A Missiological Approach : Building relationship through friendship as the more effective way of bringing new people to church

A Missiological Approach : Building relationship through friendship as the more effective way of bringing new people to church

Anglican Church of Tanzania -- Missions.
Church growth -- Tanzania.
Evangelistic work -- Tanzania -- Anglican Communion.
Christianity and other religions -- Tanzania.
Indigenous peoples -- Religion -- Tanzania.
Tanzania -- Religious life and customs.
Datooga (African people) -- Religion.
Datooga (African people) -- Attitudes.
Datooga (African people) -- Missions.
Marginality, Social -- Tanzania -- Religious aspects -- Christianity.
Non-church-affiliated people -- Tanzania.
Witchcraft -- Tanzania.
Bible. John IV -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.

By George M. Okoth, 2013. "This project thesis offers a missiological approach, that is, building relationship through friendship as the more effective way of bringing new people to church. My theory is constructed and derived from my experience as a pastor, a teacher and theologian in the Anglican Church. The goal of this project is to address the need for developing relevant missiological strategies to bring the un-reached / the marginalized people to the church. Currently there is an absence of missiological theory that explicitly provides the various norms, sources and process that intends to evangelize the un-reached through building friendship. In order to test my thesis, I organized three dinners in my house to help me learn from the target group, the Mangati people. I also selected and evaluated a variety of sources for the construction of my theory. The work of Donald A. McGavran, Roland Allen, David Gortner and Vincent J. Donovan provide a behavioral framework upon which my understanding of mission to the un-reached is based. The main theological source for my theory of building friendship as an effective way of bringing new people to church is the Gospel of John chapter four (4). Other theological sources are David Bosch - understanding of the primacy of mission in the life of the church - and Jurgen Moltmann - understanding of the role of the church as spreading the kingdom. The significance of this project thesis is that it provides a method, this is, building friendship with bridge builders, establishing relationships, offering hospitality to the un-reached and at the end of the day, meeting them where they are by planting a homogeneous unit principle (HUP) church."

Okoth, George M.

See record for print version in Library Catalog.

Virginia Theological Seminary

2013

© Copyright George M. Okoth, 2013.