ASHLAND THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY A DISCOVERY OF THE EXTENT THAT ASSOCIATE MINISTERS IN TENNESSEE ARE UTILIZED BY THEIR SENIOR PASTORS IN THE SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT OF CHURCH MEMBERS A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF ASHLAND THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF MINISTRY BY NORMA L. POWELL ASHLAND, OHIO JANUARY14, 2020 Copyright © 2020 by Norma L. Powell All rights reserved To William Powell--- teacher, challenger, and loving husband Grow, by all means, dear Christians; but grow, I beseech you, in God’s way, which is the only effectual way. See to it that you are planted in grace, and then let The Divine Husbandman cultivate you in His own way and by His own means. Put yourselves out in the sunshine of His presence, and Let the dew of heaven come down upon you, and see what will be the result. Leaves and flowers and fruit must surely come in their season; For your Husbandman is skillful, and He never fails in His harvesting. Only see to it that you oppose no hindrance to the shining of the Sun of Righteousness, or the falling of the dew from Heaven. The slightest barrier between your soul and Christ May cause you to dwindle and fade, as a plant in the cellar or under a bush. Keep the sky clear. Hannah Whitall Smith APPROVAL PAGE Accepted by the faculty and the final demonstration examining committee of Ashland Theological Seminary, Ashland, Ohio, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Ministry degree. __________________________________ ____________________ Academic Advisor Date __________________________________ ____________________ Director of Doctor of Ministry Program Date ABSTRACT The purpose of this project was to discover ways in which associate ministers from Missionary Baptist churches in Tennessee are utilized by senior pastors for the ministry of spiritual development of their congregation. The design of the project included the administration of a quantitative and qualitative survey-questionnaire to be completed by the participants in the study. The results of the project revealed that the participants were somewhat positive about their level of experience to shepherd their associate ministers on challenging relational issues of church members. CONTENTS LIST OF vii TABLES…………………………………………………………………. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS……………………………………………………… viii ….. Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION AND PROJECT 1 OVERVIEW…………………….. 2. BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL, AND HISTORICAL FOUNDATIONS……………………………………………………… … 19 3. REVIEW OF THE 52 LITERATURE……………………………………… 4. DESIGN, PROCEDURE, AND 89 ASSESSMENT…………………….. 5. REPORTING THE 99 RESULTS………………………………………… 6. SUMMARY AND 12 2 REFLECTIONS……………………………………. Appendix 1. DEMOGRAPHICS OF 14 8 PARTICIPANTS……………………………... vi 2. PROPOSAL……………………………………………………………. 14 9 . 3. ASSESSMENT TOOL 17 9 ………………………………………………… 4. COVER PAGE 18 4 …………………………………………………………. REFERENCES………………………………………………………………… 18 7 … TABLES Table Page 1. Goal 7: Discover Senior Pastors' Experience in Shepherding Associate Ministers ……………………………………..…………….. 100 2. Goal 1: Discover Pastors' Perceptions Toward Use of African American Associate Ministers in Church Members' Spiritual Development …………………………………………………………... 102 3. Goal 8: Discover Pastors' Awareness of Their Associate Ministers' Spiritual Gifts ………………………………………………. 104 4. Goal 5: Discover Pastors' Level of Need for Help Providing Spiritual Direction for Their Congregations ………………………… 107 5. Goal 3: Discover Pastors' Beliefs Regarding How Associate Ministers Could Be Better Utilized in their Congregations' Spiritual Direction …………………………………………………....... 109 6. Goal 4: Discover How Pastors Use Associate Ministers in the Spiritual Direction of Their Congregations …………………………. 111 7. Goal 2: Discover Pastors' Beliefs Toward Benefits of Integrating Associate Ministers in Church Members' Spiritual Direction.......… 113 8. Goal 6: Discover Pastors' Beliefs About Serving as the Sole Source for Spiritual Development of Their Congregations ………. 116 9. Responses to the Qualitative Questions……………………..…….. 120 vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS To Clarissa Faith Powell, my daughter, who was my encourager and late night study partner. To Rev. Jerry Marable, who helped me to do outreach in Davidson County and Rutherford County to solicit participants for this study. Without you, this research project would not have been possible. To Dr. James Stewart, my field consultant, who selflessly supported me by spending intense time throughout the dissertation process. You pressed, prompted, and provided assistance to me which was invaluable for me staying on task. To Dr. Jacqueline Bailey, my advisor, who was committed and very capable. Your support guided my progress in completing this project. Thank you for championing my work. To Dr. Christina Zimmerman whose editing skills improved my project immensely and assisted me in becoming a better writer. To Dr. Terry Wardle whose many years on Formational Counseling has contributed significantly towards enriching my life. To Dr. Stephen Seamands, who provided me with all the resource materials I needed and helped lay the foundation for the dissertation. To Dr. Forrest Harris, President of American Baptist College, who provided me with alumni addresses. To Dr. Roosevelt Walker, ATS graduate, who served as my spiritual advisor who oriented me to my D. Min. journey. viii To Cohort M classmates at ATS, it was a blessing to get to know you along a similar path in our doctoral studies. And Jim Vittek, who provided timely advice which contributed towards completing this project. To my church family, Mount Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church, and extended family who prayed, motivated, and checked in, thanks! Thanks big brother Oscar for your prayers and big sister Muriel for your technical assistance. To the Lord, God Almighty, you have pushed, pulled, and protected me through this process. You have given me my voice and purpose. I thought I could not do it, but with you I did. I am humbled. ix CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION AND PROJECT OVERVIEW Everyone has secrets. Some secrets hide our shame from our foolishness. Still others are hidden foolish acts from our youth. If truth be told, even as adults, we house secrets due to a lackluster character, which is demonstrated through small and trite secrets like cutting in front of someone into a line or driving through a red light. Many of our secrets remain strategically hidden because we do not want to risk someone making our secret known to the public. For many years, I have held a secret of my own. It has been buried deep within my soul surrounded by a hedge of remorse that I hoped would never be revealed. But in His time, God makes secrets known for His purposes. As it happened, my journey to obtain a doctoral degree started over 20 years ago, and though I completed all the coursework to acquire a Ph.D. in Psychology, I failed to complete all the requirements to obtain a degree. This was a low moment in my life, and for a time, I lived in a fog, not knowing my purpose or direction in life. It was only when I recognized God’s hand in repurposing my life that this buried secret became a journey, which I had to begin so I could walk into the very purpose by which God has called me today. The secret that was so deeply buried was now an exposed secret. Though I love psychology, a degree in that discipline would not have prepared me to walk the path on which God has placed me today. With that I became puzzled and wondered whether it was possible for God to have secrets as well. Schroeder speaks of an open secret that exists between 1 God and clergy as well as between God and laity. We need a fresh look at the "secret," wherein the open secret is the center of what Christians call the gospel. The world, not the church, is the object of all the trouble God went to in the crucified and risen Messiah (Schroeder 1994, 50). He goes on to say however that the clergy thinks and speaks as though they are the ministers doing ministry and the laity think of what they do in the world (world-work) as something else, something different from their “churchly” experience (Schroeder 1994, 50). He seems to be saying that most of a minister’s time is spent in the church, though God went out of the way to send a Savior to save the world. Yet, at the same time, laity has dumbed down their work of ministering to the world and thrown themselves into “church-work” as if they were to only serve the church. Many Missionary Baptist churches of today espouse an environment where praise, worship, and preaching within the confines of the church are premier within ministry. However, this open secret calls us to go out. According to Luke 14:23, we should, “go out into the highways and along the hedges and compel them” (NASB – all Scripture, unless otherwise noted are from the New American Standard Bible). Our ministry efforts seem to stay within the walls of the church. If so, how do our churches today bridge the ministry within church with equipping us to go into the highways and hedges? I do not know if most Missionary Baptist churches would buy into the notion of the open secret of how pastors elevate their ministry while laity minimizes their ministry to the world, but it seems that the church should become more intentional by at least utilizing associate ministers for the ministry of 2 spiritual development of the congregants. This would create an opportunity for congregants to become healed and resilient to life’s challenges for doing world ministry. If we do not want to give the impression of ignoring God’s secret then let us become