This dissertation seeks to theologically analyze three prominent church planter profiles. Chapter 1 explains the need for such a study by giving consideration to the place of church planting in the Great Commission and the importance of leadership within church planting. Chapter 2 provides a historical overview of assessments in a variety of fields that led to the inclusion of assessments within church planting. This chapter also introduces the three profiles as well as some lessons learned from the use of profiles in assessment. Chapter 3 introduces the first area of theological analysis. The chapter discusses the pastoral qualifications outlined in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. Considerable attention is also given to apostles and the role of apostles in church planting. Chapter 4 provides an overview of the nature of the church. For a church planter to lead a church, he needs to understand the nature of the organization he is seeking to lead. The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of the church that can be used to analyze the profiles in terms of their understanding of the church. Chapter 5, building upon the previous two chapters, is the theological analysis of the three profiles. The analysis of the profiles follows the content of the previous three chapters and examines the three profiles according to the nature of the church, which also surfaced the concern of the leader's relationship with God, the character issues raised in the Pastoral Epistles, and the role of apostles in church planting. Chapter 6 provides concise answers to the research questions which guided the dissertation. The chapter also offers suggestions about changes to church planter assessments in light of the analysis. Additional suggestions are offered also with respect to potential areas of further study related to church planter assessments.

The study on the role of preaching within the United Church of Zambia in Kitwe, with a purpose of finding out and documenting the role of preaching in three case study congregations of the United Church of Zambia in the city of Kitwe, and to underscore the point that the study has focused on how members of the three case study congregations described and justified the superiority of preaching. It includes the analysis of data from the three case study congregations of the United Church of Zambia and applying the methodology of Richard Osmer’s (2008) practical theological interpretation. The literature was from books, and data was collected from the participants by using their experiences in a research perspective. The researcher used unstructured interviews from thirty-one participants drawn from the three congregations of the United Church of Zambia within the city of Kitwe, employing qualitative methods in the collection and analysis of data. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Practical Theology)