Non-Avondale

Problem: The majority of pastors in the South New South Wales Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church work in isolated rural settings. In the past, there has been minimal connection between these pastors, with little sharing of plans, ideas, deeper concerns, or spiritual accountability. This has been compounded by their demanding roles and responsibilities. Such realities have the potential to deplete the spiritual health of individuals.

Method: This project developed, implemented, and evaluated a strategy over a 12 month period that fostered an enhanced intentional journey with God among 18 South New South Wales Conference pastors. The main focus was to nurture relationship-focused small groups where trust was developed and spiritual disciplines were encouraged. At the end of the period a questionnaire provided the key source of evaluation data.

Results: There was an 89% response rate of pastors responding to the questionnaire. Between 75% - 80% of the participants were positively impacted by the process undertaken in this project. Some 25% of ministers have developed a similar pattern to the cluster group within their own local churches.

Conclusion: Results indicated significant gains to the culture of ministry in the South New South Wales Conference. The intentional sharing of personal narratives helped to develop trust and community, and served to reduce the sense of isolation among the pastors. Through the process defined for the cluster groups, pastor's personal spirituality was enhanced.

“If men like [John] Herschel are to spend the best years of their lives in recording for the benefit of a remote posterity the actual state of the heavens…what a galling discovery to find amongst their own contemporaries men [James Dunlop] who … from carelessness and culpable apathy hand down to posterity a mass of errors …[so] that four hundred objects out of six hundred could not be identified in any manner … with a telescope seven times more powerful than that stated to have been used!”4

The denigration of James Dunlop and his catalogue of 629 southern nebulae and clusters produced in 1826 originated with John Herschel and was continued by others of his day. Was this criticism justified? Was James Dunlop guilty of “carelessness and culpable apathy”? Were there “four hundred objects out of six hundred” which could not be identified, and if so, was there an explanation for this large shortfall?

This question led to a search within Dunlop’s 1826 catalogue to rediscover, if possible, some of the missing objects and to reinstate Dunlop, if justified, as a bona fide astronomer. In doing this, Dunlop’s personal background, education and experience became relevant, as did a comparison with the catalogue of 42 southern nebulae and clusters produced by Nicolas-Louis de La Caille in 1751-2, and the 1834-8 catalogue of 1708 southern nebulae and clusters by John Herschel, who found the Dunlop catalogue so galling.

Eleven baptismal candidates from twelve to fifteen years were studied corporately and individually over seven months in their normal church activities and baptismal class. During this process sociograms were drawn of baptismal classes and questionnaires were developed and administered. Evaluation of candidates was extrapolated from this objective and subjective data.

The video boom is but one aspect of the modern communication revolution that has found a place in the privacy of millions of homes.The church has been conscious of the potential of the mass media for evangelism. Effective communication is an integral component of effective evangelism. Radio, television, motion pictures, audio cassettes and multi-media have been utilized with varying degrees of success and usually at great cost. Contributing to video's popularity is its comparative inexpensiveness.

The negative attitude of early adolescents to sermon is of grave concern to those who are aware of the critical nature of their stage of intellectual, moral, and faith development. The purpose of this research is to assess the attitude of a small sample of Australian Seventh-day Adventist early adolescents to the sermon and to achieve a positive modification of that attitude.

Problem:

The Seventh-day Adventist Church has endeavoured to proclaim its unique message of the nearness of Christ's return to the Maoris of New Zealand since 1885. In spite of repeated and intense efforts the results have been disappointingly meagre. The most success has been apparent when labours have been concentrated on the more practical needs that Maoris face. There is considerable evidence that Maoris still face serious problems in health and life-style, yet existing Adventist programmes relating to these matters do not attract a Maori audience. This project researches the reason why and seeks to establish effective life-style ministries to New Zealand Maoris.

Stress is part of our modern lifestyle. It is one of the great problems facing individuals today. Both Christians and non-Christians find difficulty in handling the increased rate of change and the need constantly to adapt. Christianity should be able to affect the quality of relationships and lifestyle. Christian principles need to be incorporated into stress management training programs. It is the purpose of this project to find ways to manage stress effectively from a Christian perspective.

This study examined the extent to which teaching procedures combined with transenvironmental programming would facilitate comprehension of text and promote transfer of learning by a group of upper primary poor readers.

A multiple-baseline single subject research design with replications across three different instructional conditions was used. The three conditions were: (1) reciprocal teaching in small groups in the resource room; (2) transfer of learning to the reading class in the home room; and (3) transfer of learning to the social studies class in the home room. Each condition involved baseline, experimental and maintenance phases.

Analysis of the data revealed that reciprocal teaching was effective in promoting students' comprehension of text. In general, transenvironmental programmings, during which students were instructed to employ the newly learned comprehension strategies in their reading and social studies classes, was also successful. However, it was found that successful transfer depended on a number of other factors including mastery of the strategies, cognitive ability of the subject, and cooperation of the regular class teacher.

The implications of these findings for classroom practices are discussed, along with the limitations of the study and suggestions for further research.

This case study investigates the pedagogical responses of a faith-based Australian secondary school to internationalisation. Using a social constructivist theoretical framework that recognises teaching as a means of enhancing and scaffolding student participation and learning, the study examines teaching and learning for culturally and linguistically diverse students. In particular, the research investigates the views of teachers about the resources needed to meet the linguistic, academic and social needs of the diverse student group emerging as a response to internationalisation. Data generated through questionnaires, focus groups and individual interviews, and document archives were analysed and interpreted using thematic analysis and social constructivist principles. The study found teachers considered themselves ill-equipped to teach international students. The teachers believed they lacked the pedagogical, cultural and linguistic knowledge to help students acculturate and learn. The recommendations of this study relate to ways the school can address the teachers’ needs within its particular context and values.

The adherents of an ideology usually possess common ideas and values, and tend to cluster together as a subculture. Consequently they often experience difficulty in relating to the wider society which exists in the same time and place. Early in its history, Christianity encountered relational problems with Jews and pagan; controversies also developed amongst rival Christian groups. The persistence of this conflict caused H. Richard Niebuhr to it 'the enduring problem'; he also identified a range of typical responses, particularly in Western civilisation. On the two extremes are those Christians who withdraw and accommodate; occupying the middle ground are dualists, synthesists and conversionists. These solutions may be held in their pure form or in a variety of combinations. They may be influenced by a range of ideas about salvation, the church, eschatology, the relations of church and state, Christian history and patterns of thought in society.

The Christianity which was transplanted into colonial Australia was derived from Northern Hemisphere denominations, and experienced the persistent effects of distance, dependence and sectarianism. Divided by national and religious loyalties and antipathies, and challenged by a desacralised society, the churches tended to develop a conservative ethos which failed to address crucial religious and social questions. Denominational attitudes toward educational, economic and political issues may be used to identify the various stances which were present in New South Wales near the end of the colonial period. Selected Roman Catholic, Church of England, Wesleyan Methodist and Seventh-day Adventists perspectives are explored in the light of Niebuhr's typologies.

The solutions favoured by theses denominations were based on teh range of factors indicated above. For instance, the uniqueness of Catholicism as the one 'true' church was strongly presented by Cardinal Patrick Francis Moran; the inclusive strength of Anglicanism as a 'comprehensive' church was fostered by Archbishop William Saumarez Smith; and the idea that their church was 'chosen' to preach the gospel and engage in a war with evil was nurtured by the Wesleyan weekly newspaper. Nominally, these three denominations included eight out of every ten people in New South Wales. In order to illustrate the deteminative role which eschatological thought may assume in a religious group, Adventist ideas as expressed by Ellen Gould White are examined in relation to her idea of a 'remnant' church.

Each denomination was strongly persuaded by the merits of its own stance, and unconvinced by the strengths of the other religious options. Thus, Christianity tended to remain institutionalised and divided; it was therefore, often unattractive to secular Australians. It seemed more appropriate for each subculture of Christians to maintain its boundaries rather than to search for and promote a coherent religion directed toward meeting the evident human needs in colonial society. The experience of Christianity in nineteenth-century Australia illustrates the power of ideas to motivate and restrain believers; it also demonstrates the continuing usefulness of Niebuhr's analysis and the necessity for a constant reappraisal of 'the enduring problem'.

The primary purpose of this thesis is to examine the role of epistemic responsibility in the practice of book-length literary journalism. Literary journalism offers a powerful alternative to mainstream journalism. Its narrative mode and storytelling techniques open possibilities of representation often closed by traditional reporting practices. Subsequently, literary journalists have attracted criticism for unorthodox modes of representation and attendant “truth claims” in many texts. In this thesis I draw on the work of epistemologist Lorraine Code to highlight the tension between the branches of ethics and epistemology, and argue that holding them apart for the purposes of explication yields important insights into the practice of literary journalism. I argue that criticism of literary journalism has at times conflated ethical and epistemic concerns, resulting in censure of the practitioner on primarily moral grounds. While such a critique is often valid, I propose that it can mislabel problematic cognitive processes as moral deficiencies.

A re-examination of significant controversies raised by literary journalism shows disputed areas stemming from epistemic “blind spots”. These “blind spots” are often characterised as ethical lapses, but I argue that framing criticism in this way inhibits progress in sound practice. Recurring controversies over works by practitioners such as Janet Malcolm and Australia’s Helen Garner bear this out. I also offer close readings of three works of contemporary US literary journalism through their paratextual frames. The limits of transparency are demonstrated here, including the fact that disclosure can hide more than it illuminates. Code’s “epistemic responsibilist” approach is subsequently presented as an important addition to literary journalism scholarship, as it offers a sound foundation for reflexive practice—for both writers and critics. Using this approach, I offer critical readings of the “truth claims” in three contemporary US texts: Adrian Nicole LeBlanc’s Random Family (2003), Dave Cullen’s Columbine (2009) and Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2010).

A secondary aim of this thesis is to characterise contemporary Australian book-length literary journalism. Using Code’s concept of an “epistemic community”, I propose that the nature of national discourse influences the voice of the Australian literary journalist, as revealed by anxiety over representation in the texts under analysis. These texts highlight the pressures of subjectivity on truth, which results in a destabilisation of “truth claims”. In comparison with the US practitioners analysed, their three Australian counterparts analysed place less emphasis on disclosure transparency, and rely more heavily upon self-presentation as seekers, rather than discoverers, of knowledge and truth. I further maintain that these three texts represent a dominant national function of book-length literary journalism. Issues of national identity are bound up in the relationship between the land and its people, and are evident in the work of Margaret Simons, Chloe Hooper and Anna Krien, three of Australia’s most notable literary journalists. Through the lens of a civic dispute, each of these practitioners join one of the most pressing cultural issues in contemporary national discourse, that is, to explore what it means to be “Australian”.

The home is the most potent setting for the development of Christian characteristics. The "ecology" of Christian nurture that once existed in society - the Christian community, the school system taught by at least nominally Christian teachers, the church, the religious press, and the Sunday School, has been broken. The Seventh-day Adventist Church has maintained a Christian school system. Sabbath School and church services are strongly promoted. But the foundation - the home - needs support in the task of Christian nurture.

The fact that many respondents in the Crider and Kistler study knew what the standards of the church are, but found difficulty in living by those standards, indicates that the church is functioning more as a standard setter than as an enabling institution that helps people to reach those standards. This project is an attempt to partially redress that imbalance. Its purpose is to facilitiate the establishment of worship as a regular feature of family life, which is effective in promoting Christian life-style.

Soma Christou is a central Pauline designation for the Church. Three questions are addressed in this thesis. First, to what extent is Paul using the metaphor? Secondly, in what way is Paul's use of Soma Christou in Colossians and Ephesians dependent upon his earlier application in Romans and 1 Corinthians? Thirdly, what is Paul saying to the contemporary reader concerning the nature of the Church and its relationship with Christ?

Time and space preclude an exhaustive treatment of the Soma Christou concept. Attention is focused upon the origin of the terminology, the extent to which metaphor is present, and the developments of the Soma Christou concept in the captivity epistles. In this research the historical-analytical hermeneutic is applied.

The focus of this thesis is the attempt by the Seventh-day Adventist Church to reproduce SDA culture in students attending one of its schools, Maranatha High School. As a 'critical ethnography', it adopts a theoretical perspective from critical social theory to examine problems associated with this attempt. These problems are reflected in data gathered by a range of ethnographic techniques. The study first portrays the socio-political dynamics underlying the historical creation of Adventist culture generally, its embodiment in institutional forms, and the development of a substantial educational structure intended to transmit that culture to succeeding generations.

The study then focuses on current SDA educational philosophy, and the assumptions underlying the principles of selection, organisation, transmission and evaluation of knowledge considered to be valid. It then examines how Maranatha High School itself seeks to implement those principles. In this context, the study also reflects on the political implications of the modes of management and institutional control adopted at various levels of the organisation and in the school.

As a dialectical study, the thesis views the school as a social setting in which knowledgeable humans engage in communicative interaction. Rather than promoting smooth reproduction, the school is portrayed as a site of struggle, negotiation and potential transformation as participants resist forces that they perceive to be constraining and oppressing them. Consequently the thesis examines the perceptions of the various groups of participants, and the nature and impact of their interaction. In as much as teachers are official 'managers' of SDA culture and knowledge, this examination focuses especially on their personal definitions of the situation, the dilemmas that confront them from internal and external sources, the development of their own cultural forms in response, and the implications this action has for cultural reproduction and continuity.

Problem:

Rapid cultural change is being forced upon the people of Papua New Guinea as their country strives to keep pace with its Western neighbours. The effects of that change are being felt by members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church as they seek to establish their Christian and cultural identity within their changing society. This project concerns itself with the degree to which trained local church leaders, acting as agents of change, are able to direct their members toward a meaningful and culturally relevant Christian lifestyle.

Problem:

A considerable number of Seventh-day Adventists are partners in interfaith marriages. These relationships experience the added stress typical of such marriages. No research appears to have been conducted relating to interfaith marriage involving Seventh-day Adventists. The purpose of this research is to understand the dynamics that operate within theses marriages and to devise a Biblically-based ministry programme adapted to the needs of these couples.

The electronic communications media of today appear to offer almost limitless opportunities for communicating the message of the gospel to very large numbers of people. Television in particular occupies a primary place in communicating with people in the western world. A large proportion of the leisure time of many people is spent watching television. Nevertheless, the use of the television media by religious organizations, and individuals, is the subject of controversy.

The purpose of this project is: (i) to set forth a theology of evangelism; (ii) to discover the role of mass evangelism in the New Testament church; and (iii) to evaluate the use of television as an aid in fulfilling the commission of Jesus Christ to take the gospel to all the world.

Problem:

That physical and mental health are indispensably related is evidenced by the scriptures, the writings of Ellen White, and modern scientific research. Most Australians, including many Seventh-day Adventists, continue to neglect this relationship and its effects on well-being. Once of the major keys, aerobic physical fitness, significantly improves positive mental outlook and effectiveness.

Problem:

The passive and spectator-oriented worship of many who attend the church service is of great concern to worshippers and worship leaders who are aware of the importance of active participation. The purpose of this research is to assess the concepts and attitudes of a sample of Seventh-day Adventist worshippers in the Avondale College Church to participative worship and to achieve a positive modification of those concepts and attitudes.

Method:

A study was given to the Biblical principles of worship in relation to participation and action. Further study considered selected findings of business management and educational psychology theory in regard to the development of positive attitudes.

Three church services, three seminars, and two surveys were planned and implemented over a four week period. The three services were designed to provide information to the congregation, and to demonstrate alternative styles of worship that facilitate congregational participation. The seminars were to provide further informaion to members of a Subject Group. The surveys provided information for assessing concepts and attitudes to participative worship, and to determine whether a change in understanding and attitude had been achieved.

Results:

At the conclusion of the series, the members of the Subject Group gave evidence of achieving a clearer understanding of the meaning and purpose of participative worship. A favourable shift in attitude towards participation in the service was achieved in several areas.

Conclusion:

Worship that is characterized by passivity and spectator-type attitudes can be changed and modified. An understanding of the principles of participative worship will provide a basis for the development of positive attitudes to worship, and help to facilitate an active, worship experience.

Problem

The Church is failing to communicate its doctrines to teenagers in a familiar, relevant, interesting, and understandable medium. Ministers and teachers are often using abstract language which is inadequate to gain the understanding and interest of all teenagers. Adolescents are forming negative attitudes to these attempts which lead them to discontinue their affiliation with the Church.

Method

Common factors that became evident in a theological survey are established. Further input is sought from religious educators and teachers of literature on the way in which narrative functions. Adolescent needs and problems are surveyed and the fitting role of narrative to meet these concerns is outlined.

A ministry is designed to use the strengths of narrative in a way which is compatible with this theological foundation. The effectiveness of narrative is tested in relation to the regular Bible classes.