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Item Open Access 21st Century Ecumenism: The Local Church as a Model for Unity and Diversity in a Fragmented World(2023) Belinski, Charla WoodwardThis thesis introduces readers to the rich tradition of the ecumenical movementand explores how emerging new strategies can benefit congregations as well as facilitate healing in our fractured and divisive world. It argues that the same principles used in ecumenical dialogue can and should be used in the local church. First, the history and significant steps and missteps of the ecumenical movement are briefly examined, before turning to the contemporary strategies of receptive, spiritual and kenotic ecumenism. Then, the paper considers 21st century examples of thriving ecumenical ministries, including survey feedback that provides an intimate look at how one church (Snowmass Chapel) has committed itself to unity across various denominations. Finally, a process is provided for effective ecumenical leadership both within, and outside of, the local church context. Ecumenical work takes courageous leaders who are willing to acknowledge difference without judgement, listen deeply, and be committed to Christian unity in love. The ecumenical movement has made significant strides in the past century and half, yet it has not made a significant move into the local church. This thesis argues that by introducing the concept of ecumenism to local congregations, leaders can initiate change that has far-reaching impacts across all areas of life.
Item Open Access A Model for Church Revitalization: The Role and Treatment of Existing Older Congregants(2024) Green, Letisha DarleneThe startling consistent decline of church attendance in the United States has created a flurry of new church start activities and revitalization efforts. Most literature and efforts focus on what new things must happen to reverse the decline. In those efforts, older existing congregants are often overlooked and ignored, at best, or viewed as obstacles and the root of the problem, at worst. This leads to combative relationships between revitalization leaders and congregations caught in the crosshairs. This combative approach is inconsistent with the message of Christ and detrimental to the needed revitalization efforts.
This project seeks to introduce a model for the treatment and role of existing older congregants during a church’s revitalization. The model includes the treatments to Ascribe Value and to Optimize Minimal Change, and the twofold role to Engage in Ministry.
In my process, I engaged existing writing and research on church revitalization and aging in the church, applied acute theological perspectives to these writings, and provided real-life examples of how these insights can come together for a more complete treatment and engagement of existing older congregants in healthy and sustainable church revitalization.
Item Open Access A Restorative Model: Jeremiah's Prophetic Response to Displacement in Washington, D.C.(2022) Andujo, Juliano AbelinoABSTRACTThis thesis is offers exilic texts as the basis for restoration for communities traumatized by displacement. The scriptural focus for the thesis is Jeremiah 30-33, the Book of Restoration. The purpose of the thesis is to provide tools for inner-city pastors to navigate the opportunities and challenges of displacement caused by gentrification. The thesis is fueled by the contrast between numerous studies that report the benefits of gentrification versus its ills experienced as a pastoral witness of the machinery of displacement in the northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C. In Dr. Ellen Davis’ work on Jeremiah, she shows Jeremiah’s painful growth into his prophetic role. This growth occurs through laments or “protests addressed to God” thus making it possible to “lay claim to realistic hope.” This birth of hope is in the beginning of the book in Jeremiah 1:10, “See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant,” with building and planting as themes for Jeremiah 30-33. Dr. Davis further explicates hope’s placement. Hope finds a concrete place economically through Jeremiah’s land purchase (Chapter 32:6-15) and socially through community building (chapters 30 and 31). Building upon this work, my thesis concludes that Book of Restoration provides a relevant and effective model of restoration for today’s church.
Item Open Access “And Also with Your Spirit, Pastor”: Toward a Balanced Framework Designed to Forge, Cultivate, and Sustain Holy Friendships among Clergy(2021) Watson, William JamesOver 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.
Item Open Access “And Also with Your Spirit, Pastor”: Toward a Balanced Framework Designed to Forge, Cultivate, and Sustain Holy Friendships among Clergy(2021) Watson, William JamesOver 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.
Item Open Access Before the Next Storm: A Pastoral Approach to Conflict Transformation in the Local Church by Reviving the Old Testament’s Theological Language(2024) Kelley, Wesley GannonLocal churches suffer from insufficient preparedness for intragroup conflict. Thisproblem may be addressed fruitfully by pastors and their local church leaders when they encounter Old Testament narratives of intragroup conflict with their theological imaginations. With the working metaphor of storm preparation, the author examines how imaginative theological speech gives a constructive shape to the local church’s conflict cycles. Drawing from John Paul Lederach’s work on the role of the imagination in conflict transformation and the work of Brent Strawn on the Old Testament’s theological language, the author developed a Bible study that trains participating local church leaders in four elements of conflict preparedness: imaginative theological fluency, Lederach’s conflict transformation skillset, empathic practical wisdom, and the capacity to rehumanize an enemy. The Old Testament is an essential theological resource for the local church cultivating intragroup conflict preparedness, because the Old Testament itself contains many narratives of intragroup conflict as well as rich intertextual theological conversations that illustrate the productive intragroup tensions abiding within God’s people. A pastor may tap into these narratives and conversations creatively in this Bible study to develop participating leaders’ imaginative theological speech about conflict in their own lives. The quantitative and qualitative outcomes of this Bible study’s first iteration in the local church are analyzed and interpreted theologically in order to reimagine the storm metaphor itself. By intervening with the Old Testament’s theological speech during low-intensity phases of a conflict cycle, the pastor weatherproofs their local church leaders before the next storm.
Item Open Access Conceptualization of Health Among United Methodist Church Clergy in Western Kenya(2012) Georggi, Nicole AAbstract
INTRODUCTION
Clergy are a dynamic group of the population: they point people to God, navigate social and spiritual waters, provide advice and guidance, and teach and visit parishioners. Research has shown that caregivers often neglect their health to tend to the health and well-being of others. Because of their unique role in society, the health and well-being of the clergy themselves is an important subject of research. While clergy health is a growing topic of interest in the Western world, very little is known. The few studies conducted on the health of clergy have found that in some areas, this group is less healthy than the general population due to their hectic schedules, lacking social support, and job-related stressors. With the exception of the United States, Canada, and Great Britain, almost nothing has been studied internationally regarding clergy health. In Africa, religion is known to play an important role in the daily life of its inhabitants; however, the overall well-being of clergy including mental, spiritual, and physical health remains under-studied. To date, nothing has been reported regarding the health of pastors in Kenya. This exploratory study sought to better understand how United Methodist Church (UMC) clergy in Western Kenya conceptualize health and how that relates to their health seeking behaviors.
METHODS
This study partnered with religion and public health researchers at Moi University in Eldoret, Kenya, and utilized qualitative methodology to gather information on the conceptualization of health among UMC clergy in Western Kenya. One hour in-depth oral interviews with seven clergy and two Associate District Superintendents and four focus group discussions were conducted with a total of 52 United Methodist Church clergy in Nyanza Province, Kenya in June and July 2012.
ANALYSIS
All transcripts were entered into QSR International's NVivo 10 qualitative data analysis software and coded. Two members of the research team coded an in-depth oral interview and focus group transcription to ensure replicability. A combination of Grounded Theory (GT) analysis and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to interpret the data.
CONCLUSION
UMC clergy define health holistically as the complete well-being of a person in their mind, body, and spirit. Indigenous cultural traditions are still present within the UMC; pastors and parishioners will seek care from a magician rather than a medical doctor if they believe the disease stems from evil spirits. Religious beliefs relate to health seeking behavior in one of two ways: first, clergy believe God alone heals, and thereby view medical seeking behavior as unnecessary and second, clergy believe God alone heals, but view the doctor as a permitted conduit of healing. This knowledge learned from this exploratory study may help inform future interventions.
Item Open Access Explaining rural/non-rural disparities in physical health-related quality of life: a study of United Methodist clergy in North Carolina.(Qual Life Res, 2011-08) Miles, Andrew; Proescholdbell, Rae Jean; Puffer, EvePURPOSE: Researchers have documented lower health-related quality of life (HRQL) in rural areas. This study seeks to identify factors that can explain this disparity. METHODS: United Methodist clergy in North Carolina (N = 1,513) completed the SF-12 measure of HRQL and items on chronic disease diagnoses, health behaviors, and health care access from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS). Differences in HRQL between rural (N = 571) and non-rural clergy (N = 942) were examined using multiple regression analyses. RESULTS: Physical HRQL was significantly lower for rural clergy (-2.0; 95% CI: -2.9 to -1.1; P < 0.001). Income, body mass index, and joint disease partially accounted for the rural/non-rural difference, though a sizable disparity remained after controlling for these mediators (-1.02; 95% CI: -1.89 to -.15; P = 0.022). Mental HRQL did not differ significantly between rural and non-rural respondents (1.0, 95% CI: -0.1 to 2.1; P = 0.067). CONCLUSIONS: Rural/non-rural disparities in physical HRQL are partially explained by differences in income, obesity, and joint disease in rural areas. More research into the causes and prevention of these factors is needed. Researchers also should seek to identify variables that can explain the difference that remains after accounting for these variables.Item Open Access Exploring Shame and Guilt When it Matters Most: How Our Reactions to Personally Relevant Transgressions Relate to Well-Being or Distress(2013) Barnard, LauraAfter the committing of an error or transgression, some people are prone to experience shame (they feel badly about themselves) and some are prone to experience guilt (they tend to feel badly about their action or inaction). Although a sizable number of researchers have examined how shame and guilt relate to distress or health, the field knows very little about whether persons are more prone to shame or whether shame is more strongly associated with distress when the error is particularly relevant to the offender's sense of self. The current research aims to address this significant gap in the literature.
One domain in which people's self-view and sense of worth is often heightened is their work or vocation. Clergy have been shown to collapse who they are with what they do or are called to do in their role as pastor. Therefore, a measure that uses failures that clergy may experience in their role was created to examine how this domain specific shame and guilt relate to general shame and guilt, positive and negative affect, and clergy burnout.
Student pastors generated items for the new scale of domain specific shame and guilt. Seminary students completed questionnaires online and were asked to complete the new measure again one month later to establish test-retest reliability. Factor analyses were run to examine the structure of the shame and guilt scales. A secondary factor analysis found that the four guilt factors all loaded onto one second-order factor and the three shame factors all loaded onto another second-order factor. Cronbach's alpha and test-retest reliability were strong. Construct validity was established. Next, United Methodist clergy completed measure by pen and paper or online.
Overall the data demonstrate that higher shame, both in ministry situations and in secular situations, was significantly associated with higher negative affect among seminarians and less satisfaction and more emotional exhaustion in ministry among clergy. Contrary to expectations, seminarians and clergy were not more prone to ministry shame nor was ministry shame more strongly associated with clergy burnout than was general proneness to shame.
Item Open Access Getting Carried Away: Preaching Jeremiah 32 as a Theological Framework Toward Reimagining Community and Economic Development as Prophetic Witness for Fairfield Baptist Church.(2024) Vickers, Sr. , EricThis project focuses on the praxis of prophetic preaching from Jeremiah 32 as the impetus for introducing, inspiring, mobilizing, and launching a community development corporation through the life of Fairfield Baptist Church of Redan in Lithonia, Georgia. The work of this thesis presents a personal account of prophetic preaching misrepresentation, recontextualization of prophetic preaching through academic grounding, historical and contemporary models, three original sermons preached from Jeremiah 32 as Theo-practical framing, and the challenges and opportunities for Fairfield to develop a CDC. The thesis attempts to outline the historical challenges and disparities for African-American communitieswhile seeking to lift the church as the vehicle for both spiritual change and social transformation. Pertinent to this work is the thorough investigation of what it means to live out the work of prophetic preaching and ministry. What is prophetic preaching? Why is Jeremiah the paradigmatic prophet? What is the telos of prophetic preaching for African-American communities and churches? How should prophetic preaching affect Fairfield Baptist Church of Redan?
Item Open Access If Lee Kuan Yew Were A Pastor: Reflections on Lee's Relevance for Christian Leaders(2020) Sudharman, Joshua ShaamPastors, 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.
Item Open Access Inequality within Congregations and Congregations’ Response to Inequality: Studies of Gender and Mental Health, Race and Mental Health, and Participation in the Sanctuary Movement(2021) Holleman, AnnaThis dissertation aims to address the ways that American religious congregations and religious leaders respond to and are formed within the context of a society marked by inequality. Specifically, I study: (1) the ways that the stress of the pastorate, and the ways that clergy respond to those stressors, is shaped by gender; (2) the ways that the racial make-up of religious congregations relate to the mental health of Black church-goers; and (3) the ways that white liberal religious leaders talk about race and racial inequality during our current period of ferment about race in America. To do so, I use three primary sources of information: (1) the Clergy Health Initiative Statewide Panel Survey of United Methodist Clergy, a longitudinal study of all UMC clergy in North Carolina from 2008-2019; (2) the linked General Social Survey and National Congregations Study dataset, a representative repeated cross-sectional sample of individuals and the religious congregations they attend in 2006, 2012, and 2018; and (3) 41 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with leaders from 41 religious congregations from across the United States that housed an undocumented individual in their congregational space during the Trump era Sanctuary Movement, conducted in 2020. I find that clergywomen are potentially more resilient than their male colleagues at processing occupational stress; that Black individuals who attend predominantly white and liberal congregations report better mental health than Black individuals who attend predominantly non-white congregations; and that, in line with recent quantitative research, white liberals’ rhetoric concerning race seems less colorblind than it used to be but, moving beyond the recent quantitative evidence, it remains complex and continues to perpetuate some features of racist discourse. These findings contribute to the sociology of religion, and they connect to important debates concerning gender, health, occupations, social stratification, and social movements.
Item Open Access IS HUMAN PREDATION ON OTHER SPECIES AN ACCOMMODATION OF THE FALL OF CREATION OR PART OF GOD’S INTENDED PLAN FOR CREATION?(2021) Sandoval, Joseph ArmandoThe scriptural witness has indications that it is acceptable to kill animals for food but also indicates that originally human beings were vegetarians and will be yet again when this world is claimed as part of God’s kingdom. This thesis offers a theological analysis of the practice of humans eating animals. Is it an accommodation of humanity’s fallenness after their expulsion from the Garden? Or is it part of God’s design for the world? An in-depth look at the whole of scripture is employed for arguing both sides. Additionally, the thesis offers comparative analysis of a variety of theological approaches to animal rights and animal welfare. The thesis considers scientific revelations about animal’s cognitive abilities for language and problem solving, as well as recent studies on animal grief in order to re-assess the underlying question of ethical relationship between animals and humans. The thesis argues that God has put humanity in a set of circumstances which are meant to encourage understanding of animals as part of its own growth. Specifically, human growth toward the role of being a stewards of creation, that is to say nurturers and not exploiters of God’s creatures. Fallenness is not the issue. But growth is. Thus the provision that allows humanity to kill and eat animals is afforded, while humans still require the ability to kill animals for their own sustenance. What awaits is a time when humanity and animals are in peaceful community with each other, with no death or violence in the world and a full realization of the image of God in humanity.
Item Open Access IS HUMAN PREDATION ON OTHER SPECIES AN ACCOMMODATION OF THE FALL OF CREATION OR PART OF GOD’S INTENDED PLAN FOR CREATION?(2021) Sandoval, Joseph ArmandoThe scriptural witness has indications that it is acceptable to kill animals for food but also indicates that originally human beings were vegetarians and will be yet again when this world is claimed as part of God’s kingdom. This thesis offers a theological analysis of the practice of humans eating animals. Is it an accommodation of humanity’s fallenness after their expulsion from the Garden? Or is it part of God’s design for the world? An in-depth look at the whole of scripture is employed for arguing both sides. Additionally, the thesis offers comparative analysis of a variety of theological approaches to animal rights and animal welfare. The thesis considers scientific revelations about animal’s cognitive abilities for language and problem solving, as well as recent studies on animal grief in order to re-assess the underlying question of ethical relationship between animals and humans. The thesis argues that God has put humanity in a set of circumstances which are meant to encourage understanding of animals as part of its own growth. Specifically, human growth toward the role of being a stewards of creation, that is to say nurturers and not exploiters of God’s creatures. Fallenness is not the issue. But growth is. Thus the provision that allows humanity to kill and eat animals is afforded, while humans still require the ability to kill animals for their own sustenance. What awaits is a time when humanity and animals are in peaceful community with each other, with no death or violence in the world and a full realization of the image of God in humanity.
Item Open Access Out of the Pew and into the Pulpit: Empowering Women Clergy to Proclaim the Gospel in the 21st Century(2010-06-07T15:51:40Z) Olson, HeatherSince the 1950s, women have made significant strides toward gender equality in the workplace. However, they often encounter greater resistance when entering into leadership roles, both in becoming a leader in the first place as well as in leading itself. Women have met even greater opposition when leading in the church. Female clergy in all denominations need support and encouragement from their surrounding environment as well as knowledge of what to expect in order to be empowered to effectively proclaim the Gospel.Item Open Access Overflowing and Intermingling: Augustine, Preaching, Relationality, and the Spirit(2024) Melton, Andrew OwenSome recent trends in homiletics have begun to move beyond postmodern questions to postcolonial questions. One primary concern shared among many contemporary homileticians, and especially articulated by postcolonial homileticians, is “relationality.” How can diverse peoples with diverse histories interacting through a variety of power dynamics truly relate to one another? How can those people relate to God and God’s word, especially as God’s word is proclaimed through preaching by a human being who is caught up in those power dynamics? These questions touch on the relationality of bodies, minds, and teaching; they explore anthropology, epistemology, and practical theology. However, the issues at the heart of relationality are not new. This thesis explores the homiletical theory and practice of St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 CE), with a view toward how Augustine anticipates some of the core questions of relationality raised in the 21st century. The first chapter synthesizes contemporary questions of relationality and suggests why Augustine is an apt conversation partner for these questions. The body of the thesis (chs. 2—4) focuses on a close reading of Augustine’s treatise, De Doctrina Christiana, and select sermons, through the lenses of the questions synthesized in ch. 1. The final chapter brings the insights gained from chs. 2—4 back into conversation with three contemporary sermons, each preached by a postcolonial homiletician. By setting Augustine’s sermons alongside contemporary sermons, this thesis seeks to show that there is much to draw on in the historic Christian tradition to help answer contemporary homiletical questions. Ultimately, it will be argued that Augustine’s way of interweaving various characteristics of bodies, minds, and teaching and his crucial reliance on the Holy Spirit to hold together the overflowing and intermingling relational dynamics of the preaching event outline a way of preaching relationally in both the 5th and the 21st centuries.
Item Open Access Pastoral Ministry in Unsettled Times: A Qualitative Study of the Experiences of Clergy During the COVID-19 Pandemic.(Review of religious research, 2021-08-06) Johnston, Erin F; Eagle, David E; Headley, Jennifer; Holleman, AnnaBackground
COVID-19 and its associated restrictions around in-person gatherings have created unprecedented challenges for religious congregations and those who lead them. While several surveys have attempted to describe how pastors and congregations responded to COVID-19, these provide a relatively thin picture of how COVID-19 is impacting religious life. There is scant qualitative data describing the lived reality of religious leaders and communities during the pandemic.Purpose and methods
This paper provides a more detailed look at how pastors and congregations experienced and responded to COVID-19 and its associated restrictions in the early period of the pandemic. To do so, we draw from 26 in-depth interviews with church-appointed United Methodist pastors conducted between June and August 2020. Pastors were asked to describe how their ministry changed as a result of COVID-19 and interviews were analyzed using applied thematic analysis approaches to identify the most common emergent themes.Results
Pastors reported that COVID-19 fundamentally unsettled routine ways of doing ministry. This disruption generated both challenges and opportunities for clergy and their congregations. In the findings, we describe how clergy responded in key areas of ministry-worship and pastoral care-and analyze how the pandemic is (re)shaping the way that clergy understood their role as pastors and envisioned the future of the Church. We argue for the value of examining the pandemic as an "unsettled" cultural period (Swidler 1986) in which religious leaders found creative ways to (re)do ministry in the context of social distancing. Rather than starting from scratch, we found that pastors drew from and modified existing symbolic and practical tools to fit pandemic-related constraints on religious life. Notably, however, we found that "redoing" ministry was easier and more effective in some areas (worship) than others (pastoral care).Conclusions and implications
The impact of COVID-19 on pastors and congregations is complex and not fully captured by survey research. This study provides a baseline for investigating similarities and differences in the responses of pastors within and across denominations and traditions. It also provides a baseline for assessing whether changes in ministry implemented during the early stages of the pandemic remain in place in the post-COVID world.Item Open Access Preaching for Post-Traumatic Growth and Healing: Preaching and Worship After Communal Trauma(2023) Chapman, Emily LaurenOur 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.
Item Open Access Present Reality and Future Possibilities for the Rural United Methodist Church(2021) Kim, Ui YeonThis 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.
Item Open Access Present Reality and Future Possibilities for the Rural United Methodist Church(2021) Kim, Ui YeonThis 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.