A strategy to Revitalize literature evangelism in Kampala zone, Central Uganda Conference

Abstract

Literature evangelism is a ministry established in the Seventh-day Adventist church right from the inception of this church by the church founders like James and Ellen G. White. It is the work which facilitated not only their survival but acted as a wedge for penetrating the gospel near and far places. Over 28 countries bear records of people who have received the gospel first through the spread of the printed pages by a literature evangelist. In Uganda, especially the Central region where Kampala, the capital city of the country is situated, literature evangelism started in the late 1960s but due to the ban of the church, which was instituted in 1978-1979, the work almost died out. Around early 1990s, literature evangelism was resurrected and a number of literature evangelists were recruited to join the ministry. In the early years of the 90s, the literature ministry had over 200 literature evangelists but in late 90s, the number of literature evangelists had dropped to less than 20. Currently the active literature evangelists are only 5 full time workers and 12 part-timers. This decline aroused the interest of the researcher to seek for the factors which have led to the decline in number and thereafter device a strategy for revitalizing the work. The researcher took samples by visiting some churches in Kampala zone and some institutions of higher learning to discover people’s attitudes towards this ministry and the responses were positive. It is the obligation of the leadership to recruit, train and deploy new literature evangelists in the field of distributing literature, evaluate and to motivate them. Once this work is revived, the church’s income shall increase due to increased sales from books as well as increased membership in the church resulting from conversions after reading these books.