(A) study of youth ministry commitment and current church involvement of young adults in korea evangelical holiness church in Korea

최낙현 Torch Trinity Graduate University 2018 국내박사

This study examined the relationship between youth ministry commitment and current church involvement of young adults in Korea Evangelical Holiness Church (KEHC) in Korea. The purpose of this studywas to nvestigate issues related to church retention of young adult Korean Christian in KEHC in Korea based on their differing levels of commitment to youth ministry during high school. The sample consisted of 278 young adults from 14 churches. Furthermore, total samples were divided into two groups for responding research question 5. One sample group for active youth ministry was 98 young adults from 5 churches, and another sample group for independent youth ministry was 180 young adults from 9 churches. The Youth Ministry Retention Questionnaire (Shields, 2008), a 30 item 4 point Likert scale, was used to assess both youth ministry commitment and church involvementof youngadults.The data were analyzed using an alysis of variance, chi-square test,and t-test. A number of results were noticed and are discussed. The levels of local church involvement of young adults were positively associated with the level of youth ministry commitment. Furthermore, results for this study included several demographics that affect higher church involvement of young adults. Young adults who have Christian mother showed higher local church involvement than young adults who have the mother who did not attend church.Young adults who continually live with their parents showed higher local church involvement than young adults partlylived with their parents after their senior high school graduation. Young adults who attended Christian high school showed lower church involvement than young adults who attended other types of high school. Young adults who were baptized before high school graduation had higher local church involvement than young adults who were not. Young adults who dropped out of a church in their high school years and at age 20 had lower youth ministry commitment than young adults who never experienced church dropouts. Young adults who never experienced church dropouts had higher youth ministry commitment and local church involvement than young adults who experienced church dropouts from their high school years. Youth is the last period to educate the next generation before they are swept away by the waves of secularism. Therefore, the faith community should find the right place to meet and invite the next generation and to create a better youth ministry context based on to its philosophy and adolescent’s youth commitment. Implications for ministry practices include concern to young adults who are in vulnerable period and situations to maintain their faith, education for adolescents who instantly experience secular perspective after their high school graduation, and awareness of the level of youth ministry and church involvement.

JONATHAN EDWARDS’S DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION IN ITS RELATIONS TO COVENANTS AND THE ROLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

Chen, Bing Torch Trinity Graduate University 2020 국내박사

Edwards’s doctrine of justification has been interpreted into different and contradictory views. Some have read into Edwards’s teaching a quasi-Catholic view of justification. In this dissertation, I argue that Edwards’s doctrine of justification, which is informed by and rooted in his understanding of the covenants, enables him on the one hand to exclude legalism, and on the other hand to avoid the error of antinomianism, through a unique emphasis on the Holy Spirit’s indwelling in the soul as a disposition for faith, perseverance of faith and inherent holiness. Edwards highlights the role of the Holy Spirit in his Trinitarian view of justification, so that the Holy Spirit’s indwelling as a disposition in the believer gives a firmer ontological basis not only for maintaining justification without human merits, but also for the necessity of good works and perseverance of faith and holiness. Edwards’s Arminian contemporaries considered that the Apostle Paul did not exclude moral works, but merely ceremonial law in his teaching on justification. Therefore, their view of justification is legalistic because faith is seen as meritorious obedience for justification. On the other side, Antinomianism tended to deny the importance of Christian holiness and works. Rooted in his understanding of the theology of the covenants, with a unique understanding of the Holy Spirit’s role in justification, Edwards not only maintains the Reformed consensus of justification is sola gratia and sola fide, but also emphasizes the necessity of good works and perseverance of faith and holiness. Edwards sees that the distinction between the Covenant of Works and Covenant of Grace lies in the doctrine of justification. In the Covenant of Works, which is the eternal rule of God’s righteousness, justification is by the perfect obedience of Adam. After the fall, since all are sinful and under the curse of the law, justification only comes through the Covenant of Grace, solely on the basis of Christ’s righteousness imputed by faith alone. And faith itself is not meritorious, because it is not merely a promise of the Covenant of Redemption, but also a result of the indwelling Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit in regeneration does not merely assist man’s natural faculties, but communicates his own nature to the elect so that he or she could have a sense of the divine excellency of Christ and thus willingly receive him as the only Lord and savior. For Edwards, justifying faith is the soul’s active union with Christ. Thus, there is only a natural fitness, rather than moral fitness in faith that only those who believe can be united with Christ and have an interest in him. The cause of the union with Christ is not faith, but the work of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Therefore, good works, inherent holiness, as well as faith cannot be the basis of justification. On the contrary, though good works and perseverance of faith and holiness are not the basis of justification, they are necessary for salvation as the expressions of the justifying faith. This stems from his unique and profound understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit in the intra-Trinitarian Covenant of Redemption. Edwards significantly emphasizes the role of the Holy Spirit in redemption by speaking of the Holy Spirit as the ultimate good or benefit purchased by Christ for the elected in the Covenant of Redemption. Therefore the Holy Spirit as the divine love or beauty of the Trinity is forever communicated to the elected. The ad-intra Trinitarian life of God is replicated or reflected in the ad-extra economic work of the redemption by the Trinity. It is through the Holy Spirit’s indwelling in the soul as a vital principle or disposition that the believers receive all the spiritual good in this life and in heaven. Edwards does not only maintain the Reformed consensus of sola gratia and sola fide by attributing faith and union with Christ as the result of the indwelling Holy Spirit, but also argue for the necessity of good works and the perseverance of holiness as the inadequate fruit or expression of faith in justification and salvation. Justification does not depend on sanctification, but they are inseparable. Only those who are regenerated are justified, but one is also immediately and finally justified in the first act of faith when he or she is regenerated. Therefore, Edwards’s Trinitarian view of justification has its foundation in his theology of the covenants, without which his doctrine would be unintelligible. And Edwards’s emphasis of the Holy Spirit’s role in justification is not only a fortification but also an advancement of the Reformed understanding of justification.

Effectiveness of Storytelling as a Teaching Strategy in English Education for Korean College Students

Janice Miae Lee Torch Trinity Graduate University 2016 국내석사

Korean education is generally known to be a typical rote learning style and English language education in South Korea has long been grammar-based. However, it has been often pointed out that these approaches have not been practical or effective. Therefore, it has been a great challenge for English educators in South Korea to find a more effective way to teach English. Since the practicality of English lessons has been greatly favored in most colleges, there has been a significant number of college-level compulsory courses being replaced by TOEIC-courses in many South Korean universities in order to successfully prepare the students for their future careers. This study, thus, examined the feasibility of integrating storytelling lessons into college English courses in order to provide an effective English teaching strategy free from the rote-learning style and improve students’ TOEIC scores at the same time. The purpose of this study was to explore the effectiveness of storytelling in English language education in South Korean colleges and the possibility of incorporating the outcomes of this study into college English classes for more practical English lessons that can be applied in everyday life. The primary research question of this study was: How can storytelling be used as an effective teaching strategy in helping Korean college students to improve their English communicative skills as compared to another typical teaching strategy that is currently used in college English classes? Subsidiary questions were: How can storytelling be used in college English classes to help students improve their communicative skills? In what aspects can Korean college students, in particular, benefit from storytelling? What are some other benefits of storytelling as a teaching strategy for college students? The sample consisted of 51 students from a mid-sized private university in Kangwon Province of South Korea. 26 students from Storytelling Class and 25 from College English Class were selected for this study. All of them were aged between 19 and 20, and they had been identified as English Level 2 students by the university based on their initial TOEIC scores at the entrance to the university. This study applied a mixed-approach to gathering two kinds of data – quantitative and qualitative. The quantitative data was collected from TOEIC tests and 10-minute writing tests, while the qualitative data was collected from observations of students’ behavior during class activities and performances and documentation of their writing samples from the10-minute writing tests. The data analyses revealed that storytelling was a significantly effective teaching strategy for college students in improving TOEIC Reading Comprehension (RC) score and writing skills in general. The results of the data analyses also supported that storytelling was especially effective in teaching students to become more creative, open-mined, logical, and critical writers. In addition, the students who learned English through storytelling showed an improvement in problem-solving skills and teamwork in this study. However, the study results did not provide enough supports to suggest that storytelling would be a more effective teaching strategy for college English education as compared to another typical teaching strategy that is currently used in college English courses. After the analyses of the data, this study supported the following conclusions. First, integrating storytelling lessons in college English education may be an effective teaching strategy. However, additional research should be conducted in order conclusively prove its effectiveness. Nevertheless, the researcher hoped that this study could provide a platform for the college English teachers so that they would be encouraged to use storytelling as a more effective way of teaching English and how they should go about designing their future lessons.

AN INTERPLAY OF MEMORY AND FORGETTING : THE CASE OF PROVERBS 1-9 IN LIGHT OF DEUTERONOMY 6

Myra Guelas Patrocenio Torch Trinity Graduate University 2017 국내석사

This study is an intertextual analysis of Deuteronomy 6 and Proverbs 1–9, both of which foreground a prominent pedagogical figure who reiterates some of the foundational ideals of Israel as a nation. The main premise of this study is that the author of Proverbs 1–9 reformulated Deuteronomy 6 in order to emphasize that morality and practicality of life is inseparable with their religious life. Both Moses and Solomon impart fundamental truths and admonitions that are central to Israel’s life in the land. For ancient Israel, true wisdom is rooted in their obedience to the covenant stipulations of YHWH that was given to Moses at Sinai/Horeb. Hence, the ethical and moral actions of the people are closely associated with their relationship with YHWH. In particular, I will examine the ways in which Deuteronomy 6 is understood and appropriated in Proverbs 1–9 within its present literary structure through intertextual analysis. The intertextual analysis provides a fresh way of looking at the relevant biblical texts as complementary counterparts that shed some important insights into understanding the rhetorical force underlying each literary unit, which is valuable in biblical interpretation. The pedagogical setting and the content of pedagogy within the narrative layers of these texts are the subject of the investigation. There are significant details distinct from each other’s approach, such as Moses’ homiletic discourse on slavery and wilderness experience which is not found in Solomon’s proverbial teachings. In this vein, there is a clear selective remembrance found in the pedagogical content of Proverbs 1–9 in comparison with Deuteronomy 6. Through intertextual analysis we can observe that Proverbs recalled and reformulated notable aspects of the Shema and Mosaic Law as seen in its literary structure, linguistic style, and thematic motif. The thesis begins with a brief survey of previous scholarships and the basic rationale for embarking into the present study. It then proceeds with a thorough exegetical analysis, which will help us to know the meaning of the texts and perceive literary correlations between the two texts. Finally, the result of the findings is analyzed in relation to the notion of memory and forgetting and its implication in understanding literary parallels and variants in both texts.

Spiritual Discernment in John Owen's Writings

Seung Hyun Oh Torch Trinity Graduate University 2016 국내석사

This thesis focuses on providing biblical criteria and practical suggestions for spiritual discernment. To accomplish this task, it will define the meaning of spiritual discernment and identify types of spiritual discernment. A comparison between clarity and ambiguity provides the starting point of this goal for discernment. Through this effort, believers can find a clearer understanding of its facets and they can see many examples of discernment in the history of Christianity so that believers can have more stable grounds for discernment. Through our definition and historical examples, we know that spiritual discernment is an area of struggle that calls for the right criteria for the experience to occur. For this reason, John Owen is important in this area because he introduced a definite principle through his writings, namely, Communion with God, Spiritual Minded, and The Mortification of the Sin. Objectivity and universality are the key concepts of John Owen’s understanding. Believers also recognize that discernment is composed of the perfect balance between divine sovereignty and human responsibility. In particular, this thesis is written for young adults in the church. They are located in the difficult situation where they are supposed to live as an adult in the society but they are not prepared to face. This is a problem that if left unaddressed, they cannot live as mature Christians. Identity crisis and the misunderstanding of spiritual discipline cause the instability of their relationship with God, which aggravates their spontaneous decision-making. The discipline to discern God’s providence can be one of the breakthroughs for their problems. This thesis will categorize each stage of the problem and offer practical suggestions to overcome their chronic problems. All of us agree with regards to the importance of young adults ministry and also the urgency to help them. Spiritual discernment will be the best choice to get over this conundrum.

Transformative teaching for the Roma context in Romania

Potoroaca, Ana-Silviana Torch Trinity Graduate University 2016 국내석사

In the context of free education for all and policies of inclusion both at local government level and European level, the Roma people remain the most discriminated against and least educated people in Europe. In Romania, the country with the largest condensation of Roma people, only a few Roma achieve higher education, most don’t finish secondary education levels, and only a part of the Roma students participate in kindergarten and preschool. There are many factors involved in the Roma students’ school dropout, like poverty, discrimination, prejudice, and most importantly a difference in the worldview from the non-Roma students. Culture and traditions play a role in the decision of the Roma students to leave school at an early stage; prejudice and poverty aggravate the situation of the Roma students and their perception of the school system. The purpose of this study is to prevent the school dropout of Roma students in Romania via the use of transformative teaching methods imported from the constructivist learning theory and to examine relationships between culture and school dropout of Roma students. The main research question explored in this study is: How can the transformative teaching method help decrease the level of school dropout among the Roma students in Romania? The author proposes that transformative teaching methods imported from the constructivist learning theory can help improve the rate of school dropout for the Roma students in Romania. Transformative methods impact the teacher, the students and the environment in such a way as to help the Roma students to construct new ways of understanding the world. The transformative methods proposed in this study are seen through the perspective of a Christian worldview. The author proposes that transformation at the level of worldview is possible in the Christian worldview. This has ramifications in the community, the local church, and the work with the Roma parents. The complexity of the Roma students drop-out has led to much debate in the academic circles and the author believes that this study will help offer some solutions to this problem. The study contributes to the academic research and offers possible solutions in the form of transformative teaching methods, to keeping the Roma students involved in the educational system for longer periods of time. For further research the author proposes the research of other teaching methods that would have a positive impact on the Roma students. Another area of exploration would be the involvement of local church communities in the Roma people’s life and its impact on transformation and education. I believe that there aren’t many quantitative and qualitative research studies done in this area especially in view of the growth of Protestantism among the Roma people. Key words: Roma, Romania, Romales, Romaniya, Christian worldview, traditions, students, teachers, transformative teaching methods, constructivism.

“HOLINESS OF THE PRIESTS AND THE LEVITES IN TEMPLE WORSHIP AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE TO WORSHIP LEADERS TODAY”

GERRY P. SAHAGUN, JR TORCH TRINITY GRADUATE UNIVERSITY 2012 국내석사

This thesis explores and explains the significance of holiness in order to challenge the lives of worship leaders in today’s churches. This is done through the study of how the priests and the Levites lived a life of holiness in the Old Testament. This thesis investigates the way they ministered inside and outside the temple and how living a life of holiness was critical to them. It made a powerful impact to them and the people they served. Through this thesis, a radical call for the worship leaders will be made. Just like the priests and the Levites, their first calling which is to live a life of holiness. They are to fully submit themselves in the lordship of Christ through the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit. The first chapter is a brief history of the temple and the development of holiness theme. The second chapter talks about the life of holiness among the priests and the Levites. The third chapter helps the worship leaders today understand and solve the problem of unholiness in their lives. Then the fourth and final chapter of this thesis applies the implications of holiness in temple worship to worship leaders today. This is the part where this thesis attempts to see how holiness applies to the ministries of worship leaders in the church today. Applying this study in the lives of worship leaders reduces and eventually removes problems in the ministries when it comes to their morality and ethical failures both inside and outside the church building.

A DOCTRINAL ANALYSIS OF HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATIONAL MATERIAL IN THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF KOREA

박정희 TORCH TRINITY GRADUATE UNIVERSITY 2013 국내석사

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the curriculum, Kingdom of God from a doctrinal perspective in order to highlight the importance of doctrinal education for high school students in the Presbyterian Churches of Korea (Tong-hap), hereafter, PCK. The writer believes that teaching Christian doctrine is the primary solution for the problem of the decreasing number of high school students in most Presbyterian churches of Korea. In order to objectively evaluate the doctrinal education of PCK, the writer examines the curriculum of the Kingdom of God: Calling and Responding that has been continuously used to teach Christian doctrines to high school students since 2001. In addition, this thesis examines the content of this curriculum in terms of systematic theology such as God, Christology, Salvation, and Ecclesiology. Therefore, in this thesis, Christian education is viewed as being closely related to systematic theology. The first chapter deals with the theoretical background of this thesis. This chapter explores the literature regarding Christian doctrinal education materials which have been published by the Presbyterian denominations. Nevertheless, theses that evaluate the PCK curriculum for high school students from a doctrinal perspective are lacking. The second chapter introduces the doctrines of PCK -- The Westminster Confession of Faith and The Shorter Catechism -- and mentions the teaching scope and content of the Christian doctrine based on the doctrines of PCK that teach doctrine to high school students. The third chapter deals with the necessity of doctrinal education for high school students and delves into youth from a developmental perspective. The fourth chapter examines the content of the curriculum, the Kingdom of God, by going through each lesson. After investigating the three-year curriculum, the curriculum is reorganized in this section based on the order of the Westminster Shorter Catechism. The lessons based on doctrines scattered in the 156 lessons of the curriculum were arranged topically. The fifth chapter evaluates the PCK curriculum of the Kingdom of God and suggests an alternative doctrinal curriculum consisting of 156 lessons over a period of three years. Overall, it was found that the PCK curriculum has little or no doctrinal content. In other words, this curriculum neglects doctrinal education. This may be why high school students in the Presbyterian churches in Korea generally have weak understandings of God and faith. Although there are a few lessons on doctrinal topics in the curriculum, the definitions and explanations of doctrinal concepts are missing in many lessons. This may be the cause of the difficulty in establishing the Christian faith in high school students of PCK. In addition, it was found that the doctrinal content in lessons in the PCK curriculum were considerably simplified and shortened. This is because the curriculum assumes that high school students have already learned and know the core doctrinal concepts. Unfortunately, this biased view of doctrinal education is not in accordance with the confessional creeds of PCK. Therefore, this thesis proposes an alternative curriculum for students to learn about the core concepts of Christian faith. Finally, this study will argue for teaching doctrine to Christian high school students in the churches of PCK as an educational foundation of faith. It is hoped that ministers and teachers will further acknowledge the importance of doctrinal education and that the PCK churches will be able to establish the biblical Christian identity. Christian teenagers who recognize the Christian truth based on the Bible may be able to build their own houses of faith on the rock and form personal identities as Christians. Keywords: Doctrine, Presbyterian Church of Korea, Curriculum, High school students

Equipping first-year teachers to become effective in a multicultural environment

Liezel Kohler Torch Trinity Graduate University 2015 국내석사

South Korea is fast becoming a multicultural society with foreigners making up about 3% of Korea’s population today. In 2012 it was found that 4.7 % of 484,550 births were babies of mixed race. These statistics reveal that Korea is fast becoming a country that will need to start catering to the needs of all people residing in the country. The purpose of this study is to equip first-year teachers in becoming effective in a multicultural environment. This study highlights the challenges that first-year teachers will face when teaching in multicultural environment. The researcher, after living in Korea for numerous years, has conducted this study to prepare first-year teachers who may find themselves in a country like Korea. This qualitative study was conducted using interviews and surveys. Fifteen teachers representing several countries across the world, were asked to answer questions about their teaching experiences, focusing on the challenges that they faced in their first-year of teaching as well as their struggles understanding Korean culture. From the data collected the researcher identified numerous perspectives to help understand the teacher’s experiences. These included: perspectives on multicultural environment, perspectives on non-cultural challenges, perspectives on cultural challenges teachers face in Korea, perspectives on being an effective teacher, and perspectives to help overcome environment and cultural barriers. Finally from the perspectives that were found, the researcher created four categories of suggestions to help first-year teachers namely: suggestions to equip effective teachers, suggestions when using effective teaching methods, suggestion to make the first year of teaching a success, and suggestions to help overcome environmental and cultural barriers. Suggestions to equip effective teachers included the following sub categories: getting to know your students, clarity, time management and teachers. Suggestions when using effective teaching methods included the following sub categories: creating a safe and fair learning environment, developing creativity, student’s learning abilities, classroom management, and discipline and teacher orientation. Suggestions to make the first week of teaching a success included the subcategories: homework, early finishers, discipline, and teacher orientation. Suggestions to help overcome environmental and cultural barriers include the following sub categories: classroom routine, developing good study habits, classroom setting, subject integration and culture and language. This study hopes to equip first-year teachers who are planning to work in a multicultural environment with necessary knowledge and skills to become effective when dealing with the unique challenges they will face.

DIALOGUE EVANGELISM : A STUDY IN ITS THEOLOGICAL FOUNDATION AND PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS IN THE MISSION FIELD

GEORGE CARLOS INTUYA TORCH TRINITY GRADUATE UNIVERSITY 2013 국내석사

The title of the thesis is “Dialogue Evangelism: A Study in its Theological Foundation and Practical Implications in the Mission Field.” The first chapter deals with fundamentality of dialogue in human life, its essentialities that are inescapable as seen in history. Chapter one provides three reasons in support of dialogue as fundamental mode of human existence and a partner to evangelism ministry. First, dialogue as integral part of witnessing improves the way Christians can interact with the non-Christians significantly. Second, dialogue has inherent quality in communication especially in arriving at truth as the Holy Spirit guides the discussion. Third, dialogue is not about compromising as it is a way to make sure that the Christian faith is unique, and that Christ’s claim demands extra efforts of dialogue to make it known to others. The second chapter deals with the biblical and theological support of dialogue where God is also involved in dialogue as Jesus himself dialogued with human beings. It affirms that dialogue evangelism has biblical and theological foundations. First, dialogue has a significant place in the activities of God in revealing Himself, His plan of salvation, and His ways of communication through covenant relationship. Second, dialogue has biblical foundation where Jesus himself dialogued with his listeners. Third, the attitude of listening, friendship, and serving are practical supports for dialogue. The third chapter deals with the relationship of dialogue and evangelism programs. Dialogue needs to be integrated into evangelism programs in order to improve the effectiveness of witnessing in a postmodern world. The third chapter discusses about the dialogical analysis from evangelism programs. Dialogical analysis from evangelism programs includes several points. Previous evangelism programs contain limited dialogical encounters. The dialogue parts in the presentation process is possible to be lengthened in order to allow more engaging conversation. For example, the Four Spiritual Laws and Evangelism Explosion are very suggestive for retooling to include preliminary events as the following: (1) Pre-evangelism dialogue, cultivating relationships, listening and serving are important events to include before the proclamation, providing preliminary questions and answers that are thought-provoking; (2) The cultivation of relationships provide steps dealing with friendship, personal care, and concern about the person; (3) Lastly, the need of seed-sowing provides the Bible studies or reading the Bible together prior to the commitment of life to Christ.