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This thesis will use Hopewell, VA, as a microcosm of small urban towns across America that are in need of spiritual and economic revitalization. The purpose of this thesis will be to develop a strategy for planting churches in Hopewell, VA, that is not only able to reach its community but serve as a model to reach other similar urban communities. The rationale for this topic is to shine the light on the need for revival in spiritually and economically depressed towns. Demographic and ethnographic research will be done, as well as interviews with a minimum of ten local leaders. This research will be able to help other potential church planters have a strategy that will help reach not only Hopewell, VA, but other smaller urban communities as well.

The health of a church is solely dependent on the health of its leadership. The more the leadership becomes imitators of Christ (Ephesians 5:1-2), the more the church resembles the image of Christ (Romans 8:29). This work seeks to determine the kind of healthy church leadership, which generates a healthy church culture for multiplying disciples. The purpose of this study is to assess the health of an established urban church in midtown Manhattan, and to evaluate the perception that one large church is more effective than multiple churches in order to discover an evangelistic approach that may help this and other churches with a similar context to grow spiritually as well as in numbers. Therefore, this research project examines the currently available literature on Christian leadership, a healthy church, and church models in an attempt to discover models or practices that might help this particular church to be more effective in its multiplication of disciples. With the Church Health Analysis Questionnaire by Gene A. Getz, this dissertation evaluates the health of this established church and utilizes T4T (Training for Trainers) to assess the change in leadership's disciple-making approach.

This project sought to plant a Great Commission church in Queens, New York City. The project sought to create a process for developing and sustaining a biblical worldview. Chapter 1 presents the purpose, goals, context, rationale, definitions, and limitations of the project. Chapter 2 discusses biblical and theological issues surrounding church planting within urban contexts. Specifically, this chapter looks at the different biblical perspectives of cities and seeks to develop a healthy ecclesiology for urban contexts. Chapter 3 surveys theoretical and practical issues in urban church planting. The effects of urbanization and postmodernism on urban centers are examined for the purpose of an enhanced missiological approach. Chapter 4 examines the creation and the implementation of Mustard Seed Church Biblical Worldview Program. Attention is given to the fourteen developmental phases of the program and the approach used in each phase. Chapter 5 provides an evaluation of the project goals, along with its strengths and weaknesses. This project asserts that faithful church planting is God's primary means for fulfilling the Great Commission.

This dissertation explores how urbanization and immigration affect the worldview and cultural identity of immigrants. Chapter 1 introduces the dissertation and presents the research problem. The chapter also defines key terms, gives the author's background, sets limitations and delimitations, and overviews research methods employed in the writing of this dissertation. Chapter 2 provides a literature review, synthesis, and analysis of works in the fields of urban anthropology, orality studies, and church planting. Chapter 3 explores the relationship of immigration and cultural identity. The chapter discusses ways in which urban areas encourage or limit cultural production of residents and how immigrants respond to those pressures as they express their cultural identity. The chapter concludes with an analysis of three models of assimilation likely to be found in urban contexts. Chapter 4 presents the oral worldview, including the nature of oral cognition, oral community, and methods of oral communication. After describing primary oral cultures, the chapter discusses the introduction of literacy to an oral people and the effects of residual orality. Chapter 5 draws together research presented in chapters 2 through 4 and discusses a grounded approach for identifying and reaching ethnic groups in the city. The first section presents methods to conduct ethnographic research so church planters can understand the specific dynamics in their communities. The second section discusses issues germane to reaching ethnic groups in the city including mono or multi-ethnic church, orality issues, critical contextualization, strategies for ministering in the three assimilation models presented in chapter 3, and the need for church partnerships. Chapter 6 concludes the dissertation by summarizing key points from each chapter. The chapter also describes the application of the dissertation to urban settings outside of North America and discusses the need for further research on related topics beyond the scope of this dissertation.

This dissertation examines the urban missiology of Roger S. Greenway. The thesis is the urban missiology of Greenway should inform the ministries of urban missiologists today. This dissertation answers four questions: How has Greenway's life and theology shaped his urban missiology? What is Greenway's urban church planting strategy? How has Greenway's understanding of holistic ministry enhanced his church planting strategy? What role does theological education and urban training centers have in his urban missiology? If urban missiologists hope to avoid the mistakes of the past and lay a firm foundation for the future, they should seek to learn from the urban missiology of Roger S. Greenway. Chapter 1 emphasizes the importance of urban missions in a rapidly urbanizing world. The chapter also introduces the research questions and the urban missiological thought of Roger Greenway. A brief overview of Roger Greenway's life and ministry is presented to demonstrate the importance of his work in relation to urban missiology. Chapter 2 contains a sketch of Roger Greenway's life and theological beliefs. The chapter considers the effects of his Reformed theological background on his urban missiology. Greenway's theology impacts every aspect of his urban missiology. Chapter 3 outlines Roger Greenway's church planting strategy. The chapter examines how Greenway's church planting strategy serves as the central piece of Greenway's overall urban missiology. The influence of Donald McGavran is evident in Greenway's urban church planting strategy. Chapter 4 explains Greenway's understanding and application of holistic ministry. Greenway believes that word and deed ministries must be infused with one another in order to complete the mission of the church. Chapter 5 delves into Greenway's theological education methodology and how he applied that methodology in the urban context. Greenway believed theological and missiological training should be contextualized into the urban context. Chapter 6 concludes with a summary of Greenway's urban missiology. The chapter also offers ideas for further research. The dissertation closes by offering insights gleaned from Greenway's urban missiology.

This thesis looks at the missiological implications of church planting in global cities. Chapter 1 introduces the main argument for this thesis: that all evangelism strategies should hold church planting as the end goal and that the most strategic places to implement these strategies are our global cities as evidenced by what has happened in New York City. The chapter will begin with a look at the significant movement that has happened in Manhattan over a twenty year period (1990- 2010) with the evangelical population of the city growing from less than one percent evangelical to now more than three percent. An introduction to the definition of global cities will segue into a look at the imperative for church planting initiatives in these cities. Chapter 2 will offer a deeper study of the characteristics of a global city and the missiological significance of such cities. It will explore world urbanization in light of the fact that over 50 percent of the world now lives in cities. The strategic nature of the cities will be analyzed given the influence that global cities have on the culture of the rest of the world. Finally, New York City will be shown as a global city and its significance on the missiological landscape will be highlighted. Chapter 3 provides a history of some of the major New York City church planting initiatives. Specifically, it will review the church planting history of Concerts of Prayer and the Church Multiplication Alliance, Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church and Jim Cymbala and The Brooklyn Tabernacle. Lastly this chapter will reveal methodologies used by other prominent ministries to reach the city context. Chapter 4 will look at implications learned from New York City on how a global city church planting strategy could impact the Southern Baptist Convention. A look at the history of SBC church planting in New York City will be looked at with special attention being paid to the effectiveness of these strategies. Chapter 5 will conclude this thesis with a look at the lessons learned during this research process. It will also look at three areas of further study that are needed. This work contends that the priority of all missions strategies should be a focused approach on global city church planting. This will prove to be an effective use of people and financial resources that ultimately has an impact on the whole world.

This dissertation examines church growth in urban poverty zones and develops a grounded theory to explain the data. Urban poverty zones are impoverished census tracts located in cities of 500,000 or more, and the term is synonymous with the term inner city as defined by the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City. Chapter 1 details the educational and theological concerns that drive the research and gives a brief overview of the research design. Chapter 2 reviews the precedent literature from the fields of church growth, and urban ministry. This chapter also contains a theological section, which covers a theology of the city and a theology of the poor. It also contains a section which discusses the definition of urban poverty zone and inner city. Chapter 3 reports the methodology used to explore church growth in urban poverty zones. Since very little existed in this field, the grounded theory method was used, and the procedures are explained in this chapter. Chapter 4 relates the findings of the research including the data's interaction with predetermined categories and the development of new categories and subcategories of data. Chapter 4 also includes story lines for each category, and a story line for the main category of community restoration. This story line encompasses the grounded theory. Chapter 5 presents the conclusions of the research including key insights, the grounded theory, implications related to church growth research and urban ministry research, applications for practice in urban poverty zones, and suggestions for further research.

This research analyzed the factors contributing to the decline of protestant churches in metropolitan centers. Houston, Texas, was named as the metropolitan center. The research concern is that there is a lack of current and recent knowledge of factors leading to the decline of Protestant churches in metropolitan centers. The purpose of this study was to identify the biblical and theological, leadership and organizational, cultural, and demographic factors contributing to the decline of Protestant churches. Precedent literature reviews the literature written in the area of church growth and decline. Five areas are researched: Church growth specialists is a review of leading contributors to the church growth movement. Biblical and theological concerns is a review of God's loving relationship with his people and the people's rebellion and decline. Leadership and organizational concerns is a review of the effects of leadership and organization on the churches today. Cultural concerns is a review of the effects of culture on the church today. It reviews both Christianity in culture and culture in the church. And, demographic concerns is a review of how demographic changes have affected the church. It reviews the contextual factors leading to church decline and the life-cycle of the church. The methodological design of the study was a survey of Protestant churches in Houston, Texas. The sampling of 542 churches was taken from 842 Protestant churches of nine major denominations. A Likert response scale survey was created based on the research found in the precedent literature. Two surveys were created and distributed: an electronic response survey the pastors responded to online and a paper survey mailed out to the churches. The analysis of findings reviewed the one hundred churches that responded to the survey. In all, nineteen factors within the areas of concern were researched and analyzed. The results demonstrate that biblical and theological concerns illustrate no differences between growing and declining churches. Leadership and organizational concerns, cultural concerns and demographic concerns all demonstrate a difference between growing and declining churches. The conclusion was that there are many factors that contribute to church decline. The declining churches had numerous factors that were contributing to the decline. Decisive actions must be taken for the churches to turn into healthy and productive growing churches.