Thesis (M. Div.)--Emmanuel School of Religion, 2007. / Vita. Description based on Microfiche version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-63).

Many Emerging Church preachers claim the Bible is not viewed the same way it once was. Consequently ministers need to rethink some aspects of how they go about preaching and communicating. Emerging Church preachers argue that Christianity must develop a new way of describing, defining, and defending the gospel. The aim of this study is to answer the question: To what extent, if any, is preaching in the Emerging Church different than that of traditional expositional preaching in the Evangelical Church and how does one compare with the other as far as success in addressing the needs of post-modern Christians? Chapter one gives a brief introduction of the Emerging Church movement by briefly defining and describing the diverse movement (EC movement) that arose within Protestant Christianity due to a reaction to modernism in Western Christianity. Chapter two provides a literature study where definitions of both preaching styles are considered – emerging style(s) and expository preaching. Included with the emerging preaching style(s) and expositional preaching will be characteristics comprising these styles. Chapter three (methodology) consists of charts, definitions, and descriptions comparing both the modern and postmodern movement through their characteristics and values, purposes for the movements, and homiletics of the movements.Chapter four, "Findings From of The Comparisons From The Two Models of Preaching" consists of the results found from the research. Chapter five, "Conclusions Of Preaching For The Two Models Of Preaching" will consist of a critical analysis of the homiletics in both the Emerging Church and the Traditional Evangelical Church. Chapter six, "Expository Preaching In the Traditional Evangelical Church For Post-Modern Christians" will offer a model as a proposal on how to effectively preach to the postmodern congregation. Chapter seven contains concluding remarks concerning the effectiveness of the traditional expository preaching compared with the emerging dialogical/storytelling preaching for postmodern Christians. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / D. Th. (Practical Theology)

This dissertation examines the ecclesiology of the Emerging Church from a feminist perspective. I focus on the theological critiques raised by early feminist theologians regarding the patriarchal habits of sexism and God-talk, systemic erasure and exclusion, and the interconnection of clericalism and hierarchical power embedded within the church. These critiques reveal areas within the Emerging Church where it has failed to embody its stated vision of being an organic, relational, and inclusive form of church. Constructive engagement with the challenges and contributions of feminist theology presses the Emerging Church to more radically embody its stated vision. An analysis of the literature on the Emerging Church reveals its commitment to form a church that reflects organicity, relationality, and inclusivity in a variety of creative forms. At the same time, the literature and public conversations on blogs, social media, and in conferences raise questions about the Emerging Church’s predominantly white and predominantly male public presentation, and about practices of exclusion and marginalization within it. This dissertation provides a thick description of the Emerging Church’s lived ecclesiology on the basis of a qualitative research study conducted on twelve Emerging Church congregations in the United States. The work of early feminist theologians such as Mary Daly, Nelle Morton, Rosemary Radford Ruether, and Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, discloses the theological scaffolding that make the embedding of patriarchal and sexist structures and habits in the church possible in the first place. Their feminist vision of church as radical participation in Christ challenges the Emerging Church to keep re-visioning itself in light of the systemic marginalization persons continue to experience in the church. The dissertation concludes by arguing for the need to incorporate emancipatory language, God-talk, and symbolic systems into the theology and practices of Emerging Church in order to counter the deep-seated patriarchal habits and patterns within it. I conclude that to take itself seriously and achieve the substantive theological and structural changes for which its own vision calls as a living, participatory, and inclusive body of Christ, the Emerging Church must be willing to practice an explicitly feminist critique and take into account the contributions of early feminist theologians.

This dissertation is about the future of church in the United States. In it I argue that practical ecclesiological reflection on new churches in Seattle yields promising proposals for viable, faithful, ecclesial forms of missional engagement fitting for the U.S. church’s emerging context. In response to the significant decline in religious affiliation and participation in the U.S., major efforts in church planting are underway, but there is little scholarly research on these efforts. Moreover, the literature supporting church planting reflects insufficiently robust ecclesiological and missiological reflection. This dissertation utilizes mixed methods fieldwork and multi-disciplinary analysis to identify and assess the dominant models among new Seattle churches and offers practical wisdom for the U.S. church in its task of ecclesial witness. Within the dissertation I identify national trends exemplified by Seattle that make it a suitable proxy for the emerging U.S. context: urbanization, progressive values, technological culture, and post-Christian culture. On the basis of my fieldwork and the New Seattle Churches Survey that I fielded, I develop the four practical ecclesiological models that I discern among these churches: Great Commission Team, Household of the Spirit, New Community, and Neighborhood Incarnation. I then employ four core ideas of missional theology (missionary Trinity, missio dei, Jesus as paradigm for mission, and the missionary nature of the church) and four priorities for missional church planting (discerning God’s initiatives, neighbor as subject, boundary crossing, and plural leadership that shapes an environment) as a basis for assessment. I find that the Neighborhood Incarnation model best embodies these missional ideas and priorities. In conclusion, I propose practices for renewing each model and highlight five threads of practical wisdom for ecclesial witness: 1) embracing local identity and mission, 2) cultivating embodied, experiential, everyday spirituality, 3) engaging community life as means of witness and formation, 4) prioritizing hospitality as a cornerstone practice, and 5) discovering ecclesial vitality in a diverse ecclesial ecology. / 2023-01-25T00:00:00Z

This thesis describes the theology and praxis of philosopher/theologian Dr. Dallas Willard and its effect on contemporary forms of evangelicalism in America. Willard’s works have become increasingly attractive to emerging generations of Christians protesting the perceived excesses and hegemony of mainstream evangelical culture. Willard presents a positive alternative to contemporary versions of evangelicalism seen by many as increasingly devoted to soteriological escapism, modern consumerism, individualism and sectarianism. Alternatively, Willard proposes a return to the original (proto) message of good news (evangel) articulated by Jesus in the New Testament. For increasing numbers of disaffected evangelicals with postmodern sensibilities, this protoevangelical vision offers a more robust doctrine of God, a return to the primacy of discipleship to Christ, and the experience of a holistic and integrated life in the Kingdom of God. Ethnographies of four evangelical organizations applying Willardian theology provide insight into the current evolution within American evangelical theology and praxis.

Thesis (M. Div.)--Multnomah Biblical Seminary, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 83-86).

Thesis (M. Div.)--Multnomah Biblical Seminary, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 83-86).

This thesis explores the missional ecclesiology of the Emerging Church Movement and its relationship to Evangelicalism. The rise of post-Christendom, post-modernism and the increasing marginalisation of the church in Western Culture has created a situation where it needs to ask the basic missiological questions of its own identity and structures. In contrast to many within traditional Evangelicalism, the Emerging Church Movement views these changes as a positive development and, in a social context much more akin to that of the early church, an opportunity to rediscover the essential nature of its calling as Church. It is in a narrative reading of Scripture and understanding of Jesus' proclamation of the kingdom of God that the ECM believes the answers are to be found. As a result, the ECM finds itself working through a gradual process of dismantling and reconstructing the faith of their Evangelical heritage as they reflect on the meaning of the gospel as they see it expressed in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ and His interpretation of the Old Testament narrative. For the ECM, the gospel is much bigger than merely personal salvation and is best understood as God's great and gracious mission in the world of making new all that has been corrupted by sin and evil. Missional churches realise that they have been invited to participate with God in his redemptive mission and formulate their identity, structures and values accordingly. The ECM engages in intentional , subversive ministry from its new place at the margins of society flowing from the realisation that mission is not an activity to be carried out by members of the church in certain contexts, but rather the essential character and calling of the church community wherever it may exist. / Dissertation (MA(Theol))--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Practical Theology / unrestricted

The intention of this research is to develop a homiletical approach that will better equip the preacher in proclaiming the Glory of God. The study comes in a context where there has been a legitimate shift in emphasis in the direction of the listener, but it is the contention of this study that the pendulum has swung away from the pre-eminence of God that should permeate sermons being preached. Having established the need for a renewed apprehension of God in preaching the writer examines the general preaching landscape leading up to and including the 21st century. This part of the study includes some of the influences on the present day understanding on the role of knowledge and the questioning of God’s ability to communicate truth to man. The study also shows how these influences have led to a focus in preaching on human feeling and experience. The weight of Gods glory is then examined with the consequent implication of God’s passion for His own glory and the need for all preaching therefore to be Theo-centric. This is reinforced by an examination of the transcendence of God, unfolding the dangers of domesticating God by eliminating a sense of mystery as to the infinite nature of God. An overview of more recent developments in homiletical theory is examined demonstrating the conspicuous absence of the pre-eminence of God in preaching. A summary of the following three preaching models is presented; expository, narrative and topical, to provide a basis for later comparison. Key theological convictions and practices necessary to proclaim the Glory of God are then identified from the literature study. These are then used in a questionnaire compiled to be used in churches where the listeners are exposed to the three identified preaching models. The results from the empirical study is then analysed in the light of the theory presented in the literature studies. On the basis of these outcomes the following guidelines were recommended: -- Guidelines on determining the content of the sermon. -- Guidelines on the focus of the sermon. -- Guidelines on the content of the sermon. -- Guidelines on believing that God is primarily concerned about Himself leading to greater confidence in God’s grace to sinful people. And then finally, concluding that if the desired goal of proclaiming the Glory of God is to be consistently accomplished, then the expository model of preaching is best suited to the task. / Thesis (PhD (Practical Theology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Practical Theology / unrestricted

Zusammenfassung Die vorliegende Forschungsarbeit unternimmt den Versuch, einen konzeptionellen Entwurf einer empirischen Missionswissenschaft als Grundlagenforschung zu entwickeln, der im Praxisfeld durchgeführt wird. Dabei soll die intradisziplinäre Vorgehensweise einen methodologischen Zugang sozialwissenschaftlicher Methoden zur Missionswissenschaft möglich machen. Als Grundlage wird ein Einblick in die sozialwissenschaftliche und missionswissenschaftliche Forschung gegeben und daraus ein eigener, empirisch-theologischer Praxiszyklus entwickelt, der die Methodologie der Untersuchung darstellt. Die inhaltliche Forschungsarbeit fragt nach Gottesvorstellungen von Jugendlichen aus missionswissenschaftlicher Sicht. Dabei wird die Möglichkeit missionarischer Begegnung und Ansprechbarkeit von Jugendlichen im Kontext der kulturellen Veränderungen des postmodernen Paradigmemwechsels beleuchtet. Die Frage, wie Gottesvorstellungen von Jugendlichen gesellschaftlich geprägt und wie sich dies auf ihre Religiosität in ihrem Alltag auswirkt, spielt in diesem Zusammenhang eine wichtige Rolle. Deshalb wird nicht nur der aktuelle Forschungsstand zur Thematik untersucht, sondern 18 Jugendliche werden in Form von halbstandardisierten Interviews qualitativ befragt und ihre Aussagen empirisch-missiologisch ausgewertet. Die Thesis hat somit zweierlei Zielsetzungen: Zum einen geht es um eine empirisch-theologische Studie zur Erforschung von Gottesvorstellung bei Jugendlichen im Hinblick auf ihre missionarische Ansprechbarkeit. Zum anderen zielt sie darauf ab, durch Umsetzung des empirisch-theologischen Praxiszyklus einen Typus zu entwickeln, der auch künftig in der Missionswissenschaft für empirisch-theologische Erhebungen eingesetzt werden kann. Summary The intention of this research project is to evolve a concept for empirical missiology as a method of fundamental research and to apply it in practice. Through the usage of an intradisciplinary approach, access to missiology via the methodology of the social sciences is rendered possible. To establish a basis, an insight into social as well as missiological research will be given, and an inherent, empirical-theological praxis cycle will be developed. This praxis cycle is the methodology of this research paper. Concerning content, this research paper scrutinises the image of God held by juveniles from a missiological point of view. It considers the missionary receptiveness of juveniles in the context of cultural change in the postmodernist shift of paradigm. In how far are juvenile concepts of God marked by the correspondent social environment and does that have an impact on their everyday religious behaviour? Consequently not only the current state of research will be evaluated but, furthermore, the half-standardised qualitative interviews of 18 juveniles will be enclosed and their answers analysed on an empirical- missiological basis. Hence, this thesis has a twofold aim; one considers empirical-theological research as a way of evaluating concepts of God among juveniles with regard to their missionary receptiveness. The other implements the empirical-theological praxis cycle aiming to develop a type which enables further empirical-theological investigation in missilogy. / Missiology / D.Th.