Professional Dissertations DMin

Date of Award

2010

Document Type

Project Report

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry

College

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Program

Doctor of Ministry DMin

First Advisor

Skip Bell

Second Advisor

Mzonzima Gwala

Third Advisor

Walton Williams

Abstract

Problem

The Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Southern Africa-lndian Ocean Division (SID) experiences annua] baptized membership growth of 5-7 percent. This membership growth rate however has not resulted in church organizational self- support. Efforts implemented by the SID administration to bring local fields to the required level of self-support, or conference status, in a timely manner failed to yield expected results during the 2005-2010 periods. This study project seeks to address this challenge by conducting a case study of West Zambia Field of Seventh-day Adventists.

Method

An assessment was conducted in the West Zambia Field of Sev enth-day Adventists using both quantitative and qualitative methods to find out why West Zambia Field has not attained conference status. The assessment evaluated the six field administrators' understanding of what constitutes conference status and what challenges hindered the mission field from attaining conference status in a timely manner.

Results

The assessment results revealed a lack of understanding by the field administrators with regard to what constitutes conference status. Field administrators were implementing strategies which failed to yield the required results. The study also revealed that the West Zambia Field region experienced socio-economic disruptions during the colonial and post-independence periods which are mirrored in the operations of the field.

Conclusions

This study project recommends strategic steps for transforming West Zambia Field to conference status in a timely manner. When the field becomes a conference it will strengthen the Adventist church organization in Zambia Union and SID respectively while hastening the soon coming of Jesus Christ.

Subject Area

Seventh-day Adventists--Zambia; Church polity; General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Division. Zambia Union Conference. West Zambia Field; Zambia Field of 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/639/

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