PhD Theses
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14194/2796
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Item Evangelism Practices of the Church of Pentecost in the Afigya Kwabre District, Ghana (1962 To 2016): Towards Designing a New Missional Strategy(South African Theological Seminary Johannesburg) Gyamfi, Onyinah 1962; Kipimo, Jesse F.This dissertation investigates the Church of Pentecost in the Afigya Kwabre District of Ghana, evangelism practices between 1962 and 2016, and develops a new missional strategy for the church. The research literature review surveys educated articles, books, and other credible scholarships that focus on the spectrum of evangelism, missions, and church growth. It also includes a biblical and theological assessment of the early church's evangelism in selected chapters in the book of Acts of the Apostles that can be applied to all evangelism praxes. The purpose of the study is to begin to create awareness in the church about declining problems. The survey asks to what extent evangelism practices contribute to the church's growth and how the church is experiencing a decline. This analysis assists in facilitating the design of a new missional strategy. The findings showed that they made an innovative contribution to the unprecedented and phenomenal growth of the church and made the church become the leading classic Pentecostal in Ghanaian society. The research shows factors responsible for the decline are obstructing and influencing the development of the church. Additionally, the study further examined evangelism in selected chapters of the book of Acts and analyses; the mode of evangelism, manifestation of God’s accredited power and miracles performed by Apostles, combined with the empirical and literacy findings to facilitate adopting a new missional approach. The significance of this study is that despite the phenomenal growth, it informs the theoretical awareness and understanding of a decline in the evangelism praxis. Thus, recommending a focus on a new missional approach to evangelism hitherto lacking. Finally, it informs empirical understanding to mitigate and overcome the decreased challenges to foster a better way of evangelism practice, sustains the gains and keeps on spreading the Gospel in Ghanaian society.Item Formação de Liderança Pastoral: Uma análise da Igreja Evangélica Holiness do Brasil(South African Theological Seminary Johannesburg) Yahiro, Roberto Shinze 1968; Barro, Antônio C.A contextualized pastoral leadership is based on understanding the reality in which it is present and adapting the leadership in a practical way to meet the local-temporal reality. There is a need to seek a multidisciplinary ministerial vision and updated missional biblical interpretation. In the postmodern world, the formation of a pastoral leadership has very distinct needs from the beginning of the ministry of the CIEHB. The challenge, however, is not to lose the essence and, at the same time, to be relevant today. Thus, in a liquid society that is marked by the fluidity of social relations, the demand for training to influence and mobilize the skills of those being led is great. And, with great humility, pastoral leadership must foster the growth of members of their communities. The effective leader does not need to have all the answers, but that, in ministerial partnerships, one can motivate his collaborators to seek for answers to reach his goal of speaking and living the gospel to its fullest. In this sense, the ministry of the apostle Peter will be studied as a proposal for training and transforming pastoral practice in its context. Having theological knowledge without practice becomes sterile, on the other hand, practice without theological basis becomes dangerous and does not produce good fruit. In this work, a historical study was carried out of the implantation of the CIEHB in Brazilian soil, nuances of theological formation, struggles faced by being an ethnic church, some reports about the laity who were and are part of the pastoral ministry. It also dealt with the importance of pedagogy in the formation of the pastoral leadership of the CIEHB. Paulo Freire addresses the pedagogy of context and generating words, leading to the autonomy of human beings in their actions. Peter has its relevance for the history of engagement and overcoming, a simple man, but he became the leader of the first century Christians, so the apostle Peter can be seen as a model of pastoral leadership for the present day Holiness church. Peter still leaves the legacy in his epistles, writing to the dispersed pilgrims on a strange land. Finally, interviews were conducted using questionnaires and approaches from the researcher to the ministers of the CIEHB in order to deepen, understand and perceive paths for a direction of formation and support of the pastoral leadership of the Holiness Church of Brazil. Thus, a curriculum of pastoral leadership ministerial update and formation was proposed so that the CIEHB can understand the context in which it operates and how it can meet current needs more effectively.Item Church and State Relations in Zambia: An Evangelical Perspective(South African Theological Seminary Johannesburg) Munshya, Elias 1978; Turaki, YusufuChurch and State Relations in Zambia: An Evangelical Perspective contributes to the debate regarding how Church and state relations emerged in Zambia and how religion plays a massive role in Zambia’s political development and civic engagement. Tracing the history of religion’s impact on pre-independence and post-independence Zambia, this study examines three impacts of religion on politics and government: religion legitimating government, religion providing checks and balances and religion providing the tools for change and revolution. This study used qualitative methods and is guided by a literature review on the historical development of Church and state relations in Zambia. Nevertheless, this literature data is analysed and framed within Osmer’s (2008:4) practical theology approach, which first examines the descriptive-empirical task and then moves to the interpretative task. It then examines the normative task and, finally, proposes a pragmatic approach upon which a practical action can be based. Past studies on Church-state relations in Zambia have ignored the Evangelical contribution. Furthermore, some have neglected to account for the impact of the African Traditional Religion world-view on Zambia's religious character which mainly explains why Zambians have had few problems with a political worldview that synergizes the religious and the temporal. Unlike the European models of Church and state, the models in much of Africa, and hence Zambia, are not about which of the two institutions controlled the other between the Church and the state – but rather, how the Church, in this case, the Evangelical Church, should live in political space and in a state that has officially declared itself to be a Christian nation. This official declaration of Zambia as a Christian nation presents both the opportunities and the challenges for the Evangelical Churches in Zambia to live out their spiritual mission without being perceived as the arm of the Christian state. Specifically, how can the Evangelical Church live out its mission in a state that has declared itself Christian?Item Novos Desafios, Novos Paradigmas: Ministério Com Jovens E Ação Missional No Contexto Urbano—Uma Análise A Partir Da Igreja Evangélica Holiness De Londrina - Brasil(South African Theological Seminary Johannesburg) Yahiro, Dilma Higa 1967; de Lara Proença, WanderThis thesis presents the importance of contextualizing the message of the gospel in the cities. It analyzes the context and culture, according to concepts presented by Latin American theorists such as Van Engen, Charles E., Jorge Barro, Tito Paredes, René Padilla, in addition to other authors. The Holiness Church of Londrina is delimited as a case study, which, initially, in terms of evangelization, addressed Japanese immigrants in rural contexts. This history reveals the ecclesiastical and doctrinal identity of the community, which is important for the analysis of the generational transition. Bibliographic researches show the challenges for young people in the urban context, such as the issue of consumerism, individualism, new family configurations, demands, pressures and the increase in psychological disorders. And, in order to know this reality, a field research is developed through questionnaires, focus groups and interviews with young people from the Holiness church in Londrina. It was found that the new challenges that the youth ministry must observe in order to be relevant in discipleship with youth and missional action in the context in which they are inserted, imply a rupture in paradigms, a change in habits and ecclesiological traditions.Item Factores De Resistencia Y Receptividada La Conversión Cristiana Evangélicaen El Contexto Sevillano-Español(South African Theological Seminary Johannesburg) Alvelo, Máximo Álvarez; Bergsma, PabloNo abstract providedItem Ethnicity and Urban Christian Mission: A Study of the Meridian and West Volta Presbyteries of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana(Johannesburg South African Theological Seminary) Asima, Vida Felicity Akua