Theology, Contextual

Arthur Vinicius Gottlieb Lupion D.Min.

Esta dissertação propõe-se a criar e avaliar um programa curto de ensino da doutrina da Trindade, na busca de uma orientação ao desenvolvimento espiritual de um jovem cristão em uma sociedade secularizada. Com o intuito de compreender os aspectos contextuais, será avaliada a cultura do jovem atual e os impactos da alta conexão, de mudanças constantes e da fragmentação da verdade, que conduzem cada vez mais a uma vida de independência dos outros. Na busca para que a mais bela e perfeita comunidade não fique de lado, mas seja uma balizadora para reorientar o jovem pós-moderno.

Pretende-se apresentar os principais pontos a serem trabalhados no ensino da teologia da Trindade para estes jovens e como as relações intratrinitarianas podem orientar a sua vida em comunidade, já que a Trindade é uma comunidade que de eternidade a eternidade vive em perfeita unidade. Também foram trabalhados argumentos para capacitar o jovem a distinguir as falsas concepções da pós-modernidade que estão incutidas no nosso tempo, mas que são opostas à pessoa de Deus.

Em seguida, uma análise sobre metodologias contemporâneas para a educação teológica e aspectos da secularização atual. Posteriormente, foram avaliadas questões-chaves na orientação do desenvolvimento espiritual pela doutrina da Trindade, como a vida em comunidade e o desenvolvimento sexual.

A pesquisa foi aplicada no Uruguai, país mais secularizado do ocidente, por meio da missão TeachBeyond em parceria com igrejas locais do país, e a verificação da validade das variantes foi realizada por meio da metodologia de grupos focais.

Graham Robert Blaikie D.Min.

One of Jesus’ favorite sayings, “He who has ears, let him hear,” highlights the divine expectation that the message heard must be heeded—it has to be applied.

“Application” refers to the requirements of the biblical text, and our obedient response to those requirements. Accurate application, therefore, involves “hearing”/heeding what the text requires of us today—but only after we have heard what it required of the original recipients.

This project seeks to explore what constitutes accurate application from within the context of the book of Habakkuk, which a group of Turkana pastors were focusing on in their Bible Pathways training program held at Share International’s SEND Center in Lodwar, Kenya, in July 2017. Habakkuk was the eighth of nine Pathways preaching modules taught to the Turkana pastors over a three-year period by a team of six U.S.-based pastors, including the project writer.

While excellent in many ways, the Pathways curriculum is weak in application. And so, the book of Habakkuk and Turkana provided an excellent context in which to formulate and then test four principles of application.

The project includes a focus on the original applicational intent of the author—a topic that has received minimal treatment in the literature on application. It also explores the significance of what we have termed the “applicational trajectory” of the text (best seen in the distinct applications of Habakkuk 2:4 in its three appearances in the New Testament). It examines the current debate on deriving principles from the text. And it looks at how these principles might be contextualized to Turkana.

The project fieldwork includes observations as and discussions after the Turkana pastors preached, a quiz, presentation of a two-day a seminar titled “Principles of Application from Habakkuk,” a follow-up focus group, and personal interviews.

Wilson Fernando Dantas Soaris D.Min.

Although the numbers show people responding positively to the Gospel in Spain, the Autochthonous People of Spain [APS] and congregations composed of Spaniards are not following the same pattern. The reason for considerable growth in the nation without necessarily reaching the APS is due to the number of immigrants living in Spain, especially from Latin America.
This dissertation investigates the EC in the Autonomous Community of Madrid [ACM] from its beginnings and its methods used to transmit the Gospel to unbelievers, especially among the APS. The analysis seeks to determine why the majority of the ECs in Madrid do not have many APS congregants.

Assad Mohammed Saif D.Min.

Hospitality is fundamental to human spiritual growth. Jesus knew this. Therefore, Jesus spent much time seeking to encounter people in the spaces they naturally congregated in. God sent Jesus to come from heaven to earth to show people the incarnate God and his desire to welcome them into his family. More specifically, God sent Jesus to a specific culture in the world where he believed the message of God’s love could be viewed through the lens of hospitality. By using a grounded theory approach, the researcher set out to discover the methods by which hospitality is impacted within the video church model of Sunday morning church worship services. The researcher identified 12 key hospitable qualities necessary for the development of a culture of hospitality in church services. The researcher identified seven principles of healthy hospitality and seven considerations toward sustaining healthy hospitality within the video venue church. The researcher identified how human spirituality benefits from acts of hospitality by specifically studying the parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15 and the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10. The researcher identified and analyzed data gathered from interviews with Senior church leaders, volunteers in video churches and small group leaders who attend video church services. This data was collected in order to help the researcher discover the effect of hospitality and how the lack thereof affects spiritual growth in the video church model. The researcher identified both the key qualities of hospitality which contribute toward healthy spiritual growth in video church services and the types of video church services that help to produce these qualities in Christ followers.

Mark Covel D.Min.

As part of the campus ministry of Cru, Design Movement seeks to come alongside the South Asian American college community. The purpose of this research was to gauge the effectiveness of specific training materials for equipping campus ministry workers for the ministry of Design Movement. To accomplish this, a newly written set of training materials were field tested, reviewed, and evaluated for effectiveness.

Design Movement uses a contextualized approach to ministry. It is a collegiate ministry seeking to come alongside the desi, or South Asian American, community. This community includes students who are Indian American, Pakistani American, Sri Lankan American, Bangladeshi American, Nepali American, Bhutanese American, and Maldivian American. Many of these American college students have a Hindu or Muslim background, while a smaller percentage of South Asian American students have a Christian background.

This major project arose from the need for more current and specific ministry training for staff and volunteers and resulted in the creation of the Design Movement Ambassador Training. The training is divided into four categories: “Learn about South Asian American Culture,” “Leverage Culture for Outreach,” “Launch and Grow a Design Movement,” and “Lead a Design Student Team.” Each category contains six modules for a total of twenty-four topics.

The study revealed that the training materials were successful in being able to equip campus ministers to effectively come alongside the desi community. The five Cru staff who participated in a focus group grew in their understanding about this contextualized ministry. The feedback from the five staff and four Consultants provided suggestions for minor improvements to the materials, including a few additional modules. Training materials specific to Design Movement proved helpful for meeting the needs of coaching students in Design Movement.

Kern Orbin Stanberry D.Min.

This portfolio represents an integrative approach to Christian spiritual formation that refutes the modern Western dualistic mindset. It reclaims the premodern understanding of the unity of truth as revealed through Scripture and creation and, as such, calls for the engagement of practices from both Christian spiritualty and psychotherapy in the process of Christian spiritual formation. Through a rigorous process of personal, spiritual, professional, academic and field research explorations and reflections, the author presents an integrative Christian spiritual formation model and invites Christian leaders and researchers to intentionally include the subjective realities of people’s experiences in their spiritual formational journey.

William Cato D.Min.

This project addressed a lack of opportunities for Christian vocational discernment at First United Methodist Church in Arkadelphia, Arkansas (FUMCA). The research question asked what effect, if any, the public speech of leaders would have on the vocational self-understanding of congregants. The hypothesis postulated that the public testimonies of congregational leaders, coupled with a sermon series, would produce an increase in the percentage of congregants who identify as called to participate in God’s redemptive work. While the hypothesis could not be substantiated, the project produced vocational agitation among congregants. Results indicated the need for follow-up measures to sustain lasting change.

Nakhati Jon D.Ed.Min.

Islamic marriage is a contract, and biblical marriage is a covenant. These two principles intersect and form a point of reestablishment in the marriages of believers from a Muslim background (BMBs).

Islamic contractual marriage ideas remain in marital relationships of BMBs. The intent of this study is to explore and understand the influence of Islamic contractual marriage on believers who now embrace the ideas of Christian covenant marriage.

The qualitative research will explore the believers’ understanding of their Islamic contractual marriage and their beliefs concerning biblical covenant marriage. BMBs retain a contractual view of marriage because they have not applied the ideas of covenant marriage, thereby affecting negatively their spousal relationships. Additionally, the use of certain cultural and religious terms reinforces their understanding of their marital relationship, often reflecting either a contractual or covenant perspective.

For BMBs and missionaries there is a deficiency of available literature that compares and explains the differences between the Islamic and biblical views of marriage. This study hopes to be a foundational resource to highlight areas which possibly are retained in these marriages.

Stephen Allen Lemons

An Experiment in Civil Dialogue... was designed to create a setting for civil dialogue concerning homosexuality and Christian faith. The seven-week process involved eight daylong sessions with eight Clinical Pastoral Education students. Sessions focused on a study of biblical passages regarding homosexuality. Passages were examined from a traditional and progressive viewpoint. Six guests presented from a traditional or progressive viewpoint. Participants wrote verbatims and theological integration papers focusing on pastoral care to LGBT persons/families. Research methods included focus and control group and quantitative-qualitative research. Interviews, surveys and written reflections attest that the group maintained civil dialogue throughout the process. The group came to better understand and appreciate those who held views on homosexuality that were different from their own. The participants recommended using a similar form of group process in churches.

Donald Sampson D.Min.

The purpose of this project was to investigate the topic of spiritual warfare and assess the level of understanding of it among the men of a Presbyterian congregation in order to develop a plan to enable the men to engage in spiritual battles with the world, the flesh and the devil. The project included a biblical and theological study, followed by interviews with a select sample of men from the congregation. Qualitative analysis revealed some confusion over the phrase “spiritual warfare.” Additional themes that emerged from the interviews included a high degree of awareness of temptations of the flesh as an ongoing source of spiritual struggles and a strong belief that Satan is real. This latter belief was tempered by widespread uncertainty over the relevance of Satan, or any demonic influence, due to a very high conviction about the sovereignty of God. A recognition of the importance of enlisting other men for help in fighting spiritual battles was also a significant theme. While the men interviewed identified the value of having “battle buddy” type relationships, they readily acknowledged the absence of such relationships. Quantitative research via a confidential, online survey confirmed a low level of self-disclosure among the men of the congregation.