Professional Dissertations DMin

Date of Award

2014

Document Type

Project Report

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry

College

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Program

Doctor of Ministry DMin

First Advisor

Bruce Moyer

Second Advisor

Bruce L. Bauer

Third Advisor

Kelvin Onongha

Abstract

Problem. Since the arrival of the first official Adventist missionaries to Liberia in 1926, evangelistic efforts have been focused on non-Muslim communities. The nation’s 14 years of civil crisis left 105,000 disarmed combatants who are mainly young people. Most of these young people are found in Grand Cape Mount County, a predominantly Islamic community where they are engaged in illicit diamond mining, illegal harvesting of latex, and other criminal activities for their income. There is a need for the Adventist church to use this situation as an opportunity to reach out to them with pilot projects that will empower them for economic sustenance and spiritual development. This may initiate deeper relationships between the church and the Muslims in that community.

Method. Current literature including articles, journals, and books dealing with Christian-Muslim relationships and with contextualizing the Adventist message in Muslim culture were reviewed through library research. Literature on historical, cultural, social, and political analyses of Liberia and specifically Grand Cape Mount County were also reviewed. The project will include a Leadership seminar, study of Islamic culture, implementation of pilot projects, and placement of tentmakers in Grand Cape Mount County. Finally, the project will be evaluated with recommendations made to stakeholders at the close of the project.

Expectation. The implementation of this project will begin a new era in Adventist-Muslim relationships in Liberia. Participants trained by this project will be assigned to conference tentmakers who would be placed in strategic locations in the county. These tentmakers will introduce participants to business enterprises where they will gain work experience, which will motivate them to establish their own small businesses or work to earn wages for their sustenance. The goal is that, occupied with their new vocation, these young people will recede from criminal activities and become contributors to the economic development of their community. Adventist Conference leaders may also appreciate the new development as an opportunity to establish relationships with the Muslims in the county. Through such friendship evangelism, the church and stakeholders may be encouraged either to continue their support for the project or to introduce similar new projects (elementary school, clinic etc.) that will meet the needs of the community and strengthen relationships with the people.

Subject Area

Christianity and other religions--Islam, Islam--Relations--Christianity, Community development--Liberia, Community development--Religious aspects, Muslim youth--Liberia

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/64/

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