Professional Dissertations DMin

Date of Award

2014

Document Type

Project Report

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry

College

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Program

Doctor of Ministry DMin

First Advisor

Ricardo Norton

Second Advisor

Enoc Marquez

Third Advisor

Manuel Moral

Abstract

Problem. The South Colombian Union (SCU) was established in 2010. Because of its recent organization, the Union does not have a well-organized lay training program, to fulfill its mission. The formation of a lay training school will greatly contribute with the formation of new leaders, as well with the dissemination of the gospel in the region.

Methodology. This research begins with a theological study related to the training of laity for evangelism, followed by a review of current literature on training lay people for ministry. To meet the goal to train lay leaders’ for ministry, the SCU adopted, contextualized, and implemented the Andrews University Lay Training Program: Lay Adventist Seminary (LAS).

Results. The Lay Training School was successfully implemented in three strategic conferences of the SCU. Over 300 lay members were recruited and trained; however, only 231 participants satisfactorily completed all program requirements. Graduates invested, in 2012, a monthly average of 10 hours witnessing and leading non-Adventists to Christ. At the end of the year, participants reported a total of 186 baptisms, surpassing the expectations projected by the participating conferences.

Conclusions. The Lord commissioned His disciples to make disciples of all nations; a challenging task, considering the low number of the church members currently involved in witnessing. Pastoral care is important but not enough to reach communities with the Adventist message. With their efforts, alone, pastors will not be able to fulfill Christ`s mandate. This Project reveled that involving more lay members in witnessing, it is necessary for local churches, conferences, and unions to invest human and financial means to instruct, equip, mobilize and motivate members for ministry. The adoption of the curriculum and the training system of the Lay Adventist Seminary, proved to be an effective and practical tool to train lay member for ministry. Due to the success of this training school, the SCU continues to train lay members in the other ministerial areas.

Subject Area

Laity--Training of, Laity--Seventh-day Adventists

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/dmin/10/

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