Professional Dissertations DMin

Date of Award

2001

Document Type

Project Report

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry

College

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Program

Doctor of Ministry DMin

First Advisor

Nancy Jean Vyhmeister

Second Advisor

Gordon E. Christo

Third Advisor

Werner K. Vyhmeister

Abstract

Problem

Local church elders and leaders in the Northeast India Union have regularly cared for nurturing and evangelism within the church. They have performed pastoral responsibilities because there are only eighteen paid district pastors in charge of over 130 organized churches and more than 300 companies. However, elders and leaders have no training to perform the task effectively. To enable local church elders and leaders to minister effectively, leadership training is required.

Method

The project considered first the concept of Christ's servant leadership as a basis for the work of elders and local leaders within the chinch. It also reviewed Christ's method of training the Twelve as a model of servant leadership. A biblical perspective on the duties and qualifications of elders/leaders and deacons was studied. My past twelve years of experience as a Union Church Ministries Director helped me to ascertain the most needed areas for local leadership training. A training program was designed for elders/leaders and deacons. Three workshops were developed in detail, with lessons and other instructions. The topics were spiritual formation for elders/leaders, how to conduct Bible studies for nonmembers, and how to preach sermons.

Results

Following the pilot training program, church attendance improved and tithes and offerings increased. Lay participation in evangelism and in nurturing increased. In addition, the morale of congregations was improved.

Conclusions

Local church elders/leaders and deacons appointed to a position may not know how to adequately perform their duties. To equip the local church leaders, the church should schedule, together with the district pastor and local conference, a training program once or twice a year as a continuous educational program for the church.

Subject Area

Seventh-day Adventists--India--Church officers--Training of

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/657

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