Baptist Churches/Congregational Churches

Stephanie A Golden Friend

The purpose of this project was to develop and quipping model to provide selected women at Suburban Baptist Church, New Orleans, Louisiana, with essential multicultural discipleship skills. The project director researched the field of discipleship to determine discipleship methodologies and essential skills practiced by women's ministry leaders in multicultural churches. Information from this research was used to develop the curriculum for a seminar presented at Suburban Baptist Church to equip participants with essential skills to disciple women of other cultures. The seminar consisted of four ninety-minute sessions encompassing two consecutive Saturdays. The concepts developed in this project can be adapted as a guide for discipleship in multicultural women's ministry by other churches, associations, or state conventions.

Jacob Aubrey Crawford

The purpose of this project was to equip selected attenders of Life Point Community Church, Mansura, Louisiana, with Discovery Bible Study competencies. To accomplish this purpose, the project director researched the area of disciple-making movements and Discovery Bible Study method. The project director produced a summary report of disciple-making movements and Discovery Bible Study and created a list of Discovery Bible Study competencies. The project director also researched workshop models and constructed a comparative analysis. The summary report, list of competencies, and comparative analysis were used to develop a workshop that equipped selected attenders of Life Point Community Church, Mansura, Louisiana, with Discovery Bible Study competencies. The workshop was comprised of five sessions lasting one hour each. The project director procured the help of experts in Discovery Bible Study methodology and curriculum development to ensure the accuracy and effectiveness of this project. The project director utilized pre-test/post-test, role playing, and commitment cards to measure the participants' comprehension.

Tyler Core

The purpose of this project is to develop a student ministry merger strategy for new campuses of Family Church, West Palm Beach, Florida. The vision of Family Church is to bring the gospel to every family in every neighborhood in South Florida. The pursuit of this vision involves merging with existing churches for the advancement of the gospel. The project director's vision is to develop a strategy that enables Family Church to merge student ministries of new campuses successfully.

The project director will carry this out in four steps. Step one is to explore the external demographics of Southeast Florida in order to identify an area profile. Step two is to explore existing multisite merger models to understand best practices for merging student ministries. Step three is to develop a student ministry merger strategy for new campuses of Family Church. The final step is to present the strategy to the Family Church Executive Team for evaluation.

Justin D Clark

The purpose of this project was to develop a church health strategy for First Baptist Church, Lake Providence, Louisiana, to address rural depopulation. A demographics study of East Carroll Parish, Louisiana, provided evidence of rural depopulation around Lake Providence. Research into strategy models of healthy churches determined a list of best practices of those models. With the help of a strategy development team, a church health strategy that addresses the realities of rural depopulation was developed and presented to First Baptist Church, Lake Providence, Louisiana, for approval. The project's evaluation methods included expert evaluators for the demographic study, the best practices of church health, and the church health strategy presented. Additionally, the strategy development team provided an evaluation of the strategy development process. The project director utilized the strategy model for this project.

L Ryan Carpenter

The purpose of this project was to develop a revitalization strategy for First Baptist Church, Ganado, Texas. To determine the best practices for church revitalization, the project director researched church revitalization. He then led a select group of people to gauge data from a church survey and evaluated community demographic information for the city of region. The project director then guided the strategic action team in a church assessment to determine the church's perceived strengths and weaknesses.

The team used the evaluations, assessments, and best practices to formulate a revitalization strategy. The strategy is composed of a mission statement, core values, a vision statement, and initiatives. The strategy team presented the plan to church leadership for evaluation and revision and then submitted the proposal to the congregation for consideration.

Daniel Carpenter

The purpose of this project is to equip selected attenders of Sojourn Community Church, Beaumont, Texas, with personal evangelism skills. The project began with the project director researching the field of evangelism in order to determine skills that are essential for personal evangelism. Upon completion of his evangelism research, the project director researched the field of curriculum writing in order to develop a curriculum designed to equip participants with personal evangelism skills. Finally, the project director conducted six training sessions in order to equip selected attenders of Sojourn Community Church, Beaumont, Texas, with personal evangelism skills. The lessons learned throughout the entire project are contained within this project

Michael Butler

The purpose of this project was to enhance doctrinal preaching skills to increase congregational awareness of the doctrine of local church membership at First Baptist Church, Chickasha, Oklahoma. The project progressed through three phases: research, writing, and preaching. By researching the field of doctrinal preaching, the director identified a list of five best practices of doctrinal preaching. The director then employed these practices in writing a series of four sermons on the doctrine of local church membership. After writing the sermons, the director preached the sermon series at FBC. A pre-test and post-test assessment demonstrated the sermons increased awareness of the importance of the doctrine of local church membership among the project's participants.

Mark Thomas Avery

The purpose of this project was to develop a ministry team leadership development strategy for Crossroads Baptist Church of Valdosta, Georgia. The project director implemented the following components within the cope of this project: (1) creating of a leadership needs assessment through in-depth interviews with key leaders; (2) a report on best practices and training models based on extensive research within the field of church volunteer leadership development; (3) development of a leadership training strategy specifically for Crossroads Baptist Church; and (4) presentation of the training strategy to the pastoral staff of the church for approval. Implementation of the strategy was not within the scope of this project.

James L. Betner D.Min.

Nothing stays the same. This inevitability of change and transition should prompt
every active lead pastor to understand that the place you stand in today may in fact be the
place another stands in tomorrow. To be fully cognizant of that reality aids in the pastor’s
ability to be able to see beyond the present and to begin thinking about and perhaps even
preparing for the unavoidable future of the present ministry. Pastoral enmeshment and the
improper views of competition in ministry must be countered with a clear understanding
of the pastor as a steward who is called to build the Lord’s kingdom, not a personal one.
Succession planning, then, must include a theology of leadership development and a clear
understanding of what a healthy pastorate looks like. There must be a mutual synergy of
pastor and people who can appreciate yesterday and today and yet still anticipate with
greater affection the possibility of tomorrow. This work identifies biblical models for
succession and offers practical methods to prepare the pastor and people for eventual
transitions.
Without attention to succession planning, a church and its pastor succumbs to
being reactive at best, and negligent at worst, by waiting for a crisis to unfold as a result
of inevitable changes in leadership. However, when a proper perspective of succession is
developed for the church and the pastor, it adds stability to the mission of the church and
frees the pastor to willingly give it away at the right time.
At the core of this project is the process of the development of a succession plan
for the Delaware Valley Baptist Church of Willingboro, NJ in particular, and succession
in the Protestant congregational church in general.

William Mattison King D.Min.

Augusta Road Baptist Church has served Greenville, South Carolina for ninety-five years. After a season of conflict, declining membership, and the unexpected loss of key leadership, a season of vision has allowed the congregation to ask how it can adapt to live into a thriving future. Utilizing the principles of Adaptive Leadership Theory developed by Ronald Heifetz, this thesis tests the potential of an adaptive change process to facilitate the first steps of congregational vision implementation.

Sixteen Augusta Road Baptist Church leaders were oriented to the principles of Adaptive Leadership Theory and asked to put them into practice. Through team meetings, these participants diagnosed technical and adaptive challenges facing the church, chose an adaptive challenge to address, and designed interventions to develop adaptive capacity within the congregation to help it live into its vision. Participants were also presented with spiritual reflections to facilitate the recognition of the Holy Spirit’s work in leading disruption and adaptation.

After introducing the research context and problem, this thesis traces the biblical, theological, and historical tradition of the Holy Spirit’s role in driving the church to adapt as it bears witness to Christ in changing and challenging contexts. It then explores the impact of an adaptive change process on project participants. It follows project participants as they design interventions for achieving congregational vision, recognize the work of the Holy Spirit in congregational life, and develop adaptive capacity. Finally, this thesis concludes with possibilities for utilizing this adaptive change process across all ministries at Augusta Road Baptist Church and in other congregations that find themselves in adaptive moments.