Date of Award

2017

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

College

College of Education and International Services

Program

Leadership PhD

First Advisor

Sylvia Gonzalez

Second Advisor

Maximina Contreras Castro

Third Advisor

Guillermo Mamani Apaza

Abstract

Problem

The leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the North Union, in particular, in the West Central Peru Mission, have planned a series of activities to be conducted among Small Groups and also at the church level as part of the strategy of Communion, Relationship and Mission (CRM in Spanish). Nevertheless, it is not known the degree of influence of activities such as Bible reading, prayer, witnessing and a relationship with God in the level of fidelity towards the church among members of small groups that will increase their permanence in the church. Therefore, there was a need to study the behavior of the members of Small Groups that practice these activities, in order to have an idea of their level of fidelity towards the church.

Methodology

This research was descriptive and correlational. It was descriptive as it identified the levels of fidelity towards the church among members of Small Groups in relation to the variables. It is correlational as it allows to observe relations between the levels of fidelity towards the church and the elements of the CRM strategy.

The design was non-experimental, relational and transversal. It was non-experimental as the variables have not been manipulated; relational because it showed the possible relations between the variables and transversal because the information was acquired at one point in time. The sample consisted of 176 members that are active in Small Groups in the West Central Peru Mission.

The information was collected with a survey on fidelity towards the church and another survey of adherence to the Communion, Relationship and Mission strategy. Finally, the statistical linear regression model was applied to test the influence of the Communion, Relationship and Mission strategy on the level of fidelity towards the church among members of Small Groups.

Results

Results showed a significant relationship among the independent variables of the study, and the activities of the CRM strategy that predict the level of fidelity towards the church among members of Small Groups in the West Central Peru Mission. It was also found that the variable Communion had the greatest influence on the levels of fidelity towards the church, followed by Relationship and Mission.

The variables Activities of Small Groups and Spiritual Activities in Church are predictors of the fidelity towards the church among members of Small Groups, with an almost equal influence. Being responsible for a position in church increases the level of fidelity towards the church among members of Small Groups.

Subject Area

Small groups; Spiritual life--Seventh-day Adventists; Church membership; Seventh-day Adventists--Peru, West Central Peru Mission of Seventh-day Adventists

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/dissertations/1657

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