Kentucky

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.

Robert Dale Musick D.Min.

Central Appalachia is a complex and beautiful region that has been historically mislabeled, misrepresented, and shamed as the land of hillbillies. Suffering in this region is deep and broad as poverty, addiction, and disparities are statistically evident. Although the region is filled with churches, missionary endeavors, and government programs, places like Eastern Kentucky continue to struggle. As the Church seeks to address these diseases of despair, it is imperative for Christian universities to address this suffering through critical pedagogy and a contextualized theology. By the development of an Appalachian liberation theology known as hollering theology, this research project took this new theology and imbedded it in two different college classes at the University of Pikeville. Through this project, it was discovered that the fundamental source of oppression in Central Appalachia is the damning stereotype of the hillbilly. This stereotype has been internalized and is now killing Appalachian Americans. In this study, hollering theology will be offered as a way to challenge the stereotype, give a new vision for God’s work in the region, and make known a hillbilly Christ, which seeks to empower students at UPIKE to engage themselves and their community in a critical and engaged way.

Rebekah Wagner D.Min.

With nursing burnout at an all-time high, this researcher evaluated a chaplain intervention to support nurse managers. Prior interventions for burnout have been focused on the staff nurse level. This is very important work, but without also addressing the needs of leaders, it is unlikely to be successful. Studies have shown that one of the predictors of nurse turnover is poor leadership. This project addressed the needs of the nurse managers, with the hypothesis that improved leadership will lead to improved burnout status of the staff nurses. Training was provided in Spiritual Leadership Theory which prioritizes the utilization of spiritual practices and concepts to empower and develop leaders. This training, daily spiritual practices, and participation in bi-monthly spiritual direction/companionship meetings over three months comprised the intervention. Burnout, job satisfaction and spiritual well-being were measured pre and post intervention. Because of the small participant size, no quantitative statistically significant results were able to be noted; although, continued study with additional participants is planned to gather further quantitative data. Qualitative results from the three-month pilot project included improvements in the ability to be reflective rather than reactive, to interact with team members holistically, and to foster spiritual refreshment and renewal.

Brittany Riddle D.Min.

By guiding participants to reflect on scripture and their life experiences through the creation of art in various mediums, this project was designed to teach a model of creative, theological reflection in order to provide artists at Immanuel Baptist Church in Paducah, KY with the opportunity to deepen their creative identity, to claim their identity as people who are created in the image of a creative and creating God, and to form meaningful community through shared, creative practices.

Participants gathered for seven weeks to visually and creatively reflect on themes of home and community in scripture as a way to practice creative placemaking. By sharing stories, practicing lectio divina, and creating art together, the artists were invited on an inward journey that encouraged theological reflection as an embodied, creative process rather than simply an intellectual exercise. At the end of the seven weeks, participants showed significant movement in the depth of their theological reflections as well as a greater sense of connection to each other and belonging within the congregation.

Edward DeWayne Goodgine

The purpose of this projct was to develop a young adult evangelism strategy for Lewisport Baptist Church in Lewisport, Kentucky. The project director led a select group of adults from Lewisport Baptist Church to develop a strategy to evangelize young adults in the surrounding community. The strategy team gathered research, resources, and effective evangelism models during the process. Through reflection on selected books and resources concerning the millennial generation, the project director and strategy team felt prepared to create a strategy to evangelize young adults. The project concluded with a completed strategy for reaching young adults which was presented to the church and unanimously approved.