Thesis (D. Min.)--Bob Jones University, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 118-126).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Erskine Theological Seminary, 2004. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 149-153).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 2001. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 134-158).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Erskine Theological Seminary, 2004. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 149-153).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Bob Jones University, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 118-126).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2002. / Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 125-132).

see document / Master of Science

M.A. / The motivation for the study was to determine the problems encountered by pastors within the context of the Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa (hereafter AFM Church) in a small rural congregation and what their specific needs were. The purpose of the research is to supply workable guidelines which will help the pastors to improve their situation in the rural area. A qualitative research investigation was done, which is investigative and descriptive. Interviews were conducted with sixteen pastors from small rural congregations and were asked: How do you experience the ministry in a small rural town? The information was collected and scientifically processed, and four areas were identified which could influence the pastor’s ministry in a rural environment, namely: • the congregation in which the pastor is working • the community in which the pastor is working • personal qualities of the pastor and • lack of personal and professional support and resources available to the pastor in rural areas. From the research it is clear that factors exist which obstruct the progress of rural congregations. Factors include a higher age profile and inadequate parishioner involvement in the congregations, whilst a conservative and tradition-bound community as well as inadequate involvement in the community also has a role to play. The research proved that the pastor’s personal background, age and experience in the ministry can be keys to success, while inadequate personal and professional backing to the pastor can handicap effectiveness in the ministry. There is a lack of useful resources available to the pastor while insufficient communication with head office can sometimes lead to frustration. The results from the qualitative research were subjected to a literature control. In the literature control it was attempted to investigate and verify the accuracy of the problem areas, according to which guidelines were compiled to assist the pastor and leadership of congregations to eliminate problem areas which may occur. The guidelines viewed as a whole provide for an attempt by the church that could hold various benefits for the AFM pastor in a small rural congregation.

This study foregrounds the problem of the center and periphery of Gothic architecture near Paris. Taking architectural citation as its interpretive framework, it focuses on a core group of rural parish churches situated in the land of the Paris cathedral chapter. It addresses the visual links between Notre-Dame of Paris and the village churches, the ways in which architectural citation was put into practice, and the institutional context that imbued the resemblances with meaning. It demonstrates that quoting the architecture of the cathedral of Paris was the exception, not the rule, in the villages of the cathedral chapter. When they occurred, the citations were mostly superficial, not structural, and resulted from contact between the community of secular canons installed at the cathedral and the administrators responsible for the village churches. The introduction sets the problem of architectural citation in the land of the Paris cathedral chapter against the backdrop of architectural citation in other contexts in medieval France: namely, Cluniac, Cistercian, and Capetian. Proceeding according to the Notre-Dame of Paris construction sequence, Part One reveals the architectural citations of the cathedral of Paris found in the chapter’s land: at Saint-Germain of Andrésy, Saint-Hermeland of Bagneux, Saint-Lubin of Châtenay, Saint-Christophe of Créteil, Saint-Germain of Itteville, Notre-Dame of Jouy, Saint-Mathurin of Larchant, Saint-Nicolas of Mézières, Notre-Dame of Rozay, Saint-Martin of Sucy, and Saint-Fortuné of Vernou. Part Two introduces the Paris cathedral chapter as an institution and a community of individual canons, maps the chapter’s rural property as it expanded from the ninth to the fourteenth century, articulates the language the chapter used to describe its villages and land, and explores the canons’ secular and sacred authority in its villages. Part Two concludes by bringing the institutional relationship to bear on the architectural evidence presented in Part One.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, 2002. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 230-239).