Professional Dissertations DMin

Date of Award

2014

Document Type

Project Report

Degree Name

D.Min.

College

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

First Advisor

Nancy Vyhmeister

Second Advisor

Bruce Bauer

Third Advisor

Wagner Kuhn

Abstract

Problem

The 1992 Annual Council of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists noted that "too often Adventist students on public campuses feel like second-class citizens; not only do they not fit in with the lifestyle of their secular campus, but the local church often ignores their needs, sometimes overtly suggesting that they are inferior to students who have chosen an Adventist education" (General Conference, 2005, p. 250). Kisii University serves as an example of a public university with low participation in spiritual activities by students from an Adventist background.

Method

A critical analysis of Bible texts on involvement of young people in ministry, a review of Ellen White’s writings concerning young people's participation in ministry, Seventh-day Adventist literature, and other Christian writers were consulted and the political, cultural, and religious background of the location of the project was described. A Gantt chart and logical framework approach was used to organize the project and describe the linkage of activities in the development and implementation of the project. The project implementation involved conducting a survey, developing a training curriculum on spiritual gift-based ministries, conducting the training, and monitoring and evaluation.

Results

The Kisii University Church experienced a tremendous increase in the number of students attending meetings, growing from 300 to 600 (100% increase) as witnessed during Sabbath services. During special meetings such as choir days the number went up to between 800 and 1,000.

Conclusions

Effective campus ministries extended to public universities for students from a Seventh-day Adventist background will create a vibrant presence of Adventism in secular universities. Establishing such a ministry in every public university will be a step forward in reaching out to thousands of Adventist students in those institutions.

Subject Area

Seventh-day Adventist youth---Kenya--Religious life, Church work with students--Seventh-day Adventists, Church work with youth--Seventh-day Adventists, Kisii University

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/260/

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