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Electronic Thesis & Dissertation Collection Electronic Thesis & Dissertation Collection J. Oliver Buswell Jr. Library 12330 Conway Road Saint Louis, MO 63141 www.covenantseminary.edu/library This document is distributed by Covenant Theological Seminary under agreement with the author, who retains the copyright. Permission to further reproduce or distribute this document is not provided, except as permitted under fair use or other statutory exception. The views presented in this document are solely the author’s. Pastors Leading Congregants to Participate in God’s Mission through their Vocations By Robert W. Robinson A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Covenant Theological Seminary in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Ministry Saint Louis, Missouri December 11, 2018 Abstract The purpose of this study was to discover how pastors lead congregants to participate in God’s mission through their vocations. Pastors want to equip their people to be missional, but God’s mission is often not very well defined and the means for doing mission is often limited to church-centric programs or neighborhood outreach. Meanwhile, many Christians feel that they are living bifurcated lives, where Christian mission is separate from the rest of life. They are experiencing a “Sunday-Monday gap.” A pastor who wants to equip Christians to be missional sees that they are already participating in God’s mission through their various vocations. The researcher conducted qualitative research, interviewing eight pastors from various denominations who are leading their congregants to be missional in their vocations. A literature review explored the mission of God’s people and a theology of vocation. The interviews focused on what pastors attempted to help people be missional though their vocations, what challenges they faced, and their results. The study found that pastors taught the biblical story of Creation / Fall / Redemption / Consummation as a foundation. They were careful with their language to avoid sacred/secular false dualism. They incorporated vocation into their sermons and congregational prayer times, even commissioning people in their callings. The pastors developed relationships, visiting people at their workplaces. The pastors had to overcome theological paradigms that make evangelism the sole purpose of the gospel, expectations about church programming, and presumptions about the essence of work. Results are difficult to quantify so pastors gathered stories to gauge success, which are shared in this study. Several practical recommendations based on the interviews and literature are presented for implementing this discipleship paradigm in churches. Table of Contents Chapter 1 Introduction ....................................................................................................1 Problem Statement ...................................................................................................5 Purpose Statement ....................................................................................................6 Significance of the Study .........................................................................................7 Definition of Terms..................................................................................................7 Chapter 2 Literature Review ...........................................................................................9 Recent History of the Concept of Mission ...............................................................9 William Carey, the Fundamentalists, and the Neo-Evangelicals .............. 10 The Holistic Mission Movement .............................................................. 15 Contra Holistic Mission ............................................................................ 18 Theology of God’s Mission for His People ...........................................................20 The Meaning of the Great Commission .................................................... 21 Mission as “Being Sent” as Jesus was Sent .............................................. 24 The Mission and the Kingdom of God ..................................................... 28 The Mission and the Restoration of Shalom ............................................. 45 Summary ................................................................................................... 47 Theology of Vocation ............................................................................................51 Vocation / Calling ..................................................................................... 52 Secular/Sacred Dualism: The Foe of a Theology of Vocation ................. 59 The Role of the Holy Spirit ....................................................................... 68 Creation, Fall, Redemption, Future Hope ................................................. 75 The Church’s Role in Empowering People in Vocation ......................... 112 Chapter 3 Methodology ................................................................................................117 Design of the Study ..............................................................................................117 Participant Sample Selection ...............................................................................119 Data Collection ....................................................................................................120 Interview Protocol ................................................................................................121 Data Analysis .......................................................................................................122 Researcher Position ..............................................................................................122 Study Limitations .................................................................................................123 Chapter 4 Findings .......................................................................................................125 Introduction to Participants ..................................................................................125 What Pastors Attempted to Do ............................................................................127 1) Laying a Foundation of a Biblical Worldview (Creation/Fall/Redemption/Consummation)........................................... 127 2) Intentionality with the Language Used ............................................... 130 3) Incorporating the Concepts of Vocation into Sermons and Prayers ... 133 4) Developing a Ministry Paradigm that Nurtures Relationships ........... 139 5) Purposeful Discipleship of People in their Vocations ........................ 142 Challenges Pastors Experienced ..........................................................................152 1) The Difficulty of Overcoming Ingrained Presumptions ..................... 152 2) The struggle to deal with the variegated issues that people face in their vocations ................................................................................................. 166 Results from What Pastors Did ............................................................................168 1) Success is not Easily Quantifiable ...................................................... 169 2) The New Metric of Success: Stories................................................... 173 3) Positive Impact on Evangelism and Church Attendance.................... 180 Summary of Findings ...........................................................................................184 Chapter 5 Discussion and Recommendations ............................................................187 Summary of the Study and Findings ....................................................................188 Discussion of Findings and Recommendations for Practice................................194 The Gospel Story of Creation / Fall / Redemption / Consummation is Foundational ........................................................................................... 195 The Need to Create a Church Culture that Encourages and Equips People in their Vocations .................................................................................... 203 The Importance of Making Integrated and Holistic Disciples ................ 207 Recommendations for Further Research ..............................................................214 Bibliography ...................................................................................................................216 Chapter 1 Introduction What does it mean for Christians to be on “mission” for God? Mission work can be thought of as sending dedicated Christians to foreign lands as “missionaries” to spread the gospel. However, when it comes to the local domestic church, the terminology of “mission” can be, and often is, used. The United States has been shifting into what can be called a post-Christian, postmodern and pluralistic culture. Missiologist Darrell Guder writes, “Rather than occupying a central and influential place, North American Christian churches are increasingly marginalized, so much so that in our urban areas they represent a minority movement. It is by now a truism to speak of North America as a mission field.”1 Another missiologist, Michael Goheen, agrees, “Culturally, rapid changes are taking place in North American culture from a modern to postmodern society. Ecclesiastically, the church finds itself in a new situation dislocated from its former place of importance. What does it mean for a church increasingly on
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