scholarly journals Activating moral imagination: EXPOSED 2013 as a fourth generation faith-based campaign?

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 19
Author(s):  
Nadine Bowers-Du Toit ◽  
Dion Forster
Keyword(s):  
Moral Imagination ◽  
Tax Avoidance ◽  
Fourth Generation ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
International Money ◽  
Tax Regimes ◽  
Money Flows ◽  
Role Players ◽  
The Church ◽  
Is Value

David Korten proposes a Fourth Generation approach (1990) to development that is value driven and sees social movements take centre stage in promoting a more just global society. Theologian Ignatius Swart (2006) has argued that Korten’s approach holds significant value for civil society role players such as the church, whose value-driven agenda may serve to resist common values expressed by the powerful in society. Recently, the EXPOSED 2013 campaign has emerged as such a Christian social movement, seeking to mobilise up to 100 million Christians globally to take action against corruption. Using social media and church networks at all levels it aims to petition the G20 for more open tax regimes and greater transparency in international money flows to combat bribery and tax avoidance. This article documents and critically analyses the EXPOSED 2013 campaign through the lens of Korten’s Fourth Generation in dialogue with Swart’s faith-based analysis of Korten’s work.

scholarly journals Faith-based organisations and HIV prevention in Africa: A review

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Mash ◽  
Robert Mash
Keyword(s):  
Hiv Prevention ◽  
Sexual Behaviour ◽  
Social Engagement ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Sexually Active ◽  
Risky Behaviour ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
Role Players ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Church

Background: Faith-based organisations (FBOs) are potentially an important role-player in HIV prevention, but there has been little systematic study of their potential strengths and weaknesses in this area.Objectives: To identify the strengths and weaknesses of FBOs in terms of HIV prevention. The questions posed were, (1) ‘What is the influence of religion on sexual behaviour in Africa?’,and (2) ‘What are the factors that enable religion to have an influence on sexual behaviour?’.Method: A literature search of Medline, SABINET, Africa Wide NIPAD and Google Scholar was conducted.Results: The potential for Faith-based organisations to be important role-players in HIV prevention is undermined by the church’s difficulties with discussing sexuality, avoiding stigma, gender issues and acceptance of condoms. It appears that, in contrast with high-income countries, religiosity does not have an overall positive impact on risky sexual behaviour in Africa. Churches may, however, have a positive impact on alcohol use and its associated risky behaviour, as well as self-efficacy. The influence of the church on sexual behaviour may also be associated with the degree of social engagement and control within the church culture.Conclusion: Faith-based organisations have the potential to be an important role player in terms of HIV prevention. However, in order to be more effective, the church needs to take up the challenge of empowering young women, recognising the need for their sexually-active youth to use protection, reducing judgemental attitudes and changing the didactical methods used.

scholarly journals In good times and in bad: Die stormagtige verhouding tussen kerk en die orrel � is egskeiding onafwendbaar?

2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ockie C. Vermeulen
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Current Situation ◽  
Pipe Organ ◽  
Worship Service ◽  
The Future ◽  
Role Players ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church

In good times and in bad: The tumultuous relationship between the church and the organ - is divorce inevitable? Through the ages, a delicate relationship has existed between the church and the pipe organ. Since the 10th century, the organ established itself as a unique instrument in service of worship. This relationship was not always a steady one, and this article investigates the tumultuous affair between the two parties. In part one of the article, which is a historic perspective, the relationship is discussed by looking at different cultures and uses of the organ in the worship service. This gives a sense of when and how the relationship came into being and developed or deteriorated. In part two, the current situation in the Afrikaans Reformed service is explored by conducting several unstructured interviews with key role players in the theological and musical world of South Africa. In part three, the study ventures into speculating about the future of the organ in the worship service by briefly looking at the attitude of the organist and spirituality of the postmodern church goer. In essence, this article reflects on whether the marriage between church and music instrument is solid or on its way to the divorce court.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The relationship between organ and church has to be reconsidered. The use of the organ in the worship service has to be taken under scrutiny, and a new relationship agreement between the two partners has to be formulated.

scholarly journals Med troen som fællesnævner – fællesskab blandt unge i Indre Mission

Kulturstudier ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 38
Author(s):  
Tina Wilchen Christensen
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
Central Position ◽  
Lutheran Church ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Collective Interaction ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran Church ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran ◽  
The Church ◽  
Present Life

<div>Artiklen vil belyse de mekanismer, der ligger til grund for et velfungerende f&aelig;llesskab&nbsp;i en af Indre Missions ungdomsforeninger i &Aring;rhus. Troen har p&aring; forskellige&nbsp;m&aring;der en central position i f&aelig;llesskabet, og denne artikel vil argumentere for de&nbsp;unges tro som en social identitet, idet deres habitus synes at have en afg&oslash;rende&nbsp;betydning for den og deres oplevelse af det religi&oslash;st funderede f&aelig;llesskab. Artiklenvil ogs&aring; belyse, hvordan Biblen og dens fort&aelig;llinger udg&oslash;r den fortolkningsramme,&nbsp;som de unge er opvokset med og forst&aring;r livet igennem. Artiklen viser&nbsp;desuden den rolle, det kollektive samv&aelig;r spiller i de unges konstruktion af Gud&nbsp;og egen identitet som kristen.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Faith as common ground- community feeling among young evangelicals in Denmark</div><div><br /></div><div>The aim of this article is to demonstrate the mechanisms that underlie a youth association in the so-called Home Mission, a branch of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark. It is the result of anthropological research focusing on the sense of community among members aged between 15 and 27. In a number of ways faith plays a central role in the community, and the main argument of the article is that the young people's faith constitutes a social identity, since their habitus seems to have a decisive impact on their experience of the faith-based community. The article further demonstrates how the Bible and its narratives form the framework of interpretation with which the young people have grown up, and which, in their present life as adults, continues to mould their understanding and view of life, as well as the role that collective interaction plays in the young people's construction of God and their own identity as Christians. A core argument in the article is that faith is a socialization into a structure which results in all participants having the same frame of reference and therefore experiencing a strong feeling of community with one another within this particular wing of the Church of Denmark.&nbsp;<br /> <br /></div>

Trading Gold

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mette M. High
Keyword(s):  
Risk Taking ◽  
Material Wealth ◽  
International Money ◽  
Money Flows ◽  
Trading Partners ◽  
Business Acumen

This concluding chapter looks at the gold traders who take part in economic circuits that are oriented away from the mines and toward the yuan of their Chinese trading partners within Asia's illegal gold trade. For them, the intersection of gold wealth with international money flows is conducive to the transformation of their “lifeless” earnings into profitable and productive currency. Holding and handling unmatched quantities, they quickly reinvest their “renewed” money into the gold trade or a business venture. Often transformed into visible, material wealth, money from the illegal gold trade thus offers a competing topography of wealth that is based not on the accumulation of fortune in livestock but on risk taking and business acumen.

Seeker-friendly: The Hillsong megachurch as an enchanting total institution

2016 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 661-676 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Wade
Keyword(s):  
Economic Order ◽  
Total Institution ◽  
Religious Expression ◽  
Late Capitalism ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
The Church ◽  
Global Reach

The increasingly voluntary quality of religious expression has prompted many faith-based entities to embrace ‘secular’ means of evangelism. This is evident within the Sydney-based Hillsong Church, which has grown rapidly in attendees, capital resources and global reach. This ‘seeker-friendly’ strategy, however, raises questions around whether the ‘megachurch’ can sustain itself in offering respite from wearying Weberian processes of rationalisation and disenchantment. Hillsong’s resolution of this dilemma has been to create an encompassing arena of enchantment for constituents, a contemporary Goffmanian ‘total institution’ by reproducing the unalterable mechanisms of the economic order in a way that imbues them with greater meaning. Loyalties are sought by aligning desires for both personal reinvention and collective subsumption with the overarching evangelical aims of the Church. Thus for the committed devotee the transcendent and pragmatic may become synonymous and imbued with wonder, so that any gnawing dissonance felt as characteristic of late capitalism may be reconciled.

scholarly journals Objective Church Environment Audits and Attendee Perceptions of Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Supports within the Church Setting

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (10) ◽  
pp. 3598
Author(s):  
Marilyn E. Wende ◽  
Andrew T. Kaczynski ◽  
John A. Bernhart ◽  
Caroline G. Dunn ◽  
Sara Wilcox
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
South Carolina ◽  
Healthy Eating ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
And Behaviors ◽  
The Church

Interventions in faith-based settings are increasingly popular, due to their effectiveness for improving attendee health outcomes and behaviors. Little past research has examined the important role of the church environment in individual-level outcomes using objective environmental audits. This study examined associations between the objectively measured physical church environment and attendees’ perceptions of physical activity (PA) and healthy eating (HE) supports within the church environment, self-efficacy for PA and HE, and self-reported PA and HE behaviors. Data were collected via church audits and church attendee surveys in 54 churches in a rural, medically underserved county in South Carolina. Multi-level regression was used to analyze associations between the church environment and outcomes. Physical elements of churches were positively related to attendees’ perceptions of church environment supports for PA (B = 0.03, 95% CI = 0.01, 0.05) and HE (B = 0.05, 95% CI = 0.01, 0.09) and there was a significant interaction between perceptions of HE supports and HE church environment. Self-efficacy and behaviors for PA and HE did not show an association with the church environment. Future research should establish a temporal relationship between the church environment and these important constructs for improving health. Future faith-based interventions should apply infrastructure changes to the church environment to influence important mediating constructs to health behavior.

scholarly journals Youth ministry at the margins and/or centre as space of the other: Reflections on the resolutions of the Anglican dioceses in the Western Cape 2017

2018 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
John S. Klaasen
Keyword(s):  
Power Relations ◽  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Youth Ministry ◽  
Sense Making ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
Anglican Church ◽  
Contemporary Worship ◽  
Safe Spaces ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
The Church

Youth within the context of faith-based organisations carry with them certain power relations and misconstrued connotations. These power relations and connotations can contribute to alienation and marginalisation. The resolutions taken at the recent synods of the three dioceses within the Western Cape reflect and identify the areas - both liturgical and governance - of marginalisation of youth within the Anglican Church in southern Africa. The resolutions also call on the church governing bodies and the leaders to create safe spaces for the youth to be a central part of the mission of the church. Areas such as liturgy, training and formation, contemporary worship and nurturing relationships are identified within the resolutions. Theological notions of personhood within the Anglican tradition are to be investigated as possible motivations for more acceptable power relations of the youth and leaders and governance structures. What implications do such theological formulations have for the space that the youth occupy within the margins of the church? A critical reflection of the synod resolutions answers such questions and points to some contours for sense making of the youth within the margins of the church from a faith-based organisational perspective.

scholarly journals The Centrality of Partnership between Local Congregations and Christian Development Organisations in Facilitating Holistic praxis

2019 ◽  
Vol 75 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mawonga P. Celesi ◽  
Nadine F. Bowers
Keyword(s):  
Spiritual Support ◽  
Mutual Respect ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
Working Together ◽  
Local Congregations ◽  
Building Project ◽  
Meaningful Role ◽  
The Church

The study conducted in 2017, in the Cape Metropole to explore the nature of partnership between local congregations and Christian Development Organisations, entitled, ‘Enhanced partnership between local congregations and Faith-based Organisations: towards a holistic congregational praxis’ reveal that, there are enough collaboration efforts between these two entities of the church. These efforts revolve around issues, such as spiritual support, volunteerism and discipleship. The view is that, even though elements of partnership such as volunteerism, prayer and discipleship are essential in the journey of development, there is a need for these efforts to be coupled by resources such as finances and expertise. Central to the argument of this paper is the view that says, enhanced partnership between local congregations and Christian Development Organisations has a potential to facilitate holistic congregational praxis. In most cases, these entities of the church are found in the same locality, and therefore need to define how they can together play a bigger and meaningful role in the transformation of their community. Bound by their faith mandate, working together as partners as opposed to competing with each other, they will find strength in each other, and portray good image of the Christian community in society. Guided by partnership ethos of trust, equality and mutual respect, they can both play a leading role in the nation-building project of South Africa.

Puritan Asceticism and the Type of Sacrifice

1985 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 285-297
Author(s):  
Susan Hardman
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Fourth Generation ◽  
Priesthood Of All Believers ◽  
The Third ◽  
Ascetic Ideal ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Common Prayer ◽  
The Church

The sacrificial rites of the Old Testament are ‘neither dark nor dumb, but mystical and significant, and fit to stir up the dull mind of man to the remembrance of his duty before God.’ So preached a nonconformist, Samuel Mather, in the 1660s, recalling with a deliberate or unconscious twist a phrase used in the Book of Common Prayer to defend contemporary rites of which he disapproved. The Reformation that set aside the ascetic ideal of monasticism also saw a revaluation of the place of sacrifice in the life of the Church. While its role in Protestant activity was diminished by the rejection of the Mass as a propitiatory act, teaching about the priesthood of all believers prepared for a new emphasis on the devotion and duty of Christians as ‘spiritual sacrifice’; an emphasis informed in puritanism by lessons from the types of the Old Testament. Much is known about puritan religious practice; and of puritan interest in typology, stimulated by Calvin’s conviction of the unity of the Old and New Testaments – the same covenant present in each, accommodated to the capacity of a ‘Church under age’ in Israel. But familiar themes combined can give fresh perspectives: here their combination illustrates one of the ways in which the ascetic ideal was being reformulated among protestants of the third and fourth generation in seventeenth-century England. Sacrifice was not often a dominant theme in their description of the Christian life, and yet, despite an untidiness of evidence, it is clear that certain allusions to Israelite sacrifice were conventional, part of a common rhetoric, a common and powerful imagery. Some representative examples of the conventions follow, organised around simple questions. What were ‘spiritual sacrifices’ and what practical exercises of devotion and discipline were associated with them? By what means and in what manner should they be offered?

Catholic Parish-based Youth Ministers: A Preliminary Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-64
Author(s):  
Richard Rymarz
Keyword(s):  
Life Experiences ◽  
Development Program ◽  
Youth Ministers ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
Religious Salience ◽  
Life Journey ◽  
Preliminary Study ◽  
Targeted Professional Development ◽  
The Church ◽  
Cultural Message

Eleven youth ministers working in Catholic parishes in two large urban dioceses were interviewed. The paper examined the life journey of youth ministers and how they saw their role along with perceptions of challenges and how they could be better supported. Participants were motivated and expressed satisfaction with their jobs. They displayed high levels of religious salience as marked by their religious belief and practice and networking with faith-based communities. They manifested a strong counter-cultural message which is essential to authentic witness. As such, the participants in this study are a great gift to the Church and to its ministry. A preliminary typology of youth ministers was proposed, which springs from different life experiences, how they approach their work and what they see as their future. There was some difficulty in finding paid youth ministers working in parishes and this may point to one of the significant challenges facing them; that is, making the job sustainable within existing Catholic parish structures. While well-networked with sustaining faith communities, there is scope for support between youth ministers working in parishes. In addition, a more targeted professional development program which recognises the differing needs of youth ministers would be appropriate.

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