Professional Dissertations DMin

Date of Award

2017

Document Type

Project Report

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry

College

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Program

Doctor of Ministry DMin

First Advisor

Stanley E. Patterson

Second Advisor

S. Joseph Kidder

Third Advisor

Ricardo Norton

Abstract

Problem

Stone Mountain Seventh-day Adventist Church’s vision calls for a reiterative process of growing the worship attendance to 2,000 worshipers, then initiating a new church plant every four years. At the initiation of this project, Stone Mountain Church did not have the capacity to achieve its vision. Its facility could not accommodate 2,000 worshipers. There were insufficient leaders to minister to 2,000 people, neither was there adequate leadership to take the congregation through a facilities expansion process. The shortage of leaders precluded the vision of Stone Mountain Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Method

Bolman and Deal (2008) provide four approaches for engaging in leader development. Their structural, human resource, political and symbolic organizational lenses, recommended for understanding organizations, provided a multifaceted process. A structural intervention was attempted by changes in the leadership structure. Human resource activities engaged personal relationship building combined with coaching. Political improvements were sought by employing Lencioni’s (2000) model of developing a cohesive leadership team around seven points of organizational alignment. Symbolic shifts were tried through changes in the worship format, facilities renovation and theological clarity.

Results

Because of implemented leader development process, Stone Mountain Seventh-day Adventist Church has made observable moves toward its vision. Leader development has been successful in bringing the church to the threshold of a major expansion. The leader development process of this project has demonstrated its effectiveness as a means of moving the church forward.

Conclusion

The leader development process works. Further investment in leader development may help the church achieve its vision of planting a congregation of 500 worshipers every four years. Additional fulltime personnel will likely be required in order to further that task. Should an anticipated church merger be successful, leader development will be critical for the alignment of the two churches into a new congregation

Subject Area

Christian leadership; Stone Mountain Seventh-day Adventist Church (Stone Mountain, Ga.)

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/343/

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