Professional Dissertations DMin

Date of Award

1999

Document Type

Project Report

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry

College

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Program

Doctor of Ministry DMin

First Advisor

Nancy J. Vyhmeister

Second Advisor

Bruce Bauer

Third Advisor

Jon Dybdahl

Abstract

Problem

Although the Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA) in Kenya has about 500,000 believers, most of the literature read and used by its members was originally written by Christians from the West. This study identifies some of the problems caused by the lack of African Adventist writers producing acceptable African Adventist literature for Adventist members and other Africans in Kenya, and points the way toward positive measures to remedy the situation.

Method

In order to design an appropriate program to recruit and develop African Seventh-day Adventist writers in Kenya, an attempt is made to examine the kind of literature needed and acceptable to the African mind. Also, an attempt is made to identify the need for African Adventist writers and the challenge of finding them. Then in response to the lack of African Adventist writers, who are able to produce needed and acceptable African Adventist literature, a practical strategy for recruiting and developing them is presented. This strategy covers the long-term goals and the goals for the first two years and then presents a plan for the implementation of the program. The implementation plan includes a proper use of communication methods, assigned responsibilities, workshops, the editorial process, printing and distribution, and lastly the evaluation of the program.

Results

The study shows that presently, the Kenyan SDA church needs to recruit and develop African Seventh-day Adventist writers to produce needed and acceptable African Adventist literature. The literature must be culturally relevant, written in understandable language, and acceptable to Kenyan Africans for use in Christian nurture and evangelism. The literature produced must also be marketable at a reasonable price. A major problem facing the SDA Church in Kenya is a lack of African Seventh-day Adventist writers. Several factors have contributed to this. First, there is a tradition of oral literature that is difficult to overcome and replace with written literature. Furthermore, the potential of the would be writers is not recognized. Also, writers are not intentionally trained by the church and enabled to write. Those writers who try to write on their own do not benefit financially, and, as a result, do not continue submitting needed manuscripts. The greatest need, therefore, is for the SDA Church in Kenya to have a planned and funded program to recruit and train African SDA writers who will produce literature that will help African Adventist members become faithful Christians within their own culture.

Conclusion

The East African Union has begun implementing some of the program's recommendations. It is hoped that the union will witness significant success in evangelism and Christian nurture, by using literature developed through this program.

Subject Area

Religious literature|xAuthorship; Authors, African; Seventh-day Adventists|zAfrica, East

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/345/

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