| dc.description.abstract | From the Church’s inception in Mozambique in 1911, the pioneers trained
baptismal candidates for a minimum of 10 years. After the GC Harvesting 1990
Quinquennial Motto, this aspect was completely lost counting from the Global
Mission Program to date. The Church leadership capitalized in quantitative rather than
qualitative membership, the training aspect has been neglected. Thus challenges and
threats hit hard the Church in Mozambique. One of them is death ceremonies (DCs).
In Mozambique, ceremonies (Cs) to the dead have become the first “church” in the
Country and are celebrated everyday especially on Saturdays and Sundays. Most of
Urban SDA members frequently miss first hours of services on Saturdays due to such
celebrations or come late to Church services attending them while the 26th
fundamental church pillar is very clear about death and resurrection. One of the Cs
(7th day) bears the name of the 7th day Adventist Church. These Cs emphasize the state of the dead and all this happens because of lacking trained Ministers and
expulsion of the existing ones.
The purpose of this study was to create a better understanding of DCs and how
these affect, labour, society and worship as regards to God’s Holy Sabbath
observance, death, and resurrection, two Fundamental Doctrines of the SDA Church.
There is no contact between the dead and the living. The Church in Mozambique
should come up with a clear twofold training framework program taking it way back
to the roots of its origins whereby “discipling” was the major Church activity before
baptizing anyone. Train the existing workers first at all church levels, recruit new, and
invest in their education. The suggested strategies here should serve as a Model for
strategic seminar training programs. Help members and students accept and value
them.
After the definition of death, Cs, and other terms surrounding the topic, a
biblical survey was conducted in both Old and New Testaments literature and other
pertinent authors to pave the way and establish a foundation for the forthcoming
discussion. The researcher collected data for personal, group and class opinions, from
16 churches, various church records at Field /Mission, and Union levels, 75 students
from grades 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, gatherings, mortuaries, and municipalities. Instrument
applied was interview protocols and techniques were surveys, samplings, and
checklist observations. Findings indicated that 92.7% attended DCs against 7.3% who
did not for Sabbath School; 44.4% were affected while 55.6% were regular for the
divine services. 93.3% are aware of DCs against 6.7% with no idea, overall of Church
Leaders trained in Mozambique are 13.06% against 86.94% who need education, in
Beira 150 people die weekly, in Maputo 149 people die weekly and while in Nampula
4.129 people die annually; Public transporters frequent lines where there are cemeteries according to availability and private ones have even created bus terminals
in cemeteries.
Finally, DCs are just heathen cultural practices of the historic origins related to
Roman, Syrian, By zantinic martyrs’ honouring and Greek philosophy. If no
correction is soon made the implications will likely be that a different SDA Church
will be established and this one will soon disappear. Therefore, the researcher highly
recommends the GC to correct the situation investing in education and training, to
place technical personnel in the right places, to send all untrained church workers to
schools, colleges, and universities and consider the didactic pedagogic strategies
suggested in this project as of a pivotal importance. Suggestions are that local
churches accept and participate more in training sessions. | en_US |
