• Table of Contents
• Organizational Structure
• Journal Overview & Call for Papers

The Discrete Category of Truth

Timothy M. Larkin, Ph.D.

Upon teaching worldview classes at a traditional Christian university, the researcher realized that students engaged the topic from a particular paradigm. The course brings to the surface students' beliefs and perspectives on reality and life. Through qualitative methods, survey research, and research literature, the paper demonstrates students' propensity to conflate truth and reality concepts and avoidance of an objective truth construct. This paper presents the journey of the worldview classroom's students and instructor with these issues and suggests the introduction of a "discrete category of truth." The "discrete category of truth" provides students with a definitional framework they can agree or disagree with, while calling them to argue their point from a discrete category perspective. Just as other fields of study have established a pedagogical framework, this study suggests that the "discrete category of truth" is an important part of the worldview course's pedagogical framework.

The Proficiency of Christian Denominations as Learning Organizations

Gary W. Piercy, Ph.D.

Although recent studies confirmed that concepts related to learning organizations could achieve positive outcomes such as financial performance, innovation, and adaptation to change, there is no research addressing whether religious organizations can benefit from these concepts. A primary purpose of this study was to investigate the status of Christian denominations as learning organizations. Completed surveys of a random selection of senior pastors from 34 denominations provided the data for multiple regression analysis. Key research questions addressed the possible relationship between learning components and performance outcomes and between individual, team and organization-level learning and performance outcomes. Results demonstrated Christian denominations lacked proficiency in team-level learning, inquiry and dialogue, collaboration, and other learning components. The recommendation is that denominations explore the benefits of team-level initiatives, which could lead to improved organizational performance and allow the organizations to adapt more effectively to changing social conditions.

Servant Leadership as a Leadership Development Paradigm on a Church Pastoral Staff

Scott M. Douglas

A pastoral staff has a variety of ages, and as the Baby Boomer generation retires, thousands of Millennials are waiting in the wings to take the leadership mantle. What are the Boomers doing to develop the Millennials as future leaders? Servant leadership, as first expounded by Robert Greenleaf, provides a foundation and framework for developing Millennials for effective and fruitful ministry leadership. Larry Thomas lays out four principles for doing this: Equip, Enable, Empower, and Encourage. Biblical examples of leadership development include Moses and Joshua, Elijah and Elisha, and Paul and Timothy and Titus, with Jesus as the exemplar of a servant leader. Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges provide a fourfold approach focusing on the heart, the head, the hands of the leader, and the good habits of the servant leader. Larry Spears further develops the notion of a servant leader with ten principles: Listen, Heal, Persuade, Conceptualize, Develop, Dream, Trust & and Build, Communicate, Evolve, and Promote. Applying all of this to the ministry, three principles arise for pastors to (a) model servant hood for their staffs, (b) engage younger staff as people, and (c) serve in ways other than work. Younger staff can serve the senior pastor in many ways while being conscious that there is no idle time or useless task when serving their leader.

A Look at the Theological Significance of the Name of God

Ronald G. Steadman

This paper explores the name, recorded in Scripture, by which God identified himself. First, an investigation of the history of identification by name, the need for identification by name, and the implications associated with the knowing of a name are presented. This is followed by a consideration of God's initial presentation of his name and a selected review of passages. This review will show that God's involvement with mankind reveals that he is one without equal; therefore, his name cannot be qualified by adjuncts - he is the One who cannot be restricted by further definition. It will also show that when Jesus of Nazareth walked upon this earth in the form of a man, he declared himself as God among men when he identified himself as I AM.