Browsing by Author "Jones, L Gregory"

Christian teachers lead godly change in the lives of people whom they influence. The preparation of people to lead as teachers in the church requires the development of inner character that is consistent with Christian purposes. One of the fundamental attributes of this sort of character is empathy because it engages the heart in all of its dimensions. My argument in this thesis is that the qualities of empathy can be used as a means to highlight specific practices and skills that Christian teachers need. Helping Christian teachers to cultivate such practices and skills provides them with a more sustainable foundation than any set of teaching techniques found in teacher training materials. This approach enables the church’s education program to effectively shape people’s hearts to follow Christ and serve one another.

Drawing upon a broad selection of literature that includes narrative theology, adult educational philosophies, developmental psychology, and business leadership perspectives, this study begins by examining the nature of empathy and spiritual practices. I propose that a teaching ministry is most effective when it encompasses two specific practices that cultivate identity and integrity. A practice of formative presence highlights the incarnational nature of the teacher’s role and identity, and a practice of resilient trust establishes a framework for building and sustaining integrity. Both of these are patterns of communal action in which the benefits of God’s presence and power are made available to people. Furthermore, these practices depend on some underlying skills that help Christian teachers develop empathy. My discussion includes three specific skills: reception is a collaboration between people that communicates acceptance and understanding; reflection is a way of fostering shared meaning-making; and response is a type of action that expresses accountability with collective wisdom. When these practices and skills are wrapped in empathy and empowered by God’s Spirit, godly character and shared learning are cultivated in both teachers and students.

Christian teachers lead godly change in the lives of people whom they influence. The preparation of people to lead as teachers in the church requires the development of inner character that is consistent with Christian purposes. One of the fundamental attributes of this sort of character is empathy because it engages the heart in all of its dimensions. My argument in this thesis is that the qualities of empathy can be used as a means to highlight specific practices and skills that Christian teachers need. Helping Christian teachers to cultivate such practices and skills provides them with a more sustainable foundation than any set of teaching techniques found in teacher training materials. This approach enables the church’s education program to effectively shape people’s hearts to follow Christ and serve one another.

Drawing upon a broad selection of literature that includes narrative theology, adult educational philosophies, developmental psychology, and business leadership perspectives, this study begins by examining the nature of empathy and spiritual practices. I propose that a teaching ministry is most effective when it encompasses two specific practices that cultivate identity and integrity. A practice of formative presence highlights the incarnational nature of the teacher’s role and identity, and a practice of resilient trust establishes a framework for building and sustaining integrity. Both of these are patterns of communal action in which the benefits of God’s presence and power are made available to people. Furthermore, these practices depend on some underlying skills that help Christian teachers develop empathy. My discussion includes three specific skills: reception is a collaboration between people that communicates acceptance and understanding; reflection is a way of fostering shared meaning-making; and response is a type of action that expresses accountability with collective wisdom. When these practices and skills are wrapped in empathy and empowered by God’s Spirit, godly character and shared learning are cultivated in both teachers and students.

Over the last several decades, pastors, ministers, and other clergy have benefited fromcountless biblical, ecclesial, theological, and practical resources designed to provide church leaders with appropriate strategies for discipleship, mission work, preaching, and pastoral care. Additionally, seminaries and divinity schools have successfully trained and prepared ministry leaders to serve local churches and parachurch organizations through the biblical, Christ-centered teaching and proclamation of the reign and rule of God. Yet, numerous pastors, ministers, and other clergy suffer from various types of physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual maladies that plague their health and well-being. Church leaders share these burdens; however, these burdens manifest themselves in unique and specific ways. To endure the hardships of ministry and vocationally flourish, pastors and other trained ministers must learn to create, cultivate, and sustain viable, holy friendships with the only people who can truly empathize—fellow clergy.

Utilizing numerous academic, biblical, and theological resources, this thesis exposes howdesperately necessary holy, clergy friendships are in combatting the congregational stress, burnout, and compassion fatigue that ministers tend to experience throughout the course of their ministries. Moreover, many clergy suffer from a lack of wholesome self-care, which prevents pastors from adequately and maturely facing the problems or managing the conflicts that arise in the local church and its community.

After discussing various ministry burdens, this thesis establishes that God institutes holyfriendship and intends it for God’s glory—holy friendship is a covenant blessing between God and humanity and between humanity and itself. This thesis focuses this shared blessing of holy friendships through the biblical lenses of God’s covenant with Israel, citing specific examples of covenant friendships among biblical and postbiblical saints.

After solidifying holy friendship as God’s gift to God’s self and humanity throughbiblical and postbiblical figures, the thesis moves toward a framework for helping clergy find balance in their lives and in their ministries. This occurs by acknowledging and accepting the power of reconciliation, as well as learning to embody it through the threefold mediating ministry of Jesus Christ (munus triplex). Moving from the historical and ecclesial problems that stymie the joy and well-being of pastors and their congregations, this thesis delineates the threefold mediating ministry of Jesus Christ (prophet, priest, and royalty) and offers a theological and practical framework for creating and sustaining holy friendships among clergy. As pastors and ministers begin to view themselves and their fellow clergy through the lenses of priestly vulnerability, prophetic imagination, and royal transformation, hidden yet important questions begin to surface, and clergy form vital bonds through shared suffering. This thesis attempts to create a framework for church leaders to learn how to invest in lifelong, enduring holy friendships with other clergy. These holy friendships will benefit ministry leaders as they gain interpersonal insights and encouragement, affirm their shared vocational mission, and celebrate authentic, spiritual companionship along their ministry journeys. The goal of these holy friendships among clergy is a clearer sense of emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual wellbeing, resulting in improved, overall clergy health. As pastors, priests, and other ministers learn to cultivate and sustain holy clergy companionship they become better equipped to endure both personal and congregational hardships. Just as Elijah experienced the sustaining power of God under a desert broom tree, ministers must also be fed through intentional, vulnerable relationships that help them spiritually grow and change. As they freely draw from the reservoir of empathic friendship, Christian ministers experience the power of reconciliation in and through the Spirit of Christ in one another. Empowered by this truth, all things become possible for clergy engaged in holy friendships.

Over the last several decades, pastors, ministers, and other clergy have benefited fromcountless biblical, ecclesial, theological, and practical resources designed to provide church leaders with appropriate strategies for discipleship, mission work, preaching, and pastoral care. Additionally, seminaries and divinity schools have successfully trained and prepared ministry leaders to serve local churches and parachurch organizations through the biblical, Christ-centered teaching and proclamation of the reign and rule of God. Yet, numerous pastors, ministers, and other clergy suffer from various types of physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual maladies that plague their health and well-being. Church leaders share these burdens; however, these burdens manifest themselves in unique and specific ways. To endure the hardships of ministry and vocationally flourish, pastors and other trained ministers must learn to create, cultivate, and sustain viable, holy friendships with the only people who can truly empathize—fellow clergy.

Utilizing numerous academic, biblical, and theological resources, this thesis exposes howdesperately necessary holy, clergy friendships are in combatting the congregational stress, burnout, and compassion fatigue that ministers tend to experience throughout the course of their ministries. Moreover, many clergy suffer from a lack of wholesome self-care, which prevents pastors from adequately and maturely facing the problems or managing the conflicts that arise in the local church and its community.

After discussing various ministry burdens, this thesis establishes that God institutes holyfriendship and intends it for God’s glory—holy friendship is a covenant blessing between God and humanity and between humanity and itself. This thesis focuses this shared blessing of holy friendships through the biblical lenses of God’s covenant with Israel, citing specific examples of covenant friendships among biblical and postbiblical saints.

After solidifying holy friendship as God’s gift to God’s self and humanity throughbiblical and postbiblical figures, the thesis moves toward a framework for helping clergy find balance in their lives and in their ministries. This occurs by acknowledging and accepting the power of reconciliation, as well as learning to embody it through the threefold mediating ministry of Jesus Christ (munus triplex). Moving from the historical and ecclesial problems that stymie the joy and well-being of pastors and their congregations, this thesis delineates the threefold mediating ministry of Jesus Christ (prophet, priest, and royalty) and offers a theological and practical framework for creating and sustaining holy friendships among clergy. As pastors and ministers begin to view themselves and their fellow clergy through the lenses of priestly vulnerability, prophetic imagination, and royal transformation, hidden yet important questions begin to surface, and clergy form vital bonds through shared suffering. This thesis attempts to create a framework for church leaders to learn how to invest in lifelong, enduring holy friendships with other clergy. These holy friendships will benefit ministry leaders as they gain interpersonal insights and encouragement, affirm their shared vocational mission, and celebrate authentic, spiritual companionship along their ministry journeys. The goal of these holy friendships among clergy is a clearer sense of emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual wellbeing, resulting in improved, overall clergy health. As pastors, priests, and other ministers learn to cultivate and sustain holy clergy companionship they become better equipped to endure both personal and congregational hardships. Just as Elijah experienced the sustaining power of God under a desert broom tree, ministers must also be fed through intentional, vulnerable relationships that help them spiritually grow and change. As they freely draw from the reservoir of empathic friendship, Christian ministers experience the power of reconciliation in and through the Spirit of Christ in one another. Empowered by this truth, all things become possible for clergy engaged in holy friendships.

This work unfolds in three moves to explore the rise in fear and anxiety in young adults and to provide a theological response from a chapel office on a college campus. The first move involves an exegetical reading of the Markan parable (adapted in Matthew) of “Binding the Strong Man”. This parable serves as an overarching metaphor for the nature of both the fearful realities many young adults find themselves in and the nature of the God who seeks to break into that reality and remind us of our innate value and worth in God. The parable asks us to think about whom we follow and call our leader, for whom we follow will form us at the deepest levels individually and collectively.

The second move of this thesis examines frameworks for understanding the anxious lives of young adults today: neurological, psychological, philosophical, and finally theological through an Augustinian lens. Through these frameworks we learn we need a renewed appreciation for the emotional life as the primary place of meaning making. Emotions are intelligent, that is, they have something to tell us about our deepest loves and desires. In particular, it investigates Augustine’s exploration of sophistry and philosophy as guides for constraining fear. Ironically, the deeper he found himself in those fields and frameworks the more disordered his inner life became. His personal experience and the values of ancient Rome serve as a warning for what happens when fear is allowed to run the lives of the ambitious individually and collectively.

The final move of the thesis is to take us into the outpost of grace, a location and people retraining their desires in the direction of Christ. This section highlights one prescriptive piece–that of retraining in belonging—to address the rise of loneliness and its interrelationship with anxiety. The outpost of grace provides new liturgies and habits to replace the cultural norms that disorder our inner lives.

This work unfolds in three moves to explore the rise in fear and anxiety in young adults and to provide a theological response from a chapel office on a college campus. The first move involves an exegetical reading of the Markan parable (adapted in Matthew) of “Binding the Strong Man”. This parable serves as an overarching metaphor for the nature of both the fearful realities many young adults find themselves in and the nature of the God who seeks to break into that reality and remind us of our innate value and worth in God. The parable asks us to think about whom we follow and call our leader, for whom we follow will form us at the deepest levels individually and collectively.

The second move of this thesis examines frameworks for understanding the anxious lives of young adults today: neurological, psychological, philosophical, and finally theological through an Augustinian lens. Through these frameworks we learn we need a renewed appreciation for the emotional life as the primary place of meaning making. Emotions are intelligent, that is, they have something to tell us about our deepest loves and desires. In particular, it investigates Augustine’s exploration of sophistry and philosophy as guides for constraining fear. Ironically, the deeper he found himself in those fields and frameworks the more disordered his inner life became. His personal experience and the values of ancient Rome serve as a warning for what happens when fear is allowed to run the lives of the ambitious individually and collectively.

The final move of the thesis is to take us into the outpost of grace, a location and people retraining their desires in the direction of Christ. This section highlights one prescriptive piece–that of retraining in belonging—to address the rise of loneliness and its interrelationship with anxiety. The outpost of grace provides new liturgies and habits to replace the cultural norms that disorder our inner lives.

A theology of institutions is dependent upon an imagination sparked by the cross and shaped by the hope of the resurrection. Creative destruction is the institutional process of dying so that new life might flourish for the sake of others. Relying upon the institutional imagination of James K.A. Smith, the institutional particularity of David Fitch, and L. Gregory Jones’ traditioned innovation, creative destruction becomes a means of institutional discipleship. When an institution practices creative destruction, it learns to remember, imagine, and be present so that it might cultivate habits of faithful innovation. As institutions learn to take up their cross a clearer telos comes into view and collaboration across various organizations becomes possible for a greater good. Institutions that take up the practice of creative destruction can reimagine, reset, restart or resurrect themselves through a kind of dying so that new life can emerge. Creative destruction is an apologetic for an institutional way of being-in-the-world for the sake of all beings-in-the-world.

Within the current cultural milieu of eclectic pluralism the Western Church currently finds itself in, innovation must be a central focus within all aspects of ministry in the Christian Church. With the focus that the local church must put on innovation, one aspect that will continually be an important factor is how the Church understands, interprets, and utilizes failure. The challenge for the local church is to rethink its notion of failure which will allow for creativity, new life, and ultimately, transformational innovation. By establishing a proper framework and definition of failure, the Church will be able to embrace good failure and the benefits it can offer. Calling the Church to embrace failure is also a call to embrace innovation and Design Thinking. Good failure is not fully beneficial without these two essential and creative tools. For every church struggling to muster the confidence to dive into creative exploration and experimentation or the minister who wrestles with sustaining a culture open to change and new ideas, applying the principles of innovation and Design Thinking aid immensely on one’s journey towards success. This path towards success will not be simple. At times, the path will be consumed with failure and disruption. Still, good failure must be embraced in order to foster adaptive learning, growth, and mastery. By adopting an innovative culture and leaning into good failure, the Church embraces culture that generates change, pursues excellence, ensures vitality, makes a difference in the world, and seeks to meet the needs of people. As the Church wrestles with failure as a means to produce and promote innovation, the local church responds to God’s call and partners with God in God’s creative and redemptive work throughout the world. Thus, as the Church seeks to continue its impactful work in the world, the Church must establish a sound methodology for innovation and untap the creative fountain of Design Thinking. Throughout the history of the Christian Church, there have been countless extraordinary saints who have innovated, revolutionized, and championed fresh expressions and aspects of the Church. However, while it is important to remember the Church’s noteworthy saints and their significant contributions, we should not forget that there were failures along the way, and these should not be ignored. For the majority of United Methodist ministers, John Wesley is one of the most esteemed and highlighted saints who dynamically revolutionized, innovated, and restructured the Church. Nevertheless, he too experienced failures throughout his life and ministry. Still, with each moment of failure, Wesley pressed on and pivoted to innovate in successful ways that changed the world forever, even birthing and shaping the people called Methodists. In today’s rapidly changing world, local churches need to follow the example of John Wesley – embrace good failure, practice innovation, and restore imagination to ensure their future. Regardless of how fast the world continues to spin, churches must recognize profound changes must be made to establish a sound framework for failure and innovation, foster an innovative culture, and evoke an operational model change that allows the Church to be better than it was yesterday. Ultimately, local churches must awaken its innovative spirit and join God in God’s ministry throughout the world.

Within the current cultural milieu of eclectic pluralism the Western Church currently finds itself in, innovation must be a central focus within all aspects of ministry in the Christian Church. With the focus that the local church must put on innovation, one aspect that will continually be an important factor is how the Church understands, interprets, and utilizes failure. The challenge for the local church is to rethink its notion of failure which will allow for creativity, new life, and ultimately, transformational innovation. By establishing a proper framework and definition of failure, the Church will be able to embrace good failure and the benefits it can offer. Calling the Church to embrace failure is also a call to embrace innovation and Design Thinking. Good failure is not fully beneficial without these two essential and creative tools. For every church struggling to muster the confidence to dive into creative exploration and experimentation or the minister who wrestles with sustaining a culture open to change and new ideas, applying the principles of innovation and Design Thinking aid immensely on one’s journey towards success. This path towards success will not be simple. At times, the path will be consumed with failure and disruption. Still, good failure must be embraced in order to foster adaptive learning, growth, and mastery. By adopting an innovative culture and leaning into good failure, the Church embraces culture that generates change, pursues excellence, ensures vitality, makes a difference in the world, and seeks to meet the needs of people. As the Church wrestles with failure as a means to produce and promote innovation, the local church responds to God’s call and partners with God in God’s creative and redemptive work throughout the world. Thus, as the Church seeks to continue its impactful work in the world, the Church must establish a sound methodology for innovation and untap the creative fountain of Design Thinking. Throughout the history of the Christian Church, there have been countless extraordinary saints who have innovated, revolutionized, and championed fresh expressions and aspects of the Church. However, while it is important to remember the Church’s noteworthy saints and their significant contributions, we should not forget that there were failures along the way, and these should not be ignored. For the majority of United Methodist ministers, John Wesley is one of the most esteemed and highlighted saints who dynamically revolutionized, innovated, and restructured the Church. Nevertheless, he too experienced failures throughout his life and ministry. Still, with each moment of failure, Wesley pressed on and pivoted to innovate in successful ways that changed the world forever, even birthing and shaping the people called Methodists. In today’s rapidly changing world, local churches need to follow the example of John Wesley – embrace good failure, practice innovation, and restore imagination to ensure their future. Regardless of how fast the world continues to spin, churches must recognize profound changes must be made to establish a sound framework for failure and innovation, foster an innovative culture, and evoke an operational model change that allows the Church to be better than it was yesterday. Ultimately, local churches must awaken its innovative spirit and join God in God’s ministry throughout the world.

In 2021, congregational life in America feels troubled. The residue of vitality in vacant Sunday school classrooms, dated worship bulletins, antiquated committee structures, and worn pew cushions reminds churchgoers of the ways congregations once successfully capitalized on the intersection of industrialization and an evangelical spirit. However, today, the world has changed. Traditional churches that mirror a now-shuttered factory across town struggle under the weight of dated, worker-dependent, industrial expressions of congregational life. These congregations feel trapped, which inhibits innovation and steers churches toward the same fate as those factories across town. Some believe that what local churches need is a way to cultivate innovation. To do this, congregations need the tools and a pathway that leads to innovative breakthroughs. Design thinking is a process built on an accessible set of tools that can provide teams in any field the steps necessary to cultivate innovation. For the church, and specifically local congregations, innovation cannot happen in a vacuum. Churches have histories and traditions, most of which root themselves in a tradition connected to the book of Acts. As churches cling to specific traditions, they often maintain practices as traditionalism, which begets a shallow expression of tradition. In these instances, faithful innovation is necessary. However, to innovate for the sake of innovation alone represents a shallow expression of innovation. The church needs to hold together tradition and innovation in ways that give life to a shared life rooted through embodied traditions. Faith by Design explores and exploits intersections between the embodied traditions outlined in Acts and the modern pathway to innovation described in design thinking. By adapting the approaches, tools, and practices of design thinkers and then exploiting these processes' intersections with the stories of the early church in Acts, the congregations can discover and design a renewed sense of life and vitality. Faith by Design invites congregations to explore the design thinking process and practices within the rich Christian tradition in ways that will help cultivate the conditions necessary for the emergence of renewed practices and behaviors which beget life, vitality, and hope.  

In 2021, congregational life in America feels troubled. The residue of vitality in vacant Sunday school classrooms, dated worship bulletins, antiquated committee structures, and worn pew cushions reminds churchgoers of the ways congregations once successfully capitalized on the intersection of industrialization and an evangelical spirit. However, today, the world has changed. Traditional churches that mirror a now-shuttered factory across town struggle under the weight of dated, worker-dependent, industrial expressions of congregational life. These congregations feel trapped, which inhibits innovation and steers churches toward the same fate as those factories across town. Some believe that what local churches need is a way to cultivate innovation. To do this, congregations need the tools and a pathway that leads to innovative breakthroughs. Design thinking is a process built on an accessible set of tools that can provide teams in any field the steps necessary to cultivate innovation. For the church, and specifically local congregations, innovation cannot happen in a vacuum. Churches have histories and traditions, most of which root themselves in a tradition connected to the book of Acts. As churches cling to specific traditions, they often maintain practices as traditionalism, which begets a shallow expression of tradition. In these instances, faithful innovation is necessary. However, to innovate for the sake of innovation alone represents a shallow expression of innovation. The church needs to hold together tradition and innovation in ways that give life to a shared life rooted through embodied traditions. Faith by Design explores and exploits intersections between the embodied traditions outlined in Acts and the modern pathway to innovation described in design thinking. By adapting the approaches, tools, and practices of design thinkers and then exploiting these processes' intersections with the stories of the early church in Acts, the congregations can discover and design a renewed sense of life and vitality. Faith by Design invites congregations to explore the design thinking process and practices within the rich Christian tradition in ways that will help cultivate the conditions necessary for the emergence of renewed practices and behaviors which beget life, vitality, and hope.  

Fatherlessness may be one of the most critical issues facing American society. With the increasing prevalence of divorce in the twentieth century, more and more children face the harsh reality of growing up without their father present at home. Divorce is the number one predictor and cause of father absence. The emotional, social, and spiritual repercussions of growing up with an absent father last long after childhood ends. In fact, many children experience the tumultuous consequences of divorce and fatherlessness throughout their entire lives. Yet, the scriptures reveal God as a “father to the fatherless” (Psalm 68:1, NIV). Thus, as Christ’s Body alive in the world, this issue beckons the church’s best and most intentional response.

This thesis seeks to prove its argument by referencing the wide body of research on this issue available through books, journals, magazine articles and social research data. Sociologists and researchers began widely investigating divorce and fatherlessness in the early 1970s after California Governor Ronald Reagan passed the first ‘no-fault’ divorce laws in 1969. Intended to correct the abuses of the ‘fault’ divorce law system, ‘no-fault’ divorce introduced a whole new set of complications that now plague American society, which among the many include father absence.

Yet, as “the living congregation of the living Lord Jesus Christ,” the church stands in a unique position to address this issue with authority and resolve. This endeavor calls both clergy and lay leaders, alike, who embody the threefold offices of Christ. Courageous leaders walking worthily of their calling (Ephesians 4:1) speak the truth in grace (prophetic), lead the broken and hurting into a life-giving relationship with Christ (priestly), and make a way for the reconciliation of relationships and the restoration of the family (kingly).

As leaders take on this monumental challenge, Design Thinking methodology specializes in finding solutions to complex and seemingly impossible societal challenges, such as divorce and fatherlessness. Design Thinking combined with Traditioned Innovation provides a framework for the church to honor and leverage the best of its history with a clearly defined, solution-based vision. These solutions, however, need practical implementation. This thesis closes with a brief presentation on a Logic Model to provide church leaders a way to execute on Design Thinking solutions toward maximum impact for the community and the Kingdom!

Pastors, especially senior pastors of churches with larger congregations and staff

teams, have to provide leadership, not only in the typical pastoral sense of

preaching/teaching and counseling/caring, but also in terms of direction and management.

Yet pastors tend to receive inadequate equipping in this third area, and sometimes

flounder when faced with the complexities of their role.

Lee Kuan Yew was an extraordinary political leader and manager, leading the

severely disadvantaged fledgling nation of Singapore from Third World status to First

World in a few decades. Underlying the question of what pastors can learn from Lee,

given that he never professed Christian faith himself, is the principle of discernment

anchored in humility and healthy skepticism: humility to realize non-Christians may be

wiser than Christians in the way they manage their institutional affairs, and skepticism to

know that not everything that “works” in the world is going to likewise succeed in God’s

church.

The first step in discerning what aspects of Lee’s leadership have relevance for

pastors was to construct a biblical/ theological grid by which to evaluate Lee’s leadership.

Shaped by the data available on Lee, this grid had four components - formation,

shepherding, excellence and power – and a broad theological understanding of each of

these themes was outlined so as to serve as a set of criteria in evaluating the applicability

of key aspects of Lee’s leadership.

Lee’s life was examined both in terms of his pre-leadership years and his time in

leadership. The formative experiences of Lee’s life from childhood through to early

adulthood evoke reflections on how one’s own personal history has a shaping influence

on one’s leadership, and where there might be strengths yet to be harnessed, or shadows

yet to be confronted. Lee’s positive leadership traits - as described by himself and others

– are worthy of thoughtful appropriation insofar as they are deemed compatible with

Christian values as identified in the biblical grid. Some features of Lee’s leadership,

which were heavily critiqued by many and are at odds with the principles in the biblical

grid are also identified for reflection.

To deepen and personalize the above leadership reflections, several interviews

with Christians who held significant leadership roles and knew Lee first-hand were cited.

A fictional narrative of an interview with Lee was also incorporated in the final chapter,

which offered the space for imaginatively extending Lee’s leadership in a more

theological vein. In summary, Lee’s complex legacy provides rich material for leadership

reflections by pastors, and the overlap zone between Christian and secular leadership

merits further study and exploration.

God created . . . and it was good. People of faith are a part of God’s work of creation that from the beginning of time has created and innovated without fail. A mantra of the ecumenical Black Church is that we serve a God who “keeps making a way out of no way!” Out of conditions of scarcity, malice, and hardship, enslaved Africans living in America created possibilities and opportunities for themselves. Fast forward to 2022, and that spirit of innovation still exists within the stories and lived experiences of African Americans across time.

In this work I will suggest that innovation must continue to be an intentional practice of the black church. Given the monumental changes brought about by the global COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, I am compelling leaders to move towards the work of innovation and to illuminate opportunities of innovation within church environments. I would argue that the ecumenical Black Church has led many movements of social impact and connectivity yet our language for describing that kind of work has been too limited. I’m interested in narrating and interpreting the work of the ecumenical Black Church through the lens and discipline of social innovation, traditioned innovation, design thinking, and strategy.

We are at an intersection and inflection point in 2022. Virtual sanctuaries have replaced physical ones. The average parishioner has not walked into a sanctuary in the past two years. How does that change our concept of innovation, outreach and strategy? As a former publicist, current brand strategist, and church planter, I am very interested in the way the ecumenical Black Church is being received in society right now. I’m interested in threading who the ecumenical Black Church has been and who it can be. This is a renaissance moment. Let’s join together and see what we can create. Let’s dream together.

Leadership in the church today must be able to adapt to rapidly changing circumstances and availability of resources in order to allow for the thriving of congregations. In order to serve as Christ served, church leaders must be able to empty themselves of old patterns and behaviors that keep them stuck and unable to guide their congregations into deeper relationship with God and active engagement within the community. Leaders must continually let go of what they once knew about the work of leadership, and be willing to embrace change that comes rapidly and challenges them, at times, to change course completely. This is how Jesus led. Jesus emptied himself of the things that were old models of leadership: tyranny, fear, power, and dictatorship and embraced the qualities of adaptability, authenticity, and flexibility which allowed him to minister and lead well in a variety of settings. This is, broadly, how I will define what I call, “kenotic leadership.”

This thesis looks at the concept of kenosis, found in Philippians 2, as a model of values-based leadership that seeks to adapt to a changing world and a changing church through self-examination and release of those characteristics within the leader that stand in the way of authentic presence. Jesus, in choosing a kenosis, or emptying of self, demonstrates the essence of an adaptive form of leadership, leaving behind that which does not serve the present context. I will argue that Christ did not give up any part of his divinity because that divinity is essential to his identity and is his very essence. Using the work of Rowan Williams, I will demonstrate that Christ’s divinity could not have been thrown off but remains an essential part of the human Jesus.

Finally, I will include a course in leadership that I have designed and taught to seminary students based upon the work of this thesis and my DMin program. Through the narrative sections following each week’s lesson plan, I will demonstrate that seminary students respond well to an understanding of leadership that is based in humility and self-awareness and that their preparation for leadership in the church is currently insufficient.

Leadership in the church today must be able to adapt to rapidly changing circumstances and availability of resources in order to allow for the thriving of congregations. In order to serve as Christ served, church leaders must be able to empty themselves of old patterns and behaviors that keep them stuck and unable to guide their congregations into deeper relationship with God and active engagement within the community. Leaders must continually let go of what they once knew about the work of leadership, and be willing to embrace change that comes rapidly and challenges them, at times, to change course completely. This is how Jesus led. Jesus emptied himself of the things that were old models of leadership: tyranny, fear, power, and dictatorship and embraced the qualities of adaptability, authenticity, and flexibility which allowed him to minister and lead well in a variety of settings. This is, broadly, how I will define what I call, “kenotic leadership.”

This thesis looks at the concept of kenosis, found in Philippians 2, as a model of values-based leadership that seeks to adapt to a changing world and a changing church through self-examination and release of those characteristics within the leader that stand in the way of authentic presence. Jesus, in choosing a kenosis, or emptying of self, demonstrates the essence of an adaptive form of leadership, leaving behind that which does not serve the present context. I will argue that Christ did not give up any part of his divinity because that divinity is essential to his identity and is his very essence. Using the work of Rowan Williams, I will demonstrate that Christ’s divinity could not have been thrown off but remains an essential part of the human Jesus.

Finally, I will include a course in leadership that I have designed and taught to seminary students based upon the work of this thesis and my DMin program. Through the narrative sections following each week’s lesson plan, I will demonstrate that seminary students respond well to an understanding of leadership that is based in humility and self-awareness and that their preparation for leadership in the church is currently insufficient.

This dissertation suggests that a Methodist theology of evangelistic mission requires placement within an account of ecclesiology and the theological distinction of Church and world. It argues for a vision of the Church not as the environment for or instrument of evangelistic mission, but rather as a visible, practicing, and witnessing "People" in, but not of the world. Such a People appear as Christians engage both the practices of intra-ecclesial formation and extra-ecclesial engagement with the "other half of the reconciling event" in the world, at the same time, leaning both ways at once.

In this equipoise the Church pursues evangelistic mission along a path between ecclesial accommodation for the sake of cultural relevance in the world (understatement) on the one hand, and ecclesial self-absorption that locates witness in an aesthetic display of holiness to the world (overstatement) on the other. Constructively, I argue that the pursuit of this evangelistic mission along this paradoxical path is best envisioned as a practice of intercession. Intercession names the stance of the People of the Church between formation and mission, between tradition and innovation, between God and the world, leaning both ways at once. Throughout I argue that these concerns are not foreign to but stem from Methodist traditions of theology and practice and address a need in the contemporary United Methodist Church for deeper ecclesiological reflection and clarity regarding the shape of faithful evangelistic mission.

The argument begins in Chapter 1 with a review of several contemporary voices in Methodist theology of evangelism, considering the presence (or lack thereof) of the theological relationship of the Church and the world and identifying those who "understate" and those who "overstate" that relationship. In Chapter 2, I ask, "What is the agency of the world?" as a means to engage the lack of theological reflection on the formative influence of the principalities and powers in contemporary (understated) theologies of evangelism. Given the agency of the powers mediated through the example of the modern market-state, I argue for the crucial role of intra-ecclesial formation within contemporary Methodist theology of evangelistic mission. Anticipating the challenge that such a turn to formation tends to favor an overstated differentiation of Church and world, I turn in Chapter 3 to an engagement with John Howard Yoder and the Methodist tradition in order to answer the question: "What is the agency of the Church?" Resisting a reading of Yoder that locates the Church's agency for evangelistic mission in an (overstated) form of aesthetic witness offered to a watching world, I offer a reading of Yoder that locates ecclesial identity in a particular Peoplehood sent to the world to discern and name the alliances between Church and world that reveal the truth of God's reconciliation with the world through Christ. In the final two chapters, I seek to develop an account of Methodist ecclesial identity that "leans both ways" between being a "People called Methodist" formed by the practices of Wesley's General Rules (Chapter 4) and, at the same time, a People shaped via the evangelistic mission of intercession in the world, an image borrowed from the theological vision of Rowan Williams (Chapter 5).

Taken together, these chapters argue for a location of evangelistic mission in the Church as a Peoplehood, a politics constantly in formation, engaging the "other half of the reconciling event" and extending "unrestricted communion" as it serves an intercessory role, standing between God and the world. I conclude with reflection on the impact of such theological vision on the ecclesiology and missiology of the contemporary United Methodist Church in the United States, suggesting the expression of evangelistic mission in "intercessory ecclesial" terms as a guide to the development of new ecclesial communities, institutional expressions of Methodist connectional structuring, and extra-ecclesial partnerships for the sake of service and witness in the world.

Just as biological life becomes more interesting and diverse when the edges of ecosystems meet, intellectual life crackles with energy and possibility when leaders from different disciplines collaborate. The recent emergence of behavioral economics, a fusion of economic theory with psychological cognitive theory, represents the best of what can happen when different fields collide. Behavioral economists combine the sophisticated and nuanced anthropology articulated by cognitive theorists such as Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman with classical economic theory to offer more realistic models and

expanded explanatory power, giving particular insight into why humans do not always behave in ways that are purely rational and self interested. I show that theological reflection and pastoral leadership, specifically, have much to gain by undertaking a similar `behavioral turn' and exploring the insights cognitive theory offers. By exploring the nature and history of the behavioral turn in economics and then showing the relevance to Christology and theological anthropology, I lay the groundwork for a `behavioral theology'. Behavioral theology sheds light on the Chalcedonian full divinity and humanity of Christ and underscores the view of sin as hubris. Behavioral theology also encourages pastors to see themselves as choice architects responsible for making decisions that help busy and tired congregants be the people they desire to be. Finally, I will demonstrate the experimental spirit of behavioral theology in a study of one facet of ecclesial life: church numerical growth and decline, using an approach inspired by behavioral game theory. With the permission of Duke's Independent Review Board I observed sessions, local church governing bodies in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), play two versions of a public goods game to determine

whether the willingness and ability of leaders to cooperate, defect, reward, and punish one another correlates to a congregation's ability to sustain membership.

In this dissertation I offer a constructive account of the church’s role in the process of reading and understanding Scripture. This task has become especially relevant due to the recent popularity of “ecclesial hermeneutics.” In response to intellectual trends that sought, explicitly or implicitly, to remove Scripture from the sphere church and relocate it within a supposedly more hermeneutically salubrious environment (e.g., the academy), many ecclesial readers have endeavored to return Scripture to its proper home. As Bonhoeffer claimed in 1933, presaging contemporary trends, Scripture is “the book of the church” and must be “interpreted as such.” Drawing from various theological and philosophical developments that emerged during the latter half of the 20th century, Christian interpreters have felt emboldened to follow Bonhoeffer’s lead, not only tolerating but prioritizing and accentuating the particularity of their ecclesial vantage point and the unique form of thinking constituted by its language, traditions, and practices.

This dissertation enters the debate at just this point. Ecclesiology has obviously carried great weight in recent conversations about biblical interpretation, but rarely has ecclesiology itself become a direct object of theological focus within them. Ecclesial hermeneutics has remained ecclesially ambiguous. In this dissertation, therefore, I ask an ecclesiological question as a means of answering a hermeneutical one. I set out deliberately to consider what it means to read in, as, and for the church. What “church” is presupposed in theological interpretation? What practices come embedded within it? And how does this shape the ends of faithful interpretation? In short, how, precisely, does the church function as a hermeneutical space?

Beyond merely describing what others have offered, I put forward a constructive vision. I propose to understand the church as a confluence of four dynamics, each of which is marked by a particular relationship. Together, these four dynamics constitute the church as a hermeneutical space. In short, the church exists (1) in relationship to the risen Christ, (2) in relationship to its own historical-institutional past, (3) in relationship to a particular place and the concrete bodies gathered there, and (4) in relationship to the world. Each of this dissertation’s four parts focuses on one of these dimensions, showing how its particular aspects carry hermeneutical significance. Each part consists of two chapters. In these two chapters I first focus on the hermeneutical implications of a given dimension and then listen to Bonhoeffer as a means of complexifying and deepening this analysis. It thus becomes evident that the coherence of my project owes much to Bonhoeffer, whose voice serves as the keynote that allows me to draw diverse others into conversation.

Listening to Bonhoeffer, I hope to show that these four dimensions cohere to shape the church as one hermeneutical space. This coherence is important, for I argue that recent proposals within ecclesial hermeneutics have accentuated particular dimensions of the church, but have failed to do so comprehensively. In other words, explicitly ecclesial hermeneutics commonly display onesided tendencies by relying on a truncated account of the church in which only one dimension of ecclesiology carries hermeneutical significance. Beyond being theoretically deficient, this tendency exerts a distortive effect at the level of practice. What is needed, then, is a more complex ecclesiological imagination, the fruit of which will be a more complete and theologically robust account of what it means to read in, as, and for the church.

While this dissertation’s animating concerns are deeply theological, they are altogether practical. A properly theological account of hermeneutical faithfulness is impossible without attention to the actual activities involved in the reading process. Bonhoeffer understood this well, and he proves himself to be a pastoral theologian by the facility with which he moves from the theoretical to the practical realm. Following Bonhoeffer’s example, I hope to make a constructive claim not only about a theology of Scripture or scriptural hermeneutics but about the practices and habits that sustain faithful reading.

While my heavily Christological focus (Part One) may seem to perpetuate the same onesidedness I seek to correct, I hope to show that when properly construed, the Christological dimension of the church is capacious enough to include the others. By jointly imagining the church’s historical-institutional past (Part Two), life together (Part Three), and missionary relationship to the world (Part Four) in terms of Jesus’ ongoing presence and particularity, we will find the resources necessary to imagine the ecclesiology that serves as a space for faithful reading. What ultimately emerges from this account of Christ and the fourfold account of the church that corresponds to him is a hermeneutic of discipleship, a way of thinking vis-à-vis Scripture that takes place in the wake of Christ’s ongoing action and ultimately aims at participation in it.