Perceived Effectiveness of a Mentoring Program for Training Adventist Chinese Evangelists
Problem The fact that evangelism in the Unorganized Territories of the Chinese Union Mission was done mainly as personal evangelism and that public evangelism was limited to a one-day seed sowing meeting had led to a serious need for equipping pastors in effective public evangelism methods. It required a model of public evangelism, which is adaptable to the local Chinese culture, and a mentoring program that accompanies evangelists, who were still developing their skills in public evangelism. Method This study used a parallel mixed methods design to measure the perceived effectiveness of selected methods in the mentoring program. This design involved collecting data with a multiple-question survey with both Likert-style and open-ended questions from students, and conducting three group interviews of students and faculty. All of them had participated in the evangelism training and conducted evangelistic meetings. Descriptive and inferential statistical analysis, coding, and thematic analysis were used to analyze the data. Results Participants rated the 10 effectiveness variables of the mentoring program (training materials, learning process, mentoring process, feedback process, evangelistic preaching, appeals, authentic evangelism, dedication, evangelistic series experience, and preparedness for future evangelistic meetings) as being helpful. The overall mentoring program was perceived helpful and it was perceived to be equally effective in all sites, regardless of gender, age, and pastoral experience. The feedback process variable was rated most helpful compared to other variables. The qualitative results indicated that students found they were being encouraged and affirmed, which gave them confidence to practice in front of groups; eventually, their performance was enhanced. The findings concluded that the quantitative and qualitative results converged. The results of this study suggest that the development of leaders and evangelists requires far more than isolated short-term training events. Instead, this study documents that more comprehensive and developmental instructional strategies paired with intentional mentoring in real time and real world settings are necessary in order to see the desired growth in effectiveness in the training of leaders and evangelists. Conclusion The mentoring program for training Adventist Chinese evangelists was perceived as helpful and effective. Also, the mentoring program was equally effective in all sites, regardless of gender, age, and pastoral experience.
Mentoring, Training, Chinese, Evangelists, China, Leadership Studies, Practical Theology
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations