The aim of this thesis is to show how the church can use leadership in building up the local church as a model of Pastoral theology and as a method to address the weak or even wrong leadership that has caused a negative effect on the growth of churches. The research methodology used is grounded theory within qualitative methods to collect and analyze data to develop a model of ministry for the present-day society. Fifty eight interviews were conducted including laity and clergy of Harare churches. Grounded theory analysis yielded patterns of leadership and ministry in of building up local churches. The process was intended not only to evaluate the previous effectiveness of the leaders, but also to provide validated suggestions for future leadership improvement based on the research findings. Furthermore, it was anticipated that the research would provide findings that could be of significant value to other churches that intend to create and implement their own internship programs for leaders. The descriptive method of the empirical research was used with a questionnaire and an interview as the most important instrument utilized to gather the needed data. The researcher found out that the leadership in the local churches are weak or even wrong and that has negative effects in growing churches Many leaders would agree that leadership development is a very important area in the building up of the local church. However, the shortage of time and ministry demands on church leaders and the challenges involved in this attempt often result in the neglect of this very important area of the church. It is also significant that these growing churches also have the laity involved in relational evangelism teaching, training and discipleship. Recommendations were given to map the way forward with some areas were the researcher has found that they should be a further research on issues that were not covered but came out during the interviews. / Dissertation (MA Theol)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Practical Theology / unrestricted

Practical Theology / D.Th. (Practical Theology)

Thesis (M.A.)--Johnson Bible College, Knoxville, Tenn., 2003. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-71).

Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / D.Th. (Practical Theology)

This thesis aims to elucidate the nature of the references to Satan in the undisputed Pauline corpus. Although scholarship has frequently devoted attention to the various “powers of evil” in Paul’s letters—including principalities, rulers, demons, etc.—insufficient consideration has been given to the figure of Satan as an isolated subject matter. Moreover, scholarship on the individual references to Satan has often neglected Paul’s depiction of Satan’s activity vis-à-vis his apostolic calling. This raises the question, how and why does the Apostle Paul refer to the figure of Satan in his letters? In order to address this question, the thesis commences by examining two key areas of background material. First, Chapter Two investigates the various “images” of Satan in the Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Jewish texts. Instead of delineating a historical sketch of the development of Satan in Jewish thought, emphasis is placed on the various roles in which Satan functions within these writings. Second, Chapters Two and Three investigate two aspects of Paul’s theology which relate to his references to Satan. First, Satan’s place within Paul’s apocalyptic theology is explicated (Chapter Three). Second, the thesis considers Paul’s self-understanding as the Apostle to the Gentiles and, critically, the importance of Paul’s churches for his apostleship (Chapter Four). Chapters Five and Six then utilize the findings of the previous chapters in their examination of the ten clear references to Satan in the undisputed Pauline letters. Chapter Five focuses on the sole reference to Satan in Romans (16:20) and the two references in 1 Thessalonians (2:18; 3:5). Chapter Six then analyzes the several references to Satan in the Corinthian correspondence (1 Cor 5:5; 7:5; 2 Cor 2:11; 4:4; 6:15; 11:14; 12:7), including their collective significance. On the basis of the examination of the Pauline references to Satan, it is argued that Paul—while sharing the Jewish and early Christian understanding of Satan as an enemy and tempter of the people of God—fundamentally characterizes Satan in his letters as the apocalyptic adversary who opposes his apostolic labor (kopos). Paul does so, it is argued, because he believed that his apostleship was pivotal in spreading the gospel at a crucial point in salvation history. The final chapter then anticipates the implications of the study for further research.

Twentieth-century scholarship on the social composition of the Pauline communities has focused on a binary model of the social structure of Roman society that posits a very small group of the élites and an enormous group of the non-élites. More recently, studies have tried to differentiate between strata within the non-élite groups by qualitatively identifying their economic conditions and quantitatively estimating the percentage distribution of each stratum. However, the major problem has been the lack of an economic reference line or a “poverty line” that would enable the meaningful comparison of different standards of living among the urban non-élites. This thesis aims to examine the economic strata of the non-élites in Roman society in the first century CE and estimates their standards of living by clarifying and establishing the concept of subsistence as an economic point of reference. This study first surveys the history of research on the social position of the earliest Christians in order to understand the debates of the twentieth century and the last decade. Then, the two levels of basic needs that are embedded in the concept of subsistence are explored and estimated: the “survival standard” and the “subsistence standard”. The former is more scientifically defined, while the latter focuses on aspects of social provision. The survival standard in the urban settings of the first century CE is used as a baseline to measure and compare the standards of living of various strata of non-élite groups such as unskilled workers, slaves, ordinary artisans, traders and professional artisans. Finally, once the economic stratification of the urban non-élites and their respective standards of living have been established, this framework is applied to the Pauline communities in Thessalonica, Philippi and Corinth in order to explain the issues of poverty, charity and wealth in the letters.

No description available.

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

published_or_final_version / Chinese Historical Studies / Master / Master of Arts

In this thesis the air infiltration through the envelope of a naturally ventilated stone church located in Bergby (Gävle, Sweden) is studied. The project is focused on Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) modeling the air change rate (ACH) inside the church hall and studying the factors (stack effect and wind effect) that influence the air infiltration. The weather parameters outside the building were recorded in a weather station and the properties of the air inside the church was analyzed with different methods. Infrared thermography techniques and thermistors were used to measure the temperature inside, the tracer gas method to measure the ACH and the blower door technique to measure the tightness of the building envelope. In order to know the pressure coefficients on the church envelope a physical model of the building was studied in a wind tunnel. Firstly, only the values obtained from the weather station were used to calculate the predictors of ACH and see which parameter influence more on its variation:  temperature difference (∆T) indicating the stack effect; and wind speed (WS), the component of wind speed perpendicular to the long-side facades of the church (WS90) and their square values (WS2 and WS902) indicating the wind effect. The data obtained in the wind tunnel were later used to do the MLR study with new predictors for indicating wind effect (∆Cp∙WS, ∆Cp∙WS2, ∆CpOUT-IN·A∙WS, ∆CpOUT-IN·A∙WS2, ∆CpC-H∙WS, ∆CpC-H∙WS2). Better prediction of ACH was obtained with the square of the wind speed (WS2) instead of the magnitude itself (WS). However, the latter (WS) provided better results than the regression with the magnitude of the perpendicular component of the wind (WS90). Although wind speed influences in ACH, it alone seems to be a very poor predictor of ACH since has a negative correlation with ΔT when the data under study include both day and night. However when high wind speed are detected it has quite strong influence. The most significant predictions of ACR were attained with the combined predictors ∆T & WS and ∆T & ∆CpOUT-IN·A∙WS2. The main conclusion taken from the MLR analysis is that the stack effect is the most significant factor influencing the ACH inside the church hall. This leads to suggest that an effective way of reducing ACH could be sealing the floor and ceiling of the church because from those areas the air infiltration has big influence on the ACH inside the church hall, and more in this case that have been noted that the floor is very leaky. Although different assumptions have been done during the analyses that contribute to make the predictions deviate from reality, at the end it would be possible to asses that MLR can be a useful tool for analyzing the relative importance of the driving forces for ACR in churches and similar buildings, as long as the included predictors not are too mutually correlated, and that attained models that are statistically significant also are physically realistic. / Church project