Practical Theology Commons^™

A Lay Mobilization Program For The Seventh-Day Adventist Church In Zimbabwe, Cuthbert Machamire

Professional Dissertations DMin

Problem

The church in Zimbabwe involves lay people in ministry, but the proportion of people involved is small compared to the total membership of the church. Further, while the church believes in the biblical teaching on spiritual gifts, this concept is not given enough emphasis in enlisting members for ministry. This results in some members experiencing frustration as they serve in ministries for which they are not gifted. Others stay uninvolved either because they are not personally invited to take part, or because they do not find a ministry in the church that matches their gifts.

Method

In this dissertation, …

Church Planting To Reach Postmodern Generations: Launching A New Church In Winnipeg, Manitoba, Jeffrey T. Potts

Professional Dissertations DMin

Problem

The Henderson Highway Seventh-day Adventist Church in Winnipeg, Manitoba, was failing to attract unchurched young adults (ages 18-35). Many of the young adults who had grown up in the church were lapsing into irregular worship attendance. Attempts were made to help the congregation become more relevant to postmodern generations. However, these attempts failed to create a church environment that truly engaged young adults.

Method

Under the direction of its senior pastor, the Henderson Highway Church decided to plant a new congregation to reach unchurched young adults. The church was designed to be relevant to the postmodern context. Launched at …

Creating A Relational Model Of Evangelism In The Texas Conference, John L. Dubosque Jr.

Professional Dissertations DMin

Problem

Seventh-day Adventist evangelism has attracted fewer postmodern Generations X and Y persons in the recent past due to a lack of understanding subgroup culture and the church’s tendency to accommodate only didactic preaching in a public evangelistic series. Complicating transformation are some Builders and Boomers who are resistive of the needed deep changes in public evangelism ministry which includes small groups. Researched principles that could readily be applied without alienating the older generations had to be field tested in six evangelistic campaigns in order to determine if success could be obtained in reaching Generations X and Y.

Method

Three …

An Investigation Of Mentoring Preference Of Employees At The Adventist Information Ministry And Implications For Empowerment, Christopher Vernon Fritz

Professional Dissertations DMin

Problem

Customer Service Representatives at the Adventist Information Ministry (AIM), the call center for the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventist Church media ministries on the campus of Andrews University in Michigan, have a passion for ministry but lack mentoring models to make their ministry effective. There is a great need to understand mentoring models operational at AIM and to develop a master plan for mentoring and empowering employees at Adventist Information Ministry.

Method

The purpose of this study was to discover the mentoring styles preferred by employees within the Seventh-day Adventist community of faith working at Adventist Information Ministry …

Spiritual Coaching: Helping People Develop And Implement Their Own Growth Strategies, Jenny E. Mcbride

Professional Dissertations DMin

Problem

In spite of a plethora of discipleship programs and good preaching, the church in general has failed to empower believers who consistently re-present Jesus and His ministry in the earth today; nor are they reproducing other disciples. The limiting factor appears to be internal fears and beliefs within the disciples, rather than a lack of knowledge or skills. A more effective disciple making process whereby both pastors and congregants can move people of varying levels of maturity, knowledge and experience toward God is imperative if the church is to fulfill the Great Commission to “go and make disciples.”

Method …

Programa De Formación Espiritual Para La Preparación De Líderes En Universidades Adventistas, Walter Alana

Professional Dissertations DMin

Problem

The Theological Seminary of the Adventist Technological Institute of Ecuador (ITSAE) provides a practical theoretical education to its students. Its fundamental purpose is to produce spiritual leaders that might appropriately cope with the different ecclesiastical challenges they may find in the field, once their career is completed. To accomplish this goal, students visit the local churches on weekly bases to integrate theory and praxis and to develop their leadership skills in a progressive way. Preliminary observations suggest that in spite of students accomplishing the assigned hours of their pre-professional practicum in different local churches, they have difficulty understanding how …

Recruiting And Equipping Postmodern Immigrant Youth Preachers In Emmaus, Christian Fellowship, And Community Tabernacle Seventh-Day Adventist Churches, Anthony L. Usher

Professional Dissertations DMin

After spending over six years at Emmaus SDA church, on January 1, 2004, the author was assigned to Christian Fellowship SDA Church and Community Tabernacle Mission. He observed that the fierce shifting winds of postmodernism have fueled the retardation of youth evangelism. If the trajectory of this dreaded trend goes unchecked, youth preaching in these churches will spiral downward into the obscure corridors of oblivion. A relevant profile, as well as a specific demographic composition of all three congregations, enhanced the development of an empowering argument that potentially could reverse the momentum of this encroaching tide back to God’s side. …

Curso Introductorio Para La Educación Integral De Maestros Y Funcionarios De La Universidad Adventista De Colombia, Gamaliel Florez

Professional Dissertations DMin

The Colombia Adventist University, UNAC, is an institution of higher education that belongs to the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. The philosophy of the institution comes from both the Bible and the writings of Ellen White, cofounder and ideologist of the Seventh-Day Adventist education. UNAC expects that its instructors develop their teaching work inspired and based on a deep knowledge of this philosophy. Due to its philosophical position, UNAC aims to educate students in all of the Human Being aspects: spiritual, intellectual, physical and social. These aspects are denominated by Adventists as holistic education.

In this paper, a bibliographical research was done …

Strategies Of Team Formation In A Multi-Staffed Church, Larry C. Becker

Professional Dissertations DMin

Problem

This project sought factors that bring about the formation of pastoral teams.

Method

Methods included the study of current literature, testing a hypothesis, administering a self-developed survey with pastoral teams in the Southeastern California Conference of Seventh day Adventists, and work with the Redlands Seventh-day Adventist Church pastoral team. Data was gathered from 30 churches, totaling 77 pastors and results were tabulated with SPSS software.

Results

Analysis of the teams in the main cohort and Redlands revealed both support for the hypothesis and factors of team formation. These pastoral teams formed in a culture, in relationship, with trust, mutual …

An Evaluation Of The Implementation Of Natural Church Development Within Seventh-Day Adventist Churches In The United States And The Resulting Church Growth, Rodney Jon Mills

Professional Dissertations DMin

The Problem

Natural Church Development (NCD) is a church health paradigm that is being used in Seventh-day Adventist churches across the United States as a tool for increasing both church health and growth. One question that needs to be addressed is whether the implementation of NCD within Seventh-day Adventist churches results in church growth.

The Purpose

The purpose of this dissertation is to establish a validation of the NCD process by evaluating the church growth experienced at the Milwaukee Central Seventh-day Adventist Church and compare that growth with Seventh-day Adventist churches across the United States which have participated in taking …

How To Have A Christ-Centered Youth Ministry In A Small Church Using Mentoring, Missions And Meetings, Kris R. Eckenroth

Professional Dissertations DMin

Problem

As of 2005, there was only one Seventh-day Adventist church within the Pennsylvania Conference that was providing consistent youth ministry. Many of the churches have seemed to have had difficulty finding individuals who have both the experience and the necessary training to lead a local church youth program. Due to the absence of local church youth ministry, the needs of the youth are being unmet and many are leaving the church.

Method

The method used to address this problem began in 2005. Training sessions were provided to potential leaders within the churches in the Pennsylvania Conference. There were five …

Encouraging Hispanic Fathers To Become More Effectively Involved In Their Children's Lives, Enoch Aguilar

Professional Dissertations DMin

Problem

When Hispanic people immigrate to the United States, they come with their own traditions, ideas, and values. Many of these values and teachings are different from North American values, however, each system strives to achieve similar goals in forming functional families. Many of these values conflict with traditional North American values. This natural conflict can make the transition from their native countries to the United States difficult, especially when analyzing the different ways each country’s government intervenes on behalf of children. If parents are unable to modify the social norms of their native country to allow the child to …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Summer Day Camp In The Local Church As An Opportunity To Encourage Youth In Their Spiritual Growth, Church Identity, And Service, Michael J. Stevenson

Professional Dissertations DMin

Problem

Large amounts of time and effort are expended by youth directors in providing camp related opportunities for employment. It is widely hoped by these youth directors that the experience of being a camp staff person will increase spirituality among the staff, that it will strengthen their identification with the Seventh-day Adventist church, and that, in the future, these same staff members will desire more opportunities to serve in the mission of the church. The purpose of this project is to qualitatively study whether staff are affected positively or negatively in the ways mentioned above, by being staff members of …

A Discipleship Model "Go And Make Disciples" For The Hispanic Hoover Seventh-Day Adventist Church In Alabama, Ezequiel Osorio

Professional Dissertations DMin

Statement of the Problem

The concept of discipleship is not well understood in Christendom including in the SDA church. Many churches are adding new converts to their membership, but these new converts are not being trained and equipped to become true disciples. This phenomenon is having effect in the Hoover Hispanic Seventh-day Adventist Church (HHSDA)1. A better understanding of the discipleship concept is necessary, for that reason, a discipleship seminar named “Go and Make Disciples” was created for the members at HHSDA.

Method

A seminar method was used in this project. The researcher used the sanctuary of the HHSDA church …

A Description And Analysis Of The Implementation Of A Strategic Leadership Team In The Oerlikon Sda Church, Paul N.T. Wright

Professional Dissertations DMin

Problem

The Oerlikon Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church in a suburb of Zurich, Switzerland declined from a total of 204 members in 1975 to 103 members at the end of 2008. This represents a membership loss of nearly fifty percent in thirty years. It is a hypothesis of this paper that a lack of strategic leadership at local church level is one reason for this decline. The task of this paper is to describe and evaluate a Strategic Leadership Team which came into existence in 2006 as a means of promoting growth in that local church.

Methods

The project begins by …

Bringing Home Our Adventist Prodigals: A Strategic Plan To Reclaim Youth In The Trans-European Division, Paul David Tompkins

Professional Dissertations DMin

Problem

The Seventh-day Adventist church is losing far too many of its young people. This trend is hurting the world-wide church, the local congregation, and individual families. Yet very little is being done about it! The purpose of this study is to address this issue and to specifically formulate a Strategic Plan for reclaiming inactive youth in the Trans-European Division (TED).

Method

The TED territory is extensive, covering over thirty-five countries, therefore, a local pilot project was conducted. This involved identifying young people who the local church listed as inactive, or non-attending, and then contacting them with a questionnaire as …