Boyce Digital Repository (Southern Baptist Theological Seminary)
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Revitalizing Evangelism Through Apologetics Training at Forestpark Community Church in Louisville, Kentucky
Get PDFD. Ed. Min., Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2021The purpose of this project was to effectively educate members of Forestpark Community Church in apologetics-based evangelism to better serve the kingdom through active outreach in Louisville, Kentucky. Chapter 1 details the three goals, which were designed to increase the theological knowledge and evangelistic efforts among the members of Forestpark Community Church. Chapter 1 also presents the biblical and practical rationale for the project, the methodology on how to carry out the project, and the church context. Chapter 2 presents the theological and biblical foundations for implementing this project. This chapter looks mainly at two texts: Acts 17:22-34, Paul’s discussions at the Areopagus; and 1 Peter 3:15-16, Peter’s exhortation on how to defend the Christian faith. Chapter 3 describes a historical viewpoint on apologetics throughout the life of the church. This chapter focuses on Origen’s work against the claims of Celsus, and various efforts by Augustine. The writings of Augustine also provide a segue into the modern era of apologetics in the discussion of the free will defense used by Alvin Plantinga. The balance of chapter 3 works through modes of evolution. Chapter 4 represents the mechanics of how the project was prepared via surveys and curriculum development. Chapter 5 conferrs the information of the results of the project and after-thoughts
A Curriculum For Equipping Deacons at First Baptist Church Kershaw, South Carolina For Servant Leadership
Get PDFThis project describes and evaluates a ministry project designed to enhance the deacons’ ministry, through servant leadership, at First Baptist Church Kershaw. Chapter 1 introduces the ministry context and background of First Baptist Church Kershaw while providing the reasoning for the project. Chapter 2 provides the biblical and theological framework for correctly understanding servant leadership in relation to deacon ministry. These biblical constructs determine the curriculum’s development. In chapter 3, how clarification of roles and responsibilities within the church are vital to function and practice, and the vital need for a biblically functioning diaconate are explored; servant leadership theory is explored, the trends in deacon practices within the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are examined; and a profile of the five best practices for servant leadership is proposed. Chapter 4 describes the implementation of the project, and details completion dates of each component. Chapter 5 evaluates the overall project’s purpose, goals, strengths, and weaknesses
Persons According to Essence
Get PDFIn the classical Christian tradition, personhood is a concept employed to distinguish the members in the Trinity while simultaneously affirming their oneness of being. Yet, this is a term applied to both human beings and God. At minimum a person is a being that exists in defined relations. However, being, essence, or nature, necessarily qualify one’s personhood, and should be explained congruently. This preserves creature and Creator distinctions as this anthropological and trinitarian loci intersects. This project aims to explore the classical arguments that employed personhood language to explain the Trinity and seeks to carefully expand the concept’s application to human beings. It will contend that personhood be first understood in reference to God’s nature, and secondly to man in reference to his created nature. Lastly, this project will demonstrate that an alternative application of personhood conflates the relationship between person and being. It will conclude that this error impoverishes a definition of God or men as unique persons and diminishes the significance of the two-natured person of Christ
A Framework of Local Church Engagement for Business As Mission
Get PDFBusiness as Mission (BAM) has gained momentum as a methodology for missions over the last three decades. This rise in practice has led to a rise in literature focusing on BAM objectives. This dissertation seeks clarity in one issue concerning BAM: what is the relationship to the kingdom business and a local church? BAM authors have chosen to focus on kingdom language over ecclesiological language in writing. Therefore, this dissertation seeks to provide helpful solutions for how a worker should include a local church in the spiritual planning process of a kingdom business.
Business as Mission literature has focused on a spectrum of kingdom objectives when measuring success. From conversion to social justice, there is a wide range of objectives that fits within the definition of business as mission. However, there has not been clarity on how the local church fits within these kingdom objectives in BAM. Therefore, it is critical to develop a spectrum of church partnership in order to help the movement develop clearer language for partnership to meet kingdom objectives. The church holds the keys to the kingdom in the new covenant, therefore a posture towards the local church is a necessity to meet kingdom objectives in BAM. Yet, in a robust definition of the kingdom, there are many ways to define the partnership
Developing a Marriage Crisis Counseling Program at Ajyal Church of the Nazarene, Amman, Jordan
Get PDFThis ministry project was designed to strengthen families by equipping the soul care ministry with biblical procedures for intervening in marriage crises.Chapter 1 outlines the purpose, goals, and plan for the project. It explains the ministry context and the gap that surfaced in counseling.
Chapter 2 provides the foundation and structure for this marriage crisis counseling program based on the full armor of God in Ephesians 6:10-18.
Chapter 3 presents a counseling methodology pertaining to the armor of God, comprising seven steps for intervening in marriage crises and argues that couples must place their identity in Christ.
Chapter 4 documents the implementation of “Marriage Battles: The Armor of God for Victory” course with church families. The chapter presents data analysis for evaluating the effectiveness of this teaching.
Chapter 5 evaluates the ministry project from a personal, theological, and practical perspective. It includes the expert panel evaluation and concludes with personal reflection
Moving Middle School Students Toward Biblical Literacy At New Hope Church In New Hope, Minnesota
Get PDFChapter 1 serves as an outline to this project. It provided the context for which this project takes place, rationale for the work, and the purpose for it. The purpose of this work is to move middle school students toward biblical literacy while simultaneously equipping parents and adult leaders to more effectively connect with and disciple middle school students. Chapter 2 provides a detailed biblical backing for this work by looking at Matthew 28:18-20, Titus 2:2-6, and Deuteronomy 6:4-9. Chapter 3 looks at the cognitive abilities of middle schoolers and their ability to learn, meditate on, and use the Bible as a life guiding resource in their lives. Chapter 4 provides the results of the pre- and post-surveys while chapter 5 looks at the implications of the surveys and the impact of the developed curriculum
“Do Not Covet”: The Tenth Commandment In Pauline Ethics
Get PDFThis dissertation argues that the Tenth Commandment plays a formative role in Paul’s ethical instruction in the following ways: (1) Paul describes and defines sin using the Tenth Commandment (Rom 7:7; 1 Cor 10:6); (2) he connects covetousness and idolatry (1 Cor 10:6–7; Eph 5:5; Col 3:5); (3) he links violating the Tenth Commandment to violating other prohibitions from the second table of the Decalogue (Rom 13:8–10; 1 Cor 10:6–8; 1 Thess 4:3–7); and, (4) he presents covetousness as a test of faithful and unfaithful ministry (e.g., 2 Cor 2:17; 7:2; 12:11–18). To demonstrate this claim, thisdissertation undertakes an exegetical, historical, and canonical study of the Tenth Commandment in the Hebrew Bible, early Jewish literature, and Paul. Over the course of this investigation, it is demonstrated that the Tenth Word plays a more influential role in the ethical thought of Paul than previously recognized. Chapter 1 details the thesis, methodology, and significance of the project in addition to surveying some relevant research. Chapter 2 surveys the Tenth Commandment in the Hebrew Bible and early Jewish literature to answer the vital questions, what is the Tenth Commandment, and how would Paul have encountered it? Chapter 3 traces the connections between the Tenth Word, Genesis 2–3, and Numbers 11 in the Hebrew Bible, early Jewish literature, and Paul. Chapter 4 highlights the connection between covetousness and idolatry in 1 Corinthians 10:6–7, Ephesians 5:5, and Colossians 3:5 against the background of the Hebrew Bible and early Jewish literature. Chapter 5 shows that the violation of the Tenth Commandment results in the violation of the other prohibitions of the Decalogue in the Hebrew Bible and early Jewish literature, and Paul demonstrates this idea in Romans 13:8–10, 1 Corinthians 10:6–8, and 1 Thessalonians 4:3–7. Chapter 6 observes the phenomenon of the Tenth Commandment being particularly violated by the religious, economic, and political elite in the Hebrew Bible and early Jewish literature, and suggests this may influence Pauline thought on faithful and unfaithful ministry. Chapter 7 summarizes the findings of the investigation and offers implications
Reading the Gospels Well to Counsel People Well: Hermeneutics, Biblical Counseling, and the Gospel of Matthew
Get PDFThis project unites hermeneutics, biblical studies, and biblical counseling to propose an approach for faithfully reading passages in the Gospel of Matthew in an effort to counsel with wisdom and discernment.
Chapter 1 overviews the abundance of literature at readers’ (including counselors’) disposal in the fields of hermeneutics and biblical studies, including treatments specifically devoted to Gospel studies and Matthew’s Gospel. A library of resources has continued to develop over the past fifty years to relaunch, clarify, and advance biblical counseling, as well as materials to train and grow counselors. Some authors strive to teach counselors about the process of moving from the biblical text to counseling concerns (and vice versa). However, a void remains in considering the impact of literary genre on the translation from God’s inerrant Word to a counselee’s experience.
Chapter 2 surveys the doctrinal commitments undergirding biblical counselors’ conviction that Scripture drives counseling and summarizes the multiple ways the Bible directs and motivates counseling. As counselors read, understand, and apply the Scriptures, God’s Word actively leads counselors in establishing counseling’s theory and practice as well as guiding how they address their counselees and their concerns.
Chapter 3 then approaches how Matthew’s Gospel informs counseling based on what the Gospel contains and how the evangelist communicates to his readers through episodes, Jesus’s teaching, and the book’s overarching narrative. In light of the Gospel’s contents and communicative methods, the chapter concludes with a method to read and understand a Matthean passage by close examination of the text, consideration of the passage’s context, and holistic evaluation of the passage’s historical and theological communication.
Chapter 4 discusses the application of Matthew’s Gospel in counseling by first identifying characteristics of faithful biblical application. Drawing from John Frame’s triperspectivalism, the treatment then describes wise and discerning application as the recognition of how Scripture’s normative perspective provides readers with situational and existential guidance. Finally, using the USE acronym, the chapter offers a three-fold method to apply the Gospel of Matthew in counseling by first understanding the passage, then seeking how the passage connects with counseling’s theological framework, and finally exploring how the passage speaks to counselees and their concerns.
Chapter 5 then applies the three-fold method to Matthew 14:22-33, observing how that passage helps detail the anatomy of fear and furnishes guidance for responding to fear. The chapter closes with two examples of that pericope’s application in my own pastoral counseling and ministry.
Chapter 6 provides concluding and summary remarks
God’s Imposition: The Centrality of Vocation in the Spirituality of William Perkins
Get PDFWilliam Perkins (1558–1602) was a significant figure in the post-Reformation Church of England. Contemporary scholars call him the “father of Puritanism” for his pursuit of spiritual reform through preaching and teaching. As a theologian, he is known for his important contribution to the doctrine of predestination, A Golden Chain. He also authored numerous practical works meant to guide Christian life. Scholarship concerning his practical works is less available, thus this dissertation contributes to that lacuna specifically concerning his A Treatise of the Vocations, or Callings of Men, with the Sorts and Kinds of Them, and the Right Use Thereof.In terms of spirituality, Perkins was concerned with how Christians respond to God’s grace in their daily practice. Vocation, or the personal calling, according to Perkins, is “a certain kind of life, ordained and imposed on man by God for the common good.” In other words, a vocation is designed by God, unique to each Christian, and for the good of the family, church, and commonwealth. A result of God’s decree of predestination, the personal calling follows the general calling (salvation). Vocation then is the context in which sanctification occurs, or where spirituality is made evident. This is the essence of Perkins’s spirituality: God’s grace is most evident through a Christian’s obedience in good works in the context of his or her particular calling. This conviction shapes his vision of the Christian life
The Worship-Discipleship Nexus: Integrating Worship Practice and a Discipleship Pathway
Get PDFThe intent of this study is to learn from exemplar church leaders who recognize significant convergence between the biblical aims of corporate worship and Christian discipleship. By observing the planning practices of these leaders, my desire is to ascertain practical aspects of worship design that positively impact and inform the disciple-making process. In chapter 2, four relevant areas of literature are reviewed. The first is work in biblical theology of corporate worship. The second involves biblical theology of Christian discipleship. Significant scholarship exists for each of these areas, and there are key points of convergence between the two. The third includes literature regarding the function of liturgy in corporate worship throughout church history for purposes and goals related to Christian discipleship. The fourth involves any precedent studies of the intersection of these larger categories. Chapter 3 articulates the methodology. The first phase of research is the enlistment of experts for recommendations of exemplar churches. The second phase involves interviews with worship leaders, planners, and pastors who have been recommended by the experts as well as observations of the exemplar churches’ worship services. Chapter 4 displays the content of the interviews and observations from the worship services. Chapter 5 combines data from interviews and worship service analyses to be displayed in two ways: (1) a matrix showing how worship service elements are connected to one another and serve larger goals and (2) a rubric outlining some key principles to consider as well as guiding questions to ask when planning a worship service with these goals in mind