Date

3-22-2024

Department

Rawlings School of Divinity

Degree

Doctor of Ministry (DMin)

Chair

Seth N. Polk

Keywords

biblical worldview, worldview development, father’s responsibility, training fathers, faith sharing, faith ownership

Disciplines

Christianity | Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion

Abstract

Several modern factors increase families’ difficulty training children in the Christian faith. Time commitments outside the home have increased, and a decline in faith practice has made parents less comfortable and confident with knowledge of the Christian faith. These factors fueled an increase in teenagers leaving the Christian faith as they moved into adulthood and a decline in the number of adults with a biblical worldview. The underlying assumption of this DMIN project is that if fathers are trained with a biblical worldview and mentoring skills, they will become more comfortable and prepared to share their faith with their children so that they can take ownership of their faith. A seven-week training program equipped fourteen men with biblical worldview information and mentoring skills to prepare them to help their children embrace a Christian worldview. Project participants’ ability to identify and summarize a biblical worldview and grow more comfortable sharing their faith was analyzed with pre- and post-training questionnaires and surveys. The project results support the thesis that training men in a biblical worldview and holding them accountable for leading conversations with their children will empower them to summarize the biblical worldview and grow in the comfort of sharing their faith. Men equipped with this thesis’ biblical worldview training can assist their children in taking faith ownership as they prepare for adulthood.

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