Professional Dissertations DMin

Date of Award

2014

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry

College

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Program

Doctor of Ministry DMin

First Advisor

Errol McLean

Second Advisor

Jeffrey O. Brown

Third Advisor

Orville Browne

Abstract

Problem

The Hamilton Seventh-day Adventist Church in Bermuda has over 800 church members and 170 church officers, yet only one ministry has been actively engaged in interfacing with the community. The gospel commission calls us to return to the united ministry given to our first parents, to populate the earth with children of God. It requires ministry to be conducted by all believers without distinction, from the entire world, to the entire world. Pastoral leaders are called to cast this vision and strategically plan how to develop and how to deploy church members into the community, according to their spiritual gifts.

Method

Strategic planning, at its core, is based on the mission and vision of the organization. After a review of the church’s mission and vision statements, a strategic plan was implemented over an eight-month period. This included intense prayer, Bible study, and the study of leadership theory. This in turn led to sermons and seminars which involved the distribution of a Church Office Service Form to every member, the creation of a Ministry Fair, conducting Connections seminars to enable members to identify their spiritual gifts, and creating training and consultant teams to aid in the placement of members in teams that will minister to the community.

Results

The results revealed a significant increase in understanding of members regarding their ministry involvement. There was a significant increase in understanding of the leadership role of the pastor in the gospel commission. There was a significant increase in the quantity of members involved in ministry. There was a 600% increase in the quantity of ministries that impact the community.

Conclusions

The role of the pastoral leader is to correctly exegete the revolutionary event of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2. That was a call to return to God’s original plan for a ministry with no distinctions or restrictions and no domination or rank. It was a radical call to meet the needs of the community. Because this will be the standard of the judgment (Matt 25), it behooves the pastoral leader not to be derelict in this duty. He or she must pray, envision, strategically plan, and methodologically equip church members for their ministry in order to hasten the coming of Jesus (2 Pet 3:12).

Subject Area

Laity--Bermuda Islands--Seventh-day Adventists; Church work--Bermuda Islands--Seventh-day Adventists; Hamilton Seventh-day Adventist Church (Bermuda Islands); Seventh-day Adventists--Bermuda Islands

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