A strategy to revitalize literature evangelists in Arusha city, Tanzania

Abstract

Ellen G. White has repeatedly made calls that every Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) believer is called upon to scatter and broadcast tracts, leaflets, and books containing the message for this time. Yet, it appears that global Adventism, and Tanzania in particular, have very few literature evangelists (N=127), and these few appear to not be motivated, moreover having seemingly tense relationships with district pastors and, to a lesser extent, with church members. Thus, a project was designed with a strategy to revitalize literature evangelists in Arusha. The project involved 20 literature evangelists (75% female) residing in Arusha and 80 district pastors (100% male) who were working with North-Eastern Tanzania Conference (NETC). The study followed project design which had two phases of data collection and analysis. The pre-test phase is presented in Chapter Three, while the post-test phase is presented in Chapter Four. The study employed a questionnaire in both phases, but the second phase had only items that needed follow-up due to their statistical significance. The pre-test results showed both literature evangelists and pastors agreed that the spirituality was good of literature evangelists (M=2.16, SD=0.9298); the pastoral support of literature evangelists from pastors is ranging from average to weak (M=3.7666, SD 1.2933); however, it was interesting to note that both literature evangelists and pastors agreed that the membership support is good (M=3.28, SD 0.9896). The study also found out seven core challenges, Capital (M=4.2); Transportation (M=4.3); Reaching the educated (M=4.5), Not owning a car (M=4.9); Not owning a house (M=4.2); lack of competence in speaking English (M=4.8) and Tense Relationship with pastors (M=4.2). The post-test results focused on the objective relating to pastoral care, the findings showed improvement from M=3.7 which was interpreted as average pastoral care to M=2.3 which is interpreted as good pastoral care. Moreover, seminars in churches resulted in an additional 15 literature evangelists, which was a 60% increase from a pre-test season. Therefore, it is concluded that NETC ensures there is a good relationship between literature evangelists and pastors among other recommendations.