Nurturing newly converted members in the Airport District of the Seventh-Day adventist Church in Kumasi, Ghana

Abstract

The study is aimed at nurturing newly converted members in the Seventh-day Adventist church in Kumasi. The idea of nurturing was nurtured by the author after observing carefully how many new converts become inactive or drop out completely from the church shortly after they have joined the church. The research was done at the Airport district of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Kumasi, Ghana with special emphasis on the two newly established churches of North River and Emmanuel Seventh-day Adventist churches. A survey was conducted to ascertain the reasons of new members leaving the church shortly after conversion. A program was developed and implemented and the results analyzed. It was ascertained that after a year’s implementation of the program the inactive and dropout rate of new members had dropped considerably for the whole district. But with the two newly established churches of North River and Emmanuel the inactive and dropout rate had dropped from 54.3% and 60% respectively to zero percent for both churches. The study revealed that with proper nurturing programs put in place in the churches, many of the new members will be retained as against the current trend of losing more members than those who stay.