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

Bruce L. Bauer

Second Advisor

Erich W. Baumgartner

Third Advisor

Randal Wisbey

Abstract

Problem

The Seventh-day Adventist church in Swaziland experienced slow growth from the time of its inception. Starting from 1920, when the first Adventist missionary arrived in Swaziland, to 1994 membership was 2075. This means that the Adventist church in Swaziland was the slowest growing church in the former Southern Union and among the Christian churches in Swaziland.

Method

This dissertation analyzes: Swazi traditional history, Swazi traditional religious beliefs, the introduction of Christianity in Swaziland, how the SDA church was planted in Swaziland, and the evangelistic methods utilized by the Adventist church and other Christian churches. This approach helped in the development of suggested new approaches for Adventist evangelism in Swaziland.

Results

The results of the study indicated that the Adventist church did not take culture and contextualization into consideration in their attempt to evangelize the Swazi. These results call for a contextual, culture sensitive approach to reach the Swazi with the gospel as preached by the Adventists.

Conclusion

This study concludes that effective evangelization of the Swazi by the Adventists must be anchored in the Bible and a contextual, culture sensitive approach, without watering down the message of the gospel.

Subject Area

Seventh-day Adventists--Missions--Swaziland

Additional Files
Copyright Page Dissertations.pdf (79 kB)

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/669

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