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  • 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)

    Nick Bufano►

    Tracy Brown

    • Tracy Brown

      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.

    Nick Bufano►