Perceptions and Challenges of Church Records Management among Seventh-day Adventist Pastors in Africa

Abstract

The membership of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Africa is estimated to constitute the highest as compared to other regions of the world. This may have been enhanced by factors such as the high receptibility of its message on the continent. The amount of membership that the church holds in Africa has corresponding implication on the volume of records that its clergy and other record managers’ process. However, there are concerns about the dependability of some of these records and how they impact the global church statistics and decisions. The reliability of church records could be influenced by the perceptions and certain challenges of the records creators and managers. Therefore, this paper, using an empirical research method, investigated the perceptions and challenges of church records management among pastors of the church on the continent. The return rate of the survey was 56.22 percent. The study found that the respondents have good perception of records and the role they play in organizational efficiency. Some challenges such as lack of disaster-preparedness, inadequate funding, lack of personnel training, unavailability and or/or inadequate organizational policies on records, and inadequacy of storage facilities were identified. Therefore, it was recommended that the organizations of the respondents should address these issues for effective and efficient records management.