Church Administrators Research Articles

Impact of Transparency and Accountability of Church Financial Reporting on the Interest of Members’ Church Giving Donations to Church

This research aims to determine the impact of transparency and accountability of the church's financial reporting on the interest of the congregation to donate to the church. However, the transparency and accountability of church finance reporting is something that absolutely must be done to keep the faith of the congregation. Management of church finances that are not transparent and accountable will be able to cause problems in the future between the congregation and the church administrators so that among the congregation itself. The sample used is determined based on the criteria of ever donating more than the amount set by the church and has been a member of the church for at least three years. So the sample is 150 people congregation spread in seven wik. Methods of data analysis used are the classical assumption test, hypothesis test and multiple regression analysis with the help of computer program SPSS version 20.0. The results show that partially transparency has a negative effect while accountability has a positive effect on the interest of the congregation to donate to the church. And, after simultaneous testing, the results show that both simultaneously affect the congregation's interest in donating to the church. Transparency is not an element that can influence the interest of the congregation to donate to the church. Accountability of financial reporting influences the interest of the congregation because this variable is still important for the congregation to know the financial accountability of the church for the congregations’ donation.

Seventh-day Adventist Clergy: Understanding Stressors and Coping Mechanisms

This article examines the extent and types of clergy stress, the strategies used in coping with stressors, and the relationship between stressors and coping mechanisms in a sample of 261 Seventh-day Adventist pastors in North America. The results indicate that the most commonly reported stressors in order are: (1) lack of social support, (2) financial stress, and (3) time and workload stress. In terms of coping strategies, pastors sought relief most often through: (1) reflective growth/internal change; (2) social/emotional coping; (3) passive coping; and lastly (4) action-oriented coping. Significant correlational relationships existed between passive coping and financial stress, relocating stress, and congregational stress. In addition, we found significant inverse correlations between coping through reflective growth or internal change and relocating stress and congregational stress. There were no significant relationships with action coping or social/emotional coping and any stressor. Multi-regression analysis reveals that passive coping strategies were significantly related to financial stress. Thus, the greater the financial stress, the more likely pastors were to engage in passive coping strategies. Other coping strategies showed no significant relationships when included in multi-regression analysis. We conclude with recommendations for Church administrators to address structures and practices in place for pastors including an expansion of coping mechanisms to help pastors address their stress.

Fee-free education, decentralisation and the politics of scale in Papua New Guinea

Policies aimed at both reducing the costs associated with schooling (particularly through fee-free education) and decentralising responsibility for education delivery have become a central part of international education doctrine. This article draws on the ‘politics of scale’ literature to highlight how these education reforms are contested at different scales, in turn leading to uneven administrative and material outcomes. It examines education policy reforms in Papua New Guinea, which have – contra international trends – sidelined non-state actors and strengthened the state’s role in managing education services. National fee-free education policy has been contested at different administrative scales. Church administrators have rallied (without much success) at national directives; subnational administrators and politicians have had greater success, rolling back some aspects of national policy; while local-level schools have employed their own tactics to resist national fee-free education policy. In turn, this case study highlights how fee-free educational policy shapes and is shaped by conflict at multiple administrative scales. The article’s findings have implications for debates about the relationship between fee-free education and decentralisation policies.

“So that in this part you should not lag behind other missionary congregations …”: The Introduction of National Helpers in the Moravian Mission among the Labrador Inuit

ABSTRACT While the Moravian Inuit congregations in Labrador prior to 1840 had a variety of male and female chapel servants and noncommissioned helpers, some of whom also fulfilled pastoral and evangelistic functions, none had ever been officially appointed to the office of a “national helper” (“National-Gehülfe”). In Labrador, this situation would change gradually in the coming decade, in part through prompting by the elders in Saxony. The process leading to that change is studied by examining the exchange of the local missionaries with the Unity Elders' Conference (UEC). While we can thus observe the change in Aboriginal lay leadership through the eyes of church administrators and missionaries, the reactions of the Moravian Inuit affected by these changes can at best be gleaned from the scope and nature of their extended activities, but without any direct access to the reflections of the lay helpers themselves. The story depicted here conveys nevertheless internal knowledge of one side of the process that led to indigenizing the Moravian ministry in Labrador. Official participation in church and ministry remained more limited in Labrador than in other missionary locales, a situation that continued into the twentieth century.

“A Rink at this School is Almost as Essential as a Classroom”: Hockey and Discipline at Pelican Lake Indian Residential School, 1945–1951

While there is now a considerable body of literature about the Canadian Indian residential school system, few researchers have used sport as the primary lens through which to understand the objectives and legacies of that system. This article examines the disciplinary effects of hockey at Pelican Lake Indian Residential School from 1945 to 1951. Local level school administrators, such as the principals, the Indian Agent, and Church representatives valued hockey because they believed it provided a measure of discipline in, and therefore control over, the students. The boys used the school's hockey team, the Sioux Black Hawks, to provide positive experiences and a level of achievement that had been absent at the school. Of importance beyond the school, government officials and Church administrators leveraged the team's success and glowing media coverage as a useful public relations tool to promote the “success” of residential schooling to the Canadian public.

“Each has a house of her own”: Purpose, Domesticity and Agency of First Nations Women in Canada’s Industrial School System, 1883-1923.

This paper uses the lenses of gender and colonialism to examine the goals and actual outcomes of industrial schools, as well as the experiences of female students in a particular era—the 1880s to the turn of the century. The industrial school system was originally implemented in western Canada to train First Nations males in various trades such as farming, and to assimilate these students into the dominant Euro-Canadian society, but administrators changed their mind and decided to educate female students as well. Specifically, the first three industrial schools created which laid the foundation for the system in the west (including British Columbia) will be the focus. These schools are High River Industrial School in what is now Alberta, and the Qu’Appelle Industrial School and the Battleford Industrial School in Saskatchewan. Two leading questions have shaped this study. First, this work interrogates the various churches’ and government’s goals for female students in the industrial schools of western Canada. This study argues that the Canadian federal government’s and various churches’ goals for the female students were twofold. Initially the purpose of education for the female student was to create “proper” wives for the male students who would stand in place of the “non-educated” and “unassimilated” First Nations females who would otherwise, according to officials of the institutions, pull male graduates back into a life of “savagery.” However, as time progressed, the methods of educating female students changed. Female students, with support from the government and the churches, took on the role of domestic servants both inside and out of the school as part of the “outing system.” However, administrators intended such positions to be temporary as the primary goal remained that female graduates would marry and conform to gender ideals at the time. Second, the paper examines the “success” of the schools based on their projected outcomes and argues that the system was ineffective. Female students prevented the federal government and various churches from achieving their goals of making “proper” housewives through the industrial school system. Many women kept their traditions after graduation by returning to their families and nations, and through activities such as leaving graduate colonies to attend traditional activities such as the Sun Dance. Still others did not conform to Victorian ideals of womanhood when they became “breadwinners” through their work in domestic service. This study concludes that while government and church administrators believed that the schools would teach female Aboriginal students how to conform to ideals of white, Victorian womanhood and would help advance the cause of “civilizing” male students, in the end, female students found employment outside of the home, the opposite of what administrators envisioned.

The Supremacy of Religious and Theological Education and Its Importance to Church Administrators

The background to this paper is that in academics, religious studies is not given its due respect and many church administrators today see no reasonable ground for studying Theology; the belief is that Theology is not needed for ministerial competence either as Pastors, Prophets, Teachers, Evangelists etc. They operate with an erroneous motto: “You shall receive Power not a Theological College Certificate” which is a misinterpretation of Acts 1:8. This paper explored the importance of Theological Education to Church Administration in the context of the Scripture (Hos. 4:5). The methodology adopted a Reader Response Criticism approach and Historical-Critical method with emphasis on the exegesis of both Hosea 4:6. The results showed that many people are being misled under the umbrella of prophecy and direction of the Holy Spirit simply because of the lack of Theological Education. The paper concluded that since Jesus taught his disciples for about three and a half years before telling them to wait for the Power of the Holy Spirit, all Christian administrators should take Theological training seriously to avoid becoming blind guides to their members. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2014.v4n7p161

Samorząd wiejski w osadach olęderskich w Dolinie Dolnej Wisły w przepisach wilkierzy z XVII i XVIII wieku. Organizacja, kompetencje, zasady funkcjonowania

In the Early Modern lowlands of Lower Vistula Valley became an area where rural settlements of a new type were organized by mainly Mennonite migrants from the Netherlands, who were called ‘Oledry’. According to their long-term lease agreements signed with landlords, Oledry were granted special rights and freedom, including a right to set willkurs. These legal arrangements were lists of rules regulating relations between the neighbours as well as organization and operation of the local self-government. In the article eighteen willkurs, used in 17th and 18th centuries in villages situated in different areas of the Vistula Valley and in different kinds of land property (royal, noble and urban), were examined in search for detailed descriptions of the Oledry village courts – Schultzamts, which were bodies elected by the neighbours to keep an order within the vicinity. They consisted of a mayor (Schultz) and two (rarely one) councilors (Rathsleute), all with one or half year long term. They were given a payment collected in the village once a term for their activities and also received part of fines paid by the neighbours. Apart from executing judicial responsibilities, however without a right to judge in criminal cases, mayor and councilors supervised condition of borders, dams, dikes and fire prevention, as well as land purchases, migration of new peasants or workers to the village and setting care of orphans. Willkurs seldom mentioned other obligations of the Schultzamt and neighbours for the landlord than only collecting lease payments or taxes, which, among with other rights of Oledry, is contrary to rules provided by regulations laid by nobility and royal or church land administrators on other categories of peasants in Early Modern Poland.

Tapping into Mammon: stakeholder perspectives on developing church tourism in Dublin's Liberties

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore attitudes among church administrators to church tourism, and the vexing challenge of categorizing church properties as tourist attractions for the city visitor. Furthermore, it seeks to ascertain if in the current economic climate, evidence of a collaborative inclination exists between core and peripheral supply‐stakeholders towards delivering a church tourism trail in this visitor‐rich area of Dublin city.Design/methodology/approachData were gathered to coincide with the busiest period of the tourist season. Using a qualitative methodology involving a series of semi‐structured interviews, initial research concentrated on attitudes to church tourism among both church administrators and church visitors. Subsequent interviews with key informants from both core and peripheral stakeholder groups focused on their attitudes to stakeholder collaboration in the development of a localized church tourism trail.FindingsThe findings of this paper would suggest broad support among most church administrators towards tourism and contextualising church properties as heritage attractions. However, operational dissonances associated with “church ethos” and “collaborative engagement”, particularly when embedded within individual fears of being associated with an official “tourist trail” were viewed as collaborative impediments among some traditional and peripheral stakeholders.Originality/valueAs international competition for the urban tourist intensifies, this paper, in adopting a supply‐sided perspective has, through counterpointing psychological barriers to the development of a church tourism product, with the absence of collaboration champions in the area, highlighted a number of limiting factors to adding value to the visitor experience in Dublin's Liberties. Challenges abide!

Educating American Baptist Pastors: A National Survey of Church Leaders

The role of the typical Baptist pastor has evolved well beyond providing spiritual direction. Congregations expect them to fulfill complex leadership roles, similar to those in secular institutions, such as church administrators, political strategists, and social activists. Leadership preparation in seminaries for clergy has not kept up with the changing demands on parish ministers, particularly in urban churches. This study focuses on American Baptist pastors, their leadership styles, roles as spiritual, political, and social leaders within their churches and communities. A national survey of 255 randomly selected pastors analyzed their perceptions of pastoral preparation, leadership roles, and styles. The results show that Black pastors perceive themselves as playing more of a social and political leadership role in their communities than White pastors. Leadership preparation is significant for efficacy and satisfaction with mentoring being a key component.

An Experiential Approach to Intercultural Education

Beulah Heights University, a predominately African-American institution, specializes in reaching the adult student of average age 38. Most of these students have 9-to-5 jobs as well as family and church responsibilities. Seated in the classroom, there are pastors, teachers, church administrators, health care workers, salespersons, bank tellers, security officers, postal workers, morticians, and so forth. As adults return to the classroom, they are most likely to succeed in courses that validate their work-based prior learning and competencies. Thus, the instructor's challenge has been to carefully develop an intercultural communication course designed specifically for the adult learners with the view to getting them actively involved experientially, making use of learning styles and the rich backgrounds that each of them brings to the classroom. At the beginning of the course, various interactive experiences are used to help students see themselves as a product of their own cultural environment. This is based on the assumption that knowing one's own culture makes a person more able to understand people from other cultures. As the course progresses, additional interactive experiences including cultural scenarios, case studies, simulation games, and mock visits are introduced to provide a context in which students can learn to apply intercultural communication principles, theories, and strategies appropriately when relating to people of different cultures, worldviews, and value systems.

Marriage at the Time of the Council of Trent (1560-70): Clandestine Marriages, Kinship Prohibitions, and Dowry Exchange in European Comparison

AbstractA close analysis of marital dispensations granted by the Holy Penitentiary shows that so-called clandestine marriages were widespread all over Catholic Europe before the Council of Trent. Only in Italy and perhaps in France were domestic partnerships rare, while they were very common in Portugal and Spain. This essay argues that the popularity of the dowry system in Italy made it difficult for women to choose their partners without parental consent. On the Iberian Peninsula, where forms of joint ownership in marriage and equal inheritance were predominant, free-choice marriages were widespread. The lively debates preceding the abolition of clandestine marriages at the Council of Trent show how divided the church was on this issue. While parental consent was not made mandatory for a marriage to be valid at Trent, post-Tridentine church administrators promoted parental involvement by acknowledging dowry exchange as a vital component of social reproduction. After Trent, applicants had to specify a reason for their intended violation of kinship prohibitions; the most often quoted obstacle to an exogamous union was the bride's lack of a competitive dowry. This change in rhetoric suggests that after Trent, the Penitentiary promoted dowry exchange as a proven means to facilitate arranged marriages among "strangers," while at the same time acknowledging problems with this mode of social reproduction. As an alternative to dotal marriages, the bureau of marital dispensations offered easy exemptions from kinship prohibitions at exponentially increased rates, promoting "cousin" marriages in lieu of exogamous unions. In promoting endogamy and/or dowry exchange, the post-Tridentine church promoted two varieties of marriage behavior indiscriminately which in the past had not only been seen as mutually exclusive, but also as diametrically opposed to the ideals of the Catholic church. Ironically, after Trent marriage had become less rather than more stable, since ecclesiastic courts were now more likely to separate badly married couples than unite them.

Show and Tell: George Herbert, Richard Sibbes, and Communings with God

The poet George Herbert (1593-1633) and Richard Sibbes (1577-1635), writer of sermons and religious treatises, were both authors whose works were best sellers in the 1630s. (1) Herbert wholeheartedly accepted the Church of England liturgy and polity, while Sibbes was undoubtedly puritan. Until recently the real ecclesiastical differences between them have been exaggerated; in fact, an influential textbook by the nineteenth-century historian Samuel Rawson Gardiner singled out these two as representing opposing poles within the Church of England of their time (82-85). (2) However, modern historians have been substantially revising long-standing views of that church, and particularly the former picture of the Jacobean mainstream (formative for these writers) as Laudian. It can now be claimed that the center of the Church of England before Laud's dominance was Calvinist and contained both moderate episcopalians (like Herbert) and moderate puritans (like Sibbes). (3) Why were these writers so popular? A likely reason is that both wrote effectively about the spiritual life of Christian believers, (4) and sought to provide spiritual counsel, at time when Laudian church administrators were preoccupied with the externals of ritual. (5) Herbert on his deathbed called his collection of poems a picture of the many spiritual Conflicts that have past betwixt God and my Soul, and he hoped that it would be of help to any dejected poor Soul (Walton 314). The titles of two of Sibbes' most popular works, The Bruised Reed, and Smoking Flax and The Soules Conflict with Itself, indicate that their subjects and purposes are like those of Herbert's book. Elsewhere I have shown that some of the writings of Herbert and Sibbes are closely related, even in such details as diction and phraseology (Conforming 116-34). In this essay I want to explore further the affinity recently discovered in some of the works of Herbert and Sibbes, but also to call attention to key difference: when they are writing of the personal relationship between the believer and God, (6) Sibbes describes that relationship whereas Herbert exemplifies it in terms of the speaker's own experience. Both writers similarly affirm that God always takes the initiative yet that human love is significant, even valued and savored by God, in spite of its actual inadequacy. For both Herbert and Sibbes the life with God is marked by spiritual conflicts, which they seek to present realistically, and is also somewhat hidden one. Because the relation is personal, both writers use human comparisons to describe it. Herbert, like his exemplary Country Parson, is a diligent observer, and tracker of Gods wayes (244), and so is Sibbes. (7) However, while Sibbes writes of these matters in the third person, or in generalizing first-person plural, Herbert vividly uses the first-person singular. (8) The difference is not merely that Herbert, unlike Sibbes, is poet. As Kate Narveson has persuasively argued, telling distinction between conformist and puritan members of the Calvinist consensus is that, while both advocated the use of the holy soliloquy, only the conformists actually published work in this genre. (Narveson refers only to prose works, but the Herbert poems dealt with in this essay are of similar nature.) (9) Puritans like Sibbes wrote about such communings with God but did not offer specific examples, perhaps because of puritan hesitations about public, formally set prayers. Thus the relationship with God about which Sibbes and other writers give counsel is strikingly exemplified in Herbert. Just how close Herbert comes to the puritan attitude in this respect is suggested in that, while he prepared the poems in The Temple for publication, he never actually published them. Instead, he sent them from his deathbed to his friend Nicholas Ferrar, leaving to the latter the decision whether to publish or destroy them (Walton 314). A conspicuous feature in the writings of both Herbert and Sibbes is intimacy with God, but though there is real mutuality these Calvinists insist that God is always first. …

The support gap for dual clergy couples

Within this study six levels of support for dual clergy couples with and without children were investigated. Seven dual clergy couples of several synods of the Lutheran Church in two western Canadian provinces were asked open-ended questions about the support they had received in several employment and family related areas. While findings in each of the areas varied, overall, most individuals received the most support from their spouse and little from close friends and relatives often due to physical distance. Support provided by other clergy and church administrators was mixed. Only one major difference was found between couples with and without children. The group without children were more optimistic about the support that would be provided by family and friends in the area of child care while couples with children failed to mention support from friends and family.

CATHOLIC WOMEN AND THE CREATION OF A NEW SOCIAL REALITY

This article presents a sociological analysis of the changing role of women in the Catholic church over the past twenty years. The theoretical framework is drawn from The Social Construction of Reality by Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann (1967). Data are derived from the documents of Vatican II, the revised Code of Canon Law, research from 1965 to the present, and exploratory interviews with Catholic women recently appointed as church administrators. The article concludes with a discussion of future prospects regarding the new social reality for Catholic women.