Browsing by Subject "Theology"

How did rock and roll, the best music for worshipping the devil, become the finest music for worshipping God? This study narrates the import of rock music into church sanctuaries across America via the rise of contemporary worship music (CWM). While white evangelicals derided rock n' roll as the "devil's music" in the 1950s, it slowly made its way into their churches and beyond over the next fifty years, emerging as a multi-million dollar industry by the twenty-first century.

This study is a cultural history of CWM, chronicling the rise of rock music in the worship life of American Christians. Pulling from several different primary and secondary sources, I argue that three main motivations fueled the rise of CWM in America: the desire to reach the lost, to commune in emotional intimacy with God, and to grow the flock. These three motivations evolved among different actors and movements at different times. In the 1970s, the Jesus People movement anchored in Southern California, adopted the music of the counterculture to attract hippies to church. In the early 1980s, the Vineyard Fellowship combined rock forms with lyrics that spoke of God in the second person in order to facilitate intimate worship with the divine. In the late 1980s, the church growth movement embraced CWM as a tool to attract disaffected baby boomers back to church. By the 1990s, these three motivations had begun to energize an entire industry built around the merger between rock and worship.

The 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.

This project seeks to introduce a model for revitalizing urban churches that have experienced decline (i.e., membership, money, and morale). Social Justice, Prophetic Preaching, Missional Stewardship, Intergenerational Ministry, and Progressive Pastoral Leadership functions as the central pillars of the project. My research has led me to engage the contributions of theologians, sociologists, social critics, activists, researchers, biblical scholars, homileticians, historians, politicians, church growth experts, political scientists, statisticians, community advocates, journalists, and civil rights leaders to explore the collaborative efforts that can be taken to revive black churches in impoverished communities in Urban America.

This project seeks to introduce a model for revitalizing urban churches that have experienced decline (i.e., membership, money, and morale). Social Justice, Prophetic Preaching, Missional Stewardship, Intergenerational Ministry, and Progressive Pastoral Leadership functions as the central pillars of the project. My research has led me to engage the contributions of theologians, sociologists, social critics, activists, researchers, biblical scholars, homileticians, historians, politicians, church growth experts, political scientists, statisticians, community advocates, journalists, and civil rights leaders to explore the collaborative efforts that can be taken to revive black churches in impoverished communities in Urban America.

The theologies of St. Augustine and John Howard Yoder are, if at all treated together, typically contrasted. This negative juxtaposition is in so small part due to the very different reputations of each theologian on the question of violence. This dissertation demonstrates that the standard contrast between the theopolitical visions of Yoder and Augustine is mistaken. An introduction portrays the cumulative work of the chapters as the unfolding of a question about the contemporary reception of Augustine and Yoder: Might John Howard Yoder's "pacifism of the messianic community" be received as a radical form of Augustinianism? The dissertation consists of four chapters, each dealing with some aspect of Yoder's or Augustine's thought which, under closer examination, reveals an interesting line of convergence with the thought of the other. The politics of historical interpretation, the challenge of interiority, the aims of historicism, and the nature of "the political" are taken up in succession. An affirmative answer to the overarching question is suggested, but the more important task is to render the question salient for contemporary theologians and ethicists.

Abstract

The inability of black and white Christians to bear compelling and sustained witness to God’s love and justice in American society is reminiscent of Churchill’s sentiment concerning Russia: it is “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.” This thesis seeks to explore how black leaders can faithfully engage a younger generation of black Christians who have grown increasingly frustrated with the American Church, specifically the lack of robust commitment to the liberation of black voices and bodies in the struggle against white racism. Additionally, it attempts to challenge all Christian leaders to reimagine the important work of liberation and reconciliation with this perspective in view.Based on engagement of mostly primary sources, this research delves into the remarkably relevant influences of James H. Cone and J. Deotis Roberts to the current intergenerational and interracial work before Christians in America today. I will argue that Cone’s revolutionary insight has been proven true: black rage against oppression is a very human reaction against unfreedom. Rebellion, in various forms, is a natural response to sustained systemic and structural violence against an oppressed people. However, I will also show that Roberts’ work offers a more inclusive and methodical approach to Christian unity in this perennial struggle. Cone’s liberating insight, balanced with Robert’s scriptural mandate of reconciliation between equals, still provides hope for solution-driven intergenerational and interracial dialogue and action for Christians.

In Luke’s two volumes, Luke is not interested only in Gentiles and those with high social status but also in the marginalized and those who are outsiders. This dissertation seeks to read Luke’s concern for outsiders and the theme of the inclusion of outsiders in the new kingdom of God in Luke’s narrative of the Ethiopian eunuch’s conversion in Acts 8:26-40. This paper examines the Ethiopian eunuch’s complex identity from the perspectives of the Greco-Roman world, Old Testament (LXX) allusions to the Elijah-Elisha narratives, and Luke’s interpretation of the Isaianic quotation of the Suffering Servant in Acts 8:32-33 (cf. Isaiah 53:7-8). This study pays close attention to the correlations between the theme of outsiders and three key characters in Acts 8:26-40: the Ethiopian eunuch, Philip, and the Suffering Servant. First, Luke depicts the Ethiopian eunuch as the consummate outsider—geographically, morally, socially, ethnically, and in terms of gender—and indicates that the eunuch represents other marginalized outsiders. The eunuch shows no one can prevent outsiders like him from inclusion in the kingdom of God. Second, Luke portrays Philip as a prophet, specifically a prophet like Elijah and Elisha. Philip emulates Elijah and Elisha by reaching out to the outsider (in this instance, the Ethiopian eunuch). Third, Luke presents the Isaianic Suffering Servant as a religious and social outsider and identifies the character with Jesus and the Ethiopian eunuch. The indescribable descendants of the Suffering Servant signify a universally inclusive messianic community and fulfill the outsiders’ inclusion within the people of God as Isaiah prophesied (Isaiah 56:3-8). This thesis finally suggests ways to read the story of the Ethiopian eunuch today and concludes that it is imperative to include those outsiders among us within the community of Jesus’s followers.

Many Christians struggle to be significantly formed by their faith through the traditional practices and ministries of the local church. The prevalence and power of competing voices in our culture create exhaustion and fragmentation. Busy schedules, work demands, and extracurricular activities add to this struggle, monopolizing many households’ time and availability. Acknowledging the continual decline in church attendance and engagement across denominational affiliations and traditions, and current research that clearly reveals the necessity of the institutional church for faith development, I will explore some of the ways the church can begin shifting its faith formation practices to help congregants rediscover the deep center of their being in Christ and grow in their faith.

Mining the depths of the Christian tradition, I will explore how the church can expand its educational ministries by reinstituting the ancient process of catechesis, which is how the church practiced faith formation for its first three centuries of existence. Arguing that the home is the primary source of faith and values, I will provide the church a method for extending the catechumenate outside the walls of the church by equipping families for the work of faith formation in the home.

Drawing from deep within the well of church history, I will examine the core Christian values of early monastic rules that believers must develop in order to participate in the life and mission of Jesus. Utilizing Aristotle’s process for cultivating virtues, I will examine the spiritual disciplines and shared practices of Augustine’s and Benedict’s rules to provide concrete steps for habituating the core Christian values in the lives of believers. As these values are fostered in the homes of believers, Christ can begin to transform their lives from the inside out. What I am proposing is an accessible method for churches to begin equipping families for how to live more fully in the way of Jesus that allows them to experience the abundance (John 10:10) that Christ promised in their homes and wherever they go.

In 1526, a Spaniard in the papal court of Clement VII addressed a treatise against Luther’s Bondage of the Will, calling it On Fate and Free Will and arguing good works are not only possible before one receives God’s grace but a necessary prerequisite to that grace. The position, which acknowledges a human need for grace but assigns the beginning of salvation to human effort, is one church historians conventionally refer to as semipelagianism. The Spaniard, Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, went on to serve Charles V as royal historian, and to defend the latter’s conquest of the Americas and subjugation of those contintents’ indigenous populations at the Valladolid debates in 1550–1551. The logic by which he did so is generally attributed to a high view of plenary papal authority in the temporal world, combined with an Aristotelian hierarchy of being that conveniently labeled the indigenous peoples of the Americas “natural slaves.” This dissertation uses Sepúlveda’s published treatises in order to trace his treatment of themes such as natural reason, natural law, divine law, human free will, and divine grace, in order to demonstrate that Sepúlveda's logic in his defense of the conquest was actually rooted precisely in the semipelagian theology he deployed in his writings against Luther. He argued that the indigenous peoples of the Americas were barbarians and appropriately labeled according to Aristotle's natural slave category, but he began with the theological conviction that they had failed to embrace what natural reason alone could teach them about God, and failed moreover to “do what is in one” by turning to God and obeying the divine law as revealed in nature, all of which Sepúlveda took to be prerequisite for the receipt of grace. The indigenous peoples of the Americas were not barbarians in Sepúlveda’s mind because they belonged to Aristotle’s natural slave category, but “natural slave” was a useful term he deployed to further describe those who had failed to take the initiative for their salvation, as required by the semipelagian theology he deployed against Luther.

This thesis aims to develop a narrative strategy for the local church parish, drawing on postliberal and narrative theologies. It argues that the narrative nature of the incarnation is not only descriptive of God's movement into the world but also prescriptive for the movement of God's people within the world. To begin to develop this claim, the thesis examines denominational and consultant practitioners' approaches and proposes a practical strategy for carrying out a narrative movement in a contextualized seing.The thesis centers around the biblical feature that Jesus is from Nazareth, with a particular in-depth look at his time spent in the Nazarene synagogue in Luke 4:14-30. Building on Samuel Wells' A Nazareth Manifesto, the thesis argues that contextualized story should be more formative and shaping than the corporatized phenomena of mission statements and core values, following the pattern of the narrative nature found within Scripture. To test the proposed strategy's effectiveness, the thesis includes an on-the-ground experiment within the North Street Community Church of the Nazarene, spanning about two years. The experiment seeks to see if the strategy results in narrative formation of both the individuals within the church and the church itself. Finally, the thesis concludes with a project for congregational use that builds upon the experiment's results. The project proposes a practical application of the narrative strategy, incorporating both what was learned during the experiment and adaptations of strategies found elsewhere.

Serious divisions within the United States currently threaten our social fabric. These divisions are acutely on display across the political arena and permeate many aspects of American society. Alarmingly, Christian convictions are contributing to this upheaval. Many conservatives and liberals across the ideological spectrum believe they are following not only the Constitution of the United States but also biblical principles when they engage in inflammatory rhetoric against political rivals. Predictably, justifying political positions with biblical principles has caused many Christians to embrace partisan identities and adopt divisive behaviors. Furthermore, the present political divisions are severely harming American churches at the local level. The kind of rhetoric emanating from pulpits, pews, and Christian publications across most denominations pose a direct challenge to how the church has traditionally understood the Christian life and its bearing upon our relationships with one another. The issue of immigration is a particularly acute example. The tearing apart of family structures, the constant threat of deportation, and the frequent use of dehumanizing rhetoric are stances that some Christians have unapologetically supported. It is my attempt to show how in this time of intense partisanship Christians desperately need to practice right speech and embody Jesus’ commandment to love one’s neighbor. Using the issue of immigration as a case study, I argue that the way we talk about people influences how we treat them.

A careful observer of the current political dynamic in America will understand its precarious position. Following the presidency of Barack Obama, a tide has clearly turned across the country. The sounds of hope, optimism, and progressive change have been replaced by a boisterous quest to “Make America Great” again by restricting U.S. borders, re-visiting trade agreements, limiting access to health insurance, retreating from nuclear treaties, as well as dismissing and altogether denying climate change. Where a warm cultural embrace once stood, profound xenophobia now rests; diversity has gone the way of division. Lost in the shuffle of this dynamic however is the human element of communal relationship with one another. For individuals and institutions that claim allegiance to Jesus Christ, the political speech and actions witnessed across the United States challenge the very nature of Christian identity. Among many Christians there is a dichotomy between the Christian ethic portrayed and the one practiced, a disconnect between what is offered in the Holy Scriptures and reality. If the case can be made that the political dynamic in America is on precarious footing because of the role Christians currently play guiding the nation forward, it too means that Christian identity in America is subject to that same dynamic. When political policy in America is dressed up and disguised as proper Christian action, and supported as such by many Christian adherents, then the very nature of the Christian faith as practiced in America is threatened. This thesis will examine how recent speeches and comments made by political figures on various aspects of immigration law and human rights compel Christians to reflect upon right speech considering the teachings on speech found in the book of Proverbs. For Christians to blindly and unequivocally label immigrants “animals,” “rapists,” and “criminals,” presents a ripe and necessary opportunity to hear the guidance, wisdom and chastisement of the Proverbial writer. A rediscovery of speech that could be considered “Christian” and a recommitment to embodying such speech, is ultimately incomplete, unless it results in right Christian action. Examining the parable of the Good Samaritan in its wider context (Luke 10:25 – 37), I will display how it might inform our Christian praxis. Early followers of Jesus and the historic church have understood this commandment as a necessary component of the Christian life. Noting key textual observations from theologians and Bible scholars including Joel Green , the project will show how aspects of the text speak to contemporary Christian praxis. The research of this thesis will be designed to build upon existing theological literature concerning the role of Christian speech and action and placing these distinct roles in conversation with current political affairs. I argue that in an era marked decidedly by extreme political and cultural polarization, Christians, and by extension the Christian church, must rediscover the role of speech and behavior in the workings of everyday life and the shaping of a more just society for all.

Serious divisions within the United States currently threaten our social fabric. These divisions are acutely on display across the political arena and permeate many aspects of American society. Alarmingly, Christian convictions are contributing to this upheaval. Many conservatives and liberals across the ideological spectrum believe they are following not only the Constitution of the United States but also biblical principles when they engage in inflammatory rhetoric against political rivals. Predictably, justifying political positions with biblical principles has caused many Christians to embrace partisan identities and adopt divisive behaviors. Furthermore, the present political divisions are severely harming American churches at the local level. The kind of rhetoric emanating from pulpits, pews, and Christian publications across most denominations pose a direct challenge to how the church has traditionally understood the Christian life and its bearing upon our relationships with one another. The issue of immigration is a particularly acute example. The tearing apart of family structures, the constant threat of deportation, and the frequent use of dehumanizing rhetoric are stances that some Christians have unapologetically supported. It is my attempt to show how in this time of intense partisanship Christians desperately need to practice right speech and embody Jesus’ commandment to love one’s neighbor. Using the issue of immigration as a case study, I argue that the way we talk about people influences how we treat them.

A careful observer of the current political dynamic in America will understand its precarious position. Following the presidency of Barack Obama, a tide has clearly turned across the country. The sounds of hope, optimism, and progressive change have been replaced by a boisterous quest to “Make America Great” again by restricting U.S. borders, re-visiting trade agreements, limiting access to health insurance, retreating from nuclear treaties, as well as dismissing and altogether denying climate change. Where a warm cultural embrace once stood, profound xenophobia now rests; diversity has gone the way of division. Lost in the shuffle of this dynamic however is the human element of communal relationship with one another. For individuals and institutions that claim allegiance to Jesus Christ, the political speech and actions witnessed across the United States challenge the very nature of Christian identity. Among many Christians there is a dichotomy between the Christian ethic portrayed and the one practiced, a disconnect between what is offered in the Holy Scriptures and reality. If the case can be made that the political dynamic in America is on precarious footing because of the role Christians currently play guiding the nation forward, it too means that Christian identity in America is subject to that same dynamic. When political policy in America is dressed up and disguised as proper Christian action, and supported as such by many Christian adherents, then the very nature of the Christian faith as practiced in America is threatened. This thesis will examine how recent speeches and comments made by political figures on various aspects of immigration law and human rights compel Christians to reflect upon right speech considering the teachings on speech found in the book of Proverbs. For Christians to blindly and unequivocally label immigrants “animals,” “rapists,” and “criminals,” presents a ripe and necessary opportunity to hear the guidance, wisdom and chastisement of the Proverbial writer. A rediscovery of speech that could be considered “Christian” and a recommitment to embodying such speech, is ultimately incomplete, unless it results in right Christian action. Examining the parable of the Good Samaritan in its wider context (Luke 10:25 – 37), I will display how it might inform our Christian praxis. Early followers of Jesus and the historic church have understood this commandment as a necessary component of the Christian life. Noting key textual observations from theologians and Bible scholars including Joel Green , the project will show how aspects of the text speak to contemporary Christian praxis. The research of this thesis will be designed to build upon existing theological literature concerning the role of Christian speech and action and placing these distinct roles in conversation with current political affairs. I argue that in an era marked decidedly by extreme political and cultural polarization, Christians, and by extension the Christian church, must rediscover the role of speech and behavior in the workings of everyday life and the shaping of a more just society for all.

ABSTRACT

This thesis examines the theological correlation between the role of the church, the identity and role of the African American male, and the effectiveness of fatherhood. The study begins with an in-depth analysis of how absentee fathers cause a crisis in the family. The absence of fathers from the home causes children to suffer financially, socially and psychologically, and therefore causes a disruption in the community as a whole. Focus on the Family founder and leader, Dr. James Dobson, confirms that “our very survival as a people will depend upon the presence or absence of masculine leadership in millions of homes.” In person interviews of African American Christian males and interpretation of the scriptures are just two of the methods used in this study to explore the theological norm of fatherhood. Collectively, the case studies and statistical data within this study explore attempts to remedy the crisis through governmental policies and networking within the community. The final chapter examines the role of urban churches and clergy in teaching effective fatherhood practices. Within the conclusion, it is made clear that the church is responsible for establishing the theological framework and principles for understanding the intended role of being a father. Another conclusion of this study is the acknowledgement of the African American community’s role in shaping and reforming the identity and role of the African American male as a father in the home. The African American community and the church must continue working in tandem to encourage organic social networks that will promote a model for effective fatherhood practices.

Christianity in South Korea has long been touted the one success story in Asia, dubbed the “Korean miracle,” whose traction and trajectory of explosive growth are unanimously traced back to the Protestant missionaries who arrived in numbers at the end of the nineteenth century. Among them, one monumental figure towers over all: the Presbyterian Reverend Horace G. Underwood (1859-1916), widely considered the single most important and influential western missionary ever to set foot on Korea, in large part due to his extraordinary sacrificial love for the nation and the people of Korea.

As such, his theology and practice of missions represent a work of love from the missionary par excellence of Korea, who missiologically operated out of best intentions and overwhelming love for the natives. However, as this dissertation critiques, it is a work of love compromised by his racial imagination, not incidental to his missiology but at its core. Specifically, this dissertation theologically examines how race manifests and functions in Underwood’s missiology as a multifaceted pseudo- or anti-Christology. Hence, the story of Underwood is one in which his theology of mission problematically operated out of a thick and dynamic racialized Christology, even as he imagined he was espousing and performing the very teachings of Jesus, making it all the more ironic and tragic. At the core of such a false and faulty “Christology,” whiteness, with Underwood himself as its white masculine exemplar, as racially constructed and stabilized, unrelentingly seeks to usurp the Person and the Work of Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity. In this way, race as an anti-Christology with the white masculine posing as Christ functions as the missiological basis for his formation of a de facto white Korean Christianity.

The dissertation deconstructs and critiques Underwood’s racialized Christology in two parts. In Part I, I argue that Underwood’s missiological approach in making Koreans known through a comprehensive and comparative racial characterization presupposes a racialized doctrine of creation, whereby the white body, in lieu of Jesus, is deemed the revelation of full humanity (Chapter 1). What is more, in this doctrine, the white body positions itself also as the definitive judge of all humanity, and through its “all-seeing, all-knowing” judgment, the white body creates humanity anew, which in Underwood’s case meant re-creating Koreans as racialized modern subjects with a subjectivity posed to perform whiteness. As such, whiteness arrogates for itself Christ’s divine roles as the Judge and the Creator (Chapter 2).

In Part II, I shift to the heart of Underwood’s missiology: his racialized soteriology. I show that his argument for the missionary investment in Koreans is predicated on a racialized doctrine of salvation, which designates the white body, as opposed to Jesus, as the very incarnation of the elect, the very image of the saved (Chapter 3), along with the nation, as opposed to the church, as the body politic of the elect, with the emerging American empire the very image of the elect nation (Chapter 4). Moreover, in his racialized soteriology it is the white body who is the savior or the one electing, in place of Jesus, the true Elected One and Savior. Here, his racialized doctrines of creation and salvation come together in his re-creation of Korean religious subjectivity for the sake of saving the nation and the people of Korea. In this way, Underwood helps to establish a vision of racial nationalism for Korea that continues to shape the interaction between Christian practice and nationalist goals of well-being and progress in whiteness within Korea and in other parts of the world.

This dissertation argues that, for Luke, universal witness belongs within a broader claim about the identity of Israel’s Messiah. Framed by Luke 24:46-48 (and Acts 26:22-23), the book of Acts narratively construes the unfolding universality of the Christian movement as the unfolding of the universality of Jesus’ Lordship. The “Lukan Commission,” rooted in a prophetic promise, prefigures the role of Acts in narratively unfolding the identity of Jesus as πάντων κύριος (Acts 10:36).

Universal proclamation of salvation in Acts—implicitly by Jesus and explicitly by his witnesses—narratively realizes the universality of Jesus’ Lordship. Luke’s second volume reconfigures the narrative sense of “presence” and “activity” on the basis of Jesus’ exaltation to heaven and Lordship by the Spirit (cf. 2:17-36). Especially as the “word” spreads beyond Jerusalem and the Jewish people, the Lord Jesus’ influence on the unfolding of universal witness becomes pronounced.

Though the apostles receive Jesus’ commission, their outreach is generally restricted to Jews in Jerusalem. Not until the Cornelius incident (Acts 10:1-11:18) does the universal vision of Jesus’ commission (Luke 24:47; Acts 1:8) intersect with apostolic witness, which is why Luke gives the episode almost unparalleled emphasis (cf. 11:5-17; 15:7-11). In this respect, the event proves paradigmatic for Luke’s coordination of christological identity and universal witness, establishing Jesus’ messianic identity as “Lord of all” (10:36). The full scope of Jesus’ identity is what participants in witness must discover in their encounter with the (ethnically) “other” (ἀλλόφυλος).

This theological breakthrough lies behind Paul’s outreach in the Diaspora and finds expression in the makeup of the Syrian Antioch community (11:19-26; 13:1-3), itself the basis for Paul’s outreach to Jews and Gentiles everywhere. In endorsing Antioch’s ministry, Peter, James, and the Jerusalem believers “model” for unbelieving Jews the proper interpretation of the salvation of the Gentiles in relation to Israel’s hopes (Acts 15). Jesus’ identity as universal Lord helps explain Paul’s “turn” to the Gentiles (13:46; 18:6; 28:28) less as a result of Jewish rejection than as a fulfillment of the Messiah’s work as outlined in scripture (1:8; 13:47; 26:23). The receptivity of Gentiles to Paul’s preaching provokes Paul’s Jewish audiences even as it models proper receptivity to the universality of Jesus’ Lordship. The present study confirms that for Luke mission is in part a means for expanding the witnesses’ comprehension of the scope of Jesus’ Lordship in light of God’s work among the Gentiles. Luke’s focus on the response of Jewish believers to this emerging reality in Acts reconfigures notions of χριστός in light of the (narrative) expansion of his identity as πάντων κύριος.

This dissertation explores the conceptual frameworks, social structures, and practices that organize communities of faith during periods of adaptive change. Combining methods and theories from qualitative research, practical theology, and organizational theory, it undertakes an extended study of two cases in the Pacific Northwest that are responding to adaptive challenges through collaborative approaches to religious organization, education, and leadership. Three interrelated questions organize a descriptive and normative inquiry: (1) What are the challenges confronting communities of faith in a context marked by religious entrepreneurship and a marginal social position for religious organizations? (2) What patterns of actual communal life, organizational structure, and leadership practice (both theoretical and empirical) best support individuals’ and communities’ engagement with the challenges they face? And (3) What implications follow for the practice of leadership and the study of religious organization amid periods of institutional change? An in-depth analysis of the two cases, which are identified as ‘hubs,’ extrapolates a response to the latter two questions, noting the challenges, social structure, practical wisdom, and practices of leadership that organize each site. This dissertation argues ecclesial imagination and Christian practical wisdom order and nurture the conditions, collaborations, and forms of leadership that enable each hub’s adaptive response, thereby enabling communities to live in light of the reality and promises of God.

Four parts encompassing seven chapters advance this argument. Part I is a case description of each hub, introducing the histories, missions, partnerships, and social structures that organize them. Part II continues an in-depth analysis by presenting the challenges and organizational structure that organize their collaborative work. As developed in conversation with Ronald Heifetz’s account of ‘adaptive work,’ seven primary challenges confront these hubs: relational engagement; leadership development; Boundary Zone work; post-Christendom; financial stability; loneliness and isolation; and connection to place. Further, organizational theory provides interpretive insights to describe these hubs as a novel organizational form within a broader organizational ecology.

Part III is a critical and constructive theological account of adaptive work that draws on field-driven concepts in conversation with Craig Dykstra and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. In response to each hub’s stated aim to “reimagine church,” Dykstra’s work directs attention to the diverse “places” (e.g., congregations, higher education institutions, and theological educational institutions) that support adaptive change and how a broader ecclesial ecology serves as a “prism,” refracting leaders’ and communities’ engagement. Further, as explored in conversation with Bonhoeffer’s work, a Christo-ecclesial understanding of communities and organizations provides a basis for the organizational and ecclesial transformation each hub pursues.

Part IV builds a theoretical structure to understand the Christian practical wisdom that sustains conditions for each hub’s adaptive work. Specifically, six modes of leadership offer complementary ways of being with communities, organizations, and neighborhoods: a Caretaker, a Catalyst, a Champion, a Connector-Convener, a Surveyor, and a Guide. The project concludes by drawing out the implications of this analytical and theoretical work for these hubs, for a broader ecclesial ecology, and for the changing landscape of religious life beyond the Pacific Northwest.

Since the late 1940s, Praise and Worship has emerged as a new mode of liturgical expression out of North American Pentecostalism. Despite a variety of conflicts that have marked its adoption, it has found a home in a wide swath of global Protestant churches and it is estimated that nearly a quarter of the world’s Christians practice some form of Praise and Worship today. Praise and Worship today is known primarily by the expectation that participants will encounter God’s presence through music.This dissertation presents a historical case study of the International Worship Symposium (IWS) as a lens into Praise and Worship history. The IWS was an annual Praise and Worship teaching event that began in 1977 and peaked in the late 1980s. The theology and practice of IWS worship was built on the central claim that God “inhabits” or “is enthroned upon” the praises of God’s people (from Psalm 22:3)—an insight first popularized by Latter Rain theologian and pastoral leader Reg Layzell. I begin with the background of the Latter Rain Revival of 1948 and the impact of Reg Layzell’s theology on the churches and individuals that birthed the IWS. Through conference teaching materials, personal interviews, and other primary sources, I explore how IWS teachers expanded on this theology by the 1980s and used the Tabernacle of David as typological prism for understanding worshipers’ special access to God through Praise and Worship, especially music. My argument concludes with a case study of the critical, early influence that the IWS had on the theology and music of a major—though little-researched—player in the worship music industry: Integrity’s Hosanna! Music. Through its influence both on the thousands of individual conference participants and on the leadership of this one major company, the IWS had a central role in the dissemination or Praise and Worship’s practices and theology. In summary, I suggest that it is precisely the biblically-derived theological and liturgical understandings of the IWS that were central to the development of Praise and Worship (and its music) in the 1980s. Despite its importance, liturgical studies scholarship has largely ignored the role of Latter Rain Pentecostals and the IWS. Instead, scholars have constructed a music-industrial history of Praise and Worship that focuses primarily on musical style and attributes Praise and Worship’s origins to the Jesus People Movement of the late 1960s and 1970s. I argue that is actually Pentecostals affiliated with the Latter Rain Revival of 1948, including those who originated and led the IWS, who were most critical to the construction and mainstream dissemination of Praise and Worship during the critical period of development, which was the 1980s. In addition to focusing on the wrong people and the wrong time period, scholars have often overlooked the underlying liturgical theology of Praise and Worship, which is, I suggest, the most critical element in its historical development. Thus, the dissertation offers liturgical history as a productive frame for engaging musicological and ethnomusicological research on present-day sites while expanding the scholarship of liturgical history on the Latter Rain stream of Pentecostal worship that has contributed to contemporary transformations in global Protestant worship today.

Since the late 1940s, Praise and Worship has emerged as a new mode of liturgical expression out of North American Pentecostalism. Despite a variety of conflicts that have marked its adoption, it has found a home in a wide swath of global Protestant churches and it is estimated that nearly a quarter of the world’s Christians practice some form of Praise and Worship today. Praise and Worship today is known primarily by the expectation that participants will encounter God’s presence through music.This dissertation presents a historical case study of the International Worship Symposium (IWS) as a lens into Praise and Worship history. The IWS was an annual Praise and Worship teaching event that began in 1977 and peaked in the late 1980s. The theology and practice of IWS worship was built on the central claim that God “inhabits” or “is enthroned upon” the praises of God’s people (from Psalm 22:3)—an insight first popularized by Latter Rain theologian and pastoral leader Reg Layzell. I begin with the background of the Latter Rain Revival of 1948 and the impact of Reg Layzell’s theology on the churches and individuals that birthed the IWS. Through conference teaching materials, personal interviews, and other primary sources, I explore how IWS teachers expanded on this theology by the 1980s and used the Tabernacle of David as typological prism for understanding worshipers’ special access to God through Praise and Worship, especially music. My argument concludes with a case study of the critical, early influence that the IWS had on the theology and music of a major—though little-researched—player in the worship music industry: Integrity’s Hosanna! Music. Through its influence both on the thousands of individual conference participants and on the leadership of this one major company, the IWS had a central role in the dissemination or Praise and Worship’s practices and theology. In summary, I suggest that it is precisely the biblically-derived theological and liturgical understandings of the IWS that were central to the development of Praise and Worship (and its music) in the 1980s. Despite its importance, liturgical studies scholarship has largely ignored the role of Latter Rain Pentecostals and the IWS. Instead, scholars have constructed a music-industrial history of Praise and Worship that focuses primarily on musical style and attributes Praise and Worship’s origins to the Jesus People Movement of the late 1960s and 1970s. I argue that is actually Pentecostals affiliated with the Latter Rain Revival of 1948, including those who originated and led the IWS, who were most critical to the construction and mainstream dissemination of Praise and Worship during the critical period of development, which was the 1980s. In addition to focusing on the wrong people and the wrong time period, scholars have often overlooked the underlying liturgical theology of Praise and Worship, which is, I suggest, the most critical element in its historical development. Thus, the dissertation offers liturgical history as a productive frame for engaging musicological and ethnomusicological research on present-day sites while expanding the scholarship of liturgical history on the Latter Rain stream of Pentecostal worship that has contributed to contemporary transformations in global Protestant worship today.

This Doctor of Ministry thesis seeks to address the misapplication of Christian Scripture and its contribution to the climate crisis in which we find ourselves. Ellen Davis calls the Christian duty to delineate a responsible vision of what participation in the renewal of creation might mean the most essential theological task of this generation. This is but one small offering. The solution this thesis proposes is the recovery of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus as the story of everything, a metanarrative which holds together God and all God has made. This ecological (relational) reading of Scripture finds all of Holy Scripture and reality to follow a threefold wisdom pattern of Creation/Uncreation/New Creation. Recovery of this lens allows us to name the time we are living in and imagine what faithful ecological participation in the larger story might look like.

The methodology used in this paper is narrative theology. Such a theology is advocated by Kavin Rowe and can also be seen in Richard Hays’ reading of New Testament texts as echoes of earlier narratives. NT Wright also suggests the metanarrative of the Resurrection of Christ in framing all ethical action and mission of the Church. Agrarian theological readings of Scripture, such as those offered by Ellen Davis, Wendell Berry, and Norman Wirzba, have also formed my understanding and hearing of Holy Scripture. I also have been shaped by the writing of Orthodox theologian Alexander Schmemann, who explores the liturgy of the Church in worship as the great cosmic story; Christ and the Church are offered “for the life of the world.”

It is this world which is the theme and concern of this thesis, and which much contemporary Christian theology has left behind. It is time to recover the story of a God who so loved the world to bring heaven down to dwell with us.

ABSTRACT

Lori Anne Brown

Duke Divinity School, 2015

Primary Advisor: Esther Acolatse

Assistant Professor of the Practice of Pastoral Theology and World Christianity

Secondary Advisor: Dean Sujin Pak

Assistant Research Professor of the History of Christianity; Associate Dean for Academic Programs

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the challenges that Christian chaplains experience to their authority in secular medical institutions and to explore possible recommendations that can help alleviate them. More specifically, by means of a questionnaire this examination intends to explore if these challenges are both or either personal or institutionally related. Therefore, this examination should be a resource that encourages the Christian chaplain to be an informed interlocutor pertaining to the issues of what his or her God-given authority means. Lastly, this thesis will demonstrate why it is essential for chaplains to know, understand, accept, and embrace the God-given authority bestowed upon them to minister effectively and competently in secular medical institutions.

Key Terms

For the purpose of this study, seven terms require annotation. First, the term “Christian chaplains” refers to individuals who have been baptized, profess Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, who ascribe to the orthodoxy and orthopraxis of the Christian faith, and who minister in secular medical institutions. Second, the term “secular medical institution” denotes a public, non-religious institution that provides medical care for people. Thirdly, the term “living human document,” which was coined by Anton Boisen, refers to those to whom Christian chaplains minister. This group includes patients, their families and friends, and the chaplain’s colleagues. Fourth, the term “voices of suffering” refers to the patients who share their narratives while seeking pastoral care. Fifth, the term “bearing witness” refers to the belief that as Christians we are called to develop the skills to bear witness in both word and deed to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Sixth, the term “narratives” refers to the personal stories that patients share. The seventh term “holistic care” is a concept in medical practice that upholds and respects all aspects of a person’s needs: physical, emotional, and spiritual.

I employed three methods in this thesis. The first method was exploratory research to review and study literature to support my argument. The second was to use a method of analogy. In this method, the anecdotal evidence was aggregated in correlation with personal related experiences to help Christian chaplains to learn how to minister effectively in the challenging contexts of the secular medical institution. Moreover, this was done in order to examine how the Christian chaplain can learn to walk competently and effectively with authority between the worlds of religion and medicine. Third, I used a confidential questionnaire to gather additional information from seven Christian chaplains who have ministered or are currently ministering in this context to support the argument of this thesis, as well as to offer recommendations that can help alleviate some of the challenges they experience regarding their authority.

The basic conclusion drawn from the examination and methods employed is that Christian chaplains do experience various types of challenges to their authority than can impact their ministry. However, the conclusion demonstrates that as a result to their commitment to the call of chaplaincy, chaplains recognize that irrespective of the challenges they experience to their authority they are called to compassionately and effectively serve the sick and suffering. Moreover, as a result of their commitment to the call of health care chaplaincy, the chaplains have provided their insight that indicates why some of these challenges exist. Lastly, as a result of the questionnaire the participants provide some practical recommendations that can be implemented into CPE programs, which could possibly help alleviate some of types of the challenges they encounter to their pastoral authority.