Professional Dissertations DMin

Date of Award

1978

Document Type

Project Report

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry

College

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Program

Doctor of Ministry DMin

First Advisor

Rudolf E. Klimes

Second Advisor

Arnold A. Kurtz

Third Advisor

Elden M. Chalmers

Abstract

Problem

In order for the Seventh-day Adventist church to accomplish fully its mission, the local church must be organized effectively to produce the results required by its mission. For this purpose, a conceptual model may be helpful. Until the present, no such model had been developed. The constant appearance of new techniques and processes in management call for development of instruments for evaluation by the church, and have at the same time raised the discipline to new heights of respectability. The question of the theology of the church is under study as never before. At least one Seventh-day Adventist theologian pointed to the need for continuing development of the church's ecclesiology. This project, then is a study undertaken for the purpose of developing a model of Seventh-day Adventist organization in the light of selected.literature in the fields of contemporary ecclesiology, organization, church administration and Seventh-day Adventist organizational history. Emphasis was given to the development of a denominationally-sponsored plan of organization for the local church with specific application to local church officer and member organization.

Method

The basic methodology employed was that of making an application of a select number of concepts to the situation in an effort to discover new or existing alternatives for local church organization. Ecclesiology, Seventh-day Adventist organizational history and business organization and management were selected to serve as data for the development of a model. ' It was then attempted to analyze the data examined in order to move towards the development of a model. Particular attention was paid to the matter of Seventh-day Adventist concepts of organization and management as seen in Adventist history during the years prior to and following the 1901 General Conference. Because of her role in Seventh-da}' Adventist history the views of Ellen G. White were dealt with.

Results

On the basis of the contextual study eight concepts were derived from ecclesiology. Sixteen concepts were derived from a comparison of Seventh-day Adventist organizational thought and organizational theory. On this basis a series of organizational postulates were developed, and on the basis of. these postulates a model was developed. An application was made to the local church situation using prescriptive guidelines and a hypothetical local church, the Logansport Seventh-day Adventist church, as an illustrative scenario.

Subject Area

Church management

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/431/

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