New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary

David Brent Willis

The purpose of this project was to develop a discipleship strategy for Mary’s Chapel Baptist Church, in Ripley, Tennessee. I first determined MCBC’s current discipleship practices by means of a Spiritual Growth Assessment and then compared those current practices with existing discipleship strategies to identify the best discipleship practices. I then created a strategy team composed of church members of various ages and their purpose was to discover the best discipleship strategy for the church based on the best discipleship practices identified. The strategy was then
presented before the church for approval. If approved, implementation of the strategy
would begin immediately.

Daniel R. Strickland

The purpose of this project was to develop a NextGen discipleship strategy for First Baptist Church, Opelika, Alabama. The project director accomplished this in four steps. Step one was to gather the demographics of Lee County, Alabama, to better understand the need for age-graded discipleship. Step two was to explore the existing models and methods of discipleship to find best practices. Step three was to develop a discipleship strategy for the NextGen ministries at First Baptist Church of Opelika. A strategic planning team was used to develop the strategy. At the conclusion of step three,
a comprehensive strategy, including a mission statement, vision, core values, milestones,
and key events, was developed. The final step was to present the strategy to the Executive Team at First Baptist Church of Opelika for evaluation. Although implementation was outside the project's scope, the strategy was presented to the church and fully implemented in January 2023.

Timothy Revett

The project director developed an outreach strategy that serves a twofold purpose:
improving educational achievement and forming congregations among the Ava Guaraní
and Mbya Guaraní who live in the metropolitan area of Asunción, Paraguay. The
evangelistic activities that lead to the formation of congregations come as a result of the
relationships built during educational activities carried out by the outreach team in the
communities. Over the last two decades the focus group has been experiencing a
migration from their traditional homelands to urban contexts. For this reason, the strategy
combines tribal group missiology with migrant outreach practices.

The strategy development project consisted of four steps. First, the project
director researched demographics about Guaraní spirituality and education to assess the
level of need in those areas. Second, he explored literature on outreach to tribal groups
and migrants to produce a selection of principles that guided the development of the
outreach strategy. Third, the project director’s colleagues provided input on the selected
principles and direction of the strategy. Finally, the project director presented the strategy
to a local partner ministry for official implementation.

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.

Zane Officer

The purpose of this project was to develop a strategy for making disciples for
Libby Baptist, Libby, Montana. The project director researched demographics for the
community which resulted in a report of areas of focus for evangelism. An internal audit
of the congregation was conducted alongside the church’s ten-year Annual Church
Profile data resulting in a report of areas of focus for discipleship. The project director
developed an annotated bibliography and report of best practices after conducting
research in the field of disciple making. The reports of areas of focus and best practices
were used to lead the Libby Baptist Church leadership team to develop a strategy for
disciple making. The completed disciple-making strategy was presented to the church
during two Sunday morning worship services and approved in a special-called business
meeting.

Clinton A. Morgan

The purpose of this project was to equip parents and guardians at First Baptist Church, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, to utilize their family settings for intentional disciplemaking. To accomplish this purpose, I first researched essential skills needed for familycentric disciple-making. From this research, I created an annotated bibliography on the subject and identified seven groupings of essential skills required to begin the familycentric disciple-making process. From these resources followed the development of a
curriculum based on the skills identified. After creating the curriculum, I hosted seven sessions over four weeks for a pre-established small group of six family units ranging from newlyweds to parents of teenagers. The family-centric disciple-making curriculum taught the members of the small group to view disciple-making as more than just family Bible study but a constant part of everyday life. These skills will help the members of this group improve as spiritual leaders inside their own homes. Expert evaluators in discipleship, curriculum design, and small groups provided feedback during the project to ensure the effectiveness of the project.

Sherrill Grant Hignight

The purpose of this project was to equip selected leaders of the Thomas County Baptist Association, Inc., Thomasville, Georgia, with personal spiritual formation proficiencies. The project was implemented with a group of selected leaders from the Thomas County Baptist Association, Inc., all from different churches. The group composition was four pastors, two laymen, and two laywomen. The equipping consisted of six sessions conducted over eight hours in a one-day workshop. The workshop equipped these selected leaders with personal spiritual formation proficiencies so that they could model, share, and equip others while serving within their respective roles across Thomas County Baptist Association.

Gregg S. Magee Sr.

The purpose of this project was to research historical models and biblical principles of dating to develop a manual for equipping adult singles at Empowerment Ministries Christian Center. The project explored the two broad cultural environments of collectivism and individualism and their respective models of dating. The produced research was compared to biblical principles to highlight best practices.

This project followed the research model described in the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary Doctor of Ministry Handbook. The project began with research and ended with the development of a manual for a seminar on the topic of “The Journey towards Marriage: Biblical Guidelines for Christian Dating.” The implementation of the seminar is out of the scope of the project.

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.

Louis H. Johnson

The purpose of this project was to develop a church safety and security strategy
for Fairhope Avenue Baptist Church in Fairhope, Alabama. The project consisted of four
components: an exploration of models and methods in the field of church safety and
security in order to determine common vulnerabilities and best practices; the completion
of risk assessments of Fairhope Avenue Baptist Church in order to identify safety and
security vulnerabilities and weaknesses; the development of a church safety and security
strategy in order to address the identified vulnerabilities and weaknesses; and a
presentation of the strategy to the members of Fairhope Avenue Baptist Church.