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Browsing Doctoral Level by Author "Choga, Micah"

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    Contextualized Fundraising for Special Projects in Zone B Seventh-day Adventist Church, Zimbabwe
    (Adventist University of Africa, 2017-02) Choga, Micah
    Varied methods of raising resources for special projects are a challenge in the Central Zimbabwe Conference. As a result of such approaches, there have been delays in completion of these projects. Just as an example, the church under this research has been trying to come up with a building for the past twelve years yet, they are still at foundation level. This has been compounded by the growth rate of membership in the Union that averages 45,000 baptisms per annum in the past ten years making it difficult to cope with providing houses of worship for the expanding membership. This challenge motivated the researcher to provide a possible solution to the problem. The research method used was the qualitative approach with a focus group discussion. The focus group was composed of twelve members representative of the population under study. The Zone B church is composed of 345 baptized members. This study confirmed the existence of the varied approaches to raising resources for special projects as practiced by Zone B church. This was a church established in 2003 and acquired a piece of ground to build a church in 2004 and yet up to September 2016 the building was still at foundation level. The research established approximately eight similarities between giving in the Shona and Ndebele religious experiences, which are similar to giving from a biblical context. Giving under that context is done consciously and unconsciously. The major differences being that in the traditional belief, giving had one of its objectives as the appeasement of gods so that they would favor their subjects. Yet from a Biblical point of view, God does not need to be appeased. He already loves His people and, in return, they respond to such love. The study revealed that no emergency in the life of the church should be justification for raising resources through unbiblical means. Even during the building of the Sanctuary in Biblical Old Testament times, there was no manipulation for people to give to God; people were asked to bring freewill offerings according to what one had. One other component that was emphasized in the study was where raising resources for special projects presented an opportunity to raise member spirituality, which is essential to meaningful giving. Coming to the intervention, the researcher used the information acquired through both the theological and literature review and the focus group to address the challenge of varied methods of giving in zone B church. The results of the intervention were that out of the 37 small groups that were formed; sixteen met weekly as was suggested by the researcher. The number of members who give without having to wait for special programs and appeals rose from fifteen to 49 out of a membership of 345 within a period of three months. Therefore, it can be concluded that the intervention addressed the challenge of varied methods of raising resources for special projects in the Zone B church.