A strategy to reclaim former church members in Nyegezi Seventh-day Adventist District, South Nyanza Conference, Tanzania

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to find the reasons why members left the Adventist Church and to find a strategy to reclaim them back into the church in the Nyegezi Seventh-day Adventist District, South Nyanza Conference, Tanzania. The research problem is that, although an increasing number of individuals are being baptized over the years into the Adventist Church, the number of those who leave the church after baptism is also increasing. To address the situation it is necessary to find out from the former members why they chose to leave the church. The answers will be used as a basis to strategize on how to reclaim these former members. The study chose a cross-sectional descriptive design. The population was the former church members and 175 former members randomly chosen from four churches of Nyegezi district participated in the study. The study used a questionnaire to collect the data. To analyze the data percentages, frequencies, mean, and standard deviation were used.The demographic characteristics showed that the former members were mostly young adult women, single, with a low level of education (primary and secondary only), and earning a low level of income. The findings also indicated that most members who left the church were raised in Adventist homes, and another group of members came from other Protestant denominations before joining the Adventist Church. The latter came to know about the Adventist Church from public evangelism campaigns. The majority of the respondents indicated that they received adequate teaching and instruction before getting baptized and they stayed in the church for an average of 1-5 years. The study also inquired into the major reasons why these people left the church. The first reason was a decline in their spiritual life; the second reason evoked was a lack of social support in times of crisis; the third reason was because of marriage issues; the fourth reason was working on the Sabbath. The study concluded that the strategy used to reclaim the church members must be well thought through and implemented with wisdom and prayer. This is because the reasons evoked are interrelated and there is always the risk of reclaiming the church members only to lose them again.