Baptist Churches/Congregational Churches

Randy Allen Harp D.Min.

The Baptist Bible Fellowship International (BBFI) was birthed in 1950 and rapidly grew to become the country's largest network of independent Baptists. Beginning shortly after the deaths of many of its key founders, the BBFI has been in a state of decline for decades. This project presents a strategic plan for the future effectiveness of the Baptist Bible Fellowship International.

Chapter 1 introduces the thesis and explains the methodology. The methodology includes research, interviews, surveys, a comparative study of a like organization, and work with a strategic planning task force. This chapter also addresses some theological issues and the practical application of the project for the BBFI. Finally, it highlights the goals of the project.

Chapter 2 explains the process of implementation. A generational study of the BBFI, along with key events and key leaders, is documented. The purpose, design, and participation of the survey and interviews are explained. The General Conference of Swedish Baptists, now known as Converge, is examined. The formation and execution of the BBFI Strategic Planning Task Force are outlined.

Chapter 3 provides an assessment of the entire project. The survey distributed for this project is directly compared to surveys distributed in the early 1990s by BBFI leaders. Insights are summarized from interviewing elected leaders and an outside expert on the BBFI, Elmer Towns. This chapter also assesses the stated goals of the project, specifically the strategic plan presented to BBFI leaders.

Chapter 4 summarizes the conclusions of the project. It evaluates the project's purpose and goals. It shares the strengths, weaknesses, and limitations of the project. It reflects on theological insights gained and shows how the project can be applied to the BBFI. This chapter also includes some personal reflections and concludes with recommendations for further research.

Bryan Daniel Nelson D.Ed.Min.

This project sought to equip members of Providence Baptist Church in Raleigh, North Carolina to practice biblical soul care in Life Groups. Chapter 1 presents the history and ministry context of Providence, the purpose and goals of this project, and the methodology used. Chapter 2 addresses care as a vital component of healthy discipleship; showing biblical soul care flows from God, is motivated by love, reflects Christ, and is best practiced in community by exegesis of several passages of scripture (2 Cor 1:3-7, 1 John 4:7-12, and Heb 10:24-25). Chapter 3 highlights the history and language of soul care, the relationship between care and discipleship, the responsibility of soul care for every believer, and necessity of care being rooted in God’s Word. Chapter 4 outlines the project and addresses specific methodology and equipping content. And Chapter 5 evaluates the efficacy of the project based on the completion of its specific goals.

Kevin Michael Ueckert D.Min.

The purpose of this dissertation is to convince preachers of the necessity of preaching the warnings of the Bible, while equipping them to preach effectively God’s warnings to the church. The specific warnings in focus will be warnings addressed to the church, which threaten extreme consequences of God’s judgment. Although warnings with extreme circumstances of judgment for God’s people appear throughout the Old Testament (OT) and New Testament (NT), the passage selection for sermon development will be narrowed to specific warnings found in Pauline literature. After establishing the necessity for preaching warnings, the writer will address the procedure for developing a warning sermon. The expectation is that the research will provide the necessary insight and understanding for how to preach the selected warning passages in Paul, in hopes of creating a bridge to preaching all the warnings of the Bible. The writer will provide sample sermons and historical excerpts of sermons, from a selection of preachers from the fourth century to the twentieth century, based on the sample texts in Pauline literature, so that the preacher can see how to develop the sermon toward sermon delivery. With the right motivation and a template for how to preach Pauline warnings, this project should help preachers find a clearer path for faithful representation of the Scripture through preaching warnings.

David Allen Williams D.Min.

The purpose of this project was to equip deacons of Iron City Baptist Church, Iron City, Georgia to serve the church as servant leaders. The first chapter goes into great detail of the context of not only the church, but also the surrounding community. By way of understanding the context of the church and community, one can see the great need for biblical servant leaders as well as determine whether this project is helpful to you in your context. Chapter two intently researches the biblical foundation of the office of deacon, as well as argues for the role of the deacon to be one who leads, as well as one who serves. The third chapter narrows its scope to argue for a shared leadership model among the servant leader deacons of any given church. Chapter four is the implementing of the project itself. It includes all that is needed to duplicate the project at your church, such as the four-session training material, as well as how I recruited participants, developed the curriculum, and taught the curriculum. The final chapter is simply personal evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the project. I discuss things that I learned as a result of the project, things that went well as well as some things that I should have done differently. In the appendixes you find all the various aspects that you need to print and use for your own training, such as the training material itself, the recruitment letter, the pre-and post-test, etc. May the Lord bless you as you glean from this project for your own project or implement in your church.
David Allen Williams, Doctor of Ministry in Christian Leadership
Advisor: Dr. Shane Parker, Ph.D.
School Name: Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2022

Mack Dale Roller Jr. D.Min.

There are very few subjects in the church growth arena attracting more controversy than the subject of Multi-Site Churches (MSC). On one hand, MSCs have been touted as being successful in “reaching” more people with fewer resources, making it a very efficient and effective strategy for church growth. On the other hand, the structure of MSCs have been called into question. Some claim this movement runs wide of Baptist ecclesiology, resulting in a deluded and distorted representation of the NT teaching concerning the doctrine of the church. Southern Baptist opponents claim MSCs are a breach of Article VI of the Baptist Faith & Message 2000. The question at hand: Is it possible for one church to maintain Southern Baptist ecclesiology, particularly adhering to the BFM2000 Article VI, and adopt the MSC strategy? The research will address Southern Baptist ecclesiology from a biblical and historical perspective. An evaluation of the definition and history of the MSC movement as well as an evaluation of the various structures of MSC strategies will provide essential for a solid conclusion. A review of the critics, as well as a response to their prominent objections, is necessary to achieve thorough evaluation. It is the claim of this research project that it is possible for an MSC to adhere to Article VI of the BFM2000. It is the prayer of this researcher that this work will serve Southern Baptist churches as they seek to obey the Great Commission.

Steven So D.Min.

This project aims to provide leadership training focusing on equipping church leaders with the art of listening. The project gives a literature review on leadership and listening based on publications and dissertations over the last twenty years. The literature review shows that even though authors and researchers recognize listening is essential for leaders, there is no systematic training designed for the local church context. Then, the project examines a biblical and theological reflection on listening. After that, the project looks at a detailed description of an eight-session training that covers biblical teaching on listening, church application of listening, the servant attitude in listening, skills in active listening, and how to listen to God, self, and others. The training includes an active listening practice, which is purposely designed to be done in a short period to stretch the listening effort. At the end of this project, the actual training is evaluated. It provides some analyses based on the assessment results collected from the participants. It also includes a summary of the feedback gathered from the participants and future plans for the training.

James Robert Jordan Jr D.Min.

This project attempts to develop and train attendees of Northeast Houston Baptist Church—a church in Humble, Texas—in the vision, discipleship model, and evangelism strategy of the church to produce new leaders, which can be developed for the purpose of continued church planting in the Houston area. Chapter 1 presents the history and ministry context of Northeast Houston Baptist Church and the goals this project seeks to accomplish. Chapter 2 offers a biblical overview of the call for a local church to develop new leaders for the purpose of serving in the kingdom of God through leadership and planting new churches. Chapter 3 provides a historical overview of leadership development in the local church. Chapter 4 describes the project itself, including methodology utilized to evaluate each objective and assess the project’s completion. Chapter 5 evaluates the success of the project and furnishes some lessons learned along the way. The end goal of this project is to provide Northeast Houston Baptist Church a resource that it can use to train new members, future church planters, and pastors who are looking to implement a healthy church model for the glory of God in their individual contexts.

Aaron William Summers D.Min.

The Church is at a tipping point. Over the next five-to-ten years, decisions made by the local church will either prepare it for closure or seize the future for the Kingdom. The Western Church loses the second-largest generation when the Baby Boomers [Boomers] either die or become unable to continue attending and serving.
Is the church prepared? Is the church constructing a succession plan for when the Boomers are gone? The church will experience extreme shifts during this transition in leadership style, methodology, authenticity, polity, structure, and behavior. This project sought to understand the complexities of the coming generational transition and provide a starting point through the development of the change readiness of First Baptist Church [FBCC], Crowley, Texas.
The results of the project revealed an increase in change readiness for organizational succession planning after a sermon series designed to promote understanding and readiness toward change. These findings demonstrate that with proper biblical presentation and much prayer, the local church can be hopeful for the future.

Seung Ju Jung

The purpose of this project is to enhancing the project director's expository preaching skills at Happy Church of Daejeon, South Korea, in order to enhance congregational awareness of the biblical text. Through the entire process if planning and implementing the project, the results of the project director's expository preaching skill improvement and the congregation's awareness of the biblical text were presented.

The project director looked at the current situation of ministry in this age and recognized that the word of God must be properly proclaimed through the language of the preachers. There are many ways to deliver God's words, but in this project adopted the principle of expository preaching, which correctly interprets and explains the biblical text. In order to discover common theories of expository preaching, traditional expository preaching theories were analyzed, and based on these, more advanced alternatives were found and methods to be applied to expository preaching texts were studies. Based on the theories discovered through study, a preaching text written by applying modern preaching to the traditional expository preaching theory was preached and was evaluated by congregations of Happy Baptist Church. Throughout the entire process of the project, this project was implemented with a focus on enhancing the project director's research on the biblical text, improving the skill of writing expository preaching, and enhancing the congregation's awareness of the biblical text.

Andrew Chapman

The purpose of this project was to design a strategy for a comprehensive ministry-intern framework for Temple Baptist Church, Hattiesburg, Mississippi. The project director led a selected team to design a strategy in order to develop a framework for an intern program. The strategy included a combination of best practices gleaned from the research of various models of ministry internships and a summary of past, present, and future intern use determined through an internal audit of Temple Baptist Church. The project director concluded the project by presenting the strategy to the Strategic Leadership Team of Temple Baptist Church.

This student submitted an Abstract that was shorter than the 100 word minimum.