Church membership

Stephen Bradley Watson

The purpose of the project was to equip selected adults of Marion First Baptist church, Marion, Arkansas with essential team-based assimilation skills. Upon completing research of team-based assimilation practices and skills, the project director developed four equipping sessions. The project director held the four equipping sessions with selected adults from First Baptist Church, Marion, Arkansas. Participants learned about selected team-based assimilation skills and how to put selected skills into practice when interacting with guests, regular attendees, and members of Marion First Baptist Church, Marion, Arkansas. Participants discovered the importance of welcoming interactions with guests in order to increase guest retention and assimilate guests and regular attendees into the membership and ministry of Marion First Baptist Church, Marion, Arkansas.

Brett Warren Self

The purpose of this project in ministry was to develop an assimilation strategy for Stone Ridge Baptist Church, Alexander City, Alabama. The project director conducted an internal assessment of the congregation of Stone Ridge Baptist Church including new members, regular attenders, and guests and identified assimilation deficiencies among the congregation of Stone Ridge Baptist Church. The project director researched three churches that possess effective assimilation strategies to identify best practices of assimilation. The project director recruited a strategy planning team, which consisted of seven members that assisted him in the development of an assimilation strategy using the assimilation deficiencies discovered and the best practices of assimilation identified. He presented the completed assimilation strategy to the leadership team of Stone Ridge Baptist Church for approval. The project director sought to increase his knowledge in assimilation and his skill in strategy development.

Wes Anthony Hinote

The purpose of this project was to develop a strategy for implementing covenant membership at Old River Baptist Church, Old River-Winfree, Texas. The project director identified the dominant understanding of Old River Baptist Church members to determine the current membership profile. The project director researched existing models and methods of churches utilizing covenant membership to understand best practices of implementation. To construct an applicable strategy, the project director explored the local demographics to determine the area profile. The project director developed a covenant membership implementation strategy for Old River Baptist Church in Old River-Winfree, Texas, with the community demographic in mind. Finally, the project director presented the covenant membership implementation strategy to a group of selected leaders of Old River Baptist Church for approval.

Robert Bradley Gowing

The purpose of this project is to develop a new member assimilation strategy for Dawson Memorial Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama. the project director formed a strategy planning team made up of church staff. He conducted surveys and analyzed membership data of the last ten years to evaluate the current assimilation and membership process, membership and, and trends in growth and retention. He researched new member assimilation strategies at selected churches, as well as literature about new members assimilation to determine best practices. Based on the surveys, analysis and research, the project director developed a new member assimilation strategy for Dawson Memorial Baptist Church with guidance from the strategy planning team. The project director presented the strategy to the staff coordinating team for approval and implementation.

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.

Shane A. Patrick D.Min.

The past decade in American culture has increasingly become an exercise in deconstructionism in almost every way imaginable. The cultural touchstones of recent years include racially motivated protesting and rioting, claims of systematic racism and white supremacy, climate crisis, record-level inflation, a rise in cultural interest in neo-Marxist and socialist ideas, supply-chain gridlock, claims of election fraud, and record-high crime rates throughout the country. Another of these cultural touchstones, and the contextual focus of this project, is the active attempt of America’s increasingly secular culture to deconstruct and redefine sex, gender, and other sexual norms. The zeitgeist of this cultural moment includes a decoupling of sex and gender, and an attempt to encourage and normalize transgender identities and/or gender fluidity. This cultural deconstructionism also runs contra to the Christian worldview and Judeo-Christian values which introduces unique theological and ecclesiological challenges within the local church context. Among these challenges is the question of how to faithfully approach local church membership decisions with candidates who personally experience the burdens of gender ideology—which is the focus of this project.

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.

Nathaniel Jones Carroll

The purpose of this project was to develop a membership assimilation strategy for First Baptist Church, Haleyville, Alabama. The project director explored the field of survey development and analysis, resulting in the creation of a discovery survey. After analysis of the results, the survey provided a church profile of membership expectations.

The project director researched the field of membership assimilation resulting in a list of best practices from the annotated bibliography compiled. The project director researched the field of strategic planning producing an annotated bibliography and list of strategic planning producing an annotated bibliography and list of strategic processes discovered. The project director led a group of selected members through a chosen strategic process, discovered during the research phase.

The result of the strategic process was a membership assimilation strategy for First Baptist Church, Haleyville, Alabama. The project director presented the strategic plan to the deacon body of First Baptist Church, Haleyville, Alabama, for approval. Once approved by the deacon body, the strategic plan was presented to the membership of First Baptist Church, Haleyville, Alabama, for approval.

Robert J. Phillips D.Min.

This project will address the decline of the millennial generation’s church attendance within the 08033 zip code during the past decade. There are times a church can have the appearance of being a successful church, but the zeal of both the clergy and the respective congregation is slowly diminishing. The older generation continues to do their best to keep the ministry viable and alive to some degree, but at the same time, a younger generation, many times made up by millennials does not see the importance of the communal aspect of church other than what occurs on Sunday morning. It is becoming more obvious that that we are dealing with a generation of believers that are not like our parents or grandparents. Tradition appears not to be the millennials calling card. We will show that millennials love God, not just the church service that has stood for decades. Today’s church must provide opportunities for them to serve based upon their needs for church and commitment. The statistical data was gathered by the author of this thesis through several one-on-one discussions with the clergy of the five surveyed churches and with several millennial residents of the town of Haddonfield, New Jersey. Examples in the ministry of the apostle Paul were gathered from the MacDonald Believer’s Bible Commentary by William MacDonald and A Theology of the New Testament by George E. Ladd.

Akintoye Jeremiah Akintunde Rev. D.Ed.Min.

HELPING CHURCH MEMBERS UNDERSTAND AND BIBLICALLY RESPOND TO DEPRESSION
People often disregard the fact that the spiritual state of mind is greatly affected by what is happening in the physical. At times, depression results from exhaustion, anxiety, worry, and many bottled-up issues in people’s lives. People are depressed because they are unfulfilled in their careers, marital life, education, and plans. Unconfessed sin and wickedness of hearts can be the root cause of some depressive moods. When daily challenges become overwhelming and frustrating, people are spiritually drained and discouraged. What is needed for any individual struggling with a depressive mood is the Word of God through biblical counseling. Biblical counselors offer a compassionate heart and practical help through the biblical principles applied to the counselee’s life and situation.
Christians (church members) are not immune from depression because it is real and can be overcome and conquered through reliance on the Holy Spirit and appropriate biblical principles. Biblical counselors should always keep in mind a holistic perspective of human nature. God created human beings holistically – body, spirit, and soul. When one part suffers, every other part suffers with it. Psychology, philosophy, and psychoanalysis (or psychotherapy) are human theories and philosophies that can only last for a short time. The Word of God (Scripture) is authentic, inspired, inerrant, sufficient, and authoritative for counseling tasks and is superior to anything the world’s wisdom offers. The Scripture has the power to change life and turn around situations.
Regardless of the latest scientific discovery, research, and methodology, medical professionals still believe, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), that ‘mental disorders’ including depression fall into such “diagnostic criteria” with a collection of symptoms known as syndromes. A syndrome is simply a collection of symptoms that a person is experiencing.