Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / The story of Baptist beginnings in Rhode Island through Roger Williams and John Clarke is a familiar one. The writer of this dissertation, while reviewing the early and familiar chapter of Baptist beginnings in America, concentrates upon the more recent and neglected period from 1825 to 1931. The result of the research is the first state history of Rhode Island Baptists. The principal primary sources for this study have been the annual minutes of the Rhode Island Baptist State Convention; the yearbooks of the Warren, Providence, Narragansett, and Roger Williams associations; and the minutes of seven representative Baptist churches. State, city, and town histories have also been consulted as well as Rhode Island newspapers and contemporary Baptist magazines and journals. [TRUNCATED]

This thesis is a piece of practitioner research located in the context of the author’s practice as Tutor in Pastoral Studies at Regent’s Park College. It is written from the context of change, both from denominational reviews, university restructuring and government funding and from wider changes in theological education and arises from a sense of dissatisfaction that recent debates have tended to separate out a discussion about the preparation for ministry from an understanding of ministry itself. The thesis explores ideas of ministry and leadership, arguing that, in the face of the challenge posed by leadership language and thought, a historic and contemporary Baptist understanding of ministry is best understood through a dialectical model of ministry, a habitus, rather than through a habitus of leadership. It then charts the history of preparation for ministry among Baptists and explores the contemporary developments in language and suggests that formation is the most appropriate and helpful description of the process.

Proponents of a family ministry strategy believe that Christian parents are called to be the primary disciple-makers in their children’s lives and that the church is called to equip parents for that important task. This type of strategy is commonly critiqued as an internally focused strategy that neglects another very important part of Christian discipleship, evangelism. This study empirically addresses that critique by examining baptism ratios in relation to family ministry emphasis within the Southern Baptist Convention. Chapter 1 establishes the need for this study by outlining the critique. The critique is one which finds proponents outside of family ministry strategy, but also has support from within family ministry strategy as family ministry practitioners within various stream of family ministry philosophy offer critiques of other family ministry models. This chapter also outlines the procedure to be followed to accomplish the study. Chapter 2 is an exploration of the precedent literature in the fields of both family ministry and evangelism. An emphasis on both of these fields is important as the two biblical priorities of family ministry and evangelism are meant to function in tandem and not in competition. When juxtaposed with the precedent literature in the field of evangelism in this chapter, the precedent literature in the field of family ministry indicates that family ministry is not only an evangelistic endeavor in itself, but is part of an overall strategy to be evangelistically effective outside of the walls of the church. The third chapter of this study outlines the methodological design of the study. There are two components to the way in which this study was accomplished. First, a survey was built directly from DNA of D6’s Church Health Assessment. Applicable portions of this verified instrument were disseminated electronically throughout the Southern Baptist Church. Responding churches received scores based upon their responses that were used to rate the level of engagement in family ministry within those churches. Demographic information was also gathered from those churches and was used to access the individual Annual Church Profiles for the purpose of ascertaining the ratio of average weekly attenders to baptisms within those congregations. This data was then used to conduct the analysis portion of the study. Chapter 4 contains the analysis of the information gathered through this empirical study. The variables of family ministry engagement and baptism ratio were measured for relationship to determine if there is any correlation between the two variables. This was also done with three individual sections of the Church Health Assessment used in the survey portion of the study. The data was also examined for any other trends that may illuminate a causal relationship. Finally, chapter 5 addressed conclusions that could be drawn from this research. These conclusions are used to respond to the critique that family ministry philosophy is an inwardly focused strategy that is ineffective for reaching those who are far from God outside of the walls of the church. In addition, this chapter provides suggestions for future research in the area of study, as well as the individual disciplines of both family ministry and evangelism.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Denver Conservative Baptist Seminary, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 346-353).

Thesis (M.A.)--Baylor University, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 77-81).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Denver Conservative Baptist Seminary, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 346-353).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Denver Conservative Baptist Seminary, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 346-353).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Tulsa, 1991. / Bibliography: leaves 251-255.

The subject treated in this thesis is the doctrine of the church among the English Calvinistic Baptists in the period, circa 1640-1660. This timeframe covers the significant phase of early Calvinistic Baptist emergence in society and literary output. The thesis seeks to explore the development of theological commitments regarding the nature of the church within the turbulent historical context of the time. The background to the emergence of the Calvinistic Baptists was the demise of the Anglican Church of England, the establishment by Act of Parliament of the Westminster Assembly of Divines, and the establishment of a Presbyterian Church of England. The English experiment with Presbyterianism began and ended in the years covered in this work. Ecclesiology was thus one of the most important doctrines under consideration in the phase of English history. This thesis is a contribution to understanding alternative forms of ecclesiology outside of the mainstream National Church settlement. It will be argued in this thesis that the emergence and development of Calvinistic Baptist ecclesiology was a natural development of one stream of Puritan theology of the church. This was the tradition associated with Robert Brown, and the English separatist movement dating from the 1570s. This tradition was refined and made experimental in the work of Henry Jacob. Having developed his ecclesiology in the Netherlands, in 1616 Jacob founded a congregation in Southwark, London from which Calvinistic Baptists would emerge with distinct baptismal convictions by 1638. Central to Jacob's ideology was the belief that a rightly ordered church acknowledged Christ as King over his people. The Christological priority of early Calvinistic Baptist ecclesiology will constitute the primary contribution of this thesis to investigation of dissenting theology in the period.

This study asks if the historical Jesus was ever a disciple of John the Baptist, where by ‘disciple’ is meant someone who would have been in a close personal relationship to John as their leader and teacher, and who would have spent considerable time in his presence. The current majority view of scholars is that Jesus is likely to have been John’s disciple at some time before beginning his own ministry (and in the opinion of some, during the early part of his ministry too). However, this study argues that, although we cannot be sure, he is actually unlikely to have chosen to submit himself to John in this way. Reasons are provided for believing that, even early in his ministry, Jesus had a profound confidence in his (sometimes distinctive) beliefs across a range of religious issues, including those beliefs that had to do with his own extremely important place in God’s plan. It is argued too that if Jesus was ever John’s disciple, he would very probably have to have first become his disciple no more than a matter of months before beginning his own ministry. The shortness of the time in which his confidence in his religious beliefs could have developed means that, during the period in which any potential discipleship would have begun, it is probable that Jesus had at least a fairly deep assurance about what he believed in religious matters, including what he believed concerning his own crucial place in God’s plan. This assurance makes it unlikely that he would have wished to become John’s disciple. Further – related – reasons for thinking that Jesus’ discipleship is historically unlikely are also provided. These are (a) that Jesus may well have had a spiritual experience at the time of his baptism (before any discipleship could have occurred), something that would not have cohered well with a decision then to become John’s disciple; and (b) that Jesus may have spent time alone in the wilderness very soon after his baptism. In addition to presenting these arguments against Jesus’ discipleship, most of the study involves detailed examination of the most cogent arguments that have been used to support the view that Jesus was once John’s disciple. It finds that even the strongest of these are relatively weak.