Professional Dissertations DMin

Date of Award

2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry

College

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Program

Doctor of Ministry DMin

First Advisor

Abraham Guerrero

Second Advisor

Ricardo Norton

Abstract

Problem

Most Adventist pulpits are served by people who are not pastors. By 2023, the Seventh-day Adventist Church had 175,144 congregations, and only 21,903 active ordained pastors. This indicates that, even if all pastors preached every week in some Adventist church, still 87.5% of Adventist pulpits around the world would be in the hands of someone who is not a pastor (Office of Archives, 2024). The author of this project serves as pastor in a three-church district, and it is simply impossible for him to preach in every one of them every weekly worship service. For that reason, at least two of the churches in that district have a church elder or someone else in their pulpit each week, and most of those people have had no formal training in preaching. A training program on expository preaching for elders and other leaders in the Silver Spring, Maryland, district has the potential of improving the quality of preaching in the three churches within that district, and the lessons learned can serve as a reference for other districts that may be experiencing similar needs.

Methodology

This project is within the framework of applied theology, and its purpose is to design, implement, and evaluate a training program on expository preaching for elders and select members of Seventh-day Adventist churches in the Silver Spring District of Maryland. In order to accomplish that purpose, the author examined issues related to the subject in the Old Testament, the New Testament, the writings of Ellen White, and contemporary literature. Finally, an analysis of the three churches within the Silver Spring District and their context provided the remainder of the framework for the implementation of a training on expository preaching in this district. Direct observation and participant surveys served as tools for evaluating the results of this project.

Results

The most significant result of this project is that it made possible the design, implementation and evaluation of a training program on expository preaching for church elders and other leaders of the three Seventh-day Adventist churches within the Silver Spring District, in Maryland. A total of eighteen people were able to complete the preaching training, which benefits the district because it now has a group of people who have received training in this area. In addition, participant surveys indicate that 94.4% of participants said they “strongly agree” that the seminar increased their understanding of preaching, and 100% indicated that they would recommend the seminar to other church elders. Other survey results also indicate that the training had a positive impact on participants.

Conclusions

The results of this project confirm the hypothesis of this research: that a training in the area of expository preaching would have positive results for both the participants and the churches they represent in the Silver Spring District, in Maryland. By extension, the results also suggest that an initiative like this one could be very helpful for other congregations experiencing similar realities.

Subject Area

Preaching; Elders (Church officers)--Training of; Laity--Training of; General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. North American Division. Columbia Union Mission; Potomac Conference of Seventh-day Adventists; Church officers.

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