Professional Dissertations DMin

Date of Award

2019

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry

College

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Program

Doctor of Ministry DMin

First Advisor

Walter Alaña

Second Advisor

Ricardo Norton

Abstract

Problem

The South Peruvian Union-Mission has seven fields and 227 district pastors. Every pastor serves an average of 11 local churches, and the financial reality of local fields makes it impossible to add more pastors. Although ministers meet the evangelistic goals of the local fields, some administrative deficiencies have become evident in areas such as planning, administrative meetings with the entire congregation, church board meetings, integral visitation program, church budget, discipline for erring members, etc. Besides the positive impact expected from this project in the South Peruvian Union, the lessons learned from the development and implementation of this project has the potential to help other fields with similar difficulties.

Methodology

This project belongs to the discipline of applied theology; its object of study is the development of administrative abilities in pastors, and its immediate context is the Seventhday Adventist Church in the South Peruvian Union Mission. In order to solve the basic issue of this research project, a study of related issues was undertaken in the Bible, the writings of Ellen White, and contemporary Christian literature. A careful analysis of the immediate context completed the theoretical platform needed for the development and implementation of a program to train pastors in the South Peru Union Mission on the administration of multi-church districts. Direct observation and surveys were among the tools utilized to assess the results of the project.

Results

A major contribution of this project is that it provided a tool that underscores in concrete data the effects of a training program that primarily focuses on maximizing the administrative abilities of ministers who are in charge of multi-church districts. Assessments applied before and after the training indicated a significant improvement when considering the pastor's ability as a delegator (4.49 points at the beginning and 4.82 at the end), as a trainer (4.34 at the beginning and 4.73 at the end), and as a supervisor (4.23 at the beginning and 4.67 at the end).

Conclusion

The results of this project confirm what the Bible and contemporary Christian literature indicate: the implementation of training programs on management skills for pastors has the potential of yielding visibly positive results. Specifically, the results confirm an improvement in the pastor's abilities as Supervisor, Delegator, and Trainer.

Subject Area

Church work--Seventh-day Adventists--Peru; Church management; General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. South American Division. South Peru Union Mission; South Peru Union Mission of Seventh-day Adventists; Pastoral care; Pastoral theology

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/dmin/774/

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