Date of Award
2024
Document Type
Project Portfolio
Degree Name
Doctor of Ministry (DMin)
Department
Seminary
First Advisor
Holley Clough, DMin
Second Advisor
Dominic Abaria, DMin
Abstract
St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Redondo Beach, California, is facing significant organizational challenges due to an experience of complex, rapid, and unprecedented change. Thus, my NPO statement identifies the need for the church to create a framework to empower emerging leaders for effective ministry in the liminal context.
This Doctoral project targets staff members and lay leaders, particularly Elders and Deacons, who play pivotal roles in overseeing and leading the church's ministry teams. The goal is to equip these leaders with a deep understanding of the liminal context of ministry and provide them with spiritual formation practices to navigate and serve the key church ministry teams more effectively. The project introduces a structured framework through a session pitch document divided into three key sections: Rationale, Structure, and Retreat. These sections collectively assist leaders in recognizing changes within the church's ministry environment and prepare them to lead more effectively within a new phase in the church's life.
Key insights from the research process highlight the importance of recognizing and dealing with communal grief, advocating for a new leadership model, providing opportunities for leaders to acquire and apply new ministry tools, redefining success metrics for a new season of ministry, harnessing the potential of change to spark transformation and healing. The necessity to go beyond surface-level symptomatic issues to address root causes, acknowledging the challenging reality facing the local church, while also recognizing the potential for something beautiful to bloom out of the very place of greatest difficulty.
Overall, this project seeks to empower St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church to navigate the challenges of the present era and emerge stronger and more spiritually grounded. Through research, stakeholder input, and innovative strategies, this project endeavors to facilitate a transformational process at the organizational level, guided by God's faithfulness and vision for His church.
Recommended Citation
Dunn, Peter, "The Church in-between Raising Up Leaders in the Liminal Context at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church" (2024). Doctor of Ministry. 626.
https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/dmin/626