Leadership, Religious

Christopher J. Prescott

This project sought to equip a selected group of adults at Olivet Baptist Church,
Paducah, Kentucky, with team ministry leadership skills. The project intended to
demonstrate the essential skills necessary for lay volunteers to lead a church ministry
team. The project included three phases: research, curriculum design, and equipping. The
first phase involved researching the field of team ministry leadership to identify the
essential skills of team ministry leadership. During the second phase of curriculum
design, I utilized the findings of the research phase to develop a curriculum teaching the
essential skills of team ministry leadership. I employed the curriculum to equip selected
adults with the essential skills of team ministry leadership to accomplish the third phase
of the project. Expert evaluators reviewed the research and curriculum design
components utilizing a rubric for each component. Finally, a pretest and posttest
measured the equipping phase outcomes.

Timothy O. Chaney

The purpose of this project is to enhance the project director’s strategic preaching
skills to increase congregational understanding of biblical qualifications for leadership at
Fellowship Bible Church (FBC) in Dalton, Georgia. This project was completed in three
phases: research, writing, and preaching. In the first phase of this project, the project
director researched the field of strategic preaching and the area of biblical qualifications
for church leadership. In the second phase, the project director deployed the best
practices of strategic preaching and researched insights on biblical leadership
qualifications in writing a sermon series on biblical leadership. In the third phase, the
project director preached the sermons at FBC. Pre-test and post-test assessments were
used to demonstrate the project's effectiveness in increasing congregational
understanding of biblical leadership qualifications.

Johnathan L. Carr

The purpose of this project was to design a volunteer leadership development strategy for First Baptist Church, Thomasville, Georgia. First, the project director conducted an internal audit to determine a leadership profile of First Baptist Church. Second, the project director explored literature in the field of leadership development. He prepared an annotated bibliography and summary of best practices. Third, the project director led a group of selected leaders through a strategy planning retreat and developed a volunteer leadership strategy. Fourth, the project director presented the strategy to the pastor and Administrative Committee for approval. The implementation of the strategy
was outside the scope of this project. This final project report details the project director’s process to develop the volunteer leadership development strategy for First Baptist Church Thomasville.

Begashaw Tadesse Teklemariam D.Min.

Abstract
The purpose of this study is to explore Capuchin school principals in Ethiopia in certain contexts of educational administration. Significant gaps exist between, on the one hand, the emphasis placed on developing leadership qualities and skills during Capuchin friars’ formation and, on the other, the degree to which such skills are called for in educational administrative ministries.
In support of these claims, I apply Richard Osmer’s method of descriptive-empirical analysis – examining experience, tradition, and pastoral response – to a case study involving the experience of Capuchin principals in Ethiopia. Based on a close examination of their experiences, I recommend the institutionalization of programmatic educational leadership training modules for friar school principals.
I also call for changes in the friars’ initial and ongoing formation programs to increase the quality of educational leadership and managerial skills in order to raise their leadership qualities and make them more capable of executing their responsibilities. This study might help the Capuchin Order in Ethiopia in identifying the type of formation, quality, knowledge, and skills friars need to be effective principals in the Capuchin schools.

DEAN ANN-MARIE LASHINGTON Dr D.Min.

Oakville Adventist Company (OSDA) was a congregation that had not
been growing and had no active presence in the community of Oakville. To help
address these concerns, a leadership retreat was designed and implemented that
used Appreciative Inquiry (AI) as a process to help the leadership team develop a
clear vision for outreach to the community of Oakville. There were seven leaders
who participated, and the outcomes of the retreat were analyzed. The project was
aimed at facilitating the development of leadership team vision for the residents
living in this community. Using AI processes, the leadership team looked at the
vision for the Oakville community, developed a vision statement and committed
to designing ways to serve the community needs. Findings from the research
project indicated that participants developed a vision and a mindset to explore
new possibilities to make an impact on the Oakville community.

Jeffery Dale Holeman

The purpose of this project was to equip selected leaders of the First Baptist Church of Oxford, Mississippi, with church conflict management skills. This project began with research in the field of conflict management and identified skills that are applicable to a local Southern Baptist Church. The project director developed a workshop to train selected leaders with the skills needed to manage church conflict. The selected leaders included deacon officers, committee chairpersons, and full-time church staff from the First Baptist Church of Oxford, Mississippi. This workshop included skill presentations and opportunities for case study applications. The project terminated with the workshop that equipped the selected leaders of First Baptist Church of Oxford, Mississippi, with church conflict management skills.

Kay S. Rader

Meeting leadership needs of the United Church of Christ, which includes finding the best ways to prepare new leaders for authorization, has been a lively conversation in the denomination in recent years. A decade of study led to a national Pronouncement on ministry issues in 2005 which suggested ways to move into the future while taking into account the remarkable diversity of faith communities within the denomination.

The broad range of ecclesiologies, with their corresponding theologies of ministry, has made the denominational conversation rich, but it has also made the task of coming to consensus on ministry issues challenging. In order to gain a better understanding of our practices in preparation for creating new guidelines for authorization, one directive of the Pronouncement was to “pay attention to our theologies of ministry in the UCC, especially ordained ministry.”

This project applies an ecclesiological typology to the descriptive language in current local and national denominational guidelines for identifying, preparing, and authorizing candidates for ministry, for the purpose of comparing the preferences which are revealed in them. Preferences are arrayed, and similarities and discrepancies between local and national materials are noted. In particular, this project observes whether or not the full range of ecclesiological diversity of the United Church of Christ is reflected in the guidelines for authorization, what differences exist between the sets of guidelines in this respect, and what the significance of those differences may be. The intent of this project is to contribute to the ongoing denominational conversation.

Adam Chochran

The purpose of this project was to develop a holistic strategy to enhance religious support for the 135th Expeditionary Sustainment Command of the Alabama National Guard. There is a difficulty for National Guard Chaplains to cover units based on monthly schedules, unit locations, and staff requirements. This can serve as a hindrance to religious support to subordinate units. The project director will investigate the needs of religious support down to the company level. This will provide the information needed to assess the religious support needs. The project director will identify resources necessary to enhance the religious support strategy. The project director will identify personnel that will help in the holistic religious support strategy, in accordance with the command master religious plan. The holistic religious support strategy will guide religious support in the 135th Expeditionary Sustainment Command and its subordinate unit ministry teams.

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.

Jeffrey O. Copp D.Min.

It is the thesis of this study that the peace position of the Church of the Brethren is in danger of becoming more a matter of proclamation than practice in the Church. It is the assumption of this study that this development is a problem for the Church of the Brethren, now and in the future, and that it does require attention.

Among those caught in the middle of this development are pastors who must declare the position and interpret it. In their office as pastor they must deal directly with the implications of a position that one Brethren writer has characterized as “rhetorical” in nature (Bach 180). The author of the present study, a pastor, has struggled with those implications and his struggles prompted this project.

The aim of this study was to gather information from Church of the Brethren pastors about their experiences as they represent the peace position in their congregations. It was felt that this would be a fruitful window through which to examine the state of the peace position in the Church of the Brethren today.

A questionnaire was designed and administered to a random sampling of Brethren pastors active today to solicit that information. Analysis of the findings revealed that most Church of the Brethren congregations are not presently experiencing significant conflict over the issue, but a majority of pastors are uncomfortable with the current status quo in the Church in regard to it. Six concrete recommendations for changing peace demographics in the Church of the Brethren emerged from the data.