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Enhancing the Spirituality of Adventist Children for Mission Involvement in the Church at Tano North District, Ghana
(Adventist University of Africa, 2016-06) Mensah, Eric Aborampah
There is an untold concern regarding the involvement of children in the life of the church for mission. The children are almost one-third of the church’s population and even the society and when their spirituality is enhanced their involvement in the mission of the church would be certain and embraced as their lifestyle. Incontrovertibly, not involving them in the mission of the church is affecting them morally and spiritually as they grow. It is, therefore, the purpose of this project to develop and implement a biblical and theological based strategy to addresses this menace. In correlation with the baseline data gathered, relevant literature was consulted. Other forms of research which included both qualitative and quantitative approaches which involved key informants interview, focus group discussion and administering of questionnaires, were employed to authenticate the possibility of involving children in the church’s mission. The findings of the survey conducted in the four selected churches in Tano North District of Seventh-day Adventist Church were analyzed. The result of findings contributed in designing various interventions in the churches to enhance the mission involvement of children in the church. Revivals, sermons, retreat—Vacation Bible School (VBS), workshops and seminars were embraced to respond to the needs discovered. At the end of the post-implementation period of the intervention, it was evident that the spiritual life of the children was enhanced for mission involvement in the life of the church. The churches instituted a Preaching and Witnessing School for the training of more children in mission work. This was to ensure that the involvement of children is sustainable. The implementation of the interventions demonstrated the significance of involving the children in the mission of the church. The church leadership has come to appreciate the significance of children in the eyes of God and as the bedrock of the church. Therefore, the parents, the church and children’s ministries coordinators, have embraced the interventions to involve the children to build a hopeful generation of a mission-driven church.
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Strategy for Adopting Servant Leadership Practices by the Local Church Elders in the Greater Equatoria Field
(Adventist University of Africa, 2016-08) Mawa, Clement Joseph Arkangelo
This study was envisaged to help local church elders to adopt servant leadership as their primary style of leadership. They adopt this by implementing clearly identified practices of servant leadership. The initial observation indicated that local church elders in Greater Equatoria Field of the Seventh-day Adventist Church were not practicing servant leadership. The study of the lives of selected biblical characters demonstrate that servant leadership is biblical, although Robert K. Greenleaf is credited for coining the phrase “servant leadership” as well as popularizing it as a style of leadership. The literature review indicates that servant leadership is popular in secular circles and among religious groups. The Seventh-day Adventist Church encourages its practice. This style of leadership is defined as the leader putting the interests of the led above his/her personal interest. It occurs when the actions of a leader make the followers wiser, freer, healthier, more autonomous and more likely themselves to become servant leaders. Therefore, this study presents ten practices that were drawn from the literature review. The initial survey that used both the qualitative and quantitative (mixed/blended) methods revealed that there was a need to train elders in the servant leadership practices that were identified, although there was evidence that these elders were perceived to be already practicing some of these practices. Seminars were conducted for twenty hours in each of the four churches. After elders were trained, they implemented what they had learnt for three months or more. A final evaluation was conducted in two of the four churches that participated in the implementation of servant leadership practices. The evaluation was done using qualitative research method. The results were presented through a narrative inquiry. For the duration of the implementation, eight (80%) of the ten elders evaluated implemented two (20%) of the ten practices identified. Most have implemented vision casting and the church as a center of healing. The result of the evaluation exceeded expectation as indicated in the logical framework. It was expected that six (60%) of the elders evaluated would have practiced one (10%) of the ten servant leadership practices identified. The elders expect further training in these areas. It is the intention of the researcher to transform the seminars into a handbook called The Elders’ Handbook on Servant Leadership. This handbook may be used in the future for training as other trainers are developed.
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A Biblical and Missiological Approach to Discipling Muslim Background Believers in Northern Nigeria
(Adventist University of Africa, 2016-09) Maviah, Ibrahim D.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church was established in northern Nigeria in the 1930s. To-date, the church has grown to a Union Conference of three local Conferences with a total membership of about 39,984 members. In over 80 years of the church’s existence in the north, converts from a Muslim background in the church today still compose less than 0.07% of the total membership. Having served as the Adventist-Muslim Relations Coordinator for three years, it is evident from my experience that the church passionately desires for the conversion and spiritual nurture of Muslims; yet, the active involvement of membership and the achieved results are regrettably below expectations. Over the years, the few converts from Islam that were accommodated in the homes of either pastors or members turned to be a burden to them and to the churches. It is also very unfortunate to hear that some of the converts robbed the churches or families where they were accommodated and ran away. These kinds of experiences raise suspicions, affect mutual relationships, and kill the spirit of witnessing. This dissertation studied the challenges of discipling converts from Muslim religious backgrounds and developed, implemented and evaluated a process for empowering church members to disciple MBBs in a way that will maximize their retention in the church. The study first established a theological foundation for discipling the MBBs. Beginning from the last command of Jesus to his disciples that required them to make disciples of all nations, the study described who a disciple is and what is discipleship. Moreover, reaching all nations entails transcending cultural and language barriers, contextualizing the message become inevitable. Hence, the study defined and provided a biblical basis for contextualization. The study researched literatures to glean what Missiologists and others have said and done in regard to MBBs discipleship. Bevans, Hiebert, and Travis models of contextualization were studied. The two outstanding approaches that are experimented by many in discipling MBBs are Extractionism and FDIC (Insider) methods. However, the form, nature, and extent to which these contextualization approaches are to be done has remained a point of debate. This study agreed with the extraction approach because it is more biblical. In order to increase the retention of the very few converts from Islam, it was necessary to discover the challenges that such converts are faced with and possible factors that give rise to backsliding among them. The study designed survey instruments and gathered information from well informed individuals. It was revealed by the surveys that: The MBBs faced real challenges; The The church needs an MBBs discipleship ministry; Relevant discipleship materials and frequent training are necessary, and there is a need for MBBs empowerment. On the basis of the foregoing findings, the study designed and implemented the following interventions. First, awareness-creating and motivational workshops and seminars were held. Second, a special MBBs discipleship ministry was formed, trained and equipped in the local church. Third, an empowerment scheme for helping the convert to become self-reliant was to be put in place. Fourth, a discipleship manual is developed and members are motivated and trained to disciple MBBs. This project has started well. When this ministry survives and is replicated in all the churches in northern Nigeria, it is potentially going to increase the overall retention of the MBBs.MBBs are better nurtured individually; The Church does not have ongoing Discipleship programs for MBBs;
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A Strategy to Improve Pastoral Leadership and Ministry in Selected Sections of Uganda Union Mission
(Adventist University of Africa, 2017-02) Martson, Daniel Matte
Uganda Union has had a challenge of receiving accurate and regular reports from its Mission Fields. When follow-up is made with the fields, the response received is that few or no reports had been obtained from the districts. It seems there are some factors responsible for this situation in the districts and perhaps local church officers are not adequately trained to meaningfully participate in local Church ministries and make activity reports to give to their pastors. There is need to do a study on this phenomenon so that the overall pastoral leadership and ministry in the districts would be improved. The purpose of this dissertation was to develop and implement a pastors’ professional growth program in order to help improve the overall pastoral leadership and ministry in Uganda Union. This intervention should be helpful in improving the performance of ministers including the training and reporting responsibilities. This study was a field based research project, and it is quantitative in nature. Three questionnaires were employed to collect data from the targeted respondents who were the district pastors organized into six groups of fifteen respondents per group. The first questionnaire was aimed at evaluating the ministerial qualities and duties of the respondents. The purpose of this instrument was to analyze the minister’s church leadership and management styles and input on key ministerial duties which significantly affect the quality of ministry in the local churches. This was aimed at assessing the strengths, weaknesses and gaps in the overall pastoral ministry in Uganda Union Mission. Furthermore, this tool also sought to assess the spirituality of the ministers involved in this study to find out if there were some spiritual factors among ministers affecting ministry. The second questionnaire was used to assess the qualities of local Church ministries from the perspective of the respondent ministers. This sought to find out if there were correlations with the findings from the first questionnaire. The third questionnaire was a ministers’ appraisal instrument filled by an administrator. This was used to find out the known competences, strengths and weaknesses of the participants of this study from an administrative perspective. It was deemed that this threefold survey would provide a fair picture of the quality of pastoral ministry and leadership at the time this study was carried out. The collected data was statically tabulated using the Microsoft Excel program. Descriptive and quantitative research methods were employed to analyze, and interpret the collected data to determine the intensity of opinions and levels of agreement among respondents to arrive at the indicative means. Findings indicated that pastoral ministry was underperforming in the areas of leadership and Church management, teaching and training, pastoral care and nurture and the area of evangelism and church growth. These findings point to inadequate professional performance among the respondents of this study. There is need to continue with annual evaluations and appraisals, hold regular ministers’ professional growth seminars and step up mentoring efforts to help the respondents of this study raise their performance levels in the process of improving the overall performance of the Church in Uganda Union Mission.
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A Strategy to Minimize Marital Infidelity Among Seventh-day Adventist Church Members in the Gweru Urban Territory, Zimbabwe.
(Adventist University of Africa, 2017-02) Manyakara, Jotham Haurovi
The talk about marital infidelity among members of God’s church, the unhappiness that infidelity causes in the families and the damage that infidelity causes to the reputation and credibility of the church calls for a study of unfaithfulness in marriage as a way of trying to minimize its occurrence in the church. The study was meant to establish the prevalence, causes and impact of marital infidelity in the church and to design and implement a program that would work to minimize infidelity among members of the church. The method that was used in carrying out the research was the mixed method approach that uses both qualitative and quantitative methods. The qualitative aspect of the research utilized focus group discussions and the quantitative aspect used questionnaires as the means to collect data. Three churches were selected for the research. The churches belonged to the same church district with the same pastor. Focus groups were established in each of the three churches and each group had nine members. A total of 75 questionnaires were distributed in the three churches with each church getting 25 sets. The two instruments used showed that infidelity was indeed taking place among church members. A program was designed and implemented to minimize infidelity among members of the church. After the implementation of the program, focus group discussions were held and a questionnaire was distributed in the three selected churches to determine whether the program had helped in curbing infidelity. Indications from the instruments were that some positive outcomes were realized. The conclusions made from the study were that infidelity was taking place in the churches. It was also established that the designed and implemented program was able to help some members to change their attitude towards infidelity and to re-commit themselves to marital fidelity. It is to be realized that working to minimize infidelity should be ongoing rather than it to be an event in the church.