Professional Dissertations DMin

Date of Award

2002

Document Type

Project Report

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry

College

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Program

Doctor of Ministry DMin

First Advisor

Jerry Moon

Second Advisor

Jon L. Dybdahl

Third Advisor

Jiri Moskala

Abstract

Problem

Seventh-day Adventist church leaders in Latvia have used several approaches and methods for reaching people with the gospel, but proclamation evangelism has served as the main program. However, this method has lost its effectiveness since the middle-1990s. Therefore, today the necessity of discovering and developing new ways and strategies has become crucial. One approach to reach the Latvian population could be health evangelism, which has achieved immense success in many parts of the world since the beginning of the Adventist health message in the 1860s.

Method

The research utilized pertinent materials from books, periodicals, and the Internet. The purpose was to design a health evangelism program for Latvia. The research began by investigating Latvian society and culture, in order to better understand the needs of the population. Next it traced the history and assessed the current situation of Adventist evangelism and church growth in Latvia. After establishing a biblical foundation for health evangelism, and surveying the historical background of Adventist health evangelism in North America and Europe, the study proposed a strategy for health evangelism in Latvia.

Results

The proposal for health evangelism in Latvia includes three main aspects: (1) churches as training centers providing a variety of health-related seminars and cooking schools; (2) churches’ outreach into the communities with health-food restaurants and health education during public evangelistic campaigns; and (3) establishing medical institutions such as a dental or medical clinic, a care home for the elderly, and self-supporting health ministries. Finally, the study presents guidelines for implementing and evaluating the program.

Conclusions

Contemporary Latvian society presents great challenges and opportunities for Seventh-day Adventist evangelism. The preparation of the church for health evangelism and its implementation will enable Latvian Adventists to better serve the people of the communities and thus attract them to become acquainted with Jesus Christ as their Healer and Savior.

Subject Area

Seventh-day Adventists--Latvia; Health education--Latvia; Evangelistic work--Seventh-day Adventists--Latvia

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/574

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