Spiritual gifts: a witnessing project development for Waterford SDA Church

Abstract

The program development focused on Waterford Seventh-day Adventist Church located in Waterford district in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. It was necessary to ascertain whether the SDA Church in Waterford experienced challenges in growth because of non-member participation, its location, and or its economic activities. It was also important to mobilize members so as to enhance growth and retention. It is from this background that there was need to carefully help the church realize growth through the discipling program. The development of this program was a follow up on the repeated calls from the South Zimbabwe Conference leadership on the need to increase member participation. The pattern followed by this study involved some revival prayer meetings, all night prayers, and ten days of prayer. Furthermore, some Bible seminars, training seminars, Preaching seminars, small group ministries, spiritual gifts seminars, and special program emphasis, were conducted in order to improve member-participation in church activities and their retention. The findings of the study were that members could participate in the activities and programs of the church if mobilized, encouraged, and well trained. It was further realized that the church is located in an area that is hardly expanding in terms of population growth. It is surrounded by small-scale farming plots. The study also found out that the intensive farming activities in the surrounding area affects numbers in the church, soul-winning endeavors, and even Sabbath observance. The study concluded that with proper training and guidance, church members can be revived such that they can participate in all church programs and activities. The study further concluded that even if the area is a closed type of environment for evangelism, souls can still be baptized for Christ. It was also concluded from the study that the small group program, health promotion expos, special needs programs, and Bible Centre concept, are effective methods in keeping the church alive and steadily growing as opposed to public evangelism.