Training the Members of the Hacienda Heights Seventh-Day Adventist Church to Create Missional Communities
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Andrews University Digital Commons @ Andrews University Dissertation Projects DMin Graduate Research 2017 Training The Members Of The Hacienda Heights Seventh-day Adventist Church To Create Missional Communities Brett Poynter Andrews University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/dmin Part of the Practical Theology Commons Recommended Citation Poynter, Brett, "Training The Members Of The Hacienda Heights Seventh-day Adventist Church To Create Missional Communities" (2017). Dissertation Projects DMin. 317. https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/dmin/317 This Project Report is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Research at Digital Commons @ Andrews University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertation Projects DMin by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Andrews University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ABSTRACT TRAINING THE MEMBERS OF THE HACIENDA HEIGHTS SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH TO CREATE MISSIONAL COMMUNITIES by Brett Poynter Adviser: Michael R. Cauley ABSTRACT OF GRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH Project Document Andrews University Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary Title: TRAINING THE MEMBERS OF THE HACIENDA HEIGHTS SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH TO CREATE MISSIONAL COMMUNITIES Name of researcher: Brett Poynter Name and degree of adviser: Michael R. Cauley, DMin Date completed: May 2017 Problem A 2011 analysis of the Hacienda Heights Seventh-day Adventist Church revealed it had poor missional health in it was not outreach focused, small group oriented, or a discipling community. This attributed to plateaued church growth with a congregation consisting largely of boomers and a significantly low percentage of GenX’ers and millennials. Method An intervention to train the members of the Hacienda Heights church to create missional communities was developed and applied as a means to improve the church’s missional health and growth. The intervention was developed by studying missional church literature and assessing the church and community. The resulting intervention included these modules: personal transformation, creating a sense of urgency, developing a guiding coalition, fostering passionate and authentic spirituality, mentoring disciples of Jesus, and developing missional communities. A follow-up assessment was conducted after the application of the intervention in order to determine its effectiveness. Results The intervention trained the church to create multiple missional communities. Missional health also increased as a result of the intervention, which led to improvements in spiritual development, mission and vision casting, organizational methods, outreach methods, leadership development, and discipleship. An increase in church growth was also observed among the millennia generation with eight baptisms, two recommitments, six new interests, and an increase in attendance of 21. Conclusions The conclusion of this project is the intervention effectively trained the Hacienda Heights Seventh-day Adventist Church to create missional communities. Secondly, it should be applied indefinitely to foster continued missional community growth and counteract the innate challenges of living missionally in the Los Angeles Metropolitan area. Lastly, without an intentional effort to create missional communities, a church inwardly focused will not reach outwardly on its own without a committed and equipped team of missional leaders to apply the intervention. Andrews University Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary TRAINING THE MEMBERS OF THE HACIENDA HEIGHTS SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH TO CREATE MISSIONAL COMMUNITIES A Project Document Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Ministry by Brett Poynter May 2017 ©Copyright by Brett Poynter 2017 All Rights Reserved TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................... vi Chapter 1. THE NEED FOR MISSIONAL COMMUNITIES ....................................... 1 Introduction ............................................................................................ 1 Context .................................................................................................. 2 Problem and Task ................................................................................... 3 Delimitations of the Project .................................................................... 4 Description of the Project Process ......................................................... 5 Definition of Terms ................................................................................ 9 Summary ................................................................................................ 10 2. A THEOLOGY OF MISSIONAL COMMUNITY BUILDING .................. 12 Introduction ............................................................................................ 12 Mission in the Old Testament ................................................................ 13 Mission in the New Testament ............................................................... 17 The Ministry and Mission of Jesus ................................................. 18 The Mission of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew ............................. 21 Mission in the New Testament Church ........................................... 23 Biblical Community ............................................................................... 28 Conclusion .............................................................................................. 30 3. LITERATURE REVIEW .............................................................................. 32 Introduction ............................................................................................ 32 The Church and Mission From the Early Church to the Present ........... 32 The Praxis of Missional Ministry ........................................................... 38 Missional Movements ............................................................................ 39 The Seventh-day Adventist Movement .................................................. 40 Summary and Conclusion ...................................................................... 43 4. DESCRIPTION OF THE INTERVENTION ................................................ 45 Introduction ............................................................................................ 45 iii Profile of the Ministry Context .............................................................. 46 Development and Description of the Intervention ................................. 50 Developing Personal Transformation as an Intervention ................ 50 Description of Personal Transformation as an Intervention ........... 51 Developing a Sense of Urgency as an Intervention ........................ 53 Description of Creating a Sense of Urgency as an Intervention ..... 53 Developing a Guiding Coalition as an Intervention ........................ 55 Description of a Guiding Coalition as an Intervention ................... 56 Developing Passionate and Authentic Spirituality as an Intervention .............................................................................. 59 Description of Passionate and Authentic Spirituality as an Intervention .............................................................................. 60 Developing Mentoring Disciples of Jesus as an Intervention ......... 62 Description of Mentoring Disciples of Jesus as an Intervention .... 63 Developing Missional Communities as an Intervention ................. 64 Description of Missional Communities as an Intervention ............. 65 Summary and Conclusion ...................................................................... 76 5. NARRATIVE OF INTERVENTION IMPLEMENTATION ....................... 77 Introduction ............................................................................................ 77 Personal Transformation ........................................................................ 78 Fostering Passionate and Authentic Spirituality, Phase I ....................... 83 Creating a Sense of Urgency .................................................................. 84 Mentoring Disciples of Jesus, Phase I .................................................... 87 Developing Missional Communities, Phase I ........................................ 91 Fostering Passionate and Authentic Spirituality, Phase II ..................... 93 Developing a Guiding Coalition ............................................................ 93 Developing Missional Communities, Phase II ....................................... 97 Fostering Passionate and Authentic Spirituality, Phase III .................... 100 Developing Missional Communities, Phase III ...................................... 101 Mentoring Disciples of Jesus, Phase II .................................................. 102 Developing Missional Communities, Phase IV ..................................... 103 Fostering Passionate and Authentic Spirituality, Phase IV .................... 105 Developing Missional Communities, Phase V ....................................... 106 Fostering Passionate and Authentic Spirituality, Phase V ..................... 107 Members’ Personal Missional Efforts .................................................... 108 Summary and conclusions ...................................................................... 109 6. EVALUATION AND LEARNINGS ...........................................................