Professional Dissertations DMin

Date of Award

2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry

College

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Program

Doctor of Ministry DMin

First Advisor

Petr Činčala

Second Advisor

Augustus Lawrence

Third Advisor

Joseph Kidder

Abstract

Problem

Milton Keynes International Seventh-day Adventist Church (MKI) is not able to evangelize its multiethnic/multicultural neighbors. This is because individual members of the church consider evangelism to be an annual event where speakers are invited from abroad to hold two- or three-week campaigns. Despite the high cost involved in this method, few people are baptized and even then, it is difficult to retain the new members. The culprit is the church's inability to connect with its multiethnic and multicultural community because of not using the evangelistic method of Jesus Christ effectively.

Method

A total of six hours over four Sabbaths were allotted for training the church of the church during the month of February 2022. I sought to create an awareness of the state of evangelism in the minds of the MKI members and how that aligned with the method Jesus employed in His ministry. The training explored how church members could be equipped to engage with the community and people from different cultures and ethnicities. I also sought to devise a means to meet both the physical and the spiritual needs of the people. The participants were led to value the training through learning reflections, an anonymous survey, an interview, and a focus group. The survey was open to all the church members, but only 50 people participated. The interview was limited to 20 people, while the focus group was restricted to eight people who were part of the nucleus of the church. Data was evaluated by employing a qualitative case study research methodology supported by a concise quantitative study.

Results

The study revealed church members who gave the impression of supporting the initiative to amend the state of evangelism at MKI by using the model and the approach of Jesus Christ to reach their multicultural/multiethnic community. Nevertheless, a known stratagem to carry out this approach which the intervention sought to provide seemed to be lacking. Throughout the training, participants testified to the increase in their awareness of evangelism as a lifestyle, not just an event. They also reported having become much more aware of the difference between the mission of MKI and the mission of God. This was not as obvious before the training, and they saw the need to make improvements to make the church's mission align with the mission of God in every phase. Through a critical, theological reflection, the participants had experiences which were vital for their spirituality and self-awareness as disciples of Christ, and they became cognizant and satisfied in so many ways that they could engage individually in evangelism wherever they might be. Furthermore, transformational learning took place as the participants seemed to adjust their thinking based on the new information provided by the training.

Conclusion

Considering the participants' learning reflections, their experiences from the training, and the perceived spiritual value, along with the inspiration gained from the training, there is the hope that if the participants continue in this course and implement the tenets gained from this training, evangelism at MKI will be completely transformed for the better. The church will then be utilizing Christ Jesus’ method for their multiethnic/multiethnic community.

Subject Area

Jesus Christ--Evangelistic methods; Evangelistic work; Milton Keynes International Seventh-day Adventist Church (Milton Keynes, U.K.)

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