Date of Award

4-2023

Document Type

Project Portfolio

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry (DMin)

Department

Seminary

First Advisor

Sunggu Yang, PhD

Second Advisor

Gregg Borror, DMin

Third Advisor

Leonard I. Sweet, PhD

Abstract

NPO Statement and Ministry Context: The Watering Place™: Creating Space for Spiritually Dehydrated and Hurried Women seeks to address the NPO: In a speedy, frenzied world, women need [a] space to pursue healing, spiritual connection, be refreshed, and be empowered to grow into the fullest expression of themselves. This project grew out of my position as founder of Doxology Ministries International, Inc., a 501c3 religious organization. For over fifteen years, I have been leading retreats focusing on women.

Key Insights: The Doctoral Project allowed me to explore issues facing women more deeply, particularly conditions impacting women’s health, such as the Hurried Woman and Superwoman syndromes. The project examined physical, emotional, and spiritual issues resulting from rushing and the Biblical mandate for balancing work with rest. The project also probed the benefits of taking retreats. While multi-day retreats are powerful, they remain luxuries for women who already feel overworked and under-resourced financially, physically, spiritually, and emotionally. This knowledge led to reassessing the original plan to create a retreat center to consider methods that do not, at least initially, require a significant investment of time or resources. The Watering Place concept was the response. The Watering Place™ is a portable construct that provides low-stake, high-impact opportunities for women to temporarily break away from the Rushing, Hurried, Superwoman complex. It centers holding space for oneself and others.

Project Description: The Doctoral Project has two parts. Part One is a Handbook examining overburdened schedules and spiritual dehydration against broken work-rest cycles. It investigates various modalities for holding space. Part Two is the Watering Place Portfolio, a collection of Watering Sessions and other resources: prompts, poems, song lyrics, journals, spiritual practices, coloring pages, paintings, and memes. The Portfolio is a living document with sessions and resources continually added, tested, or updated for efficacy.

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