Christian Ministry Research Articles

Unethical Ministerial Practices Among Some Ghanaian Pastors

In recent times, ministerial misconduct of Ghanaian pastors has become rampant in print, electronic and social media. How do we explain these acts of indecency perpetrated under the guise of freedom of religion by some ministers that identify with Christianity? What accounts for these behaviours? And what could be done to prevent such strange practices from escalating to disaster proportions? To answer these questions, data were collected from published literature and media reports. The study argues that the consistent unethical practices, activities, and utterances of some Ghanaian pastors negatively affect Christian ministry in Ghana. Focusing on some of the unethical ministerial practices and initiatives undertaken by these pastors, this article investigates the reasons responsible for their occurrences and proffers remedial suggestions. The study draws attention to uncaring shepherds, the seared conscience of some pastors, easily manipulated congregations, sleeping shepherds and the high demand for deliverance services by congregants as possible reasons that bring about these unethical ministerial practices. Finally, the article contends that to achieve a desired transformative Christian ministry in Ghana, the Church must pay attention to the religious practices of some pastors and if possible, find a way to regulate them.

Slaying the “Venomous Beast:” Envy in the Work of Christian Ministry and Teaching

Envy is a vice that is both widespread and uniquely corrosive, undermining relationships among ministry and teaching colleagues. This article draws upon a wide array of historical and contemporary ministers, theologians, philosophers, and social scientists to look at the meaning of envy, the contexts in which envy is most likely to emerge, the destructive power of envy, and the perspectives and practices that are necessary for envy to be tamed in church and school environments.

Exploring student learning effectiveness in a case study of asynchronous online instruction for promoting intercultural church ministry in a Chinese–American seminary

ABSTRACT There has been an emphasis on intercultural competency in various professional training settings in the past decade. In Christian ministry, this skillset is highly desirable, and is an important learning outcome in theological education. This research aims to explore the effectiveness of asynchronous online instruction in promoting intercultural competency in a case study of a second-generation Asian-American ministry course in seminary. The research questions focus on cultural differences and adequate instructional strategies, as perceived by students. This research uses surveyed data based on Hofstede's cultural dimensions and qualitative interview data from a course instructor and the students. The results show that the cultural differences between the instructor and students bring positive challenges for students to experience the conflicts in processing and communicating cultural perspectives and ministry philosophies. This case study has suggested that a course learning on intercultural ministry would be most effective in focusing on students’ cultural exposures, reflection on contrasting cultural perspectives, and intercultural communication skills. Although the development of students’ intercultural competencies will not be complete by taking the course, the experience gained through it is significant and opens their eyes and mind to see the greatness of God's kingdom. One that is culturally diverse and continues to inspire their discovery.

Assessing the Personal Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Retired Clergy: Listening to their Experiences

ABSTRACT Like stipendiary and self-supporting clergy, retired clergy faced personal and professional challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic. In order to illuminate the personal impact of the pandemic, the project Through the eyes of retired clergy invited 30 retired Church of England clergy to document their experiences of the pandemic, and 24 accepted the invitation. The present paper analyses their responses and highlights five areas: the impact of the pandemic on physical wellbeing, mental wellbeing, and spiritual wellbeing; opportunities during the pandemic to exercise Christian ministry; Christian ministry received from others during the pandemic; things missed most during the pandemic; and gains during the pandemic. These findings lead to two main conclusions: concerning the significant contribution made to the ministry and mission of the Church by retired clergy during the pandemic; and concerning how retired clergy could have benefited from greater recognition and support during the pandemic.

RETHINKING CHARIS IN ENGLISH AND YORUBA BIBLE INTERPRETATIONS: FROM BIBLICAL EXEGESIS TO TRANSLATION ANALYSIS BY

The concept of biblical charis has been interpreted in most Christian congregational gatherings as gracefulness, kindness, favour, prosperity, freedom, liberality, lawlessness, pleasure and the like, with little or no interest for its implications for good works and moral values in the society. This paper, therefore, explores the translation of charis from Greek into English and Yoruba languages with a view to bringing to the fore its socio-religious implications via good works and moral values in the context of South-western region of Nigeria and beyond. The study purposely selected three pericopes that centred on a New Testament word charis translated into English as grace and Yoruba as Oore-ofe as stated in the Gospel according to John 1:14-18; Paul’s Epistles to the Ephesians 2:8-10 and to Titus 2:11-14 respectively. These selected passages from New Testament Greek version were analysed as translated into English by New International Version (henceforth, NIV) (1987) and Bibeli Yoruba Atoka (BYA) (1998) (that is Yoruba Reference Bible) respectively. It employed descriptive research method and subjected selected verses to exegetical and translation analysis with a view to suggesting novel interpretation of charis in Christian congregational teachings and meetings. Based on the exegetical inference, the work has suggested that Bible interpreters as well as Christian ministers should take advantage of the import of Charis to interpret the Word of God for the benefits of social values among their listeners. Bible interpreters should emphasise grace as imperative for good works in Christian congregational teachings and meetings to the advantage of global peace and enhancement of effective socio-religious relationships. The work has asserted that both translations of Charis in English and Yoruba versions have areas of convergences and divergences. The convergences are mostly on direct lexical equivalence, while the divergences are the results of differences in approaches that were employed by the translators. Keywords: Yoruba Bible Translation, Translation of Charis, Exegetical approach to translation, Grace implications

An Insufficient Canon: The Popol Wuj, Book of Mormon, and Other Scriptures

An Insufficient Canon: The Popol Wuj, Book of Mormon, and Other Scriptures

Reflective Practice and Faith Integration: An Example from Psychology That Can Be Applied Across Disciplines

Although faith integration has been part of Christian ministry and pastoral counseling, it has not been included as much in clinical research, training, and practice in psychology, secular counseling, or most health professions. Reasons for exclusion include secular ethics and licensing criteria, but Christian faith can inform research and professional practice--even in secular contexts. Previous authors have discussed the integration of faith with medical practice: in some settings, using providential intervention; and in eldercare, using religious coping. This article extends that work to consider faith integration with reflective practice. Sacrifice of one's own perspective to peer inside the worldview of another, for the sake of healing, not only provides pragmatic improvements to care, but also correlates with God's commandments to love one another. Relevant techniques of reflective practice increase the quality of care given by all healthcare professionals. Many faith-integration techniques presented in this article can be applied to disciplines across the arts, sciences, and humanities.

The Francis Psychological Type Scales (FPTS): factor structure, internal consistency reliability, and concurrent validity with the MBTI

ABSTRACT The Francis Psychological Type Scales (FPTS) were developed to operationalise psychological type theory in a way appropriate for and accessible to survey-style research, administered either online or offline. For the present study, two samples of adults participating in short courses relevant for Christian ministry (N = 185 and 392) completed the FPTS at least one day after completing the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI®). The data: confirmed the basic factor structure of the FPTS; demonstrated the satisfactory internal consistency reliability of the indices of introversion and extraversion, sensing and intuition, feeling and thinking, judging and perceiving; and supported the concurrent validity of this measure against the MBTI® in terms of both correlations between continuous scale scores and allocation to type categories.

Emerging apologetics Themes in contemporary African youth ministry: A Kenyan perspective

Contemporary Christian ministry and theological education in Africa cannot neglect her children and young people. Engaging effectively with the children and youth in Africa’s cities presents a rising challenge to scholars and practitioners. In addition to the developmental issues surrounding children and youth, there are worldview issues at play among young people. Urban African cities like Nairobi contain a mixture of African traditional religious worldviews, modern worldviews, and postmodern worldviews. This means that Christian ministry with the emerging generations will often take an apologetic mode. The scholarly literature on apologetics in the continent is scanty. Further, much of the research is merely theoretical and lacks empirical insight from practical ministry. This article will use an empirical methodology among African church leaders to collect salient themes in the discipline and practice of apologetics and draw conclusions for ministry and theological education.

STUDI BIBLIKAL KONSEP PELAYAN KRISTEN BERDASARKAN 2 TIMOTIUS 1 : 3 -18

The service that is done by the servants has many obstacles, because there is no responsibility and integrity in serving so that everything that is done in serving does not have the firmness of faith. Using descriptive qualitative methods with a literature study approach aims that services must have the qualifications contained in the context of 2 Timothy 1: 3-18. It can be concluded that the concept of Christian ministry based on 2 Timothy 1: 3-18 is that the servant first believes in the call to be a servant (2 Timothy 1:11). The call to the servant becomes the basis for someone to serve. Second, it opens the paradigm that service is a gift from God (2 Tim.1: 9). Third, a servant who stirs up gifts (2 Tim.1: 6). The fourth is a servant who keeps a beautiful treasure (2 Tim.1: 14). And the last one is the servant who has faith (2 Tim.1: 5-6). And these qualifications are the basis for placing ministry in the context of 2 Timothy 1: 3-18, for believers today to continue serving God.

Meningsfull tro i sosiokulturell kontekst. En undersøkelse av forholdet mellom gudsåpenbaring og kultur

This article contributes towards developing a “theology of culture”. It explores and strengthens our understanding of the role of culture in God’s administration and communication with humankind. Contextualization is not simply a “good strategy” but is god-intended and therefore inherent to any and all aspects of Christian mission. Cultural preconceptions inevitably activate syncretic adaptations in processes of conversion. Instead of trying to avoid syncretism, a culturally conscious Christian ministry needs to engage syncretic evolvements with empathy and sensitivity. Hiebert’s model of critical contextualization, coupled with a Lutheran understanding of the function of culture, enhances our commitment to take peoples’ lives seriously.

Holistic ministry approach to migration: Towards a practical theological and integrated ecclesiological model

The design of church migrant ministries remains suppressed by the limitation of churches that include limited resources and ability to conceptualise ministerial designs. The situation is compounded by compassion global fatigue. Thus, as a holistic ministry, approach, the application and practice of a migrant ministry remain a conceptual challenge despite the Christian position that integrating word and deed is the most appropriate Christian ministry approach. To contribute towards conceptualising the design of a holistic ministry by using migrant practical ministry, this article proposes a public, practical theology and operative ecclesiological model. The proposed model or approach is called a public operative ecclesiological model (POEM), which entails churches understanding their public practical theological position and responsive role within their communities and social settings.Contribution: The model advocates and leverages church resources to respond to people’s needs by ensuring that a church practically contributes to public issues such as migration.

Heuristic Reasoning and Conversational Cases in the Gospel of John

The grace of Christ needs to be on the agenda of preaching in the Gospels, especially in the Gospel of John. In the current pandemic atmosphere, heuristic reasoning can be grounded from the Gospel of John. The counselee needs clarity about himself and why he must entrust his life to the Lord Jesus. And the contribution of Christianity is to strive for them to grow in faith and become mature disciples of Christ in the future. The process of becoming a disciple of Christ of course by paying attention to the cognitive workings of the individual concerned. And it becomes an important part of Christian ministry so that the quality of the faith that is reached is visible and useful in his life. Heuristic reasoning can be one of the proposed models because Christ himself used this reasoning with many people, including His disciples.

Development and Validation of Christian Ministers Psychopathological Scale (CMPS)

This paper describes the development and validation of a Christian Ministers Psychopathological Scale (CMPS) to facilitate early diagnosis of mental health challenges among Christian Ministers, especially in Nigeria. The study adopted a cross-sectional design and was carried out in four stages. The initial items were generated from an extensive review of literature and concerns raised from a focused group discussion among Christian ministers with Pentecostal affiliation. These concerns are perceived as possible predictors of mental health challenges among the ministers. Fifty-two (52) participants were randomly selected from Ede, Osun State, Southwestern Nigeria for the scale development, while four hundred and fifty-six (456) participants were randomly selected across the six geo-political zones in Nigeria. They responded to the online versions of the 15- item instrument (CMPS) and Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-14) for the congruent validation. The observed KMO measure was 0.47, and a significant sphericity test was observed (X2=1258.495, df= .703, p = .000). All the 15 items extracted from the Principal Components Analysis PCA were within the very good discrimination values. The CMPS has a Cronbach's alpha of .79. Congruent validity coefficient of (r =.368, p = .035); was observed between CMPS and DASS-14. Authors conclude that the CMPS is gender-sensitive, has acceptable psychometric properties and is recommended as a diagnostic tool for assessing psychopathological symptoms among Christian ministers.

Being a ‘terribly Christian Minister’: populism, gender, and anti-feminism in Damares Alves’s ministerial performance

ABSTRACT Aiming to contribute to the debates on the entanglements among the far-right and anti-feminism Latin America, this article seeks to shed light on the performance of Damares Alves as Brazil’s Minister of Women, Family and Human Rights. Regarding Alves’s conservatism along her political career, particularly during the 2018 presidential run, this study provided an analysis on the reasons behind her prominence to the ongoing bolsonarism, and on how she contributed to building the gender knowledge that anchors the populist narrative in Bolsonaro’s political project. Concerning anti-feminist project’s foundations, as well as Alves’s performance as a Christian-conservative woman, a set of her speeches in the first 19 months of her term was scrutinised, by adopting the FCDA as methodology and using the thematic analysis as a method. The pointing of Alves’s discursive strategies revealed her attacks on feminisms, and the aim of legitimising herself and Bolsonaro’s political project as pro-women.

Comparing Preaching in Acts and Contemporary Preaching in Kumasi-Ghana

Kumasi is saturated with preachers preaching all manner of messages. The media space, along major streets, the church space, as well as the market centres have all witnessed an insurgence of many different preachers. The preaching of the Gospel occupies a major place in the Christian church. Both Jesus and the Apostles as revealed in scripture made preaching and teaching an important part of their ministries. This paper examines the nature of Christian preaching in contemporary times in the city of Kumasi, Ghana. The nature of contemporary preaching is compared to that of preaching in the Book of Acts. Qualitative data was gathered through the preacher’s visits to six churches; sixty listeners and 22 preachers were interviewed in Kumasi. One of the major findings was that some preachers in the city of Kumasi today have turned the preaching of the gospel into a business venture. This study advocates the urgent need to guide preaching in the world today with a biblical motif. Sound biblical preaching is significant for the advancement of the Christian faith. It recommends that preaching must result in societal transformation so contemporary preachers must prioritize relating sermons that shoot down the growing ills in the Ghanaian society. The study adds to knowledge in biblical preaching and brings to bear how useful the guiding mirror of scripture could protect contemporary Christian ministry from destructive messages. Keywords: Contemporary Preaching, Book of Acts, Christian Ministry.

Not an “Ordinary Man”: J. Gresham Machen and the Un-Queering of Evangelical Theology

ABSTRACTIn the 1920s, Princeton Seminary professor J. Gresham Machen was the leading fundamentalist intellectual of the Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy. His Calvinist theology, commitment to biblical inerrancy, and opposition to liberalism were passed on to and spread by his influential students including Carl McIntire, Harold Ockenga, and Francis Schaeffer. But in the early days of 1906, the young man who would go on to indelibly shape evangelical theology wrote home from Germany where he was a graduate student that he could never go into Christian ministry because of his “moral fault” that no “ordinary man” could understand. This article analyzes the coded language of J. Gresham Machen's letters during his pivotal personal crisis in the context of changing German understandings of “homosexuality” and Machen's lifelong homosocial tendencies. Moreover, it connects Machen's confrontation with his sexuality with his simultaneous confrontation with German liberal theology. In the fall of 1905, Machen found himself drawn to the more experiential and pluralistic Christianity of Wilhelm Herrmann. However, in facing his own perceived immorality, Machen found “Calvinism a very comforting doctrine indeed.” He rejected modernism and spent his life defending a rigid orthodoxy against the theologies that would come to accommodate and embrace queerness. The results of his personal crisis echoed through the history of twentieth-century American evangelicalism. This article analyzes the historical process of “un-queering” theology that emanated from that crisis and demonstrates that resistance to queerness was woven into the ideological fabric of evangelicalism far earlier than scholars have yet recognized.

Assessing the Influence of Self-Esteem and Emotional Intelligence on Psychopathological Symptoms among Trainee Christian Clerics

This study was carried out to observe the link between self-esteem, emotional intelligence (EQ) and psychopathology. A cross-sectional survey research design was adopted for the study. Purposive sampling techniques led to the selection of 466 participants from Redeemed Christian College of Missions, Ede, Osun State and Redeemed Christian Bible College, Mowe Ogun State, Nigeria. The participants responded to Christian Ministers Psychopathological Scale (CMPS), the Self Esteem Questionnaire (SEQ), and Schutte Self Report Emotional Intelligence Test (SSEIT). The domains of self-esteem had a joint significant predictive influence on psychopathological symptoms among the participants [F (6, 465) = 6.142, p = .000]. Emotional intelligence (EQ) scores significantly predicted levels of psychopathological symptoms among the participants [F (6, 465) = 8.552, p = .004]. Self-esteem and emotional intelligence jointly and significantly predicted psychopathological symptoms among trainee ministers [F (6, 465) = 11.263, p = .000]. Further analysis showed that self-esteem has an independent predictive influence on psychopathological symptoms (β = .183, p = .000). The authors recommend that pastors should pay attention to their mental health. Christian organisations need to create awareness of the benefits of healthy self-esteem and emotional intelligence among both intending and serving ministers to prevent triggers of psychopathologies.

Śladami pierwszych misjonarzy protestanckich w Himalajach


 
 
 The Moravian Brethren formed a very particular community within the Protestant Church. Above all, they had a distinct understanding of the Christian ministry and, consequently, their group had a disctinct missionary character. They were the first to undertake Protestant missions among peoples living far from the centers of civilization and administrative power. This paper describes the author’s encounter with the Himala- yan cultures and traces of Moravian missionaries’ work in the area, discerned over many years of research focusing on the past European activity, its contexts and the durability of cultural solutions it promoted.
 
 

Pilgrimages from the District of Wieluń to the Jasna Góra Monastery (1921–1939)

Deep religiousness, beside a typically agricultural character of employment, was one of the most distinguishing features of the inhabitants of the district of Wieluń. It was manifested by i.e., a huge engagement in new forms of Christian ministry, which were initiated in circumstances of unrestricted activity of the Catholic Church after 1918. Irrespectively of it, the inhabitants of the Wieluń district were characterised by deep Marian piety, which was expressed in many ways. Beside their participation in services devoted to Our Lady, engagement in the Confraternity of the Rosary, distribution of magazines devotedto this issue as well as special respect paid to images of Our Lady, they took part in numerous pilgrimages. The Jasna Góra Monastery was the main goal of pilgrims. The faithful of this area accounted for the biggest group among all the groups from the whole Diocese of Częstochowa taking part in pilgrimages to the city of Częstochowa.