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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

This study used a qualitative, descriptive, collective case study approach to assess some of the current market challenges facing colleges and universities affiliated with independent Christian churches and to describe how some of these institutions are responding to these challenges. The chief academic officers (CAOs) for six of these schools were interviewed to determine their perceptions of the greatest market challenges facing their schools, the steps they were taking to meet these challenges, and the impact these challenges were having on the Bible and ministry programs at their schools. The findings seem to indicate that CAOs of Bible colleges, Christian universities, and liberal arts schools face similar problems, yet respond with various amounts of success based upon their model of education and their own abilities. The findings also seem to indicate that the Christian university and liberal arts school model may be the way forward for most Bible colleges affiliated with the independent Christian churches.

This thesis explores how church-founded liberal arts colleges--specifically fundamental/evangelical liberal arts colleges--stayed the drift toward secularization. It uses comparative case studies to examine the structures and beliefs which enabled "staying" schools to resist secularization. Social reproduction theories are used to explain both the reproduction of the dominant culture (secularization) and the reproduction of a subculture (fundamentalism/evangelicalism). Secularizing institutions conform to state incentives and so reproduce what the state sees as necessary for societal survival. Resisting institutions isolate themselves from the dominant culture by establishing boundaries which let in only what accords with the church and so reproduce a culture the church sees as necessary for the survival of evangelicalism/fundamentalism.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2006. / Title from title screen (site viewed on Mar. 9, 2007). PDF text: vii, 151 p. UMI publication number: AAT 3225795. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche format.

Many colleges and universities with historic relationships to religious organizations either have abandoned those relationships altogether or maintain the relationships in name only. Other church-related institutions remain deeply defined by their religious affiliation and require students and faculty to affirm certain creeds, practices and studies. Between these extremes, some institutions maintain a meaningful church relationship while embracing full academic freedom and building a faculty and student body that is richly diverse in every way. The leadership of the president may be critical to preserving the creative tension that allows the academy to prosper while drawing meaning from a church relationship. This study of executive leadership in church-related higher education sought to understand this form of leadership. The study joined conversations in the literature about leadership and about church-related higher education. The study utilized interactive qualitative analysis (Northcutt & McCoy, 2004) to identify nine elements in the system of executive leadership in church-related higher education. The study produced a theoretical model that allowed the researcher to describe the relationships that exist among the elements in the system, to explain the cause of existing conditions in the system, to predict the future results of actions on the system, and to discuss the impact of extrasystemic influences on the system. The study compared the different understandings of presidents, faculty members, and church leaders who serve as trustees. The results of the study indicated that primal leadership (Goleman, Boyatzis, & McKee, 2002) was the most relevant existing leadership theory for understanding the system described in this study. This study had primary value for persons who provide executive leadership in church-related higher education and for persons who select, evaluate, support and work with executive leaders in church-related higher education. This study had secondary value for persons who study executive leadership in all of higher education and for persons who study the interface between the general literature on leadership and specific understandings of leadership in higher education. / text

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, May, 2007. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Western Conservative Baptist Seminary, 1980. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 107-108).

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on February 24, 2010). The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Dissertation advisor: Dr. John Wigger. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Ill., 1999. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 296-301).