Pastoral Leadership Research Articles

Sunday democracies: a mixed methods analysis of members’ perceptions of church authority and organizational dissent

ABSTRACTPrevious research has emphasized differences between churches and other types of organizations including the potential for leaders’ authority to be based on unassailable interpretations of Scripture and on divine callings. The present study examined members’ perceptions of church authority and the degree to which those perceptions affected their willingness to express dissenting opinions, a key feature of organizational democracy. Focus group participants described a fluid process as they negotiated how their voices would be heard in decision-making while simultaneously entrusting some decision-making to ordained leaders. That process sometimes involved seeing members’ voices as one expression of divine authority or compartmentalizing pastoral leadership to spiritual matters and democratic leadership to practical matters. Focus groups also emphasized the importance of church committees and transparency as integral practices for members’ voice in church decision-making. Surveys of a wider group of church members demonstrated that perceptions of democracy and divine authority influenced members’ willingness to express upward dissent, and to a lesser extent, lateral dissent. Results revealed how church members conceptualize their roles in decision-making, highlighting potential areas of conflict when leaders deviate from members’ expectations.

The Meaning of Obesity in the Church: A Pastoral Leader’s Perspective

The purpose of this study is to highlight a unique case regarding obesity and weight loss in the Christian church that emerged when interviewing men who had experienced bariatric surgery. Thirty-four-year-old “Pastor Tom” was removed from his position in the church due to his obesity. Through critical reflection, utilizing an intrinsic case study methodology, the authors explore how this research participant constructed meaning around obesity and weight loss. In this study, two major themes emerged: (1) leading by example and (2) becoming a leader. The study includes a discussion of implications for the church as well as teaching, clinical, and research implications.

Catholic Schools Serving Hispanic Families: Insights from the 2014 National Survey

This article draws extensively on data from the National Survey of Catholic Schools Serving Hispanic Families, conducted by Boston College researchers in 2014. The report was released on October 2015 under the title Catholic Schools in an Increasingly Hispanic Church. The report seeks to encourage serious conversation and investment on the part of both Catholic education and pastoral leaders at all levels, across the nation, with respect to serving the needs of Hispanic families.

Kościół w publikacjach „Gazety Wyborczej” w czasie Wielkiego Jubileuszu Roku 2000

„Gazeta Wyborcza” uważana jest za jeden z najbardziej wpływowych i opiniotwórczych polskich dzienników. Od początku swojego istnienia systematycznie publikuje artykuły na tematy ściśle związane z Kościołem. W czasie Wielkiego Jubileuszu Roku 2000 na łamach „Gazety Wyborczej” opublikowano 677 tekstów dotyczących Kościoła, jego duszpasterzy i wiernych, tekstów poruszających kwestie etyki i moralności chrześcijańskiej.W materiale prasowym zamieszczonym na łamach „Gazety Wyborczej” w Roku Wielkiego Jubileuszu w sposób jednoznaczny rysuje się wizja Kościoła podzielonego i skłóconego. Brak wewnętrznej jedności redaktorzy dziennika dostrzegają tak między samym duchowieństwem, jak i między duchowieństwem a wiernymi. Redakcja dziennika, nagłaśniając rzekomy podział wewnętrzny Kościoła, wskazuje jednocześnie na konieczność jego dialogu z mentalnością liberalną. Stąd też dziennikarze kreują na łamach dziennika symbole promowanego przez siebie dialogu, tzw. „ciepłe twarze” Kościoła.Z publikacji „Gazety Wyborczej” w Roku Wielkiego Jubileuszu wyłania się również wizja Kościoła jako swoistej grupy socjologicznej i specyficznej formacji politycznej. Dla jego określenia redaktorzy dziennika posługują się najczęściej takimi terminami, jak: „monarchia”, „forteca”, „twierdza”, „mocarstwo”, „sztab”, „urząd” czy „federacja”. „Gazeta Wyborcza” znana jest także z pomysłowości w wyszukiwaniu, jak i barwności w opisywaniu kościelnych sensacji. Każda rewelacja z życia Kościoła i osób z nim związanych nie uchodzi uwadze dziennikarzy i znajduje swoje odzwierciedlenie w licznych doniesieniach prasowych, reportażach czy felietonach. Trzeba dodać, że te „sensacyjne” informacje nierzadko nie mają żadnego odzwierciedlenia w rzeczywistości. Ukazywanie afer i sensacji w Kościele jest działaniem celowym, ma za zadanie ośmieszyć duchowieństwo, a wiernych zniechęcić do Kościoła.

Inspirational Sources for Church Development


 
 
 The purpose of this article is to identify and discuss key issues in church growth movement and the litera- ture following in its wake, which represents vital sources for the emerging discipline in practical theology of church development. The church growth movement has had a strong impact on churches around the globe. Factors such as scriptural authority, evangelism, cultural openness and relevance, pastoral leader- ship, organization, planning, vision and goals are among issues and factors discussed in the literature. Among the shortcomings of church growth thinking is an all-too-simple theoretical reasoning, a lack of causal modeling and theological issues only superficially discussed. Oftentimes, the growth is assumed to come simply by addressing a few factors. Nevertheless, several of the issues and factors that are identified and discussed have influenced subsequent work on church development.
 
 

Developing a Field-oriented Theological Education Process —Focusing on Pastoral Practices and Leadership

Developing a Field-oriented Theological Education Process —Focusing on Pastoral Practices and Leadership

Complementarianism as Doctrine and Governance: Narratives on Women's Leadership among Second-Generation Asian Americans

The role of women in evangelical churches remains contested as different groups attempt to shape the gender subculture. Included is a growing population of second-generation immigrants who have the potential to influence future debates. I explore how 23 second-generation Asian American congregants in a multi-lingual Taiwanese evangelical church that experienced a schism over women in pastoral leadership discuss the complementarian belief as it relates to doctrine and governance. Further, I examine narratives used to describe the schism and find that doctrinal narratives predominated over narratives of inter-generational conflict. Last, I find that the complementarian belief also informed understandings and participation in lay leadership. Findings suggest patterns for how doctrine and governance may interact and have implications for the relationship among ethnicity, gender, and religion. I propose further research interrogating the relationship between doctrine and governance and the way religious, gender, ethnic, and immigrant identities may or may not interact.

건강한 목회리더십의 전환과 제자화 훈련을 위한 교회조직 구조조정의 필요성에 관한 소고

건강한 목회리더십의 전환과 제자화 훈련을 위한 교회조직 구조조정의 필요성에 관한 소고

Book Review: Explorations in Ecclesiology and Ethnography

Explorations in Ecclesiology and Ethnography. Edited by Christian B. Scharen. Studies in Ecclesiology and Ethnography. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans Publishing, 2012. v + 180 pp. $40.00 (paper).The basic aim of this work is to stimulate and deepen research and scholarship on the church in order to strengthen pastoral leadership, as well as the congregations they serve. The resultant understanding will enable church leaders to guide their congregations more effectively for the sake of faithful witness and service in the world (p. 3).Ethnography, academically understood as qualitative research, and ecclesiology, academically understood as theological research, have generally remained distinct and distinctive disciplines (p. 3). However, this volume creatively employs the tools of ethnographic research to investigate more deeply the meaning of questions and answers of people of faith who worship in congregations-people who are very diverse in terms of their psycho-socialspiritual-sexual-cultural points of departure as they live their lives on earth. This methodology presumes that the church does not live in strict isolation from the human condition, even as it draws upon foundational theological normative theory and praxis. Employing the tools of ethnography together with church studies arguably grounds the church and congregations in their actual experiences within and outside the church.This volume has been divided into three parts (On and the Church, On and Worship, and Congregations and Society), mainly to cluster what the various authors have contributed to the broad topics in the various ways they attend to the life of the church or perhaps are attentive to the modes of the churches to which they attend.Part one, for example, begins the explorations with rich reflections on what is to be unearthed for a deeper understanding of congregations when empirical and theological approaches work in collaborative ways. It also introduces the main proposal of the volume: in order for scholarship about the church to be most helpful to the church's missional engagement in daily life, both through its pastoral leadership and its living corporate membership as a body of Christ, rapprochement between empirical and theological understandings of the church ought to be encouraged (p. 2).Part two, which primarily discusses congregational worship, affirms that sacramental life concretizes theological understandings and praxis. However, it notes that understandings and praxis may be manifested quite differently within the same church. …

Pastoral Engagement in the Mindfulness Movement: Gift, Opportunities, and Challenges

“Mindfulness” is a cultural buzz word these days. Time Magazine ’s cover story for January 23, 2014, was titled, “The Mindful Revolution,” and the cover story of the most recent issue of Scientific American (Nov. 2014) is “Mind of the Meditator.” In this article the author suggests two ways in which Christians might engage this cultural phenomenon. First, Christians have something important to learn from this cultural movement. Second, Christians have something important to contribute to the mindfulness movement. Christians can gratefully acknowledge and learn from the hundreds of rigorous scientific studies conducted in the past decade that suggest ways that mindfulness practices may provide effective means of improving physical and mental health and connecting to a deeper sense of meaning and compassion in human life. However, Christians also have something essential to contribute to the cultural dialogue regarding mindfulness by drawing upon our own rich theological heritage of prayer and meditation. In the Christian tradition, mindfulness is a tool for cultivating a deeper awareness of and relationship with the Triune God revealed in the person of Jesus Christ and attested to by Scripture. The author concludes by noting that theologians and pastoral ministers have a responsibility to engage in our culture’s interest in mindfulness. The mindfulness movement presents an opportunity to educate baptized Christians and others and invite them into the rich tradition of contemplative prayer in the Christian tradition. Such contributions from the Christian tradition may also help to challenge the mindfulness movement to acknowledge the spiritual roots from which it has evolved. Such contributions may also help to overcome the risk of mindfulness becoming another passing fad or a middle- to-upper class commodity for supporting health and well-being. Christian contemplation teaches persons to embrace imperfection and suffering while remaining committed to the good of all persons and all creation in love. By sharing the fruits of the tradition through education and catechesis and by creating communities that support contemplative prayer, pastoral leaders and theologians may help persons to navigate the challenges of remaining committed to a life of prayer amidst the struggles and sufferings of life in contemporary, late modern cultures.

Ministerial Formation and Practical Theology in South Africa

The time of theological training is crucial for ministers to encourage a mature development of occupational and personal identity and foster a coherent understanding of their role and function in ministry. Ministerial formation must involve training and equipping of pastoral leaders to do theology by involvement on a grassroots level and developing responsiveness to historical, biblical and pastoral dimensions within its context in order to have relevance. The article will map the South African scene in terms of ministerial formation, highlighting recent higher education changes with a discussion on ministerial formation within academic Practical theology in universities and conclude with wider contextual and research needs.

Muslim chaplaincy in the UK: the chaplaincy approach as a way to a modern imamate

In this article I examine the chaplaincy approach to religious and pastoral leadership in the UK and what the experience may offer to mosque-based imams. I compare the role and tasks of the imam in chaplaincy with the duties of the mosque-based imam. The identity of the Muslim chaplain is made up of various ‘associations’ – professional; vocational; religious and communal; educative and reformative – that make him better equipped to offer a contextually relevant imamate, whereas the mosque-based imam has only one ‘association’ (the religious and communal) that describes his remit and role, and therefore may not be able to provide a competent imamate which meets the needs of Muslims in the contemporary secular UK.

Simon Oomius on the Elderly

This contribution connects the issue of spiritual leadership with the religious ideas and ecclesiastical and social environment of a seventeenth-century Dutch preacher, dr. Simon Oomius (1630–1706). Oomius represents the movement known as the Further Reformation (Nadere Reformatie), or Reformed Pietism. The focus is on his perception of old age. Through a close reading of his treatise Cierlyke Kroon, this article highlights a specimen of pastoral leadership associated with the seventeenth-century Dutch Reformed theologia ascetica. Seven qualities for his spiritual leadership can be traced: Oomius’s own old age, his spirituality, academic education, use of examples, hermeneutic competence, ability to empathise, and spiritual training.

Appreciative Inquiry and the Beloved Community: Power of Stories, Witnessing, Intuition and Language in Shaping Pastoral Leadership

Appreciative Inquiry and the Beloved Community: Power of Stories, Witnessing, Intuition and Language in Shaping Pastoral Leadership

New identity stories: An alternative to suspension and exclusion from school

School pastoral leaders have halved the use of suspension and exclusion from New Zealand schools in the last decade. This article offers community re-authoring of young people’s identity stories as a further support for reducing suspensions and exclusions. It demonstrates how developing new stories of “who I am and what is important to me” can lead to a marked reduction in troubling behaviours. The article highlights the importance of invited peers, teachers, family, and community members in exploring and maintaining alternative identity claims and changed behaviours.

Young Catholic America: Emerging Adults In, Out of, and Gone from the Church by Christian Smith, et al. (review)

Reviewed by: Young Catholic America: Emerging Adults In, Out of, and Gone from the Church by Christian Smith, et al. Ken Johnson-Mondragón Young Catholic America: Emerging Adults In, Out of, and Gone from the Church. By Christian Smith , Kyle Longest , Jonathan Hill , and Kari Christoffersen . New York : Oxford University Press , 2014 . 326 pp. $29.95 . III The Catholic Church in the United States is at a crossroads and Christian Smith and co-authors Kyle Longest, Jonathan Hill, and Kari Christoffersen tell us why: Catholic families, parishes, and schools are becoming less effective at implanting Catholic practices, beliefs, values, and spirituality in the lives of Catholic children and adolescents in a way that will sustain their faith into emerging adulthood, which they define broadly as ages 18 to 25. The authors present a masterful historical analysis of cultural trends in the United States over the last seventy years as background for a comparison of findings regarding young Catholics from the first and third waves of the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR). Their use of complex statistical analyses is presented in a way that is accessible not only to sociologists, but also to pastoral leaders, Catholic [End Page 57] school teachers, and parents. The result is an unrivalled presentation of the familial, cultural, and institutional factors that lead young Catholics to retain, strengthen, or dismiss their Catholic identity by their early twenties. The implications are far-reaching and cannot be overstated – this book should be required reading for all who care about the future vitality of the Catholic Church. Perhaps the greatest omission is a balanced presentation of the worldwide trends in Catholic culture, beliefs, practices, and affiliation. The authors contend that the major cultural shifts in the United States that set the stage for the present decline in practice and affiliation among emerging adults took place prior to the 1970s – before the families of roughly a third to 40 percent of today’s young Catholics arrived in this country. Although the globalization of communications may have contributed to similar cultural shifts in their originating countries, the timing, dynamics, and consequences of those shifts play out differently from one national community to the next, leading one to ask: why was this overlooked? While the authors should be commended for examining the generational differences among Hispanic youth and emerging adults, the data are often inconclusive due to insufficient responses, and their interpretation is often lacking depth and nuance due to the absence of an adequate presentation of historical cultural background. Even the General Social Survey (GSS) data presented in Chapter 2 is deficient due to the fact that the survey only began to be conducted in Spanish in 2006. That methodological change increased Hispanic participation by at least 50 percent,2 which means that the Catholic responses considered throughout chapter 2 do not represent the full range of U.S. Catholic residents, an important detail overlooked in the book. A third disappointment lies in the fact that chapters 5, 6, and 7 did not include frequency of talking about religious matters at home during adolescence as one of the analytic measures. Educational theorists have long known that themes that are discussed are retained much longer than those that are merely read, heard, or witnessed. Other studies on the NSYR data have shown that this one measure was far more predictive of Catholic emerging adult religious behavior than any other.3 Why was it not included? [End Page 58] Ken Johnson-Mondragón Instituto Fe y Vida, Stockton, California Footnotes 2. Tom W. Smith, “An Evaluation of Spanish Questions on the 2006 General Social Survey,” GSS Methodological Report No. 109 (March 2007), 6. 3. Charlotte McCorquodale and Leigh Sterten, A Faithful Challenge: A Longitudinal Analysis of the National Study of Youth and Religion Sample of Catholic Adolescents and Emerging Adults in Light of the Outcomes of Adolescent Catechesis (Washington, DC: National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry, 2010), 13. Copyright © 2014 American Catholic Historical Society

PERSISTENT ISSUES IMPACTING ON THE TRAINING OF MINISTERS IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN CONTEXT

In the midst of a changing landscape for higher education there is once more the question of vision and purpose of theological education. To what end should theological education be undertaken in South Africa to ‘equip people for ministry’? The time of theological training is crucial for ministers to encourage a mature development of occupational and personal identity and foster a coherent under-standing of their role and function in ministry. Ministerial formation must involve training and equipping pastoral leaders to do theology by involvement at a grassroots level and developing responsiveness to historical, biblical and pastoral dimensions within its context in order to have relevance. This article will present persistent issues facing ministerial formation in South Africa, focusing on the changing landscape of theological education, pedagogical and methodological challenges within the curriculum and the necessary support structures that make for relevant theological education.

Book Review: Pastoral leadership is …: How to shepherd God's people with passion and confidence.

Book Review: Pastoral leadership is …: How to shepherd God's people with passion and confidence.

Apologetics Today: Pastoral Perspectives

An effective contemporary apologetics must learn from the past and read the current signs of the times, as Vatican II taught. Pastoral leaders today need an apologetics that can guide and inspire their efforts to explain and defend the faith for themselves and the people they serve. Our contemporary world calls for an apologetics that includes at least three fundamental perspectives: personal, mystagogical, and correlational.

The Prophetic-Liberating Schillebeeckx: Reclaiming a Western Voice for the Third World

Schillebeeckx's prophetic-liberating voice in systematic theology has been, for the most part, neglected for more than four decades. A robust recovery of the liberative stream of his later theology can aid pastoral leaders, educators, and students from East and West as they read the signs of the times in our day and offer them a critical and hopeful dialogue partner in their work. N ot too long ago, I chanced upon a CNN news feature on the impact of the U.S. economic recession on cash-strapped citizens. American consumers, CNN reports, have found themselves making the difficult choice of giving up pricey steak and buying much more affordable chicken instead. Without trivializing the struggles of the poorest people in the United States who are directly affected by the aftermath of the economic meltdown, it is relativizing to remember that a reces- sion in the First World could mean starvation in the Third. For many in the Third World, there are hardly any choices. The 2005 U.N. Human Development Report notes that a billion people in the world live on less than $1 a day. In stark contrast, a fifth of humanity who live in affluent countries will think nothing of spending $4 a day on a cup of cappuccino. Extreme global inequality continues to thrive notwithstanding the utopian promise of global integration; the Third World as a description of a quality of life characterized by abject poverty and structural oppression is still very much in existence.