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

Nancy Vyhmeister

Second Advisor

Bruce L. Bauer

Third Advisor

Wagner Kuhn

Abstract

Problem

Imeyomwana (a heresy involving the concept of what it means to be in Christ), a group of former Adventists, is causing problems in the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Nyangweta district of the South Kenya Conference. Many of their teachings contradict those of the Seventh-day Adventists Church and many members are apostatizing to this group.

Method

To deal with the heresy I employed a two-pronged strategy. On one hand I sought to enter a dialogue with those involved in Imeyomwana, while on the other hand I confronted the false teaching with biblical truth. This strategy employed two powerful planning tools, the Logframe and the Gantt chart.

Results

The project was successful. This is according to the support group members and church elders who were unanimous in their verdict that the project so far had achieved its objectives. In a score ranging between 0to10 they gave an average score of 9.34. The project objectives were also achieved. The objectives included establishing the extent of the heretical group’s influence, developing a biblical intervention, training a support group, sensitizing church members, and reaching out to the members in Imeyomwana. All these items received a score of at least nine.

Conclusions

The results of this project may not be fully realized in the short term. Most of those involved have drunk deeply from the heresy and realizing a complete change in their beliefs is not an overnight affair. Patience and persistence is required. As they hear the truth they will be convicted by it and they will come back to church. The groundwork for the conversion of the Imeyomwana members has been laid. In-Christ materials and other materials answering issues raised by them have been distributed and are in the hands of church members. Evangelistic campaigns geared towards indirectly answering their concerns have been conducted and more evangelistic campaigns have been arranged by various churches. With time I believe the truth will prevail.

Subject Area

Christian heresies--Kenya, Imeyomwana (Heresy), Kenya--Religion, Seventh-day Adventists--Kenya

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/259/

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