Professional Dissertations DMin

Date of Award

2004

Document Type

Project Report

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry

College

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Program

Doctor of Ministry DMin

First Advisor

Werner K. Vyhmeister

Second Advisor

Nancy Vyhmeister

Third Advisor

Ricardo Norton

Abstract

Problem

At present more than half of the world's population lives in cities. These cities present the greatest challenge to world evangelization. The evangelization of Delmas is a great' responsibility for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The purpose of this dissertation was to design a strategy for urban evangelism in Delmas.

Methodology

The topic of urban evangelism was researched in the Bible, the writings of Ellen G. White, and other contemporary- authors. A survey of pastors and lay people in Port-au-Prince was done, together with in-depth interviews with key church pastors.

Results

Jesus greatly emphasized urban evangelism. Early Christians planted many city churches in the Mediterranean world. Paul's basic evangelistic strategy was urban. The writings of Ellen G. White and other contemporary authors emphasize the need for city evangelism. These authors agree that the evangelization of cities is the essential task for this time. The surveys and interviews done in Port-au-Prince revealed a lack of evaluation of the different evangelistic methods used in the city. They also showed a lack of variety in evangelistic approaches.

Strategy

In consultation with the administrators of the Haitian Union, the Central Haitian Mission, the pastor of the Delmas Church, and some lay persons in Delmas, the strategy was developed. The strategy consists of three stages: pre-evangelism, evangelism, and post-evangelism. Pre-evangelism includes several ways of preparing both the public and the church members in Delmas. The evangelistic stage includes different methods of presenting the gospel to the homes in Delmas. The post-evangelism phase provides for the consolidation of those recently baptized, continued work with those who are interested but have not yet decided to be baptized, and the evaluation of the strategy.

Subject Area

Seventh-day Adventists--Haiti; Evangelistic work--Haiti--Seventh-day Adventists

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/550

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