Thesis (D. Min.)--Columbia Biblical Seminary and School of Missions, 2007. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 203-205).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Ill., 1999. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 120-123).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Ill., 1999. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 120-123).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Ill., 1999. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 120-123).

M.A. / The church does not only exist for its own sake but it functions as an extension of God, in Christ, towards a world, which is getting lost. The understanding of the church as a missionary entity remains a core question (Net 1994:25). In response to this question different church models have tried to interpret their calling in a given situation in terms of metaphors. This has resulted in various patterns of ministry, describing to us the historical stature of the church. The Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa was established as a missionary endeavour coming from America. It had not been the intention to establish a church (Burger 1995:166). The passion for people who are getting lost was a feature of the Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa in its early years. A unique pattern of ministry developed over the years, linked to a specific socio- historical history of origin. The pattern of ministry resulted in a Pentecostal tradition where the gifts of the Holy Spirit were regarded as the answer to the missionary calling of the church. Healing, glossolalia, prophecy and to a lesser degree also other gifts of the Spirit became an integral part of the liturgy. Conversion has been regarded as momentary and each service was characterised by a strong appeal to nonbelievers. Over the years the Apostolic Faith Mission of South Mission has experienced a definite tension between freedom and formalism in the liturgy.

Read abstract in the document / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Church History and Church Policy / PhD / Unrestricted

The nonprofit sector is increasingly engaged in social enterprise, which involves a combination and balancing of social mission and business goals which can cause mission drift or mission tension. A work integrated social enterprise (WISE) is a specific type of social enterprise that focuses on integrating hard-to-employ individuals, such as ex offenders, back into the workforce, usually through producing goods or offering services. Little is known about how WISE organizations manage mission drift, particularly given the unique characteristics of this type of organization. Using institutional values theory and resource dependence theory as the foundation, the purpose of this case study was to explore how a WISE in Indiana experience and manage mission drift and mission tension. Data were collected from semistructured interviews with 4 board members and 4 staff persons, and from organizational documents. All data were inductively coded and subjected to a constant, comparative analysis between empirical and predictive themes. The study revealed the organization has not experienced mission drift or mission tension because, (a) there was a strong mission and a commitment by the board and staff to the mission, (b) there was a constant balancing act between mission and income, (c) business goals aligned with mission, and (d) operating systems were in place for mission sustainability. The positive social change implications stemming from this study include providing beneficial information about best practices and strategies to other organizations seeking to develop WISE programs that provide opportunities and training for difficult to employ populations.

In this essay, Ingeborg Wikander's book Fem år i Kina has been examined through a thematic analysis method. The result showed three distinct categories, each with their own subcategories, which are: Wikander and the women, Wikander’s piety and Wikander, homesickness and national romanticism. When the theoretical framework was applicated onto the study it showed that Wikander generalised and grouped all Chinese women into one category. A category Chandra Talpade Mohanty refers to as “third world woman”, which was a way for Western women to distance themselves from women of another ethnicity, which also can be referred as “othering” a group, creating an Us and Them. Drawing on Malin Gregersen’s reasoning about paternalism and social motherhood, one can see how Wikander took on a nurturing role in the relationships she engaged in while in China. Shirley S. Garrett’s liberation ideology in relation to missionary work is also visible in the letters and works from Wikander.

Mission impact assessment (MIA) research has been explored to evaluate the performance and effectiveness of a mission system, such as enterprise networks with organizational missions and military or tactical mission teams with assigned missions. The key components in such mission systems, including assets, services, tasks, vulnerability, attacks, and defenses, are interdependent, and their impacts are interwoven. However, the current state-of-the-art MIA approaches have less studied such interdependencies. In addition, they have not modeled strategic attack-defense interactions under partial observability. In this work, we propose a novel MIA framework that assesses measures of performance (MoP) or measures of effectiveness (MoE) based on the service requirements (e.g., correctness or timeliness) of a given mission system based on full and comprehensive modeling and simulation of the key system components and their interdependencies. Particularly, we model intelligent attack-defense strategy selections based on hypergame theory, which allows considering uncertainty in estimating each player's hypergame expected utility (HEU) for its best strategy selection. As the case study, we consider an Internet-of-Things (IoT)-based mission system aiming to accurately and timely detect an object, given stringent accuracy and time constraints for successful mission completion. Via extensive simulation experiments, we validate the quality of the proposed MIA tool in its inference accuracy of the mission performance under a wide range of different environmental settings hindering the mission performance assessment and attack-defense interactions. Our results prove that the developed MIA framework shows a sufficiently high inference accuracy (e.g., 80%) even with a small portion of the training dataset (e.g., 20-50%). We also found the MIA can better assess the system's mission performance when attackers exhibit clearer patterns to take more strategic actions using hypergame theory. / Master of Science / In our increasingly interconnected world, mission systems play a crucial role, whether in organizational networks or tactical military operations. We often evaluate these systems to ensure they perform effectively, but there's more to it than meets the eye. Imagine an intricate web of resources, tasks, services, assaults, and defenses that are intertwined and have an impact on one another. The strategic interactions of attack and defense in uncertain environments have been majorly ignored by conventional techniques for mission impact assessment (MIA). Our research introduces a new way of thinking about MIA. We've developed a framework that delves deep into the heart of mission systems, considering how each component affects the others. This comprehensive approach considers not just what's happening but also the interplay of actions and reactions. Hypergame theory, a technique that enables us to model intelligent choices in the face of uncertainty, is at the foundation of our approach. Imagine it as a chess game in which players must predict their opponents' moves and adjust their strategies appropriately. In our case study, we used an Internet-of-Things (IoT)-based mission system tasked with timely and accurate object detection to apply this architecture. In this mission system, both cyber attackers, whose aim is to compromise the mission, and cyber defenders, whose aim is to ensure mission success, are present, and they use the proposed hypergame-based decision-making to perform intelligent actions. What did we find? Through extensive simulations, we confirmed the effectiveness of our MIA framework. Even with limited training data, our tool demonstrated a remarkable 80% accuracy in assessing mission performance. Moreover, it excelled when attackers followed discernible patterns, allowing us to predict and respond strategically. In simpler terms, our research provides a valuable tool for evaluating the success of mission systems in our increasingly connected world. It goes beyond surface-level assessments, considering the intricate relationships between system components and the dynamic nature of strategic decision-making. Ultimately, our framework empowers us to ensure mission success in an ever-evolving landscape.

No description available.