Managing Conflict Between The Senior Pastor And The Church Board

This paper explores how the evangelical spatiality of an Asian Canadian senior pastor at a historically Anglo-Saxon congregation has transformed it from an ethnically homogeneous, aging church to a heterogeneously-constituted gathering in an evangelical Protestant tradition. This piece challenges the conventional wisdom of the church growth movement and the new religious economics in the sociology of religion, both of which advise religious groups to construct homogeneity and consensus in efforts for numerical growth over against secularizing forces. The paper argues instead that Pastor Ken Shigematsu’s evangelical spatiality from the mid-1990s to the present must be understood as a theological embrace of difference in a church gifted to him by God over which he prayerfully pastors along with his staff. This paper understands Shigematsu’s evangelical spatiality through his own New Testament exegesis, his denominational affiliation with the Christian and Missionary Alliance, his ancient spiritual practices of indiscriminate hospitality, and his mystical reception of Tenth as a welcoming space toward a multiplicity of ethnic, class, and religious backgrounds. This article contributes to Asian Canadian Christian studies by discouraging a future where pan-Asian churches in Canada are homogeneously constructed and by exploring the concrete possibility of non-strategies in which heterogeneous, complex spaces that include Asian Canadians are received by pastors and studied by academics as a divine gift.

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Interim Trust: A Qualitative Research on an Ecclesial Practice of Trust

Journal of Empirical Theology ◽

10.1163/15709256-12341299 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 27 (2) ◽

pp. 239-260 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Rein Brouwer

Keyword(s):

Qualitative Research ◽

Data Analysis ◽

Social Identity ◽

Empirical Research ◽

Specific Context ◽

Presence Of God ◽

Qualitative Empirical Research ◽

The Social ◽

Church Board ◽

The Church

This article reports on an explorative, qualitative-empirical research on the meaning of trust between church boards of Dutch protestant congregations and the interim ministers they temporarily employ in-between incumbent ministers. Trust, or the perception of trustworthiness, is analyzed as a social constructed, multi-dimensional phenomenon. Research shows the coherence of several theoretical variables (Risk, Accountability, Encapsulated interest, Autonomy, Reciprocity, Credentials, Performance, and Context) that constitute trust in this particular and specific context. A theological evaluation of the data analysis suggests the emergence of another variable, the ‘givenness’ of trust. In the particular context of the pastoral profession, trust is induced by how the trustee, i.e., the interim minister, in his performance embodies the social identity of the trustor, i.e., the church board, but there is also a dimension grounded in faith in the presence of God.

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Spiritual Healing, Sick Kids and the Law: Inequities in the American Healthcare System

American Journal of Law & Medicine ◽

10.1017/s0098858800002847 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 29 (2-3) ◽

pp. 269-299

Author(s):

Janna C. Merrick

Keyword(s):

Medical Science ◽

Spiritual Healing ◽

Best Interests ◽

Legal Rights ◽

High Tech ◽

Divine Love ◽

Religious Minority ◽

Human Need ◽

East End ◽

The Church

Main Street in Sarasota, Florida. A high-tech medical arts building rises from the east end, the county's historic three-story courthouse is two blocks to the west and sandwiched in between is the First Church of Christ, Scientist. A verse inscribed on the wall behind the pulpit of the church reads: “Divine Love Always Has Met and Always Will Meet Every Human Need.” This is the church where William and Christine Hermanson worshipped. It is just a few steps away from the courthouse where they were convicted of child abuse and third-degree murder for failing to provide conventional medical care for their seven-year-old daughter.This Article is about the intersection of “divine love” and “the best interests of the child.” It is about a pluralistic society where the dominant culture reveres medical science, but where a religious minority shuns and perhaps fears that same medical science. It is also about the struggle among different religious interests to define the legal rights of the citizenry.

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Ideas and Leaders in Contentious Politics: One Parish Priest in El Salvador's Popular Movement

Behavioral and Brain Sciences ◽

10.1017/s0140525x13009862 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 38 (01) ◽

pp. 76-101

Author(s):

PETER M. SANCHEZ

Keyword(s):

Collective Action ◽

El Salvador ◽

Liberation Theology ◽

Contentious Politics ◽

Religious Leaders ◽

Political Movement ◽

Parish Priest ◽

Historical Moment ◽

Resource Mobilisation ◽

The Church

AbstractThis paper examines the actions of one Salvadorean priest – Padre David Rodríguez – in one parish – Tecoluca – to underscore the importance of religious leadership in the rise of El Salvador's contentious political movement that began in the early 1970s, when the guerrilla organisations were only just beginning to develop. Catholic leaders became engaged in promoting contentious politics, however, only after the Church had experienced an ideological conversion, commonly referred to as liberation theology. A focus on one priest, in one parish, allows for generalisation, since scores of priests, nuns and lay workers in El Salvador followed the same injustice frame and tactics that generated extensive political mobilisation throughout the country. While structural conditions, collective action and resource mobilisation are undoubtedly necessary, the case of religious leaders in El Salvador suggests that ideas and leadership are of vital importance for the rise of contentious politics at a particular historical moment.

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