Involving the Adventist Laity in evangelizing Hindus in Hyderabad : a case study

Abstract

The Adventist Church believes in the priesthood of all believers, which encourages the active involvement of the laity in evangelism. The involvement of the laity in Hindu evangelism is lacking in the Hyderabad Metro Section (HMS), India. There are several reasons for the lack of lay involvement in Hindu evangelism in HMS. The first reason is that the laity are unaware of their role, responsibility, and accountability in Hindu evangelism. The second reason is that the laity lacks an understanding of the Hindu worldview and culture. The third and foremost reason is that the laity assumes that evangelizing Hindus is not the priority of the Adventist church in HMS. This study presents the problem of handling the laity in the territory of HMS. The study analyzes the concept of laity from a biblical and theological perspective. A methodological structure is provided to study the laity as a case; it includes the local church and clergy, and the local context of the study is presented in the study. The empirical research is conducted to gather the various views and opinions of the HMS laity, clergy, and leaders. Finally, the theoretical framework is designed to develop a missiological model to effectively involve the laity in Hindu evangelism. The model is developed on the principles of LOVE (Lead, Organize, Venture new initiatives, and Evaluate), the acronym of which is the foundation on which the model is built.