Thesis (D. Min.)--Logos Evangelical Seminary, 2008. / Vita. Description based on Microfiche version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 213-223).

Thesis (D. Min.)--New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, 2004. / Includes abstract and vita. "November 2004." Includes bibliographical reference (leaves 162-165).

Thesis (M.A.)--Columbia International University, 2000. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 146-156).

Thesis (D. Min.)--New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, 2004. / Includes abstract and vita. Includes project proposal. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 192-220, 57-82).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Logos Evangelical Seminary, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 213-223).

This dissertation provides a biblical analysis of McGavran's harvest theology principle as it relates to the relationship between faithfulness in the evangelistic task and actual numerical church growth. Chapter 1 introduces the problem and outlines the research method. Chapter 2 contains a detailed explanation of harvest theology as presented by McGavran in his published works. The chapter outlines the concept of harvest theology in terms of the role of gospel messengers, the importance of strategy and effective methods, and numerical results. Chapter 3 examines the biblical text to discover the role assigned to gospel messengers. The key question for this chapter is as follows: What role, biblically, do human agents play in the evangelistic task? The role of gospel messengers is examined in the teaching and ministry of Jesus in the gospels, the book of Acts, and the Pauline epistles. Chapter 4, examines the biblical text as it pertains to the use of strategy and methods in the evangelistic task. The key question for this chapter is as follows: What, if any, strategy or method is employed in the New Testament and for what purpose? In addition, this chapter examines the concept of "receptivity" as a factor in determining evangelistic strategy. The use of strategy and methods is examined in the ministries of the Twelve and of Paul. Chapter 5, examines those biblical texts that deal with numerical results and their relationship to evangelistic activity. The key question for this chapter is as follows: What does the New Testament say concerning numerical results? This chapter examines both the records of actual numerical results as well as how the New Testament writers view numerical results. The existence and attitude toward numerical results is examined in the Gospels, Acts, and the Pauline epistles. Chapter 6 serves as the summary and conclusion of the dissertation. This chapter summarizes the findings of the previous chapters and offer an analysis of harvest theology based on those findings. Additionally, this chapter offers a theological understanding of the relationship between faithfulness and church growth. Finally, the chapter offers implications of the research for contemporary ministry. / This item is only available to students and faculty of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. If you are not associated with SBTS, this dissertation may be purchased from <a href="http://disexpress.umi.com/dxweb">http://disexpress.umi.com/dxweb</a> or downloaded through ProQuest's Dissertation and Theses database if your institution subscribes to that service.

This research analyzed the factors contributing to the decline of protestant churches in metropolitan centers. Houston, Texas, was named as the metropolitan center. The research concern is that there is a lack of current and recent knowledge of factors leading to the decline of Protestant churches in metropolitan centers. The purpose of this study was to identify the biblical and theological, leadership and organizational, cultural, and demographic factors contributing to the decline of Protestant churches. Precedent literature reviews the literature written in the area of church growth and decline. Five areas are researched: Church growth specialists is a review of leading contributors to the church growth movement. Biblical and theological concerns is a review of God's loving relationship with his people and the people's rebellion and decline. Leadership and organizational concerns is a review of the effects of leadership and organization on the churches today. Cultural concerns is a review of the effects of culture on the church today. It reviews both Christianity in culture and culture in the church. And, demographic concerns is a review of how demographic changes have affected the church. It reviews the contextual factors leading to church decline and the life-cycle of the church. The methodological design of the study was a survey of Protestant churches in Houston, Texas. The sampling of 542 churches was taken from 842 Protestant churches of nine major denominations. A Likert response scale survey was created based on the research found in the precedent literature. Two surveys were created and distributed: an electronic response survey the pastors responded to online and a paper survey mailed out to the churches. The analysis of findings reviewed the one hundred churches that responded to the survey. In all, nineteen factors within the areas of concern were researched and analyzed. The results demonstrate that biblical and theological concerns illustrate no differences between growing and declining churches. Leadership and organizational concerns, cultural concerns and demographic concerns all demonstrate a difference between growing and declining churches. The conclusion was that there are many factors that contribute to church decline. The declining churches had numerous factors that were contributing to the decline. Decisive actions must be taken for the churches to turn into healthy and productive growing churches. / This item is only available to students and faculty of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. If you are not associated with SBTS, this dissertation may be purchased from <a href="http://disexpress.umi.com/dxweb">http://disexpress.umi.com/dxweb</a> or downloaded through ProQuest's Dissertation and Theses database if your institution subscribes to that service.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Western Theological Seminary, 1987. / Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 430-432).

Project (D. Miss.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1984. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 372-383).

This dissertation examines church growth in urban poverty zones and develops a grounded theory to explain the data. Urban poverty zones are impoverished census tracts located in cities of 500,000 or more, and the term is synonymous with the term inner city as defined by the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City. Chapter 1 details the educational and theological concerns that drive the research and gives a brief overview of the research design. Chapter 2 reviews the precedent literature from the fields of church growth, and urban ministry. This chapter also contains a theological section, which covers a theology of the city and a theology of the poor. It also contains a section which discusses the definition of urban poverty zone and inner city. Chapter 3 reports the methodology used to explore church growth in urban poverty zones. Since very little existed in this field, the grounded theory method was used, and the procedures are explained in this chapter. Chapter 4 relates the findings of the research including the data's interaction with predetermined categories and the development of new categories and subcategories of data. Chapter 4 also includes story lines for each category, and a story line for the main category of community restoration. This story line encompasses the grounded theory. Chapter 5 presents the conclusions of the research including key insights, the grounded theory, implications related to church growth research and urban ministry research, applications for practice in urban poverty zones, and suggestions for further research.