More than half the volunteers who are serving as Seventh-day Adventist ministers in the Pacific islands are not equipped to fulfil the role expected of them, a new report shows.

Author Dr Brad Kemp, the director of leadership and Pacific resources for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the South Pacific, estimates that almost 70 per cent of the more than 470 church members serving as volunteer ministers in the Pacific islands need in-service training and that more than 50 per cent have received what he calls "inadequate" training.

Dr Kemp differentiates in his report the courses offered by church tertiary education institutions such as the Omaura School of Ministry and Sonoma Adventist College in Papua New Guinea with lay training schools. These schools, organised by local missions of the church in Papua New Guinea and in the Trans-Pacific, offer short courses in subjects such as biblical foundations, church management and evangelism. Dr Kemp describes the courses as "necessary" but adds they "do not provide the depth a church member needs to provide an on-going ministry as a minister to a local church."

"The question we need to ask is, 'How can the church equip these ministers?'" writes Dr Kemp in his report.

Dr Kemp identifies the growth of the church in the Pacific islands as the root cause of the problem. He notes in his report the deterioration in the ratio of ministers to church members, from 1:114 in 1973 to 1:647 in 2003, and the ballooning ratio of ministers to local churches, from 1:0.85 in 1973 to 1:9.2 in 1999.

Dr Kemp writes that the church has increasingly come to depend on its members to provide pastoral care. "The figures suggest that church members serving as volunteer ministers are ministering in eight out of every nine local churches in Papua New Guinea on any given Sabbath."

He adds that this provides church members with a focus for their energies and a place of status in their church community. "But leadership development requires more than a willing person. It requires the church to provide a climate in which leaders in the Pacific islands can grow through the provision of appropriate experiences and opportunities."

The Adventist Church in the South Pacific is working with leaders of the church in Papua New Guinea and in the Trans-Pacific to address the problem. [Editor: Brenton Stacey for ANN-Australia/APD]