Impact of Storytelling to Effect Life Change at Raleigh Seventh-day Adventist Church

185 Pages·2016·1.24 MB·English

Andrews University
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Project Documents Graduate Research
2013
Impact of Storytelling to Effect Life Change at
Raleigh Seventh-day Adventist Church
Robert Louis Cundiff
Andrews University
This research is a product of the graduate program inDoctor of Ministry DMinat Andrews University.Find
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Recommended Citation
Cundiff, Robert Louis, "Impact of Storytelling to Effect Life Change at Raleigh Seventh-day Adventist Church" (2013).Project
Documents. 36.
https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/dmin/36
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ABSTRACT

IMPACT OF STORYTELLING TO EFFECT LIFE CHANGE AT
RALEIGH SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH

by

Robert L. Cundiff

Adviser: Rollin Shoemaker
ABSTRACT OF GRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH

Project Document

Andrews University

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Title: IMPACT OF STORYTELLING TO EFFECT LIFE CHANGE AT RALEIGH
SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH

Name of researcher: Robert Louis Cundiff

Name of degree of faculty adviser: Rollin Shoemaker DMin

Date completed: June 2013

Problem

The Raleigh Seventh-day Adventist Church is a large metropolitan congregation
with many media saturated professionals, young adults and busy students. As such,
spiritual growth is hampered and preaching is degraded from a transformational
experience to an informational event. This result is often an inability to engage the
preaching event so that life change can happen. Hearers need to listen actively to
experience transformation.
Method
Research was conducted in which new storytelling methods were field tested from
the Raleigh pulpit. The program included these steps:
1. A hypothesis was developed to guide the research and provide a rationale for
data collection and evaluation.
2. A baseline survey was administered to establish a benchmark regarding
listener’s perceived spiritual growth and appreciation of the stories they had previously
heard from the Raleigh pulpit.
3. A four-part sermon series was preached in which two new storytelling methods
were used.
4. An exit survey was administered to collect data from which to measure
differences in listener response.
5. The data was evaluated, conclusions drawn and recommendations made.

Results
One hundred and thirty-three participants completed the baseline survey while
128 completed the exit survey. The data collected is contrary to the hypothesis and
suggests that the hypothesis does not hold. Listeners with Two Year or technical college
degrees seemed to have the greatest appreciation of the series while more educated
listeners seemed to have had less. Men responded more favorably to the series than they
did on the baseline survey and reported less variance. The Latino population reported the
most appreciation for the series, and the 18-30 year old population reported the least
appreciation for the series. The 61+ population had the reported the highest variances of
any group.
Conclusion
The project led to five recommendations; 1) I will develop a seminar on how to be
a good pew listener; 2) More research needs to be conducted about how men grow
spiritually; 3) Further study should be done to explore the potential response of men to
more emotive matters; 4) In future research, I will be more mindful to isolate new
Adventists as a separate population/demographic; and 5) More research needs to be
conducted to understand how education affects listener response so that preaching can
maximize its effectiveness with this population.
Andrews University

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

IMPACT OF STORYTELLING TO EFFECT LIFE CHANGE AT
RALEIGH SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH

Project Document
Presented in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Doctor of Ministry

by

Robert Louis Cundiff

June, 2013
© Copyright by Robert L. Cundiff 2013
All Rights Reserved
IMPACT OF STORYTELLING TO EFFECT LIFE CHANGE AT
RALEIGH SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH

A project document
presented in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree
Doctor of Ministry

by

Robert L. Cundiff

APPROVAL BY THE COMMITTEE:

_______________________________ _________________________________
Adviser, Director, DMin Program
Rollin Shoemaker Skip Bell

_______________________________ _________________________________
Ben Maxson Dean, SDA Theological Seminary
Denis Fortin

_______________________________ _________________________________
Loren Seibold Date approved
DEDICATION

This work is lovingly dedicated to my mother, Patsy Cundiff, whose unselfish life
paved the way for my ministry and taught me innumerable lessons about the Kingdom of
God, the value of which can only rightly be understood once we cross the threshold of
heaven’s gates.

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