Thesis (D. Min.)--Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2003. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 178-186).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2003. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 178-186).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2003. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 178-186).

ABSTRACT THE SCHOOL OF PERFORMING ARTS AT BELLEVUE BAPTIST CHURCH AS A MODEL OF THE CHURCH-BASED ARTS ACADEMY Hae Eun Kim, D.M.A. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2014 Chair: Dr. Esther R. Crookshank The School of Performing Arts founded at Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova, Tennessee is one of most successful examples of a church-related music academy in a Protestant or evangelical church in the United States. This dissertation is a study of its history and development from its founding in 1984 through the present in order to understand how a church-based music academy may be successfully operated. The methodology draws on interviews of prominent individuals in the School of Performing Arts and primary source documents related to the operation of the school since its founding. Chapter 1 establishes the historical background of the Academy in the larger context of church music education in the United States since the nineteenth century and specifically in Southern Baptist church life after 1941, when the denomination's Church Music Department was created. This chapter gives an overview of the leaders, philosophies, and objectives of church music education in the Southern Baptist Convention by decade. Chapter 2 documents the origins, philosophy, and development of the overall music ministry of Bellevue Baptist Church and the rise of its tradition of excellence in music education and performance. Since its founding, the School of Performing Arts has advanced the goals of family-based church ministry through the intentionally intergenerational nature of its ensembles. Chapter 3 traces the history of the School of Performing Arts in two periods: 1984-2004 and 2005 through the present, corresponding with the school's changes of name. From Performing Arts Center (1984-2005) to School of Performing Arts (2005-present), the name was changed in order to reflect more accurately the mission and goals of the applied music program at BBC: teaching people to praise God with instruments and voice. The conclusion, chapter 4, seeks to identify key factors and principles in the school's success and longevity despite the shift in recent years away from orchestral worship music in many Southern Baptist churches. This chapter also addresses possible applications of the Bellevue model to evangelical churches in Korea, many of which have extensive church music programs but lack educational programs, especially for instrumental music instruction, found in the American Southern Baptist model.

Master of Arts / Department of History / Robert D. Linder / As pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church from 1972 to 2005 and three-time President of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) in 1979 and 1986-1988, Adrian Rogers (1931-2005) played an integral role in promoting inerrancy within the SBC. His actions not only moved the SBC in a more conservative direction, if not a fundamentalist one, but also shifted Southern Baptists, politically, in the direction of the Republican Party. However, Rogers’s role in the SBC went further than just politics. His involvement within the SBC, his leadership at Bellevue Baptist Church and its eventual move to Cordova, Tennessee, suggest that Rogers was actually a builder. Love Worth Finding (LWF), has preserved his legacy after his death in 2005. As a result, this thesis argues that Adrian Rogers was not only a preacher, popular grassroots organizer within the SBC, or evangelist, but also a builder. If it had not been for Rogers, the “architectural” blueprint for the SBC would never have become a reality. When Rogers became pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church, the church resided in midtown Memphis and had close to 9,000 members. By the time he retired in 2005, the church had 28,000 members and was located in Cordova, Tennessee. Finally, Rogers launched LWF in the midst of the televangelist scandals of the late 1980s. Not only did LWF survive the unseemly televangelist fallout, it continues to broadcast Rogers’s sermons today.

Johnny Derrick Yelton, Ph.D. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2013 Chairman: Dr. J. D. Payne This dissertation examines the evangelistic content of the pastoral preaching of Adrian P. Rogers during his thirty-two years of ministry at Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. Chapter 1 introduces the thesis and explains the purpose, goals, limitations and methodology of this study. Chapter 2 examines the significant events and people in the life of Rogers that influenced and shaped his passion for evangelistic preaching. This chapter provides a brief biography of Rogers that discusses his conversion and call to the ministry, his education in college and seminary, his pastoral ministry, his broadcast ministry, and his denominational leadership. It also identifies the characteristics demonstrated by Rogers that contributed to his effective evangelistic preaching ministry. Chapter 3 examines the sermon preparation, organization, and delivery skills of Rogers. The objective of this chapter is to identify the homiletical style of Rogers' sermons with a focus upon his expository methodology. This chapter provides a study of the functional elements of Rogers' sermons, and identifies nine characteristics of evangelistic preaching reflected in Rogers' preaching. Finally this chapter considers the hermeneutical integrity of the sermons of Rogers in order to determine if he forced an evangelistic meaning into a text and thereby twisted the intent of the original author of the text. Chapter 4 examines the evangelistic invitation of Rogers. This chapter provides a brief background regarding the origin of the evangelistic invitation and the criticism of some evangelicals regarding its historical and modern usage. The focus of this chapter, however, is upon the methodology of Rogers. This chapter addresses any problems and concerns regarding the evangelistic invitations of Rogers and it identifies the components and characteristics of Rogers' evangelistic invitation. Chapter 5 is a study of the evangelistic content of Rogers' sermons. The goal of this chapter is to determine how often Rogers actually preached an evangelistic sermon from the pulpit of Bellevue Baptist Church. This chapter begins with a definition of evangelistic preaching, and provides a methodology for measuring the evangelistic content of Rogers' sermons based upon this definition. Next, this chapter offers an evaluation of the evangelistic content discovered in the sermons of Rogers, and gives a critical analysis of the evangelistic preaching ministry of Rogers based upon these findings. Finally, this chapter provides recommendations for an effective evangelistic preaching ministry. Chapter 6 gives a conclusion to this study. This chapter addresses the importance of evangelistic preaching in the church. Furthermore, it introduces the discoveries made from this study and gives a summary of those discoveries. It also outlines an application of the strengths of Rogers' evangelistic preaching ministry. Finally, it identifies areas for further study in the future. This dissertation also contains two appendices. The first appendix includes significant material regarding one hundred sermons by Rogers including an outline of each sermon and an assessment of the evangelistic content of each sermon. The second appendix provides an example of a gospel presentation and sinner's prayer used in the publication materials of Love Worth Finding Ministries.