New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary

David A Lambert

The purpose of this project was to develop a church revitalization strategy for the First Baptist Church, Thomson, Georgia. The project director first researched methods and principles in developing church revitalization strategies and identified ten best practices. Second, the director researched the demographics of the community to identify the needs and concerns of those within the church’s sphere of ministry. Third, the project director identified the major revitalization needs of the church through an internal analysis of the church’s vision, ministries, programs, and structures.

Based on this research, the director then led a strategic revitalization team, comprised of a representative selection of twenty church members, through a fourteen-session strategy development process. The team members were equipped to understand and work through the ten best practices of church revitalization, as identified by the project director as well as engaged in the process of strategically planning the church’s revitalization strategy. Finally, the project director presented both the project’s research findings and the team’s revitalization strategy proposal to the membership of the First Baptist Church, Thomson, Georgia, for adoption.

Clarence Ross III

The purpose of this project was to develop a self-awareness leadership strategy for pastors in the Three Rivers Baptist Association. The project director researched literature on leader self-awareness strategies currently practiced in ministry and corporate business organizations for recommended competencies and behaviors for self-aware leaders. The project director examined the level of self-aware leadership among pastors in South Carolina Baptist churches and the Three Rivers Baptist Association. The project director developed a self-aware leadership survey based on six areas of self-awareness. The project director based these six areas on the research; they include taking the initiative, composure when working with others, the balance between personal and work life, accurate picture of strengths and weaknesses, leadership development, an spiritual leadership and maturity. From the research the project director summarized the self-aware leadership competencies pastors need to become self-aware leaders. He then presented the research to the leadership team of the Three Rivers Baptist Association. The leadership team approved a self-aware leadership development process for pastors in the Three Rivers Baptist Association.

Mason W Joy

The purpose of this project was to equip selected parents of East Louisville Baptist Church, Louisville, Mississippi, with essential Christian worldview formation skills. The project director researched the fields of apologetics for youth and children and Christian doctrine to determine essential Christian worldview formation skills. He developed a curriculum in order to equip the selected parents of East Louisville Baptist Church with those essential Christian worldview formation skills. The curriculum was taught in six sessions and corresponds with five doctrines the project director established as most essential for Christian worldview formation. The project director increased his knowledge in the areas of apologetic, Christian worldview formation, and curriculum designs to ensure that the six teaching sessions represented a high standard of quality. Additionally, experts in the fields of apologetics and curriculum design were enlisted to validate the project.

Dalton Wayland Cottrell

The purpose of this project was to equip selected adults of First Baptist Church of Aurantia, Mims, Florida, with personal evangelism skills. The project began with the project director’s research in the field of personal evangelism. The project director constructed an annotated bibliography based upon the completed research. Using this research, the project director determined essential personal evangelism skills and wrote a report detailing the findings. An expert evaluator in the field of personal evangelism evaluated both the annotate bibliography and the essential personal evangelism skills report.

The next phase of the project involved developing a curriculum to equip selected adults with personal evangelism skills. The project director investigated the curriculum writing process by c0ompleteing the self-guided study, Design for Teaching and training by Leroy Ford. The project director wrote the curriculum after completing the study. An expert evaluator in the field of curriculum writing evaluated both of these steps. The completed curriculum was used to equip selected adults of First Baptist Church of Aurantia, Mims, Florida, in personal evangelism skills.

Victor Humberto Medina

The purpose of this project is to equip a group of selected leaders from the Christ the Redeemer Baptist Church, located in Mandeville, Louisiana, with the essential skills for the formation of the Christian worldview. The first part of the project was to investigate the field of a Christian worldview and its impact on discipleship. Subsequently, once the investigation was completed, the project director identified six central doctrines for a Christian worldview essential to move forward to the next step, which consisted in the design of a Christian worldview curriculum that was imparted to the group for six weeks to the selected local church leaders. The training served to educate leaders involved in the discipleship from the Christ the Redeemer Baptist Church.

Gregory S. Smith

The purpose of this project was to develop a multiethnic church planting strategy for Green Acres Baptist Church, Tyler, Texas, to reach interntationals in Portland, Oregon. The external demographic data and common elements discovered provided the basis for which the multiethnic church planting strategy was developed. The project director utilized various information gathering resources to determine the needs of internationals and to identify common elements for effective multiethnic church planting models. The project director researched strategy planning techniques, especially strategies that focused on reaching multiethnic communities. He then led a selected planning team to develop a multifaceted strategy on how to reach the diverse ethnicities represented in Portland, Oregon. The final state of the project was for the project director to present the multiethnic church planting strategy to Green Acres Baptist Church’s church planting team for approval.

Chester Calvin Price

The purpose of this project was to enhance the project director’s expository preaching skills to increase congregational awareness of selected eschatological themes at Oak Hill Baptist Church, Meridian, Mississippi. The project director utilized the Preaching Skills Enhancement model to develop the project. Development of the project included research of selected eschatological themes, best practices for expository sermon development, and delivery of expository sermons. The project director developed a sermon series of selected eschatological themes that he preached at Oak Hill Baptist Church, Meridian, Mississippi, during regular scheduled Sunday morning worship services. The project director demonstrated enhanced expository preaching skills as a result of this project.

Charlottee Kumar

The purpose of this project was to equip selected members of First Baptist Church of Duluth, Georgia, with personal evangelism skills to reach Hindu Indians. To accomplish this, the project director first conducted research in Hindu theology, religion, culture, traditions, and rituals. She conducted several interviews with Indian pastors, Indian Christian workers and came to understand the importance of teaching the American believers about Hindus, Hindu religion and culture, and providing them easy tools for evangelism.

During the research, the project director came across a curriculum called “Love Your Neighbor” by Cathy Douglass, a missionary for Campus Crusade for Christ, also known as Cru. Campus Crusade for Christ is a ministry that reaches the unreached people group through the Jesus Film in different languages. Ms. Douglass’s Love Your Neighbor curriculum focuses on how to evangelize Hindus and win them for the Lord Jesus Christ. She is the author and trainer for this seminar. The project director came alongside Ms. Douglass and taught a few sessions during the seminar. Those who attended the seminar also had an opportunity to visit a Hindu temple and witness the Hindu way of worship.

Wadler Jules

The purpose of this project was to equip selected lay preachers of Haitian Emmanuel Baptist Church, Miami, Florida, with expository preaching skills. The project director began researching the field of expository preaching to discover essential expository preaching skills. Following the initial research on expository preaching the project director completed a study on curriculum and lesson design and development in order to write a series of lessons on crafting effective expository sermons. These lessons became his guide as he led a series of training sessions to equip the group of selected lay preachers of Haitian Emmanuel Baptist Church, Miami, Florida, with expository preaching skills.

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.