Group ministry

Mondonico A. Williams

The purpose of this project was to research the field of African-American pastoral leadership in multiethnic churches in order to develop a leadership workshop for pastoral interns in The Pursuit Church Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee. The project director research a wide range of sources to gain knowledge of the best practices used by African-American pastors who lead multiethnic churches. The project director used the information to develop a workshop that will be used at The Pursuit Church Memphis, as well as other churches, churches planting networks, North American Mission Board (NAMB), and denominations that which to plant or revitalize multiethnic churches. The project director utilizes the research model described in the current New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary Project in Ministry Design Handbook to complete this project.

Brady Logan Lock D.Min.

This project sought to equip leaders of Oak Grove Baptist Church in Burleson, Texas, (OGBC) to lead missional small groups. Chapter 1 presents the history and ministry context of OGBC and the goals of this project. Chapter 2 provides an exegesis of three passages of Scripture (Acts 2:42-47; Matt. 19:16-22; Col. 3:12-17) to show that discipleship occurs in the everyday missional living of the believer, not merely in the educational sphere of the church. Chapter 3 presents the historical/practical/theoretical ideas behind missional small groups. Chapter 4 describes the project itself, recounting the content and teaching methodology of the specific course curriculum. Chapter 5 evaluates the efficacy of the project based on the completion of the specified goals. Ultimately, this project sought to equip Christians with the confidence and competency to minister to fellow sinners and sufferers with the truth of the gospel and the love of Jesus Christ.

Christopher David Edward Moll

Because the Church of England is historically clerical, the incumbent pastor formally shares the pastoral burden or cure of souls with the Bishop. Evangelical Anglicans are impelled by both Scripture and mission to consider the New Testament pattern of plural local leaders or elders. This research explored the experience of Anglican ministers and church planters who established locally-shared shared pastoral leadership through a Ministry Leadership Team (MLT).
The purpose of the research was to explore the benefits of shared leadership for making and maturing disciples. In surveying the literature advocating the benefits and biblical precedents of shared leadership, it was noted that in contrast to other evangelicals, Anglicans apply the biblical data using the Normative Principle derived from the work of Richard Hooker. Four questions guided the research: (1) How does the local church’s shepherding ministry strengthen the work of making disciples? (2) What are the benefits of a ministry leadership team in the work of making disciples? (3) What practices have promoted collaborative working between members of the ministry leadership team, with particular regard to the work of making disciples Church? (4) How is the pastors’ Anglican self-identity manifest in the practice of shared local ministry leadership?
Nine UK pastors were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire with the data analyzed using the constant comparative method. Common and clear benefits are articulated by the respondents. The lay offices of churchwarden and PCC were also re- evaluated with respect to the responsibilities outlined in the New Testament for church
officers. The respondents exhibited a clear and confessional Anglican identity. Possible models for accommodating a MLT within the existing parochial structures are explored. Finally it was noted that in these theologically complementarian churches, the role and place of female pastoral leaders was not fully resolved.

Joseph H Eby

The transition of a church governing structure from tradition driven to permission giving is a study in organizational dynamics, paradigm shifts, spiritual evaluation, and, transformation. As evidenced in this project, a revelation determined the course and became the impetus of promoting spiritual growth in church leadership.

Chapter One focuses on the component of self-discovery and the realization that church governing bodies, specifically Chatham (Illinois) Presbyterian Church, was in need of a change in direction and development during a period of exceptional growth.

Chapter Two explains that transformation encompasses all spiritual components of a church body, all driven by a common goal of influencing the congregation, especially when church membership and participation is in a nationwide decline.

Chapter Three illustrates the process of spiritual transformation for the 21st century and the path toward giving up control to God. The worldview of the Church must change in order to be set apart from all other organizations.

Chapter Four offers several means to understand what it means to "give up control of one's life to God." Defining this term as submission, it is understood that submission is a voluntary act by which one yields either to the authority of another, or in the case of equals, yields to another because it is called for in the relationship.

Chapter Five describes the process and experience of the Session of Chatham Presbyterian Church on the spiritual formation and spiritual direction path toward transformation. Session members/Elders had expressed a desire for a deeper spiritual experience and the application began in earnest.

Chapter Six details responses given by Session members/Elders to interview questions regarding the spiritual formation process.

Scott Christiansen

In every church all over the world there are teams of people gathered together around ministry that is core to their mission. Yet as vital as team ministry is to the church, a disheartening number of those teams end up accomplishing very little and either end their time together in frustration or continue in m ediocrity. While there are doubtless many reasons for this poor performance record, they often boil down to poor leadership of the team. Teams are vital to church ministry and leaders are vital to team ministry so it is essential for churches to train team leaders in skills that enable effective and encouraging leadership. Based on research, interviews and experience five characteristics of effective team leadership immerge: great leaders glow, great leaders love, great leaders vision, great leaders plan and great leaders coach. Training in each of these characteristics can help ensure that ministry teams in a church have the leadership they need to prosper. The 5 Tools of Team Leadership: A Collegial and Collaborative Leadership Development Process is a learning process designed around those 5 leadership characteristics and a small group of leaders lead by a coach or mentor. In group sessions and between group sessions the participants learn from each other and from a set of teaching materials that expound on those 5 leadership characteristics how to lead their ministry teams more effectively. The process absolutely depends on a group dynamic of openness, love and acceptance. The process invites the Holy Spirit to use the process to maximize the leadership potential of each individual.

Daniel Bruce Mouw

As the church has moved into a new century, today's pastors have needed to ask themselves: If our ministries are going to be effective in this 21 st century context, what should those ministries look like? In other words, what shape should pastoral ministry take today? It's a necessary question to ask when pastors want to do more than simply 'do their jobs' (which traditionally includes preaching, teaching, pastoral care, administration, and, more recently, leadership) and thereby 'run' the church, but instead want those pastoral activities to make an increasingly transformative difference in people's lives. The fundamental issue in this project, in other words, is that of ascertaining what sort of shape pastoral ministry needs to take that will most likely lead to significant spiritual impact. The premise in this document is that effective pastoral ministry generally will not happen in church settings where a pastor does most of his or her work in isolation from the other members of a congregation, and where the congregation in turn sees the pastor's work as disconnected from what they are called to do. Instead, transformative pastoral ministry will happen within a congregational web, where pastors work collaboratively with members of the church, enlisting the power of relationships, maximizing the use of the spiritual gifts of each member, and harnessing the spiritual energy that is unleashed by the creation of ministry teams.

Sidney Wes Emory Sr D.Min.

The first century Church was founded in response to the disciple-making processes of Jesus. His disciples were transformed by following Jesus in a way that obedience, transformation, community, education, worship, and the expansion of God’s kingdom became the central themes of their lives.
This study addressed the need to understand the disciple-making process found in Scripture in a way that will yield the results that are found in the Book of Acts primarily those found in Acts 2:42-47.
Christian churches of every denomination, tradition, model, and size have been called to make disciples. The Scripture, literature, interviews, and surveys researched in this project were designed to discover transferrable suggestions that could focus all believers on the results of following the plans of God to build his kingdom using the process of disciple-making.
The results of the project revealed that the key to building the kingdom of God is found in the practices and plans of the ultimate disciple-maker, Jesus. It recommends having the correct mindset in of making disciples a part of everyday life, creating a deeper understanding of the worship of God, living relationally connected to other people in a process of becoming more like Christ, and focusing on God first in everyday life

Richard G Hagopian

A Resource for the Ohio District of the Brethren Church by Richard Hagopian:
The purpose of the project was to create a resource from Smoky Row Brethren Church's structure that could serve as an effective guide for the sustainability of other Brethren Churches in the Ohio District of the Brethren Church, The design of this project included a resource entitled A Manual of Congregational Renewal, which was distributed to and assessed by recognized Brethren leaders in Ohio. The results of the project revealed that the resource can, with some equivocation, be agreed to by the respondents as achieving its purpose.

Shengli Pan

The focus of this dissertation is the leadership model. From 1867 to 1952, missionaries provided leadership to Wenzhou churches in the form of pastoral leadership to individual congregations. By contrast, contemporary churches of Wenzhou have been adhering to a system of patriarchal administration over a number of congregations, including the assignment of volunteer lay-preachers who are not expected to carry out any pastoral duties. This model of church leadership is found to have many problems that hindered the development of churches. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore how to build up pastoral leadership in Wenzhou. The emphasis of pastoral leadership is for pastors to lead and nurture churches. Through their leadership, preaching, pastoral care, visitation, teaching, counseling, discipleship training, evangelism, etc., they enable their flocks to grow spiritually. Since churches in Wenzhou are unique in their geography and history, it is impracticable to import entirely western modes of pastoral leadership into Wenzhou. The author has to integrate these two so as to produce contextualized modes of pastoral leadership suitable for the future development of Wenzhou churches.

Craig S Querfeld

The study sought to determine leadership practices of a missionary church planting team leader that result in accomplishing the church planting task and caring for team. Members and leaders from twenty-one missionary church planting teams filled out an email questionnaire consisting of ten questions, five related to accomplishing the church planting task and five related to caring for the team. The responses were analyzed and categorized. The researched revealed four leadership practices: training and teaching, leading team meetings, organizational practices, and relational practices that strengthen the relationships in the team.