Organisational communication: types of communication used by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church in spreading Christianity

Abstract

The Millerite movement persisted during the great disappointment, even though many returned to the former Christian churches because the dates predicted for the Lord’s second coming did not come to pass. Miller’s central focus was to determine if his audiences were ready for Christ’s second coming. William Miller and Ellen White documenting their values and beliefs have seen this movement develop into the Seventh-day Adventist Church as an organisation that has made great inroads into various areas. This organisation was established by lay preachers. The aim of this paper was to identify the various types of communication employed by the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Klopper’s (2003) Theory of Optimisation of Human Communication (TOHC) will be used as the theoretical framework for this study. For a community to survive they need to employ various types of communication available. Secondly, they need to be competitive against other groups. This paper analysed the Seventh-day Adventist Church statistics from those which were posted on their websites. The paper shows how the Seventh-day Adventist Church survived during the great disappointment because they employed the various types of communication effectively. They became competitive by making inroads into new communities and presented the gospel through maximising the use of various types of communication available through the centuries. To be effective, early Christian groups irrespective of which stage of development they were in, should have maximised the use of all communication types accessible.

Keywords: Seventh-day Adventist Church, communications, movements, organisation, Christianity