Baptist Churches/Congregational Churches

Randall Cagle Clayton

The purpose of this project was to equip selected members of Immanuel Baptist Church in Greenwood, Mississippi, with conversational evangelism skills. The project began with project director researching the field of evangelism for the purpose of identifying essential conversational skills. Next, the project director developed an annotated bibliography based upon the completed research. After conducting research and identifying essential conversational skills, the project director wrote a report that discussed the findings. Expert evaluators evaluated the annotated bibliography.

The next step in the project was to develop a curriculum to equip selected members of Immanuel Baptist Church with essential conversational evangelism skills. The project director acquired skills for writing curriculum by completing a self-guided study, Design for Teaching and Training, by LeRoy Ford. The project director wrote the curriculum and an expert evaluator evaluated the curriculum. The project director next conducted a six-session discipleship class to equip selected members of Immanuel Baptist church, Greenwood, Mississippi, in essential conversational evangelism skills. Finally, the project director concluded the project by administering tan devaluating post0test results and evaluating students' role play encounters.

MIchael David Blue

The purpose of this project was to develop a strategy for engaging people in ministries at Woodland Park Baptist Church, Hammond, Louisiana. The project's director researched various engagement strategies and surveyed the church laypeople to determine their value for ministry engagements. Next, the director created a ministry engagement team to develop the best strategy for the church with the obtained research. The ministry leadership team submitted the completed strategy to the church leadership team and obtained their approval. The desired result was to have a clear strategy the church could use to improve church ministry engagement for the current congregation, as well as to create a pathway for ministry involvement of future members.

David Brady Beigle

The project director sought to solve what was a crucial issue for Blue Creek Baptist Church in Perry, Florida, by utilizing the strategy planning model. The leadership structure at Blue Creek Baptist Church was distorted, undefined, and unbiblical. Therefore, Blue Creek Baptist Church found itself at a pivotal moment. Will the church adopt a new leadership structure that works for Blue Creek Baptist Church both now and in the future, or will the church refuse to adopt a new leadership structure and continue in a state of apathy and mediocrity? The purpose of this project was to develop a leadership organizational strategy for Blue Creek Baptist Church, Perry, Florida, by completing research, conducting interviews, and enlisting input from key individuals in the area of leadership structures. The project director believed that implementing this strategy would help Blue Creek Baptist Church establish a new and more effective leadership structure that would serve Blue Creek Baptist Church for years to come. As a result, a new leadership team structure was developed and presented to Blue Creek Baptist Church by the project director and the strategy planning team, but the implementation of the new leadership structure was beyond the scope of this project.

David Delane Baysinger

The purpose of this project was to develop a disciple-making strategy for the student ministry of First Baptist Church (FBCC), Corinth, Texas. The project director conducted assessments to determine the disciple-making potential within the student ministry. Then he researched existing disciple0making methods and strategies to determine best practices. The project director synthesized all assessments and research and presented it to the strategy planning team. The team worked together to develop a final disciple-making strategy, which included a discipleship pathway and small-ratio discipleship groups. The project director presented the final disciple-making strategy to the ministerial staff for feedback affirmation. He also presented the strategy to the deacon body for encouragement and prayer.

Timothy A. Bates

This project was designed to equip parents in their role as the primary disciple makers of their children. The project was completed in the context of Southside Baptist Church in Ozark, Alabama, where the project director serves as the pastor. He used the equipping program model for this project. The project director researched methods of discipleship in regard to parenting and then developed a curriculum in order to teach selected parents of the church with these discipleship practices. He used four select teaching times to equip selected adults of Southside Baptist Church, Ozark, Alabama, with competencies to disciple their children. The intended results were for the parents to be better equipped and more confident in discipling their own children. The project was also intended to strengthen the whole church, inspiring parents and their children to both become more active and grow through the experience.

Jeffrey Marshall Ayers

The purpose of this project is to equip selected ministry leaders of Sharon Church, McDonough, Georgia, in new member assimilation skills. The project director will research the field of new member assimilation in the local church to identify needed skills. He will then develop a seminar to equip selected ministry leaders at Sharon Church to use a variety of these new member skills. For the seminar to be highly effective, the project director will research curriculum writing methods and instruction planning, in order that the new member assimilation seminar will be encouraging and informative to the selected leaders who participate in this training. This project director's goal is that this training will well equip these church leaders to assist new members more effectively in better assimilating into Sharon Church, so that this local body of believers will be even more dynamic at ministering to and involving all people in their congregation.

J. David Apple

The purpose of this project was to equip selected members of Big Canoe Chapel, Big Canoe, Georgia, to discover and integrate biblical prayers and disciplines of prayer modeled in Scripture. The project director will research selected prayers in Scripture in order to emphasize key personal prayer disciplines among the multi-denominational congregation. He will develop and conduct an equipping workshop for the selected group of individuals.

The project director will purposefully increase understanding of a variety of prayer disciplines represented at Big Canoe Chapel. The project director will also increase knowledge for developing training experiences regarding prayer for persons from a variety of Christian traditions.

Robert A. Dockery

This project aimed to equip selected men at Valley View Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, with essential spiritual disciplines. This project employed information from research in the field of spiritual disciplines. This project was implemented with a select group of men from Valley View Baptist Church through eight sessions in essential spiritual disciplines. The curriculum in the eight sessions highlighted the following essential personal spiritual disciplines; intake of God's word, submission to the Holy Spirit, and the practice of prayer. Through the eight equipping sessions, the selected men learned the importance of essential personal spiritual disciplines and were equipped to practice them in their lives.

Grady Alan Cox D.Min.

This Ministry Research Project aims to demonstrate a system for pastoral succession for congregationally governed Baptist Churches with by-laws requiring a pastor search committee system. Pastoral succession is a viable mechanism for pastoral selection in Baptist polity when certain factors are met, including predecessor’s tenure, successor’s qualifications and calling, and congregational understanding and support. Chapter 1 explains the opportunity for pastoral succession to create healthier churches and outlines the context, rationale, goals, and methodology used for this specific project. Chapter 2 examines biblical examples and exhortations from Scripture about succession of spiritual leaders in the Old and New Testaments (Moses/Joshua, Elijah/Elisha, Paul/Pastors, Jesus/Apostles). Chapter 3 argues for the advantages of pastoral succession through historical examples (St. Augustine, Gregory of Nazianzus, Charles Spurgeon, Andrew Fuller), and explores practical advantages supported by biblical leadership theory. Chapter 4 describes the planning, implementation, and results of a pastoral succession at University Baptist Church Fairbanks, AK. Chapter 5 evaluates the effectiveness of pastoral succession through set goals, defines theological principles supporting succession, and highlights best practices and common mistakes. Finally, it analyzes the possibility of using a similar process for healthy and intentional ministry leadership transitions.

Jon Derek Fortenberry D.Min.

This project aims to equip Longview Point Baptist Church members to be involved in orphan care. The project coordinator argues that as the congregation has a greater understanding of the theology of adoption, the love of Christ for the fatherless, his commands for his people to care for the fatherless, and the great need for orphan care, that more people will be involved in orphan care at all levels of engagement. Chapter 1 lays the theological foundation for the project, an overview of the project, and its goals. Chapter 2 delves into the project’s specifics at Longview Point Baptist Church in Hernando, Mississippi. Chapter 3 details the rest of the sessions and how the project coordinator challenged the participants to further action. Chapter 4 evaluates the effectiveness of the project and how the church will continue to encourage and equip members to be involved in orphan care. It also examines ways to improve the project if duplicated in another context.