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

Russell Burrill

Second Advisor

Eduard Schmidt

Third Advisor

James Wibberding

Abstract

Problem

In my 16 years of ministry, in every location I have pastored, the church has struggled to connect with the surrounding community. In Calgary, there are 14 Seventh-day Adventist churches and companies. These churches have, on occasion, worked in unity for evangelism. However, according to several of the local pastors, that has not happened for over 10 years. If the churches in Calgary are to fulfill the Great Commission, an effective way of engaging the community is needed. Because the communities that surround churches are growing increasingly secular, comprehensive evangelistic strategies may be an effective way of reaching them. Unfortunately, over time, churches have become increasingly dependent on brochures, flyers, and social media for evangelistic outreach. This has resulted in less effectiveness in outreach because of a lack of true connection with the community. Comprehensive strategies in evangelism will increase connectivity with the community and provide opportunities for kingdom growth.

Method

An 18-month comprehensive evangelistic intervention was developed for the Calgary Metropolitan Area (CMA). It sought to develop effective strategies for connecting with the community. The intervention included training and active involvement of the membership of the CMA in a variety of comprehensive evangelistic outreach activities, many of which focused on health-related issues. The success of the process was evaluated by the number of members who got involved, the number of non-member contacts made, the number of contacts who attended a church-based program, the number of contacts who attended an evangelistic series based on a personal invitation, and the number of contacts baptized or accepted by profession of faith.

Results

Twenty-seven and one-half percent of the attending membership and 18.6% of the total membership were trained in various aspects of comprehensive outreach. Thirty-four attendees of various church outreach events transferred to an evangelistic series. Two hundred ten attendees of the evangelistic series came as a direct result of a friend’s invitation. As a direct result of the comprehensive evangelistic intervention, 134 individuals were baptized.

Conclusions

This study demonstrates that comprehensive evangelistic strategies that focus on the development of both clergy and laity are an effective means for reaching communities. The outcomes imply that broad-based, contextually applied, comprehensive evangelistic principles had and will have a positive impact on the mission of the church.

Subject Area

Evangelistic work--Seventh-day Adventists; Seventh-day Adventists--Canada--Calgary

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/443/

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