Professional Dissertations DMin

Date of Award

2020

Document Type

Project Report

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry

College

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Program

Doctor of Ministry DMin

First Advisor

Hyveth Williams

Second Advisor

Kenley Hall

Third Advisor

Willie Hucks

Abstract

Problem

Teenagers were not integrated in the preaching ministry of the Plantation Seventh-day Adventist Church. Their involvement in the worship service revealed challenges in publicly expressing their faith and spiritual experience. The absence of training, equipping, and deploying teenagers for preaching ministry contributed to their low retention and their lack of representation in the leadership of the church.

Method

Between August 2018 and May 2019, under the coordination of the researcher, preaching mentors offered teenage mentees from the Plantation Seventh-day Adventist Church a complete learning cycle called sermonic process. It started with producing the sermon, continued with practicing the sermon and culminated with preaching the sermon. For evaluation, qualitative data was collected through evaluation forms, focus groups, reflective journals, sermon scripts, and video recordings.

Results

Five teenagers of the church were mentored for prophetic preaching ministry. Through mentorship and hands-on learning they experienced significant growth in their preaching skill-level and spiritual journey. Additionally, change-inspiring awareness was raised in the congregation regarding youth retention and integration in leadership. Moreover, the project reinforced the crucial nature of trust-based relationship between mentors and mentees in the mentorship process.

Conclusions

First, this ministry project was successful because it was built on the solid biblical foundations of God calling teenagers to prophetic ministry. Second, hands-on training in a supportive mentorship context is the most effective teaching method for teenage preaching. Third, the key for a successful implementation of a ministry project that involves a large number of participants is accountability on all levels. To improve future teenage preaching projects, I recommend (a) shorter classroom training sessions, (b) more time between practice sessions, and (c) a longer period of time between the actual moments of teenagers preaching in front of the congregation.

Subject Area

Church work with teenagers--Seventh-day Adventists; Seventh-day Adventist teenagers--Training of; Plantation Seventh-day Adventist Church (Plantation, Fla.); Seventh-day Adventist preaching

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/dmin/727/

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