Professional Dissertations DMin

Date of Award

2017

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry

College

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Program

Doctor of Ministry DMin

First Advisor

Nilson Ferreira

Second Advisor

Ricardo Norton

Third Advisor

Wagner Kuhn

Abstract

Problem

The involvement of members regarding discipleship in the Central Parana Conference of Seventh-day Adventists (CPC) seems not to follow the numerical growth of the church. An analysis of Sabbath School quarterly reports of the churches belonging to CPC for the first three quarters of 2015 indicates that only 1,091 (4,1%) of the 26,076 members are involved in the process of making new disciples. This low level of participation evidenced the need to design, implement, and evaluate a discipleship strengthening project that would enable pastors to become better equipped as discipleship training agents in their respective local churches at the Central Parana Conference.

Methodology

This project belongs to the field of applied theology, and its object of study is training as a discipleship strengthening factor. After establishing the basic purposes of the research, an exploration of the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the writings of Ellen White on the subject of discipleship served as theological foundation for the project. Also, a review of related issues in contemporary literature provided additional insights. The lessons learned from the theological review and from contemporary literature, as well as a careful analysis of the Central Parana Conference of Seventh-day Adventists as immediate context, provided the basis for the design, implementation, and evaluation of a discipleship program for pastors in the CPC. A total of thirteen pastors were chosen to participate. The training was held at the offices of the Central Parana Conference in three consecutive monthly meetings, from March to May 2016. It exposed participants to discipleship issues from a general perspective and specifically related to the CPC, and afterwards the group discussed the process of discipleship in the districts represented by them, thus challenging them to implement the program in their congregations.

Results

This project allowed the implementation of a discipleship training program for 13 pastors in the CPC. As reflected in the surveys, most participants expressed a positive reaction to the seminars. Nine out of the thirteen pastors sought to implement, according to their respective realities, the same program in which they participated. A concern was raised to create a School of Leaders. Every pastor who had his Small Group of Leaders (SGL) prepared the group to participate in a larger school of discipleship which was organized by the CPC Personal Ministries Department, a school which received the name of SAL - Seminário Adventista de Lideres [Seminar for Adventist Leaders], with the main purpose of strengthening discipleship in every local church. This was achieved through a greater commitment by pastors in promoting the process of discipleship in their respective pastoral districts.

Conclusions

The results of this project confirm what the literature review had suggested that training pastors has a significant potential in the process of making disciples among church members. This model is an approach that complements rather than competes with other discipleship methods in the local church setting.

Subject Area

Discipling (Christianity); Clergy--Training of; Seventh-day Adventists--Clergy; Central Parana Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

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