THGNT among reviewers, then explains the THGNT’s text-critical methodology, and the dissertation argument. Chapter 2 discusses the critical texts of the THGNT and NA27/28, focusing on: (1) why we need a new GNT, namely, the NA27/28 text is out-dated by 50 years; (2) a statistical summary of textual differences; (3) a discussion of the most “significant” differences; and (4) a discussion of editorial (un)certainty in establishing the NT text. Chapter 3 discusses the relationship between the THGNT, NA27, ECM, and the Byzantine text. It surveys changing attitudes towards the Byzantine text and concludes that both the ECM and THGNT push the NA27 text towards the Byzantine text, albeit in a small way focused on grammatical matters. Chapter 4 is a general comparison of the THGNT and NA28 textual apparatuses, explaining the current state of NT textual apparatuses, and showing the weaknesses of both in light of major text-critical projects such as the ECM.
Chapter 5 is perhaps the most important and focuses exclusively on the THGNT textual apparatus and explains six strengths and three weaknesses. The six strengths of the THGNT are: (1) full transparency on manuscript readings; (2) more precision than the NA28 in areas such as spelling, Latin parallels, and numerical abbreviations; (3) the THGNT exposes NA28 errors in presenting manuscript readings; (4) the THGNT exposes NA28 errors with regard to manuscript corrections; (5) the NA28 will sometimes only provide a negative apparatus (citing only witnesses against its text), but the THGNT will always provide both negative and positive evidence; and (6) despite its small apparatus size, the THGNT actually presents new variant units and additional variants not found in NA28. The three weaknesses (beyond its small size) are: (1) the THGNT also contains erroneous or imprecise readings; (2) the THGNT omits valuable information such as symbols for the Byzantine majority text and Families 1 and 13, and omits some significant variant units; and (3) the THGNT sometimes does not use vid. when it should because the cited manuscript is unclear.
The Nestle-Aland editions are excellent, but they are not infallible tools. The THGNT provides a critical text based on 21st-century textual research. The THGNT apparatus is often more transparent, more precise, and more accurate than the NA28’s apparatus. And the THGNT apparatus also provides additional variants and entirely new variant units not even found in NA28. Those who neglect the THGNT are overlooking an excellent tool for reading the GNT
These are the Words of Eusebius: A Translation and Analysis of the Colophon at the End of Fourth Kingdoms in BnF syr. 27
Get PDFOver three chapters, this thesis studies the colophon at the end of Fourth Kingdoms in BnF Syr. 27, which is divided into several main sections. Chapter 1 provides a transcription of the colophon, analysis of the main paratextual features, and a
first-time translation into English. Chapter 2 compares the first main section of the
colophon with a similar extant text from Origen, noting that no known extant text matches the material in the colophon. Then, it compares the second major section with Pseudo-Athanasius’s Synopsis Scripturae Sacrae and, to some extent, Epiphanius’s On Weights and Measure, noting where the colophon relies on and is different from these texts. In Chapter 3 the third major section is especially compared with Epiphanius’s On Weights and Measures as it is contained in BL Add. 17148 to demonstrate BnF syr. 27’s reliance upon this text
Implementing Biblical Church Membership at First Baptist Church in Cordele, Georgia
Get PDFThe purpose of this project was to implement biblical church membership at the First Baptist Church of Cordele, Georgia. Chapter 1 describes the ministry context in which the project was conducted, the rationale, and the goals for pursuing introduction and implementation of biblical church membership. Chapter 2 explores the biblical and theological support for the necessity of biblical church membership through the exegesis of four passages: Matthew 18:15-20; 1 Corinthians 5:1-8; Hebrews 10:23-25; and Hebrews 13:17. Chapter 3 examines the theoretical and practical issues of biblical church membership. Chapter 4 looks at the details and the description of this project such as the goals and implementation processes. Chapter 5 reflects upon the project’s purpose, goals, strengths, weaknesses, how I grew during the process, and what I would do differently
Establishing a Framework for Female-Gendered Embodiment in a Redemptive Context
Get PDFThis study establishes an ontological framework for defining female-gendered embodiment, proposing a definition which is scripturally grounded and ontologically based. If a woman does not comprehend her essential purpose and ontological nature, she may perform duties and responsibilities, but the richness of her living within her God-given design will be diminished—to the detriment of the individual, the family, the church, and society as a whole. Likewise, women, families, and churches will suffer when women are communicated an incomplete definition of their ontological meaning (e.g., a strictly functionally based or roles-derived meaning). Though gender is the central topic of much present-day evangelical scholarship, evangelical scholars typically do not have a shared, working definition of the term. This research articulates a theological paradigm to identify female-gendered embodiment, distinctively engages the only known theological model for defining women ontologically (by Evdokimov), establishes a framework to define female-gendered embodiment ontologically, and assesses the framework from various perspectives. The proposed, original taxonomy of gendered embodiment serves to foster cross-boundary discussions toward the objective of defining female-gendered embodiment within theological anthropology