Browsing by Author "Warner, Laceye C"

Small membership churches are struggling with the very real issue of their continued survival. However, there is no wealth of information nor work addressing the issues of small membership churches. The purpose of this thesis is to devise a vehicle by which I can analyze and interpret issues of survival as they are lived out in the local church setting. This thesis will explore the biblical and theological basis for parish ministry by using The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church. It will assess the role of the small membership church, explore several different denominational approaches to the issue of church survival, provide a study guide, and analyze a process that I am developing for the three small churches I served. This thesis will be beneficial in exposing the state of the small membership church and the hidden dynamics that shape them. This thesis will be the beginning of a road map for the small membership church seeking to survive to participate in God’s Mission.

Small membership churches are struggling with the very real issue of their continued survival. However, there is no wealth of information nor work addressing the issues of small membership churches. The purpose of this thesis is to devise a vehicle by which I can analyze and interpret issues of survival as they are lived out in the local church setting. This thesis will explore the biblical and theological basis for parish ministry by using The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church. It will assess the role of the small membership church, explore several different denominational approaches to the issue of church survival, provide a study guide, and analyze a process that I am developing for the three small churches I served. This thesis will be beneficial in exposing the state of the small membership church and the hidden dynamics that shape them. This thesis will be the beginning of a road map for the small membership church seeking to survive to participate in God’s Mission.

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.

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.

This dissertation is a historical and theological investigation of one of the first American missionary women, Ann Hasseltine Judson. This project follows the recent historical shift in international and mission history toward questions of engagement, agency, and exchange to elucidate shifting identities and relational negotiation along the lines of gender, nationality, and community. Ann Judson engaged in a process of detachment and identification, or uprooting and replanting, from her formative context in the United States to her new home in Burma. Ann Judson used devotional habits and theological rationale to uproot herself from the United States and create a critical distance in order to open herself to replant in her new mission field. Her preparations to uproot guided Ann toward the type of mission Burma might offer, and included a shift in her religious tradition from Congregationalist to Baptist. Ann's change to the Baptists widened her circle of supporters, as she added a network of women's societies, congregations, and the newly formed national Baptist Triennial Convention.

Methodological tools of sociological identification, gender history, women's history, and practice theories assist to elucidate Ann's personal agency, organizing principles, and efforts to encourage the agency of others within the American Baptist Mission to Burma. Ann engaged in her context and social relations to construct and shape mission practices. She extended formative knowledge into complex practices of home- and church-making. Ann's organization of practices focused on her two goals: to establish a stable life in Burma and to participate in the birth of the Burmese church. As a foreigner, Ann sought good civic relations and the ability to openly spread Christianity with her practices of household economy and missionary diplomacy. As a missionary, Ann fashioned the practices of catechesis and community cultivation to connect and guide religious inquirers, and enable the agency and responsibility of Burmese converts within the congregation. Her theology of redemption and religious affections tinted every attempt to make sense of her environment, experience, and encounter, and she also crafted a theology of mission for the West in her historical account of the American Baptist Mission to Burma.

Our knowledge of the kinds of trauma people experience and the impact that it has has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years. Some margin of that knowledge has crossed over into the religious landscape, particularly about pastoral care and theology. This paper will take up the idea that preaching and, by extension, the other parts of the liturgy can be a part of reforming and healing the fractured imaginations of persons and communities who have experienced traumatic events, leading them to post-traumatic growth and thriving.My knowledge of preaching being far greater than my knowledge of trauma theory, my first priority was extensive research in that field; I studied how trauma impacts both individual bodies and whole communities, first utilizing Bessel van der Kolk and Judith Hermann, two established and well-regarded researchers. From there, I moved into source material from the medical field, finding significant intrigue in a 1688 dissertation from a medical library that was one of the first texts to describe the way traumatic events fracture imagination. Then I moved to experts in the field of preaching and worship – Will Willimon, Barbara Brown Taylor, Rick Lischer, Luke Powery, and more. It became clear that preaching is a vocation of words and imagination, and trauma’s chief impacts rob people of those very things. Thus, preachers have a critical role to play in the healing of their communities by providing shared, sacred language and a space to reintegrate broken imaginations.

This thesis examines the distinctive nature, specific struggles, and ultimately hopeful future of rural congregations in the United Methodist Church. Drawing from my experience pastoring various rural churches, I address a set of critical questions that every rural congregation faces: What factors allow certain congregations and their pastors to sustain and renew their mutual ministries while most other churches and ministers continue their perpetual decline? What particular constellation of approach, community, leadership, and mission enables a rural congregation to turn from loss toward growth? I argue that the pastor of a rural Methodist church, recognizing that God uses seemingly small things to accomplish great purposes, must fully embrace her call to a rural congregation, even though such an appointment is temporary and may seem less important than appointments to larger, more apparently “dynamic” congregations. To be fully present, the pastor must commit herself wholeheartedly to the congregation’s flourishing, and to learn to see and embrace the particular gifts and challenges that a rural church presents.

I make this argument by articulating six specific practices of faithful pastoral leadership in a rural church: (1) embracing the particular context of pastoral ministry, (2) cultivating the habit of active visitation, (3) establishing a broad context for preaching that goes beyond the pulpit, (4) re-envisioning leadership as a cooperative venture, (5) framing a congregation’s mission with attention to its particular gifts, and (6) promoting a culture of celebrating God’s work in the world. These six practices serve, in turn, as occasions to explore specific methods and tools unique to small rural churches, given their particular needs and gifts.

This thesis examines the distinctive nature, specific struggles, and ultimately hopeful future of rural congregations in the United Methodist Church. Drawing from my experience pastoring various rural churches, I address a set of critical questions that every rural congregation faces: What factors allow certain congregations and their pastors to sustain and renew their mutual ministries while most other churches and ministers continue their perpetual decline? What particular constellation of approach, community, leadership, and mission enables a rural congregation to turn from loss toward growth? I argue that the pastor of a rural Methodist church, recognizing that God uses seemingly small things to accomplish great purposes, must fully embrace her call to a rural congregation, even though such an appointment is temporary and may seem less important than appointments to larger, more apparently “dynamic” congregations. To be fully present, the pastor must commit herself wholeheartedly to the congregation’s flourishing, and to learn to see and embrace the particular gifts and challenges that a rural church presents.

I make this argument by articulating six specific practices of faithful pastoral leadership in a rural church: (1) embracing the particular context of pastoral ministry, (2) cultivating the habit of active visitation, (3) establishing a broad context for preaching that goes beyond the pulpit, (4) re-envisioning leadership as a cooperative venture, (5) framing a congregation’s mission with attention to its particular gifts, and (6) promoting a culture of celebrating God’s work in the world. These six practices serve, in turn, as occasions to explore specific methods and tools unique to small rural churches, given their particular needs and gifts.

In the United States of America more and more churches are including intentional organized missional outreach efforts as a part of their overall ministry. As this number continues to grow it becomes increasingly important to ensure that the leaders of these missional efforts are properly equipped to lead. This project examines some of the primary competencies (theological, missiological & practical) required to ensure that local church mission leaders are well-prepared for their work whether they are laity, clergy, volunteer or staff. The thesis begins by examining a theology of mission founded on the mission of the Trinitarian God (the missio Dei) who now sends humanity out in mission following the model of the incarnation empowered by God the Holy Spirit. This chapter draws from the work of theologians and missiologists while focusing primarily on the Bible. The next chapter considers several missiological principles that are vital for the work of local church mission leaders. The thesis concludes by suggesting a number of effective practices put into use by a number of current local church mission leaders. These were discovered by interviewing ten current United Methodist local church mission leaders regarding their approach to a number of practical missional leadership concerns (getting started, strategic approaches, leadership structure, funding model and short-term experiences). The thesis offers new and existing local church mission leaders a foundation to construct healthy local church mission ministries.

In the United States of America more and more churches are including intentional organized missional outreach efforts as a part of their overall ministry. As this number continues to grow it becomes increasingly important to ensure that the leaders of these missional efforts are properly equipped to lead. This project examines some of the primary competencies (theological, missiological & practical) required to ensure that local church mission leaders are well-prepared for their work whether they are laity, clergy, volunteer or staff. The thesis begins by examining a theology of mission founded on the mission of the Trinitarian God (the missio Dei) who now sends humanity out in mission following the model of the incarnation empowered by God the Holy Spirit. This chapter draws from the work of theologians and missiologists while focusing primarily on the Bible. The next chapter considers several missiological principles that are vital for the work of local church mission leaders. The thesis concludes by suggesting a number of effective practices put into use by a number of current local church mission leaders. These were discovered by interviewing ten current United Methodist local church mission leaders regarding their approach to a number of practical missional leadership concerns (getting started, strategic approaches, leadership structure, funding model and short-term experiences). The thesis offers new and existing local church mission leaders a foundation to construct healthy local church mission ministries.

Abstract

1.1 The Question/Problem:

The United Methodist Church in America is shrinking. In response to this truth, I researched historical practical divinity practices in America that grew and sustained the church in the past. Many of these practices are still applicable to serve our present age. How do we make converts in the most effective way to usher in the reign of God and represent an incarnational Christ to the world so that the world becomes Christian through social holiness practices and holy beliefs? Some theologians think practice makes perfect while others insist upon holy assurance for salvation. What practical practices work most excellently to serve our present age?

1.2 Methodology:

In this dissertation, I identify, examine, compare, and contrast applicable and historically consistent and effective practices employed by these church movements in the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries to gain new converts and produce church growth. The introduction explains my calling to address how to best serve our present age and expresses my interest in John Wesley, Charles Finney, Phoebe Palmer, and Elaine Heath.

In chapters 1 and 2, I begin with Charles Grandison Finney's New Measures as well as Phoebe Palmer's participation in the Holiness movement in the nineteenth century including theological opposition. Performing historical analysis on Finney's and Palmer's relative primary sources reveals their theology of call, scriptural emphasis, and social holiness practices. I identify the "New Measures" as promoted by Finney and Palmer as established by Wesley using primary and secondary sources.

In chapters 3 and 4, I examine modern day fresh expressions as well as Elaine Heath's missional communities, a movement designed to promote a way of life for new converts and church growth. I include Heath's primary sources and her analysis of Phoebe Palmer's theology. In addition, I interviewed Heath on her work and how it connects Finney, Palmer, fresh expressions, and missional communities to participate in God's reign for our day and time. I attended a Bible Study where she expounded on scripture that illustrates Jesus' missional ministry. I discussed the opposition to fresh expressions as a means of understanding orthodox theology and accepting innovation as Holy Spirit empowerment.

In chapter 5, my analysis compares and contrasts the new measures of the nineteenth century with the twenty-first century fresh expressions movement. I identify similarities and differences and address their innovation as a means to reveal successful evangelical church growth practices for present church leaders and communities that are sustaining over time for the purpose of making disciples to transform the world. Finally, I present the conclusion and analysis of my findings that successfully usher in the reign of God for practical divinity practices.

1.3 Conclusion:

At the age of ten, it was during a revival that the tongue of fire touched me and called me to accept Jesus as the only way to salvation, set me on the path of faithful discipleship, and planted within me a fire in my belly to transform the world and usher in the Kingdom of God. During my first appointment as a minister in a small rural church, my conference recognized my gifts for church growth. At their request, the Board of Global Ministries trained me to plant churches. My training and experience as a church planter, church revitalization training, and tenure on District and Conference Boards of Congregational Development have allowed me to participate in church revitalization, church plants, and experience the power of the Holy Spirit blowing at the will of God and growing the Church of Jesus Christ. All of the churches that I have served have consistently produced new converts and grown in discipleship. It is my experience that the historically effective church practices of the nineteenth century revealed by this research produce a healthy Body of Christ on earth that authentically replicates the ministry of Jesus and ushers in the reign of God in America and throughout the world.

In nineteenth century America, Finney's New Measures and Palmer's altar sanctification relied on Wesley's revival methods calling the American Church to radical change and theological overhaul, so that believers could become a people of method and service based in God's word. In the present age, fresh expressions and Elaine Heath call the church to a radical overhaul - a return to the model of Christianity as set forth by Christ and the apostles. This incarnational model is the bridge to the past that is Holy Spirit empowered, scripturally rooted, and affirms the call of laity and clergy, for the purpose of participating in social holiness that ushers in the reign of God in this present age. When we, the United Methodist Church, faithfully return to these practices, the Church of Jesus Christ will again grow and thrive so that it can follow Jesus, make disciples, and transform the world.

"Transformational Detours: A Journey with Lydia Through God’s Power Within" is a call for Christian leaders to return to the roots of their heritage and follow the example of Lydia, Paul’s first European convert and church leader, who was a worshipper of God, student of prayer, eager listener, responder to truth, and sharer of talents and resources. By engaging the scriptural imagination, this thesis uses an interdisciplinary method through the genre of epistles to weave together stories of scriptural figures, Wesleyan founders, and the author’s own experiences to provide a foundation upon which leaders may rediscover God’s power within as described in Ephesians 3:20 which “is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine.”

"Transformational Detours: A Journey with Lydia Through God’s Power Within" is a call for Christian leaders to return to the roots of their heritage and follow the example of Lydia, Paul’s first European convert and church leader, who was a worshipper of God, student of prayer, eager listener, responder to truth, and sharer of talents and resources. By engaging the scriptural imagination, this thesis uses an interdisciplinary method through the genre of epistles to weave together stories of scriptural figures, Wesleyan founders, and the author’s own experiences to provide a foundation upon which leaders may rediscover God’s power within as described in Ephesians 3:20 which “is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine.”