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.