Professional Dissertations DMin

Date of Award

1996

Document Type

Project Report

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry

College

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Program

Doctor of Ministry DMin

First Advisor

Erich W. Baumgartner

Second Advisor

Bruce Bauer

Third Advisor

Clifford Jones

Abstract

Statement of the Problem

The task of this study was to rethink the role of pastors as shepherd-equippers of lay leaders in view of the explosive growth of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Papua New Guinea.

Method

The dissertation has two parts. Part One covers: (1) institutional factors which provided the background for this study, (2) biblical and theological dimensions as the basis for the new pastoral paradigm in PNG, and (3) cultural and sociological factors as means to understand the local cultures in order to contextualize ministry to make it more relevant to the people. Part Two synthesizes the values in Part One (chapter 5) which is the basis of chapter 6. Chapter 6 applies the ideal values in chapter 5 to the retooling of field pastors. Chapter 7 contains the summary, conclusions, and recommendations.

Results

The study confirms that for effective long-term discipleship., the ministry description of the pastor needs to include disciple making, nurturing, and lay training. Wantok units are the best possible structure in the Papua New Guinea context for assimilating and nurturing new believers. Further, wantoks units can only function effectively when there are qualified lay leaders. Thus, the pastor's role as a shepherd-equipper is imperative. The fast growth of the church in PNG and the major challenges growth creates are the urgent context for the expanded role of the pastor, which must change from being a shepherd to being a shepherd-equipper. A new biblical perspective on the nature and purposes of the church provides the basis for this paradigm shift, while the Papua New Guinea facilitator model of leadership (big-wan) helps to contextualize the shepherd-equipper role of the pastor in the Papua New Guinea context.

Subject Area

Lay ministry--Papua New Guinea--Seventh-day Adventists; Seventh-day Adventists--Clergy--Papua New Guinea

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/607

Download

Files over 3MB may be slow to open. For best results, right-click and select "save as..."

Share

COinS