A Guide for Uncharted Territory: A Critical Analysis of Former President James Earl "Jimmy" Carter's Seven Pillar Methodology for Implementing Lasting, Measurable Change, as Set in Relationship to Jesus' Teachings of the Beatitudes, as Conveyed in the Gospel

The best way to know the future is to create it. - Einstein

The purpose of this dissertation is to show how and why President Carter's seven-factor methodology, which guides The Carter Center, is useful and effective as a roadmap for making positive, lasting, measurable change in uncharted territory, and to map this model against Jesus' Beatitudes. I hope to discover whether the model fulfills the Beatitudes, so that my reader may be equipped with a roadmap to follow Jesus.

I set Jesus in historical context, retelling briefly the story of the Bible leading up to Jesus' Sermon on the Mount as related in the Gospel of Matthew. I discuss the eight Beatitudes, analyzing them in both Hebrew and Greek, and touching on the Aramaic. I also set President Carter's life and work in context, and explain the seven-factor methodology that he taught me. Having discussed both the Beatitudes and the Seven Pillars, I examine whether and how they relate to each other; then I turn my attention to whether the methodology is useful for social entrepreneurs, asking the questions ?Does The Carter Center methodology work?? and ?Is it replicable?? Three methods of inquiry are used: the personal interview approach, appreciative inquiry, and a new tool. I use appreciative inquiry to analyze both The Carter Center and The Elfenworks Foundation for results and methods. Second, I query key transformative leaders identified by Elfenworks as visionaries through our In Harmony with HopeSM awards program. Finally, I seek to formally apply a new Seven Pillar tool, both looking backwards at eight of Elfenworks' historic projects and looking forward at five forthcoming projects for 2010-2011. Elfenworks' planned projects and rating results are included as appendices.

Please contact Dr. Judi Melton (Judi.Melton@bgu.edu) for a PDF of the whole dissertation