Professional Dissertations DMin

Date of Award

2007

Document Type

Project Report

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry

College

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Program

Doctor of Ministry DMin

First Advisor

Alfonso Valenzuela

Second Advisor

Ricardo Norton

Third Advisor

Jeffrey Brown

Abstract

Problem

Family worship is highly esteemed by the members of the Hamilton Mountain Seventh-day Adventist Church, yet the quality and practice of this spiritual activity could still be improved among the church families. It was the researcher’s presupposition that the design of a practical, creative, and attractive family worship seminar, incorporating new ideas and suggestions, could motivate and assist the church members to enhance their spiritual experience and fellowship with God, as well as within their family circles.

Method

The topic of family worship was brought to the church through a series of sermons and also the children’s story segment of the Divine Service. Then, a questionnaire was developed in order to collect information from the active members of the church, in relation to their awareness and involvement with the practice of family worship. In that instrument, members were offered the opportunity to present their expectations, as well as make suggestions related to the family worship seminar which would be developed at a later stage of the research. This seminar would also be evaluated by the church members in order to measure its effectiveness. Aspects to be assessed would include both the content and presentation.

Results

One hundred and eighty two members returned the questionnaire, which provided a return rate of slightly over 60 percent of possible responses. Subsequently, the seminar was evaluated by 179 individuals, reaching a quotient of nearly 60 percent when compared to the number of those who were originally mailed the family worship questionnaire (301). Overall, the evaluation form showed that the seminar attracted the interest of the members and made them aware about the importance of the practice of this spiritual activity in their families. It also reached the goal of introducing new and creative ideas for the practice of family worship. There was an increase of 40 active participants (179 responses) during the seminar, or nearly 29 percent, when compared with the initial number of members who initially indicated previous association with or participation in family worship (139).

Conclusions

The involvement and participation of the congregation during the different stages of this endeavor, which climaxed with the development and presentation of the family worship seminar, was one of the highlights of this project. It clearly demonstrated the interest of members and their families in the subject and that their level of awareness about the spiritual relevancy of the topic reached the proposed goal. The seminar was ranked highly by appreciative church members when it was evaluated on its structure, language, content, creativity, new ideas and suggestions, challenge for parents, interest of children, etc. Conversely, the evaluation form also revealed some concerns regarding the length of the seminar. It appears that when this seminar is presented in the future, serious consideration should be given to spreading the presentation over more than one day.

Subject Area

Families--Religious life; Church work with families--Seventh-day Adventists; Hamilton Mountain Seventh-day Adventist Church (Hamilton, Ont.)

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/451

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