Prayer

Alvardo Lamont Adderley

This action research project focused primarily on the spiritual and devotional aspects of the Anglican liturgy and its impact, or lack thereof. The project's participants were the Wardens (who in collaboration with the priest make up the leadership team) within the Parish of Fenelon Falls and Coboconk that consist of St. James (SJ) and Christ Church (CC) Anglican churches.
This research portfolio explores how spiritual formation can be developed through practices and ways in which a Christian leader can embrace its spiritual richness. The research portfolio utilized interviews, prayer journals alongside Morning and Evening Prayer as an assessment tool. Additionally, the methods used were qualitative research and ethnographic observation that linked spiritual formation with liturgical practices.
This research portfolio includes key formational experiences, a philosophy of leadership, as well as a research project. The data and information gathered from this research, highlighted how Christian leaders within the Parish of SJ and CC through self-awareness and authenticity, recognized the value and appreciation for the Anglican liturgy. Simultaneously, leaders within these two congregations deepened their spiritual life. As a result, participants were visibly more engaged in the liturgy and contributed immensely within the congregations of its spiritual impact.

Benjamin Paul Vanderheide Dr. D.Min.

In this Research Portfolio, the author develops a method for growing in intimacy with God, through faith in Jesus Christ, empowered by the Spirit using the metaphor of a fruit bearing tree. The method is developed in three parts. The first part is a spiritual autobiography where the author describes his life in Christ: Seed (Life before Christ), Death (New Life in Christ), Rooted (Learning from Christ), Pruning (Suffering with Christ). The second part is a spiritual formation model exploring how we grow in maturity in Christ: we discover our true identity in relation to Christ (know), as we abide in Christ (be) by intentionally practicing spiritual disciplines, and over time, we bear the fruit of the Spirit in Christ (do). The third part is a research project that reproduces the knowing-being-doing model in the context of a spiritual direction relationship, where the participants are led to use their imagination in prayer. As the participants connect with God using their imagination, their experience of God deepens, and the fruit is a positive change in their relationship with God.

DaeHwa Park M.Div.

The world faces the environmental crisis with climate change. The discipleship pathway of Good Shepherd campus (“Good Shepherd”) and Savage campus (“Savage”) of The United Methodist Church in the greater Washington area has been focusing on a personal holiness that neglects social holiness. Beginning with the congregational survey on Anthropocene, this project explores a variety of global responses to climate change, recent updates from climate experts, and new rational hermeneutics on literacy and scientific methods, so that the Milky Way disciples in small churches may challenge the policymakers to find a teleological road map for a final cause that sets the world free from economical, mental, and physical stresses.

Corinne Lesley Cameron D.Min.

This thesis explores how Canadian Salvation Army mothers in ministry who follow a rhythm of life experience an abiding relationship with Jesus that deepens a sense of abundance in life and ministry. The thesis begins with exploring the social contexts of The Salvation Army, North American clergy, and working mothers. The thesis progresses to delve into John 15:1-17 and the historical examples of Susanna Wesley and Catherine Booth. The research methodology includes two Lenten-abiding groups and thirteen interviews. This research affirms how rhythms of life tend to the soil of the soul, enabling an abiding relationship with Jesus to grow and flourish.

Brian C. Hardee

Recent changes in Federal laws have created an increased awareness of the potential for violations of personal privacy in many different areas of community life, including the Prayers of the People as they are offered in many churches. By writing in the form of a pastoral essay, I examine the privacy issues that exist in common church practices. I then look specifically at the Prayers of the People as they have been developing in the Evangelical and Reformed tradition of the United Church of Christ to highlight the growing need to have worship leaders and planners examine their Prayers of the People to see if there are privacy issues present in their worship. I seek to highlight the very real possible damages that can be caused through the unauthorized giving out of personal information in many of these prayers, while also pointing out the possible qualities of that prayer time that can be lost in an attempt to completely safeguard the privacy rights of all who are involved. I then suggest steps that can be taken to preserve public sharing during the Prayers of the People while simultaneously attempting to respect people's right to privacy. Finally, I suggest an etiquette for the Prayers of the People for churches to use for their practice of the Prayers of the People when it includes the opportunity for public sharing of specific joys and concerns.

Janet Marie Breneman

Having lived and worked with the Mennonite churches in Central America for twenty-five years, I became very interested in women's practice of prayer, why they pray, and how their prayers are influenced by the cultures and spiritual backgrounds from which they come. This dissertation investigates how the spoken prayers of first generation Mennonite Ladina and Q'eqchi' (Maya indigenous) women in Guatemala reflect and integrate their Maya and Roman Catholic heritages, as well as their life realities within situations of violence, prejudice, recent civil war and poverty. The dissertation includes, as background for the investigation, brief descriptions of early Maya and recent Guatemala history, and sixteenth century Anabaptist history and thought.

The investigation was carried out through personal interviews conducted with forty women, in either Spanish or Q'eqchi' language; the recording of prayers in the interviews themselves, various church services, women's gatherings and retreat settings; and bibliographical research. The data from the interviews and prayers was compiled and analyzed through the creation of lists of content and themes which occured most frequently within the interviews and prayers, and their comparison to the most prominent aspects of Anabaptist, Q'eqchi', and Catholic faith heritages and the life realities in which the women live. The findings indicate that, in part, these Guatemalan women and the early Anabaptists share analogous social and spiritual life circumstances, and that Anabaptist understandings of the Gospel are being inculturated into their Q'eqchi' and Ladina culture and way of life. What is more, the Guatemalan Mennonite women's prayers, with their own accumulated spiritual depth and heritage, and the inclusion of cultural practices that are consistent with Christian faith, enrich the Anabaptist practice of prayer.

J. David Apple

The purpose of this project was to equip selected members of Big Canoe Chapel, Big Canoe, Georgia, to discover and integrate biblical prayers and disciplines of prayer modeled in Scripture. The project director will research selected prayers in Scripture in order to emphasize key personal prayer disciplines among the multi-denominational congregation. He will develop and conduct an equipping workshop for the selected group of individuals.

The project director will purposefully increase understanding of a variety of prayer disciplines represented at Big Canoe Chapel. The project director will also increase knowledge for developing training experiences regarding prayer for persons from a variety of Christian traditions.

Philomena Ofori-Nipaah D.Min.

This research examines how a Reformed understanding of prayer can be enriched by the use of the Prayer of Nehemiah and the Lord’s Prayer. The project demonstrates that a better-informed theology of prayer results in a deepening of the spiritual practices of clergy and church leaders, allowing them to slow down and be involved in a faithful and sustained discipline. This helps them develop a deeper relationship with God. The results are established by a comparison of participants’ surveys taken before, during, and after they have practiced different prayer rules and through the interviews I conducted with the participants.

Jacqueline Siu Yin Lam D.Min.

An awareness of God’s presence and a capacity to hear Him are two important elements to cultivate an intimate relationship with God for spiritual growth. This research portfolio seeks to answer the question: Will prayer encounters with God through the practice of praying with the Scriptures facilitate the participants’ capacities to hear God and increase awareness of His presence? The context for the research portfolio is seminary students and a small group of participants from the Iglesia Evangelica China De Panama from the Chinese diaspora in Panama, Central America.
This portfolio offers my spiritual autobiography (Chapter II), which traces the influences of three different Christian spiritual traditions (Foster 1998) and my professional training in various fields that have helped me hear God and experience God’s presence in my daily life. A four-year academic model and curriculum (Chapter III) is created from the experience of my spiritual formation and implemented for the Alliance Bible School of Central and South America. Finally, a field research project (Chapter IV) is offered to examine the effectiveness of Lectio Divina to facilitate prayer encounters in a small group of students from the Iglesia Evangelica China De Panama. The results show positive responses by the participants in their ability to hear God and experience his presence. However, practicing quietness remains a challenge for some Chinese Christians for their spiritual growth in the Panamian context.

Jonathan C Brownson

This project is a personal and pastoral invitation to church leaders to devote themselves to prayer and a ministry of the word as the central task of their vocation.

Chapter one begins with "hard feelings." This chapter does not market a plan for a perfect church and pastor. Instead, it describes.

Chapter two supplements autobiographical method with group process and family systems analysis. It documents the first two years of one new pastorate where the pastor intentionally focuses on prayer and proclamation.

Chapter three suggests it wouldn't be right for pastors and parishioners to turn away from focusing on a ministry of the Word.

Chapter four joins word ministry with a waiting ministry inviting pastors, parents and parishioners to pray. Ethnographic interviews "field test" the claims of this chapter.

Finally, chapter five concludes with not the least, priests. It invites church leaders to become not successes, but successors of those who have gone before them. Christologically, biblically, historically and autobiographically this chapter suggests that church leaders have already had their work cut out for them. They must, the chapter contends, preach and pray because it is what Jesus does, what the bible mandates, what his followers continue and what many ordained pastors have promised