Section

  • 2019 Lancaster Theological Seminary DMin Symposium

    Monday, April 1, 2019

    Symposium presentations will be offered concurrently across four sessions. Attendees will have the option of attending one of three presentations during each session.

    Schedule of Events
    Time Event Location
     8:30 a.m.  Gathering and Snacks  Hafer Center
     9:00 a.m.  Morning Prayer  Hafer Center
     9:30-10:30 a.m.   Presentations - Session 1  
       Kathy Harvey Nelson  L206
       "Connectional Spirituality: Small Church Pastors and the Future of the Church"
       Garrett Bugg  L204
       "What Cannot Be Forgotten: Moral Injury and Pastoral Practice"
       Tracy Brown  Library Learning Commons
       "How Christian Practices are Used by Laypeople to Attract Others to the Christian Faith"
     10:45-11:45 a.m.  Presentations - Session 2
       Jonette Gay  L206
       "Faith Decisions: Order or Novelty"
       Holly Wildhack  L204
       "Dignity Therapy as a Pastoral Care Intervention: Exploring the Family Jewels"
       Dan Lundquist  Library Learning Commons
       "Bi-vocational Ministry: What Works from the Perspective of Bi-vocational Ministers and Their Congregants"
     12:00-12:45 p.m.  Lunch  Hafer Center
     1:00-2:00 p.m.  Presentations - Session 3
       Gene Gordon  L206
       "Addressing the Wounds of Racism Through the Lens of Moral Injury:
    A Qualitative Study Drawing on Black Liberation and Womanist Theology"
       David Popham  L204
       "Clergy Incarnate: Embodied Metaphors as Gateways to the Ideological Commitments of Ministers"
       Nick Bufano  Library Learning Commons
       "'Come Away By Yourself and Rest Awhile': Retreat as a Model of Self-Care for United Methodist Clergy"
     2:15-3:15 p.m.  Presentations - Session 4  
       Kate Morse  L206
       "From Anguish to Enrichment Redefining Three 18th and 19th Century Utopian Communities’ Response to Suffering: An Application for the 21st Century"
       Linwood Smith  L204
       "The Role of Clergy in Promoting Health and Wellness in the West-Mainline and Philadelphia Districts of the Philadelphia Annual Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church"
       Gary Filson  Library Learning Commons
       "Gone Fishing: Marketing Faith to Millennials in the Postmodern Era"

    Sessions will also be available to attendees via Zoom.

    Presentation Details for Current DMin Students and Guests

    • Presenters are listed alphabetically below
    • Expand the presenter's section to find:
      • Link to join Zoom session and recording (when available)
      • Supporting documents provided by presenter (if applicable)
      • Online evaluation form (made available at the time of presentation)

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    • Instructions: Clicking on the section name will show / hide the section.

    • How Christian Practices are Used by Laypeople to Attract Others to the Christian Faith

      Time: 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. on April 1, 2019

      Location: Library Building, Learning Commons

      Abstract

      The values and views of Christianity have constantly evolved during the Christendom and the Post-Christendom eras. These values and views have affected the way pastors, church leaders, and laypeople attempt to effectively attract millennials to the Christian faith. Lancaster, Pennsylvania is such a community that has been affected by the constant evolving of values and views on how to attract millennials to the Christian faith. 

      This research project attempts to bring an understanding of the religious landscape in Lancaster, Pennsylvania regarding millennials. The project seeks to examine how Christian practices are used by millennial (ages 18-35) laypeople to attract their peers to the Christian faith in the twenty-first century in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. 

      Upon attempting to answer this question, it is hoped that recognized effective strategies are found in “concrete practices that ordinary people identify within their everyday lives as contributing to their human thriving…."1  Humans thrive when they have an intrinsic relationship that produces a shared love of neighbor. Attractive practices used by Christian millennial laypeople can produce a shared love of neighbor, making an intrinsic relationship special, special in the sense that attractive practices distinguish themselves from ordinary deep friendships based on being Godly holistic.

      1. Elizabeth Drescher, Choosing Our Religion: The Spiritual Lives of America’s Nones (Oxford University Press, 2016), (kindle edition), 247.

      View only 'Topic 1'

    • 'Come Away By Yourself and Rest Awhile': Retreat as a Model of Self-Care for United Methodist Clergy

      Time: 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. on April 1, 2019

      Location: Library Building, Learning Commons

      Abstract

      This project seeks to demonstrate the critical need for improved self-care for clergy. Using Biblical texts, as well as current books, literature in journals, and first-hand experiences, the project presents examples of clergy whose self-care process is in crises, as well as models of clergy who engage in proper self-care. I then propose the spiritual discipline of retreat as a pathway to improving, and in fact revitalizing areas of deficit for clergy. The retreat is built upon my initial research, and other research about creating and leading effective retreats. It is also designed using specific responses to a survey given to twenty-five United Methodist Clergy in the Baltimore-Washington Conference of The United Methodist Church. In that survey, clergy identified their previous retreat experiences, and also their desired elements in a retreat that they might want to attend. The end result of this project is a demonstrated need for improved self-care, and a four-day retreat designed to offer healing and a beginning step for those clergy who desire to improve their self-care.

      •  Recording - Presentation starts at 3:12 mark

         
         
      View only 'Topic 2'

    • What Cannot Be Forgotten: Moral Injury and Pastoral Practice

      Time: 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. on April 1, 2019

      Location: Lark Building, Room 204

      Abstract

      Scholars have recently taken up military moral injury as a subject of research, developing theological and practical approaches to define and respond to the invisible wound. With the exception of military chaplains, moral injury remains a concept generally unknown by clergy. This project explores current pastoral responses to moral injury in order to discern what constitutes effective pastoral care. The qualitative research method includes a preliminary survey and semi-structured interviews with local clergy in Hampton Roads, Virginia, which is home to military bases from every branch of the armed services and NATO. Findings yield insights about specific practices important to responding pastorally to moral injury: listening, building trust, staying the course, and creativity. Further, recommendations for education of local clergy include learning about military culture, expanding knowledge of trauma, post-traumatic stress, and moral injury, creating groups to process work with moral injury, and the need for an explorer’s attitude in pastoral care.

      View only 'Topic 3'

    • Gone Fishing: Marketing Faith to Millennials in the Postmodern Era

      Time: 2:15 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. on April 1, 2019

      Location: Library Building, Learning Commons

      Abstract

      This project: 1.) recommends the use of business language and practices in and for the Church. Whether or not the Church acknowledges it, the Church operates as a not for profit business, performing the functions of a theater (the worship service with music and programs), a school (with teachers, students and curriculum) and even a restaurant (family night potluck dinners and fundraising dinners). Yet the Church typically resists business practices. 2.) This project emphasizes the need to know what our product is and what message we need to use to reach Millennials. Assuming we agree Jesus is the “product”, we need to know how to proclaim to others why Jesus matters. And, we need to know the best way to message our product in this Postmodern Era. 3.) This project promotes developing a marketing strategy in and for the Church. Marketing strategies seek to understand the best way to attract the targeted group and develop programs to meet their needs whereas evangelism usually seeks to assimilate people into the membership of the existing programs of the Church. 4.) This project suggests a step by step plan to do Inreach, which is a deliberate process to prepare a congregation to do Outreach. Inreach is a necessary but often neglected step in preparing people to accept an adaptive change. People within the organization must be trained to see themselves as part of the sales team so that Outreach can be successful. 5.) This project suggests a step by step plan to do an Intentional Outreach Program. 6.) This project distinguishes the difference between preference and purpose driven programs, encouraging leaders to choose purpose driven programs. Not every successful program will work everywhere it is tried. Programs must have a purpose that appeals to the targeted group; programs must be tested (marketed). 

      View only 'Topic 4'

    • Faith Decisions: Order or Novelty

      Time: 10:45 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. on April 1, 2019

      Location: Lark Building, Room 206

      Abstract

      This project is an exploration of the tension between the extremes of order and novelty to determine how one should decide to act in church polity or personal ethics. In a world caught in an either/or mindset, maybe the answer is not simply both/and, but holding the two together intact and in tension. Using order and novelty as a lens, this project will review the church polity in the Book of Discipline in the United Methodist Church and compare two other denominations heavily weighted in order or novelty: The Presbyterian Church and the United Church of Christ. 

      View only 'Topic 5'

    • Addressing the Wounds of Racism Through the Lens of Moral Injury: A Qualitative Study Drawing on Black Liberation and Womanist Theology

      Time: 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. on April 1, 2019

      Location: Lark Building, Room 206

      Abstract

      Although Black Liberation and Womanist Theologies have unlocked a profound conversation on praxis for oppressed people, they have not included, in large measure, the guidance to be gained from their intersection with Moral Injury Theory. An argument is presented, the purpose of which is to show how Black Liberation Theology and Womanist Theology enhance Moral Injury Theory and how Moral Injury Theory provides tools for addressing the effects of racism. In so doing, the concept of moral injury strengthens Black Liberation Theology and Womanist Theology by expanding their resolve to serve within communities affected by racism and indeed with all humanity. In addition, the theologies may provide support for the spiritual attempt to encourage sufferers of moral injury through transcendent concepts such as forgiveness, reconciliation and perhaps even atonement. Finally, the conduct and completion of this project will provide pastors, chaplains, and others with the kind of understandings and motivations that will assist them in meeting the needs of parishioners who may be struggling with the despair of hidden wounds that display the symptoms of moral injury.

      •  Recording - Presentation begins at 2:09 mark

         
         
      View only 'Topic 6'

    • Bi-vocational Ministry: What Works from the Perspective of Bi-vocational Ministers and Their Congregants

      Time: 10:45 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. on April 1, 2019

      Location: Library Building, Learning Commons

      Abstract

      This project seeks to answer the question, what is working in bi-vocational settings from the perspective of both the bi-vocational ministers and their congregants? This is being done to better understand how the members of churches, in conjunction with their pastors, can better use their God-given gifts in bi-vocational settings. This is significant for two reasons. The first is that more and more churches and denominations, including the more mainline white United Church of Christ (UCC) churches, are either seeking or need bi-vocational ministers. The second is that, as churches move toward, and hopefully embrace, bi-vocational church living, they can, and oftentimes do, discover their own ministerial callings. These callings are grounded not only in the biblical tradition but in the Reformed Tradition as well. This project is qualitative in nature. It conducted a survey in which those ministers and congregations who are working and serving in bi-vocational settings were asked several questions on what, how, and why certain things are a success in their church settings. This was done mostly in the Central Atlantic Conference- UCC. This is what I tested in my surveys and interviews- the views about bi-vocational living held by both the bi-vocational minister and their congregants and how these views contributed to the success of “bi-vocationalism.” The results appear to be able to give pastors, congregations, congregants, denominations, and seminarians- especially those in the UCC- Central Atlantic Conference- a better understanding of what makes for a successful bi-vocational ministry

      View only 'Topic 7'

    • From Anguish to Enrichment Redefining Three 18th and 19th Century Utopian Communities’ Response to Suffering: An Application for the 21st Century

      Time: 2:15 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. on April 1, 2019

      Location: Lark Building, Room 206

      Abstract

      As Christianity has done for centuries, contemporary churches struggle to understand the meaning of suffering and how to respond to it. One significant response to suffering in the last 300 years has been the formation of three utopian communities: Shakers (Ann Lee), Oneida Community (John Humphrey Noyes) and Ephrata Cloister (Conrad Beissel.) To understand theologically how these communities dealt with suffering, the theology of the late German liberation theologian, Dorothee Soelle is utilized. Though unaware at the time, utopian leaders lived out Soelle’s theology of suffering and her response to it, and gave it a communal dimension. Contemporary churches can learn a great deal from Dorothee Soelle and the utopian communities about effective responses to suffering.

      •  Recording - Presentation begins at 2:37 mark

          
          
      View only 'Topic 8'

    • Connectional Spirituality: Small Church Pastors and the Future of the Church

      Time: 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. on April 1, 2019

      Location: Lark Building, Room 206

      Abstract

      This project will explore the spiritual lives of small church pastors. It is my goal to examine their spiritual lives by looking at the way they influence their congregations to live as followers of Christ. The project utilizes a review of relevant literature, interviews with fifteen small church pastors serving the Susquehanna Conference of The United Methodist Church, my personal experience as a small church pastor and spiritual director for small church pastors. This study finds that pastors who engage regularly in spiritual practices find themselves leading their congregation to act as a mission outpost in their community. This led me to the development of the idea and importance of what I have called “connectional spirituality.” Through the interviews I discovered that the more engaged a pastor was with spiritual practices, the more likely it would be for them to lead in ways that lifted up those in the community surrounding the church as those God calls them to serve. Through this, I began to explore the importance of being a missional church and ways that connectional spirituality leads pastors and churches to embody connectedness in their community.

      View only 'Topic 9'

    • Clergy Incarnate: Embodied Metaphors as Gateways to the Ideological Commitments of Ministers

      Time: 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. on April 1, 2019

      Location: Lark Building, Room 204

      Abstract

      The satisfaction or dissatisfaction of clergy with the church is tied to their expectations of ministry. These expectations are often expressed through theological language which obfuscates the underpinning ideological motivation. While clergy are aware of some of their ideological warrants, they remain unconscious of the full ramifications of those motivations. The result is vague feelings around the issue of contentment/discontentment with ministry. Using the insights of cognitive linguistics this study undertakes the exploration of metaphor as a way to access the hidden aspects of clergy ideologies. Through metaphor analysis clergy can be more fully associated with the implications and limits of their worldviews.

      •  Recording - Presentation begins at 0:04 mark

         
         
      View only 'Topic 10'

    • The Role of Clergy in Promoting Health and Wellness in the West-Mainline and Philadelphia Districts of the Philadelphia Annual Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church

      Time: 2:15 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. on April 1, 2019

      Location: Lark Building, Room 204

      Abstract

      The mission of this project is to study the extent to which clergy promotes health and wellness clergy in the West-Mainline and Philadelphia Districts of the Philadelphia Annual Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AMEC). In addition, the project highlights the impact of their health initiatives on the well-being of the congregants and members of the community served by the local church. Results of this project will help to define the most effective strategies for clergy in the promotion health and wellness. This study is significant because it encourages clergy participation in addressing health and wellness interventions and to engage in the conversation of healthcare access and healthcare equity in their communities. The findings of this study will be presented to the Philadelphia Annual Conference of the AME Church through the Health Commission. Research findings will be shared with other conferences within the AME Church, other interfaith organizations and religious institutions.

      View only 'Topic 11'

    • Dignity Therapy as a Pastoral Care Intervention: Exploring the Family Jewels

      Time: 10:45 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. on April 1, 2019 

      Location: Lark Building, Room 204

      Abstract

      “Dignity therapy (DT) is a brief, individualized intervention to increase the sense of purpose, meaning and worth and reduce spiritual and psychological suffering.”1 It comprises a recorded interview which is transcribed, edited and returned to the individual who can choose to give it people of their choosing. While dignity therapy has been well studied,2,3 much of the research has been done by the developer and prolific researcher, Chochinov, and his teams.4 DT is just recently coming to the attention and interest to the pastoral care/chaplaincy communities.5 The aim of this study is to examine how four community-dwelling older adults who have expressed feelings of hopelessness, loss of meaning, despair experience dignity therapy when administered as a pastoral care intervention. 

      1. Sue Hall et al., “Assessing the Feasibility, Acceptability and Potential Effectiveness of Dignity Therapy for People with Advanced Cancer Referred to a Hospital-Based Palliative Care Team: Study Protocol,” BMC Palliative Care 8, no. 1 (December 2009), https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-684X-8-5. 

      2. George Fitchett et al., “Care of the Human Spirit and the Role of Dignity Therapy: A Systematic Review of Dignity Therapy Research,” BMC Palliative Care 14, no. 8 (2015), https://doi.org/10.1186/s12904-015-0007-1. 

      3. Marina Martínez et al., “‘Dignity Therapy’, a Promising Intervention in Palliative Care: A Comprehensive Systematic Literature Review,” Palliative Medicine 31, no. 6 (June 2017): 492–509, https://doi.org/10.1177/0269216316665562. 

      4. Harvey Max Chochinov, Dignity Therapy: Final Words for Final Days (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012). 

      5. George Fitchett et al., “Monthly Article April 2015,” ACPE Research, April 2015, http://www.acperesearch.net/apr15.html

      •  Recording - Presentation begins at 0:12 mark

         
         
      View only 'Topic 12'