<p> The project director developed a plan for sermon feedback to evaluate the expository preaching of the pastors of Open Arms Church (OAC), in Upstate New York. Understanding that no preacher has arrived, the project director recognized an opportunity to help the teaching pastors of OAC continue to grow as expository preachers. The project director sought to identify key sermon criteria as well as effective feedback methods OAC pastors could utilize to seek sermon improvement. </p><p> Over a period of twelve months, from January 2018 to December 2018, the project director engaged in research and interacted with preaching experts, OAC pastors, and non-pastoral OAC members to develop a feedback plan. The project director recognized biblical and theological foundations for the feedback plan through a study of key scriptures (Prov 19:20, Acts 15:1&ndash;35, Acts 18:24&ndash;28, and 1 Cor 2:1&ndash;5). By reviewing select preaching texts, the project director identified important content, structural, and delivery elements of expository sermons. He surveyed preaching literature and interviewed church leaders to discover various approaches to sermon feedback. A panel of preaching experts&mdash;Greg Heisler, Scott Pace, Stephen Rummage, and Hershael York&mdash;provided qualitative evaluations for each stage of the plan&rsquo;s development. OAC pastors and a group of OAC members also reviewed the plan for clarity and usefulness. </p><p> The project director included three documents in the final feedback plan: a list of twenty key expository sermon elements, an overview of three integrated methods for feedback, and a sermon feedback guide that evaluators could use to provide sermon critique. The project director recognized that by working in cooperation with others, he produced a better feedback plan than he would have if he had worked alone. He anticipated the continued benefit of working in collaboration with others by participating in the implementation of the project at OAC.</p><p>

The Internet is affecting people's lives today through their personal and social relationships, professional activities, and their spiritual lives and religious practices. Academic studies in the field of communication and religion have been done frequently, but now in the digital era of social networks, studies are being directed to online religion on the Internet, which is ushering in a concept of digital religion. This case study examined how participants in the online Christian Forum seek and/or benefit from their spiritual activities on the Internet. It used a qualitative approach with e-mail interviews in a growing religious activity online, showing the relationship and the impact of it on the users' spiritual/religious lives. As participants bring to their online religious practices their church or offline church experiences, most of them are actively involved in only their virtual or online community, in contrast to previous studies that showed the Internet being used as a complement for offline church involvement. Findings herein point to a strong faith/spiritual activity on the Internet in different sites and discussion forums. People are seeking online what they are not getting in their offline churches, relative to spiritual/Biblical content to aid their Christian faith, as well as for personal relationships in an online community. Thus study reveals a paradox in two areas of Christian faith practices online: the online experiences don't substitute for the offline church in worship and on face-to-face relationships as a community; and the participants miss those offline church experiences. Despite the fact that they miss them, they are not there physically, but practice their faith online. Participants in online Christian Forums in this study also revealed some distinctive individual/personal concepts about Christian doctrines and traditional historic practices which are not aligned with some specific beliefs and historical practices of the Christian church. / text

Project (M.R.E.)--Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, 1968. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 66-68).

Project (M.R.E.)--Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, 1968. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 66-68).

Karl Jaspers is a thinker who tries in his philosophy to formulate a non-religious concept of faith. The thesis wants to clarify this "philosophical faith", which constitutes for Jaspers an answer to the question, "by what and toward what shall we live". Jaspers characterizes his philosophical faith as a "faith of a thinking man", which lay in grounds of philosophizing itself. On the one hand, philosophical faith (and philosophy itself) is different from the knowledge and science, because it cannot be reduced to a mere content; on the other hand, it is different from the religious faith and religion itself, mainly because it cannot accept the traditional Christian revelation. Finally, philo- sophical faith can be characterized as a communicative manner of life, which wants to reach the maximum possible level of understanding by all people. Keywords Karl Jaspers, philosophical faith, transcendence, existence, religion, revelation, communication

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T19:20:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Nathalie de Almeida Hornhardt.pdf: 3742162 bytes, checksum: 770e8d5914c5194f7e9edddad99813eb (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-08-08 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This study aims to investigate, based on characters testimony s from the documentary Santo Forte, directed by Eduardo Coutinho, the pursuit of individual happiness and the fulfillment of human insufficiency by their religious beliefs and experiences. Taking into account this purpose, the idea is to highlight, considering the term devised by Blaise Pascal and conceptualized by Luiz Felipe Pondé - human insufficiency - that men/people need and are dependent on the supernatural world, precisely to fill the void which is inherent and that haunts them. In view of their mystical experiences and religious trajectory, the film's characters show a greater acceptance to their lives, due to the communication that they have with the sacred. In other words, it is clear that the relationship which men have with gods and entities gives them hope in the face of their endless reserve/tendency to suffering. This research also focuses to make considerations about the men s dependence towards the supernatural, which is necessary to ensure perpetual and rational pursuit of individuals with regard to happiness and well-being. This is noticeable from the emphasis on utilitarianism - principle developed by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill that indicates a natural man s search towards happiness and for annulment of misery and pain / Este estudo pretende investigar, a partir dos depoimentos dos personagens do documentário Santo Forte, de Eduardo Coutinho, a busca dos indivíduos pela felicidade e pelo preenchimento da insuficiência humana, por meio de suas crenças e experiências religiosas. Nesse sentido, visa evidenciar, com base no termo cunhado por Blaise Pascal e conceitualizado por Luiz Felipe Pondé - insuficiência humana - que o homem necessita e é dependente do mundo sobrenatural, justamente, para preencher o vazio ao qual é inerente e que tanto o assola. Por meio de experiências místicas e de sua trajetória religiosa os personagens do filme evidenciam uma aceitação maior de suas vidas em razão da comunicação que dispõem com o sagrado. Em outras palavras, é notório que essa relação dos homens com deuses e entidades lhes garante esperança diante de sua reserva infinita de sofrimento. Esta pesquisa visa igualmente traçar considerações acerca da dependência dos homens em relação ao sobrenatural, que se faz necessária para assegurar a busca perpétua e racional dos indivíduos pela felicidade e bem-estar. Isso fica evidente pela ótica do utilitarismo - princípio desenvolvido por Jeremy Bentham e John Stuart Mill - que aponta uma procura imanente ao homem pela felicidade e pela anulação de dores e sofrimentos