Date of Award

12-2023

Document Type

Thesis

Primary Advisor

David Kneip

Secondary Advisor

Steven Moore

Committee Reader

Wes Crawford

Abstract

The North 10th and Treadaway Church of Christ (“Treadaway”) is a small, predominantly African American congregation located in Abilene, Texas, home of Abilene Christian University (“ACU”) and several other institutions of higher learning. Considering ACU’s Church of Christ heritage and continued affiliation with the Churches of Christ, it is no surprise that Treadaway has often served as a “home away from home” congregation for ACU students and recent graduates who choose to remain in the city. The level of integration of the students from ACU and other local colleges into the life and ministry of Treadaway has varied greatly over the years. The project described in this thesis was designed to create a drama-based arts ministry plan for Treadway as one avenue to enhance spiritual development and congregational involvement among college students and other young adults. A seven-member ministry design team and I met for seven sessions. During the first five sessions, we reviewed the preliminary congregational research for the project, explored the history of drama and the church, reflected on the value of drama in a congregational setting, and discussed Treadaway’s unique context related to the use of drama in ministry. In the sixth session, we drafted a drama-based arts ministry design plan to present to the congregational leadership for implementation consideration. During the seventh session, which included an extended time of devotion, we collectively finalized the plan. I also conducted a group interview regarding the participants’ experiences with the intervention and their views on its success. The intervention resulted in a written drama-based arts ministry plan that details the overall goals of the proposal; the need for the ministry; the timetable and scope of the ministry; the budget and potential support sources; the key personnel; the first-year ministry goals; and the next steps. Following the intervention, the ministry design team presented the plan to the congregational leaders, who gave the plan their full approval and authorized a presentation to the congregation. The ministry team presented the plan to the congregation and received immediate buy-in. Implementation of the plan was pending at the completion of this paper.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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