Date of Award

2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Missiology

College

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Program

Doctor of Missiology DMiss

First Advisor

Petr Činčala

Second Advisor

Andrew Tompkins

Third Advisor

Boubakar Sanou

Abstract

This study investigates and evaluates the current state of Seventh-day Adventist mission in Bihar to discover the hinderances that are affecting the mission work. When Bihar was divided in 2000, a new state, Jharkhand, was created, and church membership and the number of mission workers dropped dramatically, raising concerns about what may have caused the present condition of the SDA mission.

Although the Adventist mission has tried various strategies to spread the Gospel throughout Bihar since 2000, these appear to have been ineffective in terms of membership growth. The failure to evangelize Bihar led to dissatisfaction among church leaders, and the Adventist Church in Bihar has been left orphaned for survival, despite the installation of a regional office in 2009 to moderate the mission work.

The research was directed by the mixed-method approach, including surveys and interviews to gather data. For the qualitative data, a thematic analysis was conducted to examine all the data in order to establish the common themes that emerged from all the responses. These themes emerged as a result of the data extracted from the interviews used to address one or more research questions. A questionnaire was designed, and data was collected, using the simple random sampling method, from 765 respondents from a population of approximately 100,000 GEMS members and 4,500 SDA members. The information was gathered through interviews with sixteen SDA and twelve GEMS members. Two themes were selected from a larger number for discussion in this dissertation.

The findings were organized to discuss two themes that emerged: Mission Leadership and Importance of Worship Location, and attempts to present a view of the biblical interpretation of mission leadership as a divine appointment and the significance of a worship location.

This study provides several missiological approaches that can be implemented for the holistic growth of the SDA Church in Bihar. This study is relevant to church leaders, missionaries, researchers, and mission teachers, exposing them to missiological insights to provide a contextual consciousness for appropriate missiology. This study provides basis for empowering the mission in Bihar to develop models that will result in church growth and lead to the expansion of the SDA mission in Bihar.

Subject Area

Seventh-day Adventists--Missions--India--Bihar; Bihar (India)--Religion

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