Church renewal--Baptists

Jonathan D Kittrell

The purpose of this project is to develop a church revatilzation strategy for Maybank Baptist Church, Hattiesburg, Mississippi. The project director will determine the church's need for revitalization by analyzing the demographics of the surrounding community and performing a church health survey with the membership. The project director will research the field of church revitalization to determine the best practices for developing a revitalization strategy, then the project director will train the church council and other leaders to develop a revitalization strategy. The project director will present the completed strategy to the church for approval during a business meeting. Experts in the field of church revitalization will be used to evaluate the process and finalized strategy. Pending church approcal of the revitalization strategy, implementation of the strategy will fall outside the scope of this project.

Brandon Luke McKinney

The purpose of this project was to develop a revitalization strategy for First Baptist Church of New Smyrna Beach, Florida (FirstNSB). The project director obtained demographic data for a specific study area surrounding the church as well as a twenty-year profile for the church. Additionally, the project director surveyed selected leaders in the church. The community and church data helped the project director to determine trends in the community and the church. The project director also researched church revitalization resources in order to discover best practices for revitalization. A multigenerational team of twelve persons was selected from the church membership and the project director led this team through a process to develop a revitalization strategy. The revitalization strategy developed by the team was presented to the church leadership for approval. The strategy was approved unanimously by the church leadership.

David O Mitchell

The purpose of this project is to equip selected pastors in Bartholomew Baptist Association, southeast Arkansas, with church revitalization skills. Through a workshop, selected pastors will learn relevant skills in church revitalization discovered during the research phase of this project. An annotated bibliography will be produced to serve as the source material for the workshop. A questionnaire will be given to the pastors concerning revitalization skills prior to the start of the workshop. The workshop will assist the participants in increasing their understanding of the field of church revitalization and some of the needed skills in church revitalization. At the conclusion of the workshop, an evaluation form will be given to the workshop participants for their evaluation of the workshop.

Laura J Cassidy-Moffatt

This research project examined adult Sunday school in seven baptistic churches in Massachusetts. An ethnographic study was conducted to discern common practices and highlight opportunities for growth in the midst of church decline. The researcher examined the biblical concepts of teaching and knowing and conducted a literature review of the history of Sunday school, pedagogical best practices, and advances in cognitive neuroscience of learning. The researcher identified five themes common to these Sunday school programs that have resulted in lack of holistic formation in Sunday School as traditionally practiced: mission, attendance, commitment/engagement, format, and content. The field research yielded a pessimistic portrait of adult Sunday school in six of the seven churches studied. It was shown to be an outdated model practiced by a dwindling group. The researcher described ways, using the five identified themes, in which the aging Sunday school model could be augmented to better fulfill the goals of knowing in the biblical sense, personal transformation, and cooperation with the Holy Spirit's guidance and teachings. Teaching in ways that transform lives is a long-term cooperative effort with the Holy Spirit and can only be done in the context of a healthy church community. Churches that do not prioritize discipleship set themselves up for members who are spiritually apathetic, and ultimately those churches may decline over time.

Scott E Sullivan

The purpose of this project was to develop a disciple-making strategy to create a culture of discipleship at First Baptist Church, Haughton, Louisiana (FBCH). The first step involved an in-depth study of FBCH's attendance trends from 2005 to 2015 based on the annual church profile reports and recorded church history. The project director compared discipleship strategies of churches with similar characteristics and conducted a survey of church leaders to determine the current condition of FBCH discipleship. The research showed that FBCH plateaued in attendance from 2008 to 2013. The project director determined that FBCH needed a disciple-making strategy that led to multiplication and focused on transformation. A group of leaders met with the director for six weeks to develop a disciple-making strategy for FBCH that creates a culture of discipleship.

Terry Michael Carney

The purpose of this project was to develop a church revitalization strategy for Calvary Baptist Church in New Orleans, Louisiana. The project director explored the demographics of the New Orleans Westbank community and conducted a church health analysis for his congregation in order to understand the context and condition of Calvary Baptist Church. He researched church revitalization strategies through the use of a questionnaire, gathering expert analysis and bibliographic data in order to gain an understanding of the critical elements in the field of church revitalization. The project director then developed church revitalization strategy sessions and a resulting church revitalization strategy for Calvary Baptist Church, New Orleans, Louisiana, utilizing a selected group of leaders and experts. Finally, he presented a church revitalization strategy to the congregation of Calvary Baptist Church, New Orleans, Louisiana, for approval.

Gevan L Spinney

The purpose of this project is to develop a church revitalization strategy for First Baptist Church Haughton, (FBCH) Louisiana. The first step will involve in-depth research of FBCH's trends in the past ten years and a demographic study of the make-up of both the church and the community. The research will be conducted using FBCH's last ten Annual Church Profile reports as well as recorded church history. the demographic study will be conducted using data from the United States Census Bureau's 2010 census. Next, a team of lay-leaders from FBCH (2020 Team) will be chosen by the project director for the threefold purpose of: (1) assisting the project director in evaluating the overall health of the church, (2) giving insight to the overall strategy of revitalization and (3) help in setting goals for the year 2020. The project director will meet with the 2020 Team for at least five sessions to accomplish this threefold purpose. The 2020 Team's revitalization strategy proposal will be presented to the FBCH Church council for approval.

Roy D Miller

The purpose of this project was to develop a strategy to enhance the spiritual health of First Baptist Church of Mansfield, Louisiana. The project explored the demographics of Mansfield, Louisiana and the surrounding communities; analyzed the historical profile of First Baptist Church of Mansfield, Louisiana; proposed a working definition of a "healthy church" by exploring existing models of growing churches; designed a church health strategy for First Baptist Church of Mansfield, Louisiana; and presented the strategy to the congregation.

Keith J Daly

A program of morning and evening prayer was introduced to the congregation at Christian Baptist Church in Newmarket, Ontario to enhance the vitality of the congregation. A prayer guide was used during the forty day exercise. Interviews and a questionnaire were used to capture the participants' prayer practices before and after the forty days. The analysis of the participants' responses provided the research with a before and after picture of the participant's prayer lives. Eighteen of the participants who completed the forty days indicated an improvement in their prayer discipline and a deeper engagement with God in their lives.

Paul M Simpson

This thesis examines the usefulness of intentional connections with our ecclesial history for the purpose of sparking revival and renewal in Baptist congregations. The project initially presents the growing identity crisis facing Baptists and the causes behind the crisis. The conventions that distinguish Baptists from other congregations, if not appropriately practiced and passed on, threaten to continue eroding Baptist foundations indefinitely. By looking at the ministry of Isaac Backus, this project will propose that pursuing historical connections is both consistent with Baptist distinctiveness and thoroughly biblical. When these connections are promoted appropriately they off the possibility of sustained ministry from generation to generation that is solidly orthodox in theology and increasingly zealous in practice.