Office of
Research and Creative Scholarship

2020-2021 Faculty Research Grants

Petr Cincala, Anthony WagenerSmith, and Shannon Trecartin (World Mission, Christian Ministry, Social Work)

Evaluation of Church Planting in the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists

Data-driven information on church planting processes and results appear lacking within the Seventh-day Adventist Church. As a result, visioning, strategic planning, and resources can become anecdotal or personality-driven rather than data-driven. The NAD Evangelism Institute, along with the Institute for Church Ministry, proposes a three-year research project (2020-2022) concluding with an in-depth report and the creation of a database to be used for church planting across multiple cultural and language groups. By providing an accurate picture of the state of church planting, this research will help shape future initiatives for church planting in the Seventh-day Adventist church, in line with is mission strategies. In addition, this project will fill an existing need in the NAD by assisting with two of the three stated objectives from the 2020 NAD Strategic Report given at Year-End Meetings, 2017: 1) assisting with communication between the division and members and 2) assisting church leaders in improving leadership. Through the collection, analysis, and codification of data, NAD leadership will have access to data-driven recommendations for local churches, which can result in improvements to leadership and church planting strategies. The purpose of this study is to discover the impact of planting new churches by gathering data about leadership, mission focus, diversity, and growth. The study will identify best practices in church planting with an intentional focus on various language and culture groups. The research objectives include:

  1. Develop an accurate picture of who we are and are not reaching through church planting.
  2. Describe best practices that exist among various contexts, people groups, and languages.
  3. Discover the impact of church planting as a means for leadership development, member involvement, financial engagement, evangelism, and intentional discipleship.

The research will have implications for the formation and continuing education of paid pastors, as well as awareness and development of volunteer pastors. In addition, the results provide a data-driven context to shape the conversation for future mission initiatives, visioning, and strategic planning.