A strategy to restore the sanctity of the Sabbath in the Limbe Seventh-day Adventist Church, South Malawi Field

Abstract

This study led to a strategy to restore the sanctity of the Sabbath in Limbe Seventh-day Adventist Church, South Malawi Field. It was initiated because of the need for the observance and the sanctity of the Sabbath, which many Adventist members in Limbe Adventist Church were not able to do, even though they knew that they should observe the Sabbath as stipulated in the Bible (Isaiah 58:13, 14 and Exod. 20:8-11). The Adventist congregation in Limbe has been steadily growing numerically, but the quality of membership there may be improved. For example, one of the key pillars of the Adventist faith, the doctrine of the Sabbath, is negated by the way many Adventists in Limbe observe and keep it. The prevalence of profanation and violation of the sanctity of the Sabbath in Limbe makes a mockery of the general self understanding of the Adventist Church to be the remnant church that “keeps the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” It is estimated that out of 190 baptized church members, over 50% of the members do not regard the sanctity of this seventh-day Sabbath according to the Scriptural admonitions. The purpose of this study was to develop, implement and evaluate a biblically under girded strategy that would address challenges of inadequate theological understanding of the sanctity of the Sabbath. This may, in turn, raise the Limbe Adventist Church members’ awareness of the need to keep the Sabbath holy. In this research, the researcher endeavoured in all the possible areas that had to do with the Sabbath and its redemptive components to salvation. All the findings are discussed in the six chapters of this dissertation. At first, the Adventist members did not have a place of worship that they owned—they rented the Imperial Tobacco Group (I. T. G.) facilities as their place of worship. This place was also rented by other denominations for the same purpose. Apparently, Adventists of Limbe area were impacted by the surrounding Christian denominations who keep their Sabbath (Sunday) and tended to compromise biblical principles. The study of biblical instances of the sanctity and observance of Sabbath, both in Old Testament and the New Testament, revealed that the sanctity and observance of the Sabbath was imperative to all Christians. The initial survey used both qualitative and quantitative (mixed) methods. This revealed more the need of Sabbath observance and its sanctity. Seminars were conducted. Each seminar took one hour. PowerPoint presentations were done during different intervals. A quantitative final evaluation was conducted to ensure that the participants understood the importance of the sanctity and observance of Sabbath. The final analysis revealed that 75% (14) of the participants indicated that the challenge to restore the sanctity of Sabbath was adequately addressed by the researcher. Eighty-five (85%, 15 participants) indicated that leadership should take a greater role in informing the church members of the proper way to keep the Sabbath holy. The urgent need was to encourage them to be positive and teachable when it comes to principles of Sabbath observance in the Adventist Church. The results indicated that the intervention met its objective of restoring the sanctity of the Sabbath. Limbe Adventist Church may be used as a pilot and a model to help other churches to resolve the issue. As shown in the appendix, some church members requested the presentations to help other churches.