<p>ABSTRACT Title: An Evaluation of a Mentoring and Partnering Program to Mobilize Small Harlem Churches to Intentional Community Engagement Author: Carlton T Brown Degree: Doctor of Ministry Date: 3-1-17 Adviser: Dr. Frank Chan The purpose of writing "An Evaluation of a Mentoring and Partnering Program to Mobilize Small Harlem Churches to Intentional Community Engagement" is to address and evaluate a mentoring and partnering program designed to mobilize small Harlem churches to intentional community engagement. The approach of the project focuses on the modification of ministry views of the pastor and key leader(s) of small, less resourced churches through the intervention of the Pastor of a large 500 or more member church in the area of community engagement and potential partnership opportunities for that purpose. Chapter 1 provides the purpose, goals, context, and rationale of this project. This chapter includes the Researcher?s inspiration for the research, purpose of the study, ministry problem addressed, Bethel Gospel ministry and community context in which research was conducted, research questions and model of research, definition of terms ?Ark Mentality, black liberation theology, great commission, theology of the priestly and prophetic, storefront churches ? and possible limitations and delimitations of the current project. Chapter 2 provides literature review and theological foundations for historical and current state of the ministry of the black church inner-city and its approach to community engagements and partnerships dealing with the prevailing spiritual and social condition in context of the churches mission. Chapter 3 sets forth the research methodology utilized in approaching managing attitude changes of pastors and leaders of small less resourced churches, the instruments used to establish initial position, procedures employed during mentoring session, and data collection procedure. Chapter 4 presents an analysis of the findings including: quantitative and qualitative data of the 5 areas of assessment and intervention including: Discipleship, Mission and Vision, Community Engagement, Great Commission, and Shared Missional Commitment, along with information gleaned from interview and finally post-intervention Church Philosophy Questionnaire. Chapter 5 summarizes the purpose of the project, the findings as regards the attitudes and commitments of the participants. The research questions are restated. The Researcher?s conclusions include challenges of participants? schedules and ministry commitments, and the possibility of conflicts around theological issues.

<p> For almost one million college students in the United States, the Catholic university is Church. This study describes the experience of students at three Catholic universities. A work of Practical Theology, these reflections offer an opportunity for examination of the ecclesiology of the university not only in the liturgical sense but in the relational sense as a community of the faithful. It contains a full explication of Catholic and non-Catholic students&rsquo; description of their experience of Catholic identity at three metropolitan Catholic universities, how that experience was evoked in the process of interpretive theological reflection, and the themes that have emerged from those reflections. The themes most emphatically expressed on all three campuses were community, relationship, and service. The students describe their experiences in the chapel, the classroom, the dormitory, and the offices of administration and financial aid.</p><p> Students in this reflection expressed an expectation that their personal interactions with faculty, staff, and administration, as well as their prayer and worship practices, would be different at a Catholic university. When these interactions did not meet their expectations, it was the university <i> as Catholic</i> that had failed. The failure was, in student Rachel&rsquo;s words because &ldquo;you can&rsquo;t just call yourself Catholic and not do anything about it.&rdquo; For these students, <i>everyone</i> on the university campus is seen as a part of the university&rsquo;s Catholic identity because for them <i>the university is Church</i>, both in the liturgical and ecclesial sense. The insights gained have value for Catholic institutions committed to an ongoing conversation on what it means to be Catholic.</p>

<p> The author presents that Cuban house churches lack leaders who can evangelize their own people without help from Christians of other countries. This is a problem in ministry for the indigenous house church leaders in Cuba. The project was &ldquo;experimental research,&rdquo; in which an intervention in evangelism training was introduced and then evaluated. He recruited 60 participants and used a 40-item Evangelism-Ready Checklist to measure participants&rsquo; perceived confidence levels in their ability to do evangelism. The researcher interviewed 60 participants and searched for indicators of increased confidence levels in students&rsquo; ability to do evangelism on their own. The true picture of the participants&rsquo; confidence in their evangelism-readiness was to take into account their sense that some topics were not covered sufficiently. Both the quantitative data and their interview data at six months post revealed great confidence and was combined with qualitative interview data to give the full picture. Recommendations were offered on how the evangelism training course could be improved.</p>

Thesis (M.A.R.)--Emmanuel School of Religion, Johnson City, Tennessee, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 184-189).

Thesis (M.A.R.)--Emmanuel School of Religion, Johnson City, Tennessee, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 184-189).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1993. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 92-102). Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.R.)--Emmanuel School of Religion, Johnson City, Tennessee, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 184-189).

<p> Every summer, hundreds of college athletes attend The Ultimate Training Camp (UTC), at which Athletes in Action offers a curriculum entitled, <i> The Principles of Competition</i> (aka <i>Five Principles</i>). The intent is to teach a Christian perspective of sports so that athletes would learn both the philosophy and the skill of competing <i>Christianly. </i> Both the <i>Principles</i> and the camp pedagogy have been refined over several decades to become what seems to be an effective methodology, but refinement has been based on informal evaluation without access to more empirical data. The purpose of this study is to observe, measure, and evaluate the level of learning acquired by camp participants&mdash; including consideration and application of Dallas Willard&rsquo;s learning framework of <i>vision, intention,</i> and <i>means</i> (VIM)&mdash;in order to better understand how the <i>Principles</i> are perceived, and to establish a model for future studies. An evaluative survey was developed, administered online, and responded to by over forty UTC alumni. Results revealed that certain Principles were remembered to a much greater degree than others, but overall response to the VIM model was favorable, and factored into the students&rsquo; continued Christian growth. Further evaluation led to some suggestions for possible changes in UTC methodology, and more complete data collection. Further studies in this vein are recommended.</p><p>

<p>In many ways, Christian education of the Presbyterian Church was deeply influenced with the public education in Egypt. One of the negative consequences of such influence is the significant lack of developing and using critical thinking as a basic element of the process. While multiple factors and reasons, educational and theological, contribute forming it, this problem manifests itself in many ways. This research, therefore, deals with the problem of the lack of critical thinking as a central element of the problematic reality of education process in the Presbyterian Church in Egypt. In order to illuminate and address this problematic situation, an American philosopher, psychologist, and educator John Dewey was brought into a dialogue with a reformer and theologian John Calvin within the framework of understanding Christian education as practical theology of Christian educator and practical theologian Richard Osmer. </p><p> In the light of this dialogue, not only the lack of critical thinking, but also other multiple dimensions of the problematic situation of Christian education in the Presbyterian Church in Egypt have become apparently distinguished. Lack of democracy, lack of using experience, lack of creative pedagogies, lack of practical reason, and lack of theology from the process are some of these dimensions. Yet, it has become increasingly evident that division and dualistic thinking are fundamental elements, which reflected the deep need for a different approach to the Presbyterian education in Egypt. Adapting Osmer&rsquo;s comprehensive approach to Christian education as practical theology, I propose a &ldquo;holistic approach towards Christian education,&rdquo; which aims at transforming education into a reconciling process. Through the holistic approach, the Presbyterian education process in Egypt will be able to work on reconciling the divine authority with the human agency; creation theology with the redemption theology; faith with reason; and theology with philosophy. It is through this approach that the Christian education process is able, not only to create critical theologians, but also to develop a contextual theology that is Eastern Egyptian Arabic contemporary theology. </p><p> <i>Keywords</i>: practical theology, critical thinking, practical reason, democracy, experience, and holistic approach </p>

<p>This purpose of this doctoral project is to evaluate the effectiveness of implementing a new education methodology in teaching systematic theology. The project assesses the level of engagement and application seminary students are able to gauge in their classroom experiences. The intervention methodology is called the ?sermonic/narrative? and it was applied as the andragogical methodology in systematic theology courses at Alliance Theological Seminary. In explaining the conceptual framework, studying the theological foundations, and researching the effectiveness of the methodology, this study has shown that the sermonic/narrative approach is more effective in engaging students in the classroom experience than the traditional lecture methods. Additionally, students were able to more readily apply the lessons they had been exposed to when being taught through the sermonic/narrative method. Although student performance levels were not evaluated in this study, the literature will show that deeper engagement in classroom experiences leads to better student learning.