Preparation and Practice of Ministry : a Study of Seventh-day Adventist Ministerial Education in the Philippines
Background and purpose of the study. The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which the present undergraduate ministerial degree offered at Philippine Union College is able to prepare the ministry adequately to meet the demands in the North Philippines. This study surveyed the opinions of administrators/departmental directors, pastors, religion and seminary faculty, and selected laymen. Methodology. Societal background and statistics of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Philippines were collected and organized from existing sources. Information concerning the graduates were obtained by aquestionnaire with two five-point scales. Data were analyzed and rankings were developed for levels of ministerspreparation, needs, and the difference between need and preparation. Responses to open-ended questions were tabulated and expressed in percentages. Significant differences between the perception of the four groups concerning preparation and need were determined with the chi-square analysis using the.05 alpha level. Findings. The membership of the SDA Church in the Philippines belongs to the educated segment of thePhilippine society. The socio-economic status of the majority of the SDAs in the North Philippine Union Missions is in the low to middle-class category. The survey revealed that the ministers in NPUM need a wide range of improvement in applied/pastoral skills and biblical/theological knowledge. The greatest discrepancy between the level of preparation and need were in the applied/pastoral skills area. There is an urgent need for ministers in NPUM to be better prepared in training members for soul winning, preaching, and leading out in church services. There is also a need to improve the way the ministers deal with different categories of church members, and with preaching, counseling, and church leadership. Recommendations. Based on the study, the following recommendations were made: (1) 15 biblical/theological knowledge and 19 applied/pastoral skills in the ministerial curriculum that need emphasis, (2) 10 biblical/theological and 12 applied/pastoral courses be made available to the ministers in NPUM through the Adventist Theological Seminary (Far East), (3) field-education be provided after two years of college study. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)
Seventh-day Adventists--Clergy--Philippines, Missions and World Christianity, Practical Theology
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