Browsing by Subject "Spirituality"

This 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.

Hilma af Klint, an oft-cited but underresearched Swedish artist, is often included in art historical literature on art and spirituality. And yet, the assumed art world affinity between Swedish artist Hilma af Klint and other leading voices on the topic – above all, the Austrian philosopher and esotericist Rudolf Steiner and Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky – demonstrates an urgency to place af Klint within a framework she doesn’t quite belong. This has subsequently led to a misunderstanding of her complexity as an artist and the broader question of spirituality and art. A lack of thorough visual analysis of her early works in much of the secondary scholarship, in addition to the absence of archival research, allows for these speculative claims. However, attending to a closer analysis of her visual imagery as well as available archival information questions the supposed affiliation of af Klint in particular to the assumed work of Steiner. The accepted narrative of af Klint’s relationship to Steiner claims he negatively impacted her works between the years 1908 and 1912. I employ analog, digital, and historical methods to explore this interesting albeit problematic encounter between af Klint and Steiner. These methods afford the opportunity to consider these connections in new and different ways. Analog, digital, and historical methods establish that the Steiner narrative in much of the secondary literature can only be understood as speculative. In addition, digital methods afford an opportunity to analyze this particular moment anew with the assistance of interactive data visualization software and text analytics systems. These systems not only indicate that there was no shift in her iconography before 1908 and after 1912, but also demonstrate the importance of re-evaluating this particular moment in af Klint’s life.

In this dissertation, I analyze the critical, creative, and personal work of Toni Morrison, Hortense Spillers, and Alice Walker in order to suggest that spirituality can be a useful component of Black feminist self-repair. Within the scope of Black women’s literary history, I argue that Morrison, Spillers, and Walker each functioned as three figures from Afrodiasporic spiritual traditions: the griot, the conjurer, and the medium, respectively. This project contends that there is significant overlap between spirituality and magic, the latter of which is defined as the use of ritual activities or observances which are intended to influence the course of events or to manipulate the natural world. In the context of this project, I interpret “magic” as a collection of stylistic choices, inherited traditions, and behaviors that enable Black Americans to repair the psychic, physical, and emotional damage that has been internalized in the wake of the transatlantic slave trade and Jim Crow segregation. This practice of self-repair through magic draws on ritual activities and observances that exist within both Afrodiasporic spiritual traditions as well as a body of Black feminist literary knowledge that has been passed down through generations of Black women writers. I contend that Black Americans’ ability to perform self-repair through spirituality is a practice of world-making that is rooted in Black feminist thought.

This thesis seeks to demonstrate that by intentionally integrating Christian-based movies and shows, faith leaders can encourage members of their communities to initiate, establish, grow, and sustain a relationship with Jesus Christ. Visual arts and the ingenuity the genre offers in reaching people spiritually, psychologically, and informatively need to be explored and presented as a resource for spiritual formation. This thesis seeks to provide a practical understanding of how Christian-based films have the potential to be practiced as a spiritual discipline for spiritual growth and to cultivate a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ. As a spiritual discipline, the storytelling through film can stimulate an internal response to nurture disciples and make more disciples as Christ commissioned. In my research, findings, and analysis, I will provide the spiritual and film formation foundations and spiritual discipleship strategies to use Christian-based films in spiritual formation.

Throughout the life of the Church, certain habits have been cultivated to shape the identity of its community and deepen our communion with God. We see in the writings of the Desert Fathers that attentiveness is one habit that people of faith have taken care to cultivate to better connect with God. Contemporary of the Desert Fathers, Saint Augustine, also speaks to attentiveness and its relation to time. What both the Desert writers and Augustine understand is that our ability to connect with God depends on our ability to be attentive in the present moment.

This thesis will argue that an embodied, present attentiveness is foundational to a relationship with God; furthermore, given the patterns of attention developed around Wireless Mobile Devices (i.e. smartphones) and the strong pull on its users for their constant interaction, I argue that the practices created around these devices do in fact hinder one's ability to connect with God, despite their other potential for good. The thesis employs qualitative research in the form of literature reviews. First, drawing from the practices of the Desert Fathers and Augustine's understanding of the relationship between time, memory, and knowledge of God, I make a case for the discipline of embodied attentiveness to the present moment as foundational to our relationship with God. I then draw from current psychological, sociological and anthropological insights to model how the current technological landscape places particular pressures on an embodied present attentiveness, with specific focus on the Wireless Mobile Device (WMD), commonly known as the smartphone. Finally, I place in conversation the findings from these reviews; leading to an assessment on the patterns technology creates around attentiveness.

People are becoming increasingly aware and concerned that the Internet and Wireless Mobile Devices are not neutral mediums and consistent exposure (and use) of these mediums is affecting us. We will see in this thesis that not only are habits of communication shifting, but also we are literally being rewired as our neural pathways are firing into uncharted territory. While psychological, sociological, and philosophical assessments of communication technologies and the self are critical to understand various implications on attentiveness, the goal of this thesis is to articulate the practices that the use of Wireless Mobile Devices cultivates regarding attentiveness through a theological lens.

As we begin to understand the concerns of the Saints who have gone before us, combined with understanding the shifting landscape of technology as it pertains to attentiveness, we can imagine why it is that the Church ought to be concerned with the continued cultivation of the discipline of attentiveness. Rather than simply "sounding the alarm" that technology is detrimental to our spiritual formation, however, this thesis will attempt to help the Church have a more nuanced understanding of why social media inhibits our ability to be attentive, as it examines to what end (telos) our attention is being drawn. After developing a more robust understanding of why a present, embodied attentiveness is foundational to our relationship with God, we will be able to enter into conversations regarding social media that are nuanced beyond it having "positive" and "negative" effects.

This study takes an interdisciplinary approach to examine the relationship

between sport and spiritual formation. By inviting to the conversation contributions

from sociological research, personal narratives, biblical themes and philosophical

arguments, it aims to examine how voluntary suffering in sport could provide a context

conducive to spiritual growth. Rather than look at physical engagement in sport and

spiritual formation as unrelated domains of pursuit, we will map the contours where the

two converge and even stimulate one another. We will analyze courage as a unique

quality fit for cultivation in suffering, and positions it as an integral part of living out

faith, hope and love. This study seeks to address the rigidity that is prevalent in the way

Christians think of spirituality and deepen the conversation as it relates to formative

frameworks in athletics.

There are more slaves on planet earth right now than at any other point in history. This thesis works to highlight the reality of human trafficking, share stories of victims and survivors, study the canon of Scripture proving that this conversation matters to God, hear from experts currently engaged in this work, and offer practical options for individuals and churches to join in the fight to end human trafficking. I believe Christians should be leading the charge to advocate, legislate, and do something about modern day slavery. This is a criminal empire that is seemingly in the dark, but it is hidden in plain sight. My prayer is that this thesis shines a light on the atrocity that is human trafficking. The primary methodology of this thesis includes the sharing of testimonies, stories, and realities that others have produced and shared over the last several decades. In the grand scheme of the world, this topic has not been widely discussed or written about. In order to honor those currently doing this work, I labored to include a wide variety of resources that shine a light on human trafficking. This underscores the scope of the issue while engaging with other voices in the conversation. I will begin by offering an accurate assessment of what trafficking is and looks like. I will highlight why this should matter to Christians and churches by engaging Scripture, theologians of the past and present, and existing scholarly work. I will then interview leaders from three different organizations about the work they do and what their suggestions would be for individuals and churches to be engaged in the fight against trafficking. Finally, I will take all of this data and research and conclude by offering my recommendations for individuals and churches to make a difference in their neighborhoods, communities, country, and the world. I believe this project is feasible, manageable, and needed by our society. I believe it will make a difference, and lives will be saved because of it.

My MFAEIP thesis project represents an interdisciplinary integration of spirituality and dance. This thesis is based on a 40-min live performance, animated by my ongoing questioning of how innate spirituality in dance is being suppressed. This claim is, evidenced by the disappearance of numerous sacred dances, the growing emphasis on technical and practical proficiency in dance education and performance, and dance being constrained by a standardized and specific aesthetic. I have personally experienced the suppression of dance education in China, through corporal punishment, and verbal abuse,INFINITE INFANT strives to peel off constraints such as preconceived notions of beauty, prescribed movement patterns, or concern for an audience's preference. My movement praxis, in contrast, seeks to locate the spiritual core of dance by allowing and waiting for unforced and unrestricted movements to emerge. Through my humble perspectives, writings, and performances, I'm trying to call on the audience to rethink dance's meaning, form, and existence while evoking empathy and general reflection on the dance field.

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.

On January 16, 2016, I was installed as the pastor of Cary First Christian Church in Cary, NC. Cary First Christian Church was founded in 1868 as a congregationalist congregation for the African American community in Cary, NC. Since then, the church has sought to be a relevant community presence by addressing the challenges that face the surrounding community. As a pastor, I sought to build upon this legacy to be communally engaged by introducing a vision to the congregation to complete the design production of a community senior center and affordable housing complex that would seek to serve seniors, especially those who identify as low to moderate-income, African American, and Latino/Latinx, in the Cary Community.

This thesis will examine the theological framework that supported my pastoral vision of community development by drawing on a historical analysis of the ecclesiology of the Black Church, demonstrating the need for senior affordable housing in Cary, NC, and highlighting the ministry practices utilized to inspire collective participation in this vision. This thesis will demonstrate how a contextual exegesis of one’s context is essential in understanding the local community's needs, the congregation's capacity, and the network of resources available to determine a possible solution to a problem.

In the case of Cary First Christian Church, the problem was rising housing costs and the elimination of seniors aging in place. This problem was identified through members of the Cary First Christian Church serving seniors through a meal delivery program and witnessing the need for ongoing services to assist seniors in aging in place. Such a problem mirrors that of those in the early church, where members of the faith community needed vital resources, such as access to food and shelter. The New Testament church demonstrated intentional and organized support for those in need. Communities of faith should take a learning journey to determine how they can be sites of hospitality - meeting the needs of the most vulnerable. While some communities are not always willing to express radical hospitality - relinquishing control and being open to the improvisational move of the Holy Spirit, when communities commit themselves to being sites of hospitality, we begin to see the abundance of resources that are connected to us. This spirit inspired Cary First Christian Church as we recognized that we were blessed with assets that might be able to be deployed to help meet critical housing needs for seniors in our community.

Pope Francis’ 2015 social encyclical Laudato si’ provides a challenging, helpful, and timely lens through which to view this cultural moment. By analyzing the reception of this encyclical, its structure and sources, and its resonances among others, this thesis argues that Pope Francis’ target of his critique of the current state of our world is what he calls “the technocratic paradigm.” This paradigm, with its historical antecedents and metaphysical underpinnings, is incongruous with the way of seeing and acting that is more rooted in our Christian tradition. Pope Francis entices the Church to live out its distinct tradition with a renewed rigor. With the guidance of this encyclical, this thesis wrestles with the power and ubiquity of the technological paradigm and the saturation of our everyday lives with its products, procedures, and practices. Neither option of blessing the technocratic paradigm as a gift from God nor rejecting it as pure evil is plausible, but providing a constructive lens to think through the current cultural moment is necessary. Many of the faithful remain distracted and abstracted from the places where they live and the people with whom they interact, and as a consequence, many express a hunger for a deeper and more meaningful engagement with life. Through dialogue with a number of contemporary authors, this project will point to some specific practices that might comprise a new spirituality for today.

This dissertation makes sense of New Age healing practices and the spiritual currents undergirding the increasingly popular landscape of alternative healthcare. To do so, it argues, we must first determine its material ontology – the conception of materiality that shapes how New Agers understand and interact with the world around them, especially as it pertains to healing the human body using metaphysical tools. As such, it uses archival research, film analysis, and ethnography in the San Francisco Bay Area to uncover the development, not of the New Age religiosity or spirituality per se, but of its material ontology. What emerges is the primacy of musings about virtual matter, things unseen but nevertheless real as they are felt, evoked, and experienced. Things such as quantum phenomena, code, digital content, cosmic energies, chakras, auras, and ancestral DNA resonances. Within these musings lies the close relationship between techno-scientific advancements and metaphysical pursuits, which is why this dissertation is structured around exploring how quantum physics, computing, and cybertechnologies shape the New Age experience. In the New Age material ontology, the microscopic, the digital, and the supernatural can cooperate and be willed to heal, since all belong to a realm of virtuality that interacts with the physical world. This is possible because virtual matter is just matter hidden from the ocular sense, and all matter is subject to human will. Methodologically, this dissertation centralizes the human diversity within the New Age with a focused case study of Iranian-American healers, whose prominent presence in the alternative healthcare landscape demonstrates the importance of including immigrant communities in studies of American religion and culture, the diversity of New Age spirituality, and the prominence of racialized bodies in a movement largely known for being post-racial, universal, and progressive. Iranians also highlight healing in terms of their various subjectivities (national, political, and racial) and existential ailments, adding “homeland” and “lineage” the repertoire of virtual matter as metaphysical limbs of the body. Ultimately, this research contributes to the study of American religions, the anthropology of the body, science and technology studies, and inter-disciplinary conversations about materiality and the human condition.

This dissertation examines fictional representations of Argentine and Spanish authoritarianism from the position of exiled, traumatized and/or marginalized subjects. Though the primary texts and films engage questions of terror, trauma and repression from the 1930s to 80s in Spain and Argentina they stand out from works made within these contexts (that is, works lacking spatial and/or temporal distance) by focusing on how and to what extent individual and collective rebirth can arise from the ashes of terror, exile and oblivion. On the one hand, these works explore the ways in which authoritarian terror and repression maintain and are maintained psychologically, historically and ideologically in these cultures by a series of artificial separations between self and other, fantasy and reality, history and fiction, female and male, desire and responsibility, the spiritual and material, plurality and unity, the past and the future. On the other hand, these works suggest that it is by confronting the repressed authoritarian past through pluralistic, fictional, "exilic" retellings that these binaries may be transcended and that identity, history and reality itself may be radically re-membered.

In effect, the capacity to "re-member", which is revealed to be essentially synonymous with the act of "rebirth", demands a confrontation with the past that is every bit as dependent on "fantastic retellings" of both reality and fiction as it is on history or reality--to the same degree, in fact, that the realization of the self is contingent on an encounter with radical alterity. The various forms of monstrosity, exile and ambiguity that coalesce within these films and texts not only enable this to happen, but they imply that the creation of the primary work depends as much on its audience as it does on its author. Accordingly, the ethical processes these works establish, through narrative layering, ambiguity and other techniques, occur not only within the films and texts but in the outer relationships and responses they elicit from their readers or viewers.

Thus, the processes of exile and rebirth that these works establish can only be fully appreciated in dialogue with their audiences (via a "narrative ethics"), with history and with theories ranging from feminism to mysticism to psychoanalysis (drawing on Jacques Lacan, Julia Kristeva, Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud) to ethical philosophers, in particular, Emmanuel Levinas. In my endeavor to stimulate this dialogue, in which I both build on and depart from these theories, I reveal how and why "exile" fiction has become such a crucial medium for refiguring "identity"--a term which itself becomes inseparable from spirituality. Accordingly, spirituality is not detached from reality or fantasy, but rather buried in the repressed identities and memories that, when exposed through the "monstrous ambiguities" of fiction, reveal an indestructible bond between self and other, desire and responsibility, fantasy and reality, among other dichotomies.

At the same time that these works offer positive models of spirituality, rebirth, and re-membering, they incisively critique the repressive ways in which religion and specifically, Christianity, have been manipulated, in conjunction with authoritarian paradigms, to terrifying, repressive, "sacrificial" ends. More generally, all of these works, notwithstanding their "timeless" and exilic dimensions, represent pivotal moments in Spanish and Argentine history while at the same time revealing innate links or analogies between authoritarianism and religious doctrine. On the other hand, the timeless, placeless, exilic nature of these works helps shed light on the growing and global importance of exile film and literature as well as the correspondingly great and ever-growing need to re-examine the lost, buried and terrifying past that they re-member.

How do readers regain their enthusiasm for reading Scripture when what they are reading does not relate to their life’s circumstances? With all the competing voices in the world today, readers find it challenging to read the Bible when what they read is distant from their realities. Some readers have even said they prefer other spiritual books above the Bible. This paper addresses the phenomena of disengagement that is growing amongst Christian readers and looks into ways, particularly relational hermeneutics in which readers can gain renewal in reading for self-understanding, commitments, and practices.

This paper will ask the reader to make a commitment to relocating themselves in the text while paying attention to their own circumstances, emphasizing the importance of building a relationship with the text that translates into relational hermeneutics. This paper will intentionally move away from Eurocentric hermeneutics with the intent of engaging the term relational hermeneutics as an African American woman’s approach that invites readers to reframe their accounts into meaningful stories. Examining the traditional understanding of hermeneutics and cases involving hermeneutics readers can commit to “relocating” their own stories in biblical narratives that help to facilitate their readings - giving the reader the responsibility of renewing their relationship with Christ through relational Biblical stories. Additionally, this paper highlights relational hermeneutics as an African American woman’s approach and concludes with an African American woman’s account of doing relational hermeneutics that resulted in renewal. Hopefully readers can follow this approach with the intent of achieving similar results.

How do readers regain their enthusiasm for reading Scripture when what they are reading does not relate to their life’s circumstances? With all the competing voices in the world today, readers find it challenging to read the Bible when what they read is distant from their realities. Some readers have even said they prefer other spiritual books above the Bible. This paper addresses the phenomena of disengagement that is growing amongst Christian readers and looks into ways, particularly relational hermeneutics in which readers can gain renewal in reading for self-understanding, commitments, and practices.

This paper will ask the reader to make a commitment to relocating themselves in the text while paying attention to their own circumstances, emphasizing the importance of building a relationship with the text that translates into relational hermeneutics. This paper will intentionally move away from Eurocentric hermeneutics with the intent of engaging the term relational hermeneutics as an African American woman’s approach that invites readers to reframe their accounts into meaningful stories. Examining the traditional understanding of hermeneutics and cases involving hermeneutics readers can commit to “relocating” their own stories in biblical narratives that help to facilitate their readings - giving the reader the responsibility of renewing their relationship with Christ through relational Biblical stories. Additionally, this paper highlights relational hermeneutics as an African American woman’s approach and concludes with an African American woman’s account of doing relational hermeneutics that resulted in renewal. Hopefully readers can follow this approach with the intent of achieving similar results.

ABSTRACT

This thesis explores the issue of burnout in congregational settings. Unmanaged stress in a system is a cause of burnout. Individuals can feel burnout, but a systemic approach is needed to prevent and address burnout. Christina Maslach and Michael P. Leiter believe burnout is a relationship problem. Requiring a relational solution This thesis will examine a congregation’s relationship to the world, work, and church. A relationship reset is needed to prevent and address burnout.

The thesis unfolds in five moves. The first move explores the relationship between burnout and the world. It seeks to answer the question, what cultural realities contribute to the experience of burnout? In conversation with Charles Taylor, Andy Root believes we live in a secular age when the drive to seek a distorted idea of the good life “the good life” is constant and overwhelming. Root contends that the problem arises from the constant drive to seek the good life and from the speeding up of time itself. Root builds upon Taylor’s theory of the secular age using the work of Hartmut Rosa; he claims congregations are living in an age of acceleration which produces an epidemic of “time-famine” in modernity. Rosa concludes that acceleration causes alienation, experienced as isolation in many forms. Root concludes that the time-sickness of modernity causes depression. I conclude that times-sickness additionally causes burnout identified by exhaustion, disengagement, and ineffectiveness. The second move of the thesis explores burnout as a mismatch of relationships between people and their work. Christina Maslach and Michael P. Leiter suggest burnout is a systemic problem, not a personal one. Maslach and Leiter’s research defines burnout as a mismatch between people and work. The cost of caring can lead to exhaustion, disengagement, and ineffectiveness. Maslach and Leiter not only diagnose the problem of burnout but suggest how organizations can prevent burnout through engagement and empathy. The third movement of the thesis explores burnout as a systemic issue in which better matches can be made between people and their relationship to work. The fourth move explores the relationship between burnout and the church. Hartmut Rosa suggests resonance is the only antidote to the problem of the accelerated pace of modern life. Rosa defines resonance as a connection involving meaning and transformation. Andrew Root concludes that a theological understanding of resonance involves waiting as action, as the church waits for an encounter with God. I challenge Root's call for waiting and instead call for a current deepening of relationships in a congregational setting. The fifth and final move explores the need to reclaim relationships in the church as canopies of community through resonant leadership to manage burnout in a congregation. Sociologist Peter Burger wrote that religion provided a sacred canopy in the reality of a chaotic and secular world. How can congregations reclaim resonant relationships to prevent burnout as they work in the world? The Bible never uses the word burnout, though scripture offers examples of congregations facing exhaustion, disengagement, and perhaps feeling ineffective. The Apostle Paul writes to the church at Rome, facing divisions and obstacles in a chaotic world. Paul appeals to the church at Rome to create new relationships with each other and the world. He points to the image of a body working in tandem, believing each part is vital for the work of the system. Ultimately, the Apostle Paul, called by God, knows the church's work is too exhausting to do solo. In the 16th chapter of Romans, Paul names parts of the body like Phoebe and Junia who assist him in the work of God. How can the church reclaim the necessity and importance of relational leadership to prevent burnout in congregations? How can congregations move from burnout to engagement?

A precise definition for Christian spiritual formation is elusive and how it is described varies from one faith tradition to another. It also varies over periods of time, as a faith community meets the challenges which they encounter. One of the primary roles of pastoral leaders is to “make disciples” of Jesus Christ by communicating and embedding the essentials of the Christian faith into the lives of congregants and to evaluate the spiritual formation process, which guides them into spiritual maturity. Historically, methodologies concerning Christian spiritual formation have approached spiritual development in one of three ways: through ideas, through embodied habits and practices, or a combination of both.

This thesis traces spiritual formation in the African American Baptist tradition from the early twentieth century to modern time by using a typology which describes the combination of African American Baptist religious thoughts and ideas as well as the spiritual habits and practices they embodied. The spiritual formation types discussed are social, evangelical, and contemplative. Each spiritual formation type offers its own fundamental precepts from Christian Scripture, tradition, and doctrine and guides spiritual development towards a specific destination or purpose. The primary context for this research is African American Baptist churches; however, it will be drawing upon resources from the wider scope of Baptists in America and American Christianity. The questions raised in this thesis are whether there is a typology for spiritual formation that describes African American Baptist spirituality and is there a way to discern the spiritual formation types as useful indicators for guiding pastoral leadership, administration, and management. This thesis makes connections between the spiritual formation types and biblical leadership motifs in order to place spiritual formation into conversation with pastoral leadership, in hopes of discovering new ways to understand and serve the spiritual need of the congregation and community.

The methodology of this thesis employs qualitative research which includes church historical records, literary and scholarly journals, autobiographical resources, and contemporary internet source material. The theological approach taken in the thesis is to consider the hermeneutical lens that is being used by the pastoral leader, church, or Baptist organization and view the telos from their point of view. This thesis does not argue for one spiritual formation type over another but rather argues that African American Baptist spirituality utilizes all three types, most times simultaneously, but one is usually predominate with respect to the others. The claim that is made is that by discerning the spiritual formation type, pastoral leadership is empowered with insight on how to best guide and nurture spiritual formation in African American Baptist churches.

As many theologians and pastors have pointed out, there is much fertile ground to be discovered in combining worship with intentional pastoral care and vice versa. This concept of pastoral care being integrated into worship is rooted in the theology of an incarnational God who is intimately involved with our daily lives. When we worship God, we encounter God’s presence, which is inherently full of grace, mercy, and love. There are times in our lives when this encounter is desperately needed for what we refer to as “healing.” Unlike physical healing, spiritual and mental healing often requires that which goes beyond the body, yet involves the body. Worship services can offer this.

As a pastor, I have taken vows to walk with people through life, to care for and nurture them spiritually. A large part of this responsibility is leading them in worship and helping them make sense of their lives, as well as helping them find words to express their life experiences as they commune with God.

This thesis will explore how the Protestant Church has ministered to congregants (or failed to minister to them) through two specific life experiences: miscarriage and sexual abuse. Through surveys and interviews, I will share real stories and examples of how these individuals felt cared for (or uncared for). Finally, I will offer new liturgy for worship services that might offer pastoral care to people in similar situations. Each service will include liturgy, suggested music, Scripture passages recommended for a sermon, and ideas for interactive elements that will allow people to acknowledge their feelings and stand together in community while turning to God for hope and healing.