Browsing Senior Theses by Title
Now showing items 206-225 of 356
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A Method for Discovering and Applying the Specific Gospel in Your Specific Congregation
(Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, 2015-03-11)Within confessional Lutheran circles, the term “specific law” has a well-understood and widely-recognized meaning in the field of homiletics. In recent decades, the term “specific gospel” has grown in popularity. However, ... -
Ministering to the Recovering Alcoholic: Understanding Alcoholics Anonymous and Making Soul-Saving Connections
(2017)“Hark! The voice of Jesus crying, ‘Who will go and work today?’ Fields are ripe and harvest waiting; Who will bear the sheaves away?” These are a few of the words found in a Hymn titled “Hark, the Voice of Jesus Crying.” ... -
Ministering to Young Adults: How the Attitude of the Pastor And His Congregation Play a Role
(Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, 2021-02-19)This paper will focus on developing the faith of young adults. When young adults have more freedoms after high school, they face many new problems and temptations. To help me know and understand these struggles, I interviewed ... -
Mission Fields in our Midst: A Model for Effective International Student Programs at High Schools of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod
(Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, 2022-02-18)The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) has a unique opportunity to proclaim the gospel to teens from around the world who enroll in its various high schools. In the effort to serve these students faithfully, ... -
Mission-Minded Congregations are Market-Oriented Congregations: Congregational Marketing to the Glory of God
(2012)Despite the marketing-saturated world in which we live, congregations do not always seem to be market-oriented entities. This thesis defends and encourages the adoption of a market-oriented mindset in a mission-minded ... -
Modern-Day Moses Mentality: Applying Moses' Call and Responses to God and God's Call to Modern People and their Concerns, Desires and Motivations for Pastoral Ministry and other Careers
(2024)This paper was written with two main goals. The first goal is to find ways to encourage our young students who are thinking about ministry, and even those who are not, in an efficient way that spotlights God’s responses ... -
More Than a Spiritual Problem: The Pastor Deals with Anxiety
(Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, 2022-02-18)A pastor will encounter many joyful opportunities in his ministry; so also does he encounter many difficulties and challenges. The anxiety he feels in those moments is his body telling him to prepare for those challenges. ... -
The Most Important Aspect of a Congregation's Youth Ministry is Pastor-Teen Relationships
(2012)Why is youth ministry so difficult in today’s culture? Why do so many congregations’ youth ministries sputter out and fail? Why can’t youth ministers seem to be able to get their youth active in the life of their ... -
The Mother of All Vigils: the Use of the Ancient Easter Vigil in 21st Century Lutheran Churches
(2017)The Great Easter Vigil is certainly the most majestic and beautifully symbolic service in all of Christendom. With roots that trace back to the early second century, the Great Vigil is the most ancient of genuinely Christian ... -
Multi-Site Ministry: How This Model can Enhance the Ability of WELS Congregations to Adopt a Mission Mindset
(2020)Multi-site ministry has captivated the attention of congregations in recent decades by showing the potential for greater impact in surrounding communities. This thesis investigates the nuances of multi-site ministry ... -
The “Mumbojumbo” of the Rite of Confirmation
(2024)This thesis aims to define the rite of confirmation used in the Wisconsin Synod. Confirmation is a mixed bag. Throughout history, no one knows what to do with the rite. Many congregational traditions make it almost ... -
Music as a Tool for Outreach: A Look at Its Historical and Modern Use for Reaching Non-Christians with the Gospel
(2016)The Word of God is all that is needed to convert people from unbelievers to believers. But throughout the history of the Christian Church, music has been used as a tool to aid the proclamation of the Gospel. This thesis ... -
"My Son Is a Homosexual." A Pastoral Approach to Guiding Believers Dealing with Homosexual Family Members in a World of Contrasting Views
(2016)A homosexual’s “coming out” event is viewed by the secular world as one of the most significant moments in their life. Among believers there should be common ground, yet opinions are mixed. Some Christians have given in ... -
The Narrow Lutheran Middle: The Problem of Being a Clinically-Depressed Christian
(2019)Clinical depression can bring about a great deal of problems in a person’s life. These include a depressed mood, negative self-image, harmful self-talk, a flawed perception of the truth, feelings of anger, sadness, ... -
Near-Death Experiences
(2016)Since the 1970s, near death literature has proliferated on library shelves and even the shelves of Lutherans. In recent years some of these books, such as 90 Minutes in Heaven and Heaven is for Real, have enjoyed widespread ... -
The Necessary, Relevant, & Practical Digital Media for the Development and Dissemination of a Worship Compendium in the 21st Century: A Hymnal Rebuild from the Cloud Down
(2013)The advent of digital technology, both for storing and displaying information, provides Christians at worship with new tools for facilitating worship, in both formal and informal settings. By taking a broad historical look ... -
No Middleman Necessary: Equipping Pastors to Serve Persons with Physical, Mental, and Developmental Disabilities
(2018)The pastor serving his congregation will quickly realize his members are not all the same. They each come with their own challenges and blessings, and this is especially true as he serves a member with disabilities. The ... -
Occultic Movies and Videos: Affects on Confirmation Students
(2020)Movies portraying the occult are too numerous to count. Television shows and videos also fantasize about the supernatural world. The number of confirmation age children encountering such movies and videos has only ... -
On Navigating the Narrow Lutheran Middle in Our Preaching Between Gospel Negligence and Gospel Obsession in Reference to the Temporal Promises of God's Providence
(2015)In our preaching, there lies a narrow middle road between neglecting the gospel of forgiveness for other parts of God’s word and obsessing over it to the exclusion of other parts of God’s word. Specifically, this paper ... -
Orthodoxy is not Dead: The Life and Works of Erdmann Neumeister as a Rebuttal to the Charge of "Dead Orthodoxy"
(2024)One of the critiques of Pietism against Lutheran Orthodoxy can be found in the epithet “dead Orthodoxy,” the idea that an emphasis on doctrine necessarily means a weak Christian life. There is a degree of merit to this ...