322 research outputs found
Incorporating Lay Leadership into the Expository Preaching Ministry at Bethany Community Church, Washington, Illinois
No full textThis research project sought to incorporate lay leaders in the preparation, evaluation, and application of expository messages at Bethany Community Church, Washington, Illinois. Chapter 1 introduces the goals for and an overview of the project.
Chapter 2 explores the relationship between the pastor and the plurality of shepherds from a biblical perspective. It considers the prominent teaching role of a single pastor/elder while also contending that all elders bear responsibility for the pulpit ministry of the church.
Chapter 3 examines the dynamics of teams and how they accomplish tasks, looking at several examples of churches seeking to incorporate teams into the pulpit ministry.
Chapter 4 details the actual carrying out of the project.
In chapter 5 the project is evaluated, concluding that the research project proved to be effective in incorporating lay leadership into the expository preaching ministry at Bethany Community Church in Washington, Illinois
Mary of Bethany: Creation through Conversation
No full textThe author uses the story of Mary of Bethany anointing Jesus’s feet in John 12 as a jumping-off point for considering the prophetic role of artistic conversation, in the Gospel of John, in the whole Bible and in her own artistic life
Judicial Selection Methods, Tribal Politics, and Strong Government: Navajo Nation at the Crossroads
No full textThis article by Bethany Sullivan examines the judicial selection methods of the Navajo Nation and its impact on the Navajo Nation. After surveying the various methods of judicial selection by both the United State and Navajo Nation, the author explores potential changes to the existing selection methods of the Navajo Nation. Ultimately, however, the author argues for the maintenance of the existing selection methods and warns against future efforts to reform the Navajo appointive system
Training the Members for Intergenerational Unity at Bethany Baptist Church of Fort Lauderdale, Florida
No full textThis project centered on the development of biblical Christ-centered unity at Bethany Baptist Church of Fort Lauderdale. The first chapter describes the purpose, goals, context, rationale, and definitions of the project.
Chapter 2 considers the theological and biblical foundations of biblical Christ-centered unity for an intergenerational unity at BBCF. This chapter zoomed in on the source of believers’ calling (Eph 1:3-10), cultivation of a worthy walk in Christ ( Eph 5:15-21, Gal 5:16-26), a walk in unity with the triune God (Eph 2:1-22), an earnest work to maintain unity in the body of Christ (Eph 4:1-6), and a demonstration of an imitable biblical spiritual life transformation (Eph 5:1-8) .
Chapter 3 exposes the theoretical and practical aspects of biblical Christ-centered unity. This chapter demonstrates that a church with a healthy ecclesiology trains its members to foster biblical Christ-centered unity through the experience of God’s power, strengthening believers’ faith through mutual love and service, and the living experience of God’s power in all facets of believers’ lives.
Chapter 4 depicts the implementation process of the project. The execution of the project consisted of the teaching of five sermon series and twelve lessons that covered the practical aspect of a biblical Christ-centered unity in the local church. Participants experienced this practical aspect of the project through interactive lessons and two case studies.
Chapter 5 presents the results of the project through a succinct evaluation of the purpose and goals of the project. It also analyzes the project’s strengths and weaknesses, followed by personal and theological reflections on the “bien-fondé” of the project for an intergenerational unity in the local church
Perception-based generalization in model-based reinforcement learning:
No full textIn recent years, the advances in robotics have allowed for robots to venture into places too dangerous for humans. Unfortunately, the terrain in which these robots are being deployed may not be known by humans in advance, making it difficult to create motion programs robust enough to handle all scenarios that the robot may encounter. For this reason, research is being done to add learning capabilities to improve the robot's ability to adapt to its environment. Reinforcement learning is well suited for these robot domains because often the desired outcome is known, but the best way to achieve this outcome is unknown.
In a real world domain, a reinforcement-learning agent has to learn a great deal from experience. Therefore, it must be sample-size efficient. To do so, it must balance the amount of exploration that is needed to properly model the environment with the need to use the information that it has already obtained to complete its original task. In robot domains, the exploration process is especially costly in both time and energy. Therefore, it is important to make the best possible use of the robot's limited opportunities for exploration without degrading the robot's performance.
This dissertation discusses a specialization of the standard Markov Decision Process (MDP) framework that allows for easier transfer of experience between similar states and introduces an algorithm that uses this new framework to perform more efficient exploration in robot-navigation problems. It then develops methods for an agent to determine how to accurately group similar states. One proposed technique clusters states by their observed outcomes. To make it possible to extrapolate observed outcomes to as-yet unvisited states, a second approach uses perceptual information such as the output of an image-processing system to group perceptually similar states with the hope that they will also be related in terms of outcomes. However, there are many different percepts from which a robot could obtain state groupings. To address this issue, a third algorithm is presented that determines how to group states when the agent has multiple, possibly conflicting, inputs from which to choose. Robot experiments of all algorithms proposed are included to demonstrate the improvements that can be obtained by using the approaches presented.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical references (p. 100-104)by Bethany R. Leffle
Peabody research confirms value of parents being excellent listeners during child's homework
No full textIncludes descriptive metadata provided by producer in MP3 file: "Research by two Peabody College professors shows that children learn the solution best to a problem when they explain it to a parent or other interested adult. Bethany Rittle-Johnson was the lead author for a study being published by the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.
A model of shared-servant style pastoral care leadership for lay leaders of Greater Bethany Baptist Church (Georgia), 2000
No full textThe opportunity existed in the Greater Bethany Baptist Church to develop and implement a Lay Pastoral Care Ministry. The pastor had participated in a two-year clinical experience in the past and was eager to equip and empower lay leaders and potential leaders through training for the Pastoral Care Ministry. Presented in this dissertation are the design, implementation, and evaluation of a group of lay leaders' training experience. It is my hope that the results of this study may be used as a training manual for shared-servant style pastoral care leadership for lay leaders
Disability and the Way of Jesus Holistic Healing in the Gospels and the Church
No full textWhat does healing mean for people with disabilities? Bridging biblical studies, ethics, and disability studies with the work of practitioners, Bethany McKinney Fox examines healing narratives in their biblical and cultural contexts. This theologically grounded and winsomely practical resource helps us more fully understand what Jesus does as he heals and how he points the way for relationships with people with disabilities.Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Dedication Page -- Contents -- Foreword by John Swinton -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1 Bridging the Gap -- 2 The First Century Context of Jesus the Healer -- 3 Physicians Interpret the Gospels' Healing Narratives -- 4 Honoring the Lived Experience of Disability in the Gospel Healing Narratives -- 5 Pastors Discuss Their Churches' Healing Practices and the Healing Activity of Jesus -- 6 The Seven Marks of Healing in the Way of Jesus -- 7 The Seven Marks of Healing in Action -- Author Index -- Subject Index -- Scripture Index -- Praise for Disability and the Way of Jesus -- About the Author -- More Titles from InterVarsity PressWhat does healing mean for people with disabilities? Bridging biblical studies, ethics, and disability studies with the work of practitioners, Bethany McKinney Fox examines healing narratives in their biblical and cultural contexts. This theologically grounded and winsomely practical resource helps us more fully understand what Jesus does as he heals and how he points the way for relationships with people with disabilities.Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, YYYY. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries
Addiction recovery stories: Bethany Holmes in conversation with Lisa Ogilvie
No full textPurpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine recovery through lived experience. It is part of a series that explores candid accounts of addiction and recovery to identify important components in the recovery process. Design/methodology/approach: The G-CHIME model comprises six elements important to addiction recovery (growth, connectedness, hope, identity, meaning in life and empowerment). It provides a standard to against which to consider addiction recovery, having been used in this series, as well as in the design of interventions that improve well-being and strengthen recovery. In this paper, a first-hand account is presented, followed by a semi-structured e-interview with the author of the account. Narrative analysis is used to explore the account and interview through the G-CHIME model. Findings: This paper shows that addiction recovery is a remarkable process that can be effectively explained using the G-CHIME model. The significance of each component in the model is apparent from the account and e-interview presented. Originality/value: Each account of recovery in this series is unique, and as yet, untold
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