Professional Dissertations DMin

Date of Award

2012

Document Type

Project Report

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry

College

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Program

Doctor of Ministry DMin

First Advisor

Donald C. James

Second Advisor

James J. North, Jr.

Third Advisor

Richard Sylvester

Abstract

Problem. The numeric growth of the Denver Korean Seventh-day Adventist Church has been stagnant at best for the last seven years (1997-2004), with an annual growth rate of about 3 percent during this period. Yet, during this same period the Korean immigrant population in the city of Denver has grown to approximately 20,000; thus, the church is failing to reach a growing target population. A primary contributing factor to this lack of numeric growth seems to be the church’s reliance on the pastor to do all of the evangelistic work. And the lay leaders were not properly equipped and trained biblically to do the ministry of God’s church.

Method. With the help of biblical, theological resources and other literature, the programs and strategies which currently are being employed by other churches to equip and disciple the laity for the church growth were thoroughly reviewed. Christ’s method was specially examined in detail. Data about the stagnant stage of the Denver Korean Seventh-day Adventist Church is provided to search for solutions. A strategic discipleship training program for the Denver Korean Seventh-day Adventist Church was developed to equip and train the laity for their spiritual growth as well as numeric church growth by becoming the disciplers.

Results. In implementing these strategies, there were more positive outcomes than I ever could have imagined. First, the lay leaders were trained. Second, the feeling of alienation as immigrants in America was removed and God provided a sense of belonging for the members of the Denver Korean Seventh-day Adventist Church. Third, the church began growing. Fourth, the church grew in finance. Fifth, the Denver Korean Seventh-day Adventist Church became a role model of training the laity, evangelism, and church growth to the 120 Korean immigrant churches in North America. Sixth, the Denver Korean Seventh-day Adventist Church started serving nationwide in America.

Conclusion. This project provides a correct biblical concept of the role of pastors, members, and churches. It also helps pastors of Korean immigrant churches in the United States to develop leadership and equipping skills. This project will advance the numeric kingdom growth of the Denver Korean SDA Church and will further provide potential strategies that other Korean immigrant pastors can apply to their churches to grow numerically by discipleship training. The outcome of this project will potentially help churches in the Korea Union Conference (in Korea) and the approximate 120 Korean immigrant churches in the North American Division to attain numeric church growth through the implementation of this equipping strategy of biblical discipleship training to accomplish the great commission.

Subject Area

Church growth--Seventh-day Adventists, Church growth--Colorado--Denver

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/126/

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