A Missional Outreach Model in the Czech Republic: A PostChristian, Secular Culture

The Czech Republic is one of the most secular countries in the world. Moreover, the church has not been growing over the last few decades. This case study presents the church planting efforts in the city of Liberec, focusing on an outreach center started by a small number of Christians with the goal of sharing Christ’s love in culturally relevant ways. The initial efforts led to a family-centered activity center with many programs that helped develop personal relationships, trust, and open doors to share the gospel. An English class and gospel choir have been at the center of the outreach, but many other activities have been initiated according to the various needs that the leaders saw. This culturally sensitive approach to sharing Christ’s love has led to the formation of a small church

A Missional Outreach Model in the Czech Republic, a Postchristian, Secular Culture

The Czech Republic is one of the most secular countries in the world. Moreover, the church has not been growing over the last few decades. This case study presents the church planting efforts in the city of Liberec, focusing on an outreach center started by a small number of Christians with the goal of sharing Christ’s love in culturally relevant ways. The initial efforts led to a family-centered activity center with many programs that helped develop personal relationships, trust, and open doors to share the gospel. An English class and gospel choir have been at the center of the outreach, but many other activities have been initiated according to the various needs that the leaders saw. This culturally sensitive approach to sharing Christ’s love has led to the formation of a small church

Holistic Community: The Key to Real-life Discipleship

The word “discipleship” carries different meanings depending on the context in which it is used. Holistic community provides a natural environment in which people can learn cognitively, emotionally, and behaviorally. In this way, discipling in the context of community (small groups) enhances and strengthens behaving and believing, as well as belonging. Additionally, a deeper understanding of the three-fold revelation of God (i.e., the Triune God, who is by nature a communal, relational God) helps us better understand how holistic small groups foster the growth and support of believers, encouraging them to bring others into God’s family. The way the members of the Trinity relate to each other is a model of the very essence of discipleship. While other elements of church life are important to discipleship, it is specifically through/ within holistic small groups that disciples are created, grown, transformed, and multiplied. Three elements (colors) of discipleship necessary for real-life discipleship are suggested: teaching, mentoring, and modeling

North American Division: Report Global Church Member Survey 2017-2018

This report is the first examination of the North American Division 2017-2018 Global Church Member Survey (GCMS) data. The research team worked closely with the metaanalysis team to ensure consistent implementation of the research protocol and consistent use of the questionnaire. A total of 1,923 surveys were used from all NAD unions. The findings of this document are an initial analysis of the data using the latest version of SPSS. The purpose of the Executive Summary is to highlight key findings from the study, which includes: • Summarizing the demographic findings in order to describe the characteristics of church members in this division. • Describing the religious and spiritual behaviors of respondents. • Summarizing the demographic findings in order to describe the characteristics of church members in this division. • Describing the religious and spiritual behaviors of respondents. • Summarizing respondents’ awareness of and participation in General Conference sponsored programming. • Describing members’ acceptance of key fundamental beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist Church

On Epistemology of Missiological Research

In this article I addressed the nature of missiology and missiological research. Missiology is like a dynamic river that can “flow” with any academic discipline examining human behavior “to expand missiological theory and applications and to extend the mission Dei” (Elliston 2011:112). Theological research as a stand-alone research method may or may not serve missiological purposes; however, missiology and theology are related disciplines. This same rational does not apply to the social sciences and missiology. Missiology can benefit enormously from a social science approach to research but may be paralyzed by utilizing social science research as a whole package

The Triune God as a Driving Force Behind a Healthy Growing Church

This study explores the recent missiological and ecclesiological discussion as it relates to the wellbeing of the Church; this is considered in light of an analysis of Trinitarian text in Matthew 28:19 and major themes of 1 John