Professional Dissertations DMin

Date of Award

1993

Document Type

Project Report

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry

College

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Program

Doctor of Ministry DMin

First Advisor

John Duge

Second Advisor

Raymond C. Holmes

Third Advisor

Miroslav M. Kis

Abstract

The purpose of this project was to develop and present a seminar on the role of the doctrine of health in the message and mission of the Seventh-day Adventist church.

The historical development of the Seventh-day Adventist doctrines of health was studied to discover which biblical concepts have been used to support the doctrine of health. Then a six-session seminar entitled "Putting the Good News! Back into Health!" was developed. Seminar materials included scripts, participant magazines, pre-and-post-evaluative instruments, overhead transparencies, and advertising information.

The seminar was presented in the New Port Richey, Florida, Seventh-day Adventist church, Sabbath and Wednesday evenings, from October 28 to November 14, 1992. Attendance averaged fifty-two persons per night. Twenty-five matched entry/exit tests were obtained. Cross-tab tables were generated which indicated positive movement toward better health habits and attitudes in several of the areas covered by the seminar.

The evaluative instrument results suggest that the seminar succeeded in imparting spiritual motivations for healthful living. I personally felt enriched by this study of the doctrine of health. The seminar met a need for teaching materials concerning health and spirituality. After further revision and testing the seminar could be made available to other churches.

Recommendations include developing a comprehensive theology of health, further study of Ellen White's philosophy of healthful living, a survey of motivation for healthful living among Adventists, research studies into the relationship between healthful living and spirituality, and further study of the ethical implications of the doctrine of health. Dialogue should also be initiated with other Christians working in the wholistic heal field.

Research for the project revealed fundamental differences between a biblically based wholistic health philosophy and holistic health concepts based upon New Age or Eastern religious philosophies. It was suggested that the Seventh-day Adventist church can preserve the unique identity of its health message only by retaining the message's biblical foundation.

Subject Area

Health--Religious aspects--Seventh-day Adventists, Health--Biblical teaching

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/179/

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