Freeman, K. L. (2022). Examination of the Great Commission: Discipleship that fosters reconciliation and affirms the deity of Christ. PhD, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 29069382.
The purpose of this dissertation is to determine whether Scripture fosters racial reconciliation. The research includes a literary review, biblical exegesis, an analysis of African American experience, biblical discipleship as a model, and a summary of survey research into the Great Commission. It examines the role of an orthodox Christological and biblical understanding of discipleship in Matthew 28:16–20 as this pertains to racial reconciliation and social engagement, so as to foster a unified church that reflects the mission of the Triune God. The author concludes that biblical discipleship can serve as a method and model for improving race relations.
Nelson, M. M. (2022). Perceptions of conflict within Christian leadership: A generic qualitative inquiry study. PhD, Capella University. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 28968975.
Employee turnover continues to be an issue in the mental health community as mental health business leaders lack strategies to retain employees. Retention strategies are essential to promote continuity, funding, and profitability for mental health agencies and quality service care for patients. Grounded in Bass’s transformational leadership theory, the purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore strategies mental health business leaders use to retain employees. Participants comprised three mental health center managers from a state agency in northern Louisiana who contributed to employee retention. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and a review of organization performance evaluations, hire/rehire audit reports, and turnover analysis reports. Using Braun and Clark’s six-step thematic analysis, three key themes emerged: communication, support, and teamwork. A key recommendation is for mental health business leaders to listen to employees with a sense of respect and value, demonstrate concern, and show awareness. Implications for positive social change include the potential for mental health business leaders to increase job satisfaction, job performance, and retention.
Saad, J. M. (2022). The self-health movement: Changing for good health. PhD, University of Rhode Island. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 29065665.
Each person’s efforts to support their personal health deserve to be supported and valued by those who take a vested interest in the health of populations. Although there are scientific fields that are committed to supporting equitable patterns of health across populations, there remains a very real absence of a unifying framework that can coordinate the very essential efforts of persons, populations, providers, researchers, and politicians. This dissertation presents an inclusive and integrative model that is ready for use by persons and populations that are pursuing health. This model, the Transtheoretical Model of Change (TTM), is a vehicle that persons, general populations, providers, researchers, and politicians can use collaboratively to travel the various stages of change. As this material is developed, the reader will become acquainted with a scientifically backed model of change that can be used for self-help and for population health.
Together, these approaches inform a self-health movement, inspired by the vital and ongoing importance of each person’s and population’s ability to make changes for good health.
Strange, C. J. (2023). Strategies to retain employees in the mental health work- place. DBA, Walden University.ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 29397069.
Employee turnover continues to be an issue in the mental health community as mental health business leaders lack strategies to retain employees. Retention strategies are essential to promote continuity, funding, and profitability for mental health agencies and quality service care for patients. Grounded in Bass’s transformational leadership theory, the purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore strategies mental health business leaders use to retain employees. Participants comprised three mental health center managers from a state agency in northern Louisiana who contributed to employee retention. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and a review of organization performance evaluations, hire/rehire audit reports, and turnover analysis reports. Using Braun and Clark’s six-step thematic analysis, three key themes emerged: communication, support, and teamwork. A key recommendation is for mental health business leaders to listen to employees with a sense of respect and value, demonstrate concern, and show awareness. Implications for positive social change include the potential for mental health business leaders to increase job satisfaction, job performance, and retention.
Thomas, A. B. (2023). Clergy spirituality: A spiritual balance construct for cultivating awareness of the nature of clergy spiritual well-being. DMin, Mercer University. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 28772235.
This study sought to cultivate awareness of the nature of spiritual well-being and balance amongst clergy persons and provide a framework for addressing clergy spiritual health through the propagation of a spiritual balance construct and associated lexicon. Six associate pastors, active in ministry, participated in the research and were instructed on the construct over the course of five one-hour teachings. Each of the construct dimension teaching sessions included an associated spiritual practice exercise. These exercises were lectio divina, Bible and scholarly reading, spiritual service,and one-anothering. The four categories that emerged from the research findings were Defining Clergy Spiritual Well-Being, Importance of Clergy Spiritual Well-Being, Maintaining Clergy Spiritual Well-Being, and Assessing Awareness. Post-instruction research findings indicated that immersion into the spiritual balance construct did indeed beget increased awareness. Recommendations for future research include expanding the spiritual balance construct to include element-specific prescriptive spiritual disciplines. Another recommendation, based on research participant responses, entails exploring the possibility of adding an additional element to the construct that would represent clergy self-care (physical, emotional, mental) and family care.
Williams, K. (2021). Church leadership and prayer: Leading the way for leaders to pray. MDiv, Regent University. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 28713336.
Prayers from Christian leaders are requests for God’s intervention during times of opposition and for the establishment of their ministries. The Old Testament provides several examples of how leaders chose the spiritual discipline of prayer to overcome their enemies and to develop their ministries to fulfill the call of God upon their lives. This research examines the examples of King Solomon and Queen Esther, specifically how their decision and discipline to pray continues to be essential for church leaders within the five-fold ministry to follow in the 21st century. Maintaining a lifestyle of prayer assists Christian leaders with the challenges that affect the work of the ministry. This research challenges the viewpoint by Craig G. Bartholomew, who questions how maintaining a lifestyle of prayer conflicts with the busyness of the work of the pastorate. The decision to pray provides vitality, strength, progress, and life to Christian leaders and to those to whom they minister. Without prayer, Christian leaders and their ministries cannot receive the divine direction needed for unity in the body of Christ and for effectiveness in the work of the ministry.