Browsing Senior Theses by Issue Date
Now showing items 321-340 of 356
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Pastoral Resilience: Maintaining a Healthy Life in Ministry
(2023)The public ministry presents the pastor with blessings that prove to be gracious gifts of God. However, it also manifests many temptations, trials, and tribulations. The expectations placed upon a pastor can leave him ... -
Preaching God's Story in Psalms: The Importance of Seeing the Tapestry in the Threads
(2023)This paper seeks to answer: “What homiletical strategies can help pastors preach the Psalms in a way that reinforces the hermeneutic that all of Scripture is a unified story of God’s love for people?” The paper is split ... -
“Come, Be Our King”: The Portrayal of Abimelek as an Anti-Judge in Judges 9
(2023)The Lord said to Samuel concerning the Israelites, “It is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king” (1 Sam 8:7). The book of Judges gives evidence of this rejection prior to the life of Samuel. ... -
We Show Christian Love by Practicing Closed Communion
(2023)As modern American culture places ever increasing emphasis on inclusion, tolerance, and acceptance, the Scriptural practice of closed communion is increasingly thought of as outdated and unloving. This, however, is simply ... -
Family Ministry the Lutheran Way
(2023)How do churches minister to families? This question has been asked by churches since ancient times. Families face new challenges in every generation. While our tools have remained the same, the power of God’s Word and the ... -
The Awkward Shepherd: Tactics For A Young Pastor To Improve His Interpersonal Communication Skills
(2023)Whether a pastor serves as a minister of a congregational flock or as a teacher of students in an institution, face-to-face communication plays a large role in his call. Yet for some pastors who have just graduated from ... -
A City Great to God: Ten Years of WELS Planting to Inform the Next One Hundred Missions
(2023)From the isolated beginnings of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), internal tensions have favored planting churches in non-urban settings. Numerous voices within the synod have seen this tendency as an area ... -
A Biblical Response to Christian Nationalism
(2023)American politics are messy, emotional, controversial, and particularly difficult to talk about–especially for Gospel-centered Christians who seek to put their hope in and focus on God’s kingdom. American politics are not, ... -
The Church in the Community: Showing Love to our Neighbors
(2023)“Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31 NIV). What does it look like as Christians live out this command from Jesus? This paper looks at the importance of building relationships and loving our neighbors. Now, more ... -
Finding Value in a Counterfeit World: A Biblical Evaluation of Feminism
(2023)Feminism is one of the most influential social justice movements today. It has exposed many terrible abuse cases toward women that were motivated by wicked intentions. However, while responding to abuse, the movement brought ... -
Rousing the Sleeping Giants: A Look into the Spiritual Leadership of Men
(2023)This thesis is aimed at the discipleship of males who did not have a strong model of spiritual leadership in their early lives (Practical Theology). There are numerous studies on training men up in a Christian way from a ... -
"Smells Like Pietism" Comparing Pietistic Conventicles to Modern Lutheran Small Groups
(2024)Pietism has been criticized throughout history and one of the main reasons is its use of conventicles. However, there is a growing trend within the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) where congregations are starting ... -
Alcanzando a Todos Nuestros Vecinos: WELS Hispanic Ministry As Model For Congregational Intercultural Integration
(2024)Intercultural communities are increasing in our nation’s cities and neighborhoods and are finding their way into WELS churches. How has WELS served them? This thesis looks at how WELS churches have served intercultural ... -
Life Between Pride and Despair: Finding a Balance in Pastoral Ministry
(2024)This paper attempts to explore the role of a humble confidence in the pastoral ministry. The research for this paper is based on several books and interviews from experienced pastors, college and seminary professors, ... -
The Rise of the Cult of the Saints in the Western Church
(2024)This paper seeks to understand just why Saint Veneration emerged within the Western Church. It begins with the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, citing sources such as the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the ... -
Finding Your Role as a Musical Pastor: A Study of Vocation and Stewardship of Musical Acts
(2024)A pastor who is musically gifted should not feel that he must abandon music altogether for the sake of his ministry. Both can work together for the benefit of the church. If God has blessed a pastor with musical gifts, ... -
The Harvest is Plentiful and the Potential Workers are Many: A Study of Ministry Recruitment in WELS Area Lutheran High Schools and Its Effectiveness among Students
(2024)The Area Lutheran High Schools of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod are ripe fields for ministry recruitment. According to surveys in three ALHSs, 31.28% of the WELS member students have at least considered a ... -
A Pastor's Guide to Providing Care for his Congregation within the First Year of it Being Touched by Suicide
(2024)Suicide is as important an issue as any for a pastor to be prepared to handle. Over 34,000 people in the United States alone take their own lives each year.[1] Contemporary factors contributing to a rise in mental illness ... -
"Can I Trust This Guy?": Evaluating the Potential for Pastoral Trust-Building in Evangelistic Outreach
(2024)How can a pastor demonstrate that he can be trusted? Today’s world is one in which the concept of interpersonal trust has drastically eroded. Societally, this is a serious issue. For the church, it could prove devastating. ... -
Academia Cristo and TELL English: Overcoming Challenges with these Mission Efforts
(2024)Academia Cristo is the multi-faceted effort of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) Latin America mission team to spread the gospel and plant churches in the Spanish speaking world. TELL English is a Multi-Language ...