<p> The purpose of writing, <i>The Relationship Between Candidate Preparation and Effective Healing Prayer at Living Christ Church in Nyack, NY</i> was to narrow the focus of preparation for a healing prayer ministry session to four key factors that would be implemented as the basis for pre-screening for a healing prayer ministry session. The purpose was achieved by determining if there was a relationship between the preparation of candidates for healing prayer with the four key factors and the effectiveness of the healing prayer ministry session. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.)</p>

<p> The purpose of writing <i>The Impact of inner healing prayer on Christian Maturity at Stanwich Congregational Church, Greenwich, Connecticut </i> is to determine the impact of Inner Healing prayer on a Christian&rsquo;s maturity and well-being in the five human dimensions: physical, emotional, spiritual, social, and intellectual. </p><p> Chapter 1 provides the purpose, goals, context, and rationale of this project. This chapter includes: the researcher&rsquo;s personal story, purpose of the study, ministry problem addressed, context in which research was conducted, research questions and model of research, definition of terms&mdash;inner healing, holistic holiness, spiritual formation/soul care, the soul, Christian maturity&mdash;and possible limitations and delimitations of the current project. </p><p> Chapter 2 provides literature review and theological foundations for present research of the impact that inner healing prayer can have on Christian maturity. </p><p> Chapter 3 sets forth the research methodology utilized in approaching inner healing prayer including: recruitment, selection and characteristics of participants, instrument used, standardization of treatment and data collection. </p><p> Chapter 4 presents an analysis of the findings including: quantitative and qualitative data of the five research questions, maturity levels before and after inner healing prayer, anecdotal participants&rsquo; responses of the greatest impact of inner healing prayer and greatest need for further growth. </p><p> Chapter 5 summarizes the purpose of current research and how the results fulfill that purpose. The research questions are restated. The researcher&rsquo;s conclusions include: surprises and what the researcher discovered that was not necessarily anticipated, findings in relation to literature review, reflections on the research design, recommendations for future research and concluding remarks.</p>

<p> The author presents the lack of deliverance ministry in the Evangelical church world as being incongruent with biblical, theological and historical underpinnings and, as such, forms a significant hindrance to its effective mission. To demonstrate the efficacy of deliverance, the author surveyed 46 Christian leaders on 98 possible effects of their personal deliverance experience. The author concluded that deliverance renders significant and broad positive effects in the individual leader and makes numerous recommendations pertaining to the inclusion of deliverance in ongoing church ministry, discipleship strategies and global mission.</p><p>

<p> The ideal role of the church pastor has not been fully addressed withing church communities, and recent changes in society have led to different understandings of the role of the pastor, hence leading to different expectations. This research aimed to understand burnout, intent to leave the ministry, and turnover in contemporary society, by exploring the role of the pastor from both congregants&rsquo; and pastors&rsquo; perspectives. Maslow&rsquo;s hierarchy of needs theory, role theory, social exchange theory, and leader-member exchange theory were used to guide this research. Qualitative research using a constructivist grounded theory approach was carried out in Kenya involving congregants and pastors in Pentecostal churches. During data analysis, concepts emerging from the data were related to each other as the researcher explored participants&rsquo; responses that were categorized, leading to the emerged themes such as reservation, distrust, volatility, boundlessness, and frustrations. Combined, these categories indicated the pastors&rsquo; and congregants&rsquo; perspectives on the role of a pastor, which led to the emergence of expectations-driven conformation theory. The results indicate that the expectations in contemporary Pentecostal churches require a selfless pastor who can meet the congregants&rsquo; perception of the primary role of the pastor, which is not necessarily what the pastors understand as their role. The grounded theory establishes that pastors conform to expectations with the aim of satisfying the congregants, which is impossible due to conflicting expectations. Pastoral recruitment and training are critical, and this study confirms that it is imperative for pastors to practice within the scope of their trained roles. The issues of burnout, intent to leave, and turnover can be addressed if roles can be explicitly defined by understanding the organizational context, characteristics of members, nature of needs, and level of interdependence in an organization.</p><p>

<p> This study explores issues of internal moral conflict, moral injury, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PDST), from the lens of a developed theological anthropology which finds its foundation in Paul Tillich, Wolfhart Pannenberg, and Karl Rahner. This dissertation tests the theory that operational and combat stress experienced by military service members strains the <i>imago Dei </i> by numbing the human ability for connection and transcendence and, thus, necessitates a "rehumanizing" journey of healing through reconnection with God and others.</p><p> In order to better care for military service members, a new framework for sin is created which addresses issues of generalized estrangement and personal sin from the context of combat operations. This includes examining military training, killing, and issues of justice to clearly present the current psychological and spiritual challenges within the realm of morality, as experienced by service members. </p><p> From this foundation, a theology of growth is constructed based on a synthesis of theological anthropologys from various traditions which better resonate with service member's experiences, and then draws connections with current psychological work in posttraumatic growth. These connections are then used to evaluate support intervention techniques for effectiveness in the process of rehumanizing, which heals and grows a person from moral injury and allows them to once again experience the transcendent connection unique to being created in the image of God. The journey of rehumanization is part of the quest for sanctification, deification, and New Being. This is fostered in non judgmental accepting relationships that find their foundation in God's love for humanity and are experienced as sacred glimmers of the infinite. </p><p>

<p> Servant leadership is maturing in its theoretical development. Although initially introduced to the literature over four decades ago by Greenleaf (1970), the relationship of the effect of servant leadership and commitment has not been quantitatively explored until recently. Scholars, such as Sokoll (2013) and Drury (2004), have performed studies in the USA, but no quantitative empirical study has been published from Latin America. A call for the expeditious and quantitative investigation of servant leadership theory applicability in non-Western cultures seems to be emanating from within the academy and across organizations around the world (Northouse, 2015). This study, utilizing validated psychometric instruments, examined the essence of servant leadership and found it to have a significant (<i>p</i> &lt; .001) effect on member commitment, especially on affective organizational commitment. This effect was most accentuated in the Latin American culture. The current study also found leader&ndash;member exchange to have a strong mediation significant (<i>p</i> &lt; .001) effect on normative commitment and a modest significant (<i>p</i> &lt; .001) effect on affective organizational commitment. The leader&ndash;member exchange effect was found to be more accentuated in the Latin American culture. The mediation role of members&rsquo; level of identification with the leader was also a significant (<i>p</i> &lt; .001) effect, but there were no significant contrasts across the two cultures. The study was conducted in churches and online among a robust samples of 431 responses in the USA and 328 in Latin America comprised of multiple Evangelical Christian denominations. Respondents to the study&rsquo;s survey were highly diverse in regards to age, gender, and involvement. This study offers empirical evidence for organizational decision makers to consider servant leadership as an emerging leadership approach that has a superior effect on cultivating member commitment, even in cultures where it was thought not to be a viable leadership style.</p>

Thesis (D. Min.)--Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, 2009. / Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p.164-169).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, 2009. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 164-169).