Professional Dissertations DMin

Date of Award

2022

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry

College

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Program

Doctor of Ministry DMin

First Advisor

Manuel Moral

Second Advisor

Ricardo Norton

Third Advisor

David Penno

Abstract

Problem

The church is a corporate unit with the primary responsibility of witnessing. When church members work together in witnessing, membership tends to grow in numbers and the church tends to improve its holistic health. In the Aliento de Vida Seventh-day Adventist Church, only a small group of members actively witness about their faith. Considering this problem, how important is it to develop and implement a program to encourage witnessing among the members of the Aliento de Vida Seventhday Adventist Church in Memphis, Tennessee? A witnessing program at this church has the potential to increase evangelistic participation.

Methodology

This research belongs to the area of applied theology. The main purpose of this work is to develop and implement a program to foster witnessing in the Aliento de Vida Seventh-day Adventist Church in the city of Memphis, Tennessee. In order to fulfill the purpose of this research, an analysis was made regarding the biblical foundations of witnessing in both the Old and New Testaments and the subject was also examined in the writings of Ellen White. Furthermore, an exploration was undertaken regarding the same subject in contemporary literature. An analysis of the local church, its history, context and characteristics (including an analysis of factors affecting the church's ability to witness) completed the theoretical platform for the design, implementation and evaluation of a program to foster witnessing in the Aliento de Vida Seventh-day Adventist Church. Pastoral observation, participant opinion surveys and the Natural Church Development questionnaire were among the tools used to evaluate the effectiveness of the initiative.

Results

In the context of this research project, some elements were found that hinder witnessing and others that foster it (these elements are analyzed within this document). After the implementation of the program, there was a significant increase in the number of people witnessing in the Aliento de Vida Seventh-day Adventist Church (from 32 people before implementation to 106 afterwards, for a 331% increase in participation). Similarly, the number of baptisms increased by 433% and there was a 32,361% increase in tithing after implementation (all this despite the Covid-19 pandemic). In addition, 82.9% of the participants rated the content of this program as positive and the same percentage of them said they had a new experience with God through this initiative; 80% of participants said that the initiative helped them to improve their relationships with other church members and also the same percentage of them stated that the program provided them with adequate tools for witnessing.

Conclusion

The results of this study demonstrate that the implementation of a program to foster witnessing at the Aliento de Vida Seventh-day Adventist Church had a very positive impact on this congregation and indicate that the implementation of projects like this one could produce similar benefits in other congregations that might be experiencing comparable realities.

Subject Area

Witness bearing (Christianity); Aliento de Vida Seventh-day Adventist Church (Memphis, Tenn.); Seventh-day Adventists--Tennessee--Memphis

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/dmin/775/

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