Church Planting: Exploring the Actual Experiences and Stories of Four Church Planters of the Plant1000 Evangelism Initiative in the North American Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church
type: CreativeWork
description: Problem. Plant1000 was launched in 2016 by the North American Division (NAD), the fifth largest of 13 divisions of the worldwide Seventh-day Adventist Church. Since then, it has been reported that over 1000 new church plants have been started, but we do not really understand how healthy most of these are, or not. We also do not know what they are actually experiencing in their developing into viable congregations. The focus of this dissertation is the story of four selected church plants that may be able to help us understand those dynamics that, at the moment, are little understood. -- Method. This research was designed as a qualitative, descriptive case study. It directed attention to a central question: How do church planters describe the actual experiences and stories of four church plants? The four selected churches were planted in the last ten years and their membership/attendance has grown to currently 50-200 active members. This qualitative study used semi-structured interviews to explore the stories of five pastors representing the four church plants with the intention to better understand the opportunities and challenges that are part of the adventure of planting churches. Each interview yielded an in-depth wide scope of detailed information about the realities of these churches. The study paid special attention to the different realities faced by Communitybased entrepreneurial churches (a process of evangelism where the primary financial and volunteer support are independent of official church organizations) and Regular church planting (establishment of other congregations by a parent church or church planting organization which is the sole source of funding and volunteers for this enterprise). The case studies were completed in 2020 during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Interviews had to be conducted virtually on Zoom, due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. Despite these limitations, the study brought together a vivid array of voices and perspectives…
abstract: Problem. Plant1000 was launched in 2016 by the North American Division (NAD), the fifth largest of 13 divisions of the worldwide Seventh-day Adventist Church. Since then, it has been reported that over 1000 new church plants have been started, but we do not really understand how healthy most of these are, or not. We also do not know what they are actually experiencing in their developing into viable congregations. The focus of this dissertation is the story of four selected church plants that may be able to help us understand those dynamics that, at the moment, are little understood. -- Method. This research was designed as a qualitative, descriptive case study. It directed attention to a central question: How do church planters describe the actual experiences and stories of four church plants? The four selected churches were planted in the last ten years and their membership/attendance has grown to currently 50-200 active members. This qualitative study used semi-structured interviews to explore the stories of five pastors representing the four church plants with the intention to better understand the opportunities and challenges that are part of the adventure of planting churches. Each interview yielded an in-depth wide scope of detailed information about the realities of these churches. The study paid special attention to the different realities faced by Communitybased entrepreneurial churches (a process of evangelism where the primary financial and volunteer support are independent of official church organizations) and Regular church planting (establishment of other congregations by a parent church or church planting organization which is the sole source of funding and volunteers for this enterprise). The case studies were completed in 2020 during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Interviews had to be conducted virtually on Zoom, due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. Despite these limitations, the study brought together a vivid array of voices and perspectives…
author: Williams, Hyveth
keywords: Church Planting, Seventh-day Adventists, Plant1000 Evangelism Initiative Initiative, Leadership Studies, Practical Theology
date published: 2022-01-01T08:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T00:53:34Z
provider: Andrews University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Andrews University