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

Ramon Canals

Second Advisor

Anthony Oucharek

Third Advisor

Manuel Moral

Abstract

Problem.

One of the challenges of a multi-church district is that the pastor cannot preach at each church, each Sabbath. The Spanish district of Tri-City is comprised of three churches (Pasco/Kennewick/Richland). Some elders are reluctant to speak when the pastor is absent at one of these three churches. In addition, my preliminary research shows that attendance is lower at these churches when the pastor is absent. The reason for this absenteeism, according to some members, is poor preaching. Accordingly, the challenge is to develop qualified preachers who can preach at those churches within the district when the pastor is absent.

Method.

Three training seminars in the theory and practice of preaching were given in the Spanish District of Tri-City. The first one was for the whole district; it took place in the Spanish church of Pasco. The second one was given in the Spanish company of Richland. Finally, the third one was led in the Spanish church of Kennewick.

Results.

As a result of this training seminar, eleven church members graduated and are now active in the preaching roll of their churches. Consequently, now it is much easier to make the preaching roll for the District of Tri-City in the Upper Columbia Conference. In addition to that, now these churches have new leaders, more spiritual gifts are being employed, and other church members are being inspired to serve the Lord. Indeed, the pastor experiences great relief when he is absent for fulfilling his duties in other congregations and each local church is now better fed.

Conclusions.

Bringing the seminar to each church was more beneficial than having only one class for the whole district, hence more people were reached. Interestingly enough, newly church members were more willing to learn and to be evaluated than old ones. Besides, five out of 11 graduates were women. Although it is true that the number of male participants was greater, it is also true that in the last two sessions, the number of female participants was greater than males. In addition to that, five out of 11 of these preachers were new preachers.

Subject Area

Lay preaching; Laity--Training of; Preaching; Upper Columbia Conference of Seventh-day Adventists; General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. North American Division. North Pacific Union Conference. Upper Columbia Conference.

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/280/

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