scholarly journals Exodus of clergy: A practical theological grounded theory exploration of Hatfield Training Centre trained pastors

2013 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaun Joynt ◽  
Yolanda Dreyer
Keyword(s):  
Grounded Theory ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Time Management ◽  
Geographical Location ◽  
Pastoral Ministry ◽  
Sexual Misconduct ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Training Centre ◽  
Practical Theological

There is a shortage of clergy, at least in the Roman Catholic Church. Protestant churches in general are experiencing more of a distribution or placement challenge than a shortage. The two greatest hindrances to addressing the Protestant clergy distribution challenge are a lack of adequate compensation for clergy and the undesirable geographical location of a number of churches, as perceived by clergy. Influences such as secularisation, duality of vocation, time management, change in type of ministry, family issues, congregational and denominational conflict, burnout, sexual misconduct, divorce or marital problems, and suicide, affect clergy. Studies on the shortage of clergy have been conducted mostly in the USA and Europe and not in South Africa. This article focuses on the research gap by means of a practical theological grounded theory exploration of the exodus of clergy. Grounded theory methodology is used to identify the reasons why clergy trained at a Bible college of a Protestant charismatic mega church leave full-time pastoral ministry. Findings correspond to previous studies with two reasons appearing more frequently than others: responding to a call and leadership related issues. Firstly, respondents differed in their replies with respect to reconciling their exit from full-time pastoral ministry with their call. The replies included not being called, a dual call, or called but left anyway. Secondly, respondents indicated that leadership influence was mostly negative with regard to affirming their call.

scholarly journals Exodus of clergy: ‘When the fight is just not worth it anymore’ – The role of conflict in responding to the call

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaun Joynt
Keyword(s):  
Grounded Theory ◽  
Social Process ◽  
Pastoral Ministry ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Protestant Church ◽  
Practical Theological ◽  
Basic Social Process

Conflict affects clergy’s response to the call. Unresolved conflict negatively influences their decision to remain in full-time pastoral ministry. This contributes to a shortage of clergy in the Roman Catholic Church, but to a lesser extent, the Protestant church, as it faces a distribution or displacement challenge. The shortage negatively affects the church, as clergy equip congregants to live the faith and transmit it to the next generation. The purpose of this study is to discover what factors are involved in responding to the call to full-time pastoral ministry. A practical theological grounded theory approach is used to discover the properties of the basic social process responding to the call and more specifically one of its categories, namely conflict. Semi-structured interviews are conducted and data coded, using Glaser and Strauss’ grounded theory methodology in order to determine a basic social process, namely responding to the call. The category of ‘conflict’ includes properties such as conflict due to lack of communication, dealing with favouritism, conflict with leadership and managing conflict or leaving due to conflict. Osmer’s descriptive-empirical task is used to view the category conflict from a practical theological perspective. The results of this study indicate three responses to the call by clergy who left full-time pastoral ministry: not called in the first place, a dual call (being bi-vocational or seasonal), and being called, but leaving anyway due to, among other factors, conflict.

scholarly journals Exodus of clergy: The role of leadership in responding to the call

2017 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaun Joynt
Keyword(s):  
Grounded Theory ◽  
Pastoral Ministry ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Dark Side ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Toxic Leadership ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Protestant Church ◽  
Practical Theological

Leaders play an important role in clergy’s response to their call. Toxic leadership, also known as the dark side of leadership, negatively influences their decision to remain in full-time pastoral ministry. There is a shortage of clergy in the Roman Catholic Church and a distribution or displacement challenge facing the Protestant church. This shortage adversely affects the future of the church as clergy play an integral part in the preparation of congregants for their works of service (Eph 4:11–12). The purpose of this study was to discover what factors were involved in clergy’s response to the call to full-time pastoral ministry. A practical theological grounded theory approach was used to discover the properties of the category ‘leadership’. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and data were coded using Glaser and Strauss’s grounded theory methodology. The category of ‘leadership’ includes properties such as favouritism, leaders abdicating responsibilities, leaders taking no action/being inactive, leaders ‘labeling’ subordinates, leaders’ ‘unethical’ behaviour, nepotism, poor conflict handling, poor handling of multi-racial issues, being placed on a pedestal, affirming subordinates and autocratic leadership style. Osmer’s descriptive-empirical task was used as a practical theological lens through which to view the category ‘leadership’. The results indicated three responses by clergy to the call to full-time pastoral ministry: not being called in the first place, a dual call (being bi-vocational or ‘seasonal’) and being called but leaving anyway because of, among other factors, toxic leadership. A steward leadership approach is recommended in response to the dark side of leadership.

scholarly journals Exodus of clergy: Responding to, reinterpreting or relinquishing the call

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaun Joynt
Keyword(s):  
Grounded Theory ◽  
Pastoral Ministry ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Protestant Church ◽  
The Core ◽  
Core Category ◽  
The Church

�Who will lead the sheep when the shepherds are gone?� Clergy plays an important role in the establishing and sustaining of the church; without them, congregants will not be rooted in the faith nor will the faith be transmitted to the next generation. The shortage of clergy in the Roman Catholic Church and the distribution or displacement challenge facing the Protestant church pose a risk to the future of the church; therefore, the response of clergy to their call to full-time pastoral ministry is crucial for the continued existence of the church. The purpose of this study was to discover the variables involved in responding to the call to full-time pastoral ministry in a church. A grounded theory approach was used to discover the properties of the core category: �calling�. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, and data were coded using Glaser and Strauss� grounded theory methodology. The core category �calling� included properties such as age, defining what a call is or is not; it evolves over time, it has an aspect of timing and it requires �worldly experience� to be effective. Osmer�s descriptive-empirical task was used as a practical theological lens through which to view the core category �calling�. The results indicated three responses by clergy who had left full-time pastoral ministry: not being called in the first place, a dual call (being bi-vocational) and being called but leaving anyway. Further research is needed to assist clergy in accurately identifying and developing their call to full-time pastoral ministry.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The research calls for an ongoing dialogue with regard to the concept of clergy calling and initiates this by means of a practical theology perspective of a grounded theory study. Future research recommendations are suggested.

Lay-Sisters and Good Mothers: Working-class Women in English Convents, 1840-1910

1990 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 453-465
Author(s):  
Susan O’brien
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Catholic Reformation ◽  
Church Workers ◽  
Working Class Women

When convents were re-established in mid-nineteenrh-cenrury England, after a break of over two hundred years, they mirrored the developments in religious life pioneered on the Continent during the Catholic reformation and in response to the French Revolution. By 1850 new forms of active and apostolic vocation co-existed with the traditional enclosed and contemplative vocation. Yet even the most traditional convent was novel in early nineteenth-century England, and it is only with benefit of hindsight that we assume the willing response of Irish and English women to the call of a religious vocation. The reestablished Church might promote the virtue of vocation, particularly to the new apostolic congregations which were so useful to hard-pressed priests. But it was not inevitable that the religious life would take root in a culture deeply suspicious of conventual ‘secretiveness’ and, moreover, at a time when the ideology of hearth and home had such vitality. In the event, the active congregations multiplied rapidly and attracted women of all classes. As a result, by the end of the century the Roman Catholic Church in England had found employment for thousands of women as full-time, professional church workers. More than one-third and perhaps as many as half of these women were from working-class families, and it is with the working-class members that this paper is concerned.

The Reluctant Prior: Bishop Wulstan Pearson of Lancaster

1991 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 403-413
Author(s):  
René Kollar
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Pastoral Ministry ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
The Church

Although the Irish accounted for a large proportion of the English Roman Catholic Church during the opening decades of the twentieth century, the Church ‘was led by Englishmen too and mostly pretty local ones.’ Bourne, McIntyre, Leighton Williams, Henshaw, Thorman, and Singleton represent a few of the native sons who eventually became prelates of their local sees. Likewise, Thomas Wulstan Pearson (1870–1938), born in Preston, was appointed the first bishop of the Diocese of Lancaster in 1925. Dom Wulstan had previously served in the Benedictine parish in Liverpool, an assignment which he cherished. Asked to leave this northern post to become the first prior of Downside Abbey’S foundation at Ealing, he unsuccessfully tried to resist. Reluctantly and with serious reservations he followed his abbot’s wishes and moved south. His years as the superior of this young priory, however, represent a traumatic break with the sense of personal fulfulment he experienced in Liverpool, but the barren and trying years also served to strengthen his longing and commitment to the pastoral ministry.

Popes, Saints, Beato Bones and other Images at War

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 337-364
Author(s):  
Kristin Norget
Keyword(s):  
San Francisco ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Moral Authority ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Peripheral Populations ◽  
New Strategy ◽  
Catholic History ◽  
Local Cultures

This article explores new political practices of the Roman Catholic Church by means of a close critical examination of the beatification of the Martyrs of Cajonos, two indigenous men from the Mexican village of San Francisco Cajonos, Oaxaca, in 2002. The Church’s new strategy to promote an upsurge in canonizations and beatifications forms part of a “war of images,” in Serge Gruzinski’s terms, deployed to maintain apparently peripheral populations within the Church’s central paternalistic fold of social and moral authority and influence, while at the same time as it must be seen to remain open to local cultures and realities. In Oaxaca and elsewhere, this ecclesiastical technique of “emplacement” may be understood as an attempt to engage indigenous-popular religious sensibilities and devotion to sacred images while at the same time implicitly trying to contain them, weaving their distinct local historical threads seamlessly into the fabric of a global Catholic history.

DIALOG Z HUMANIZMEM RENESANSOWYM W DZIEŁACH PIOTRA SKARGI / PIOTR SKARGA’S DIALOGUE WITH RENAISSANCE HUMANISM

2013 ◽  
Vol 54 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 405-424
Author(s):  
Alina Nowicka -Jeżowa
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Ignatian Spirituality ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
Renaissance Humanism ◽  
Cultural Conditions ◽  
Political Views ◽  
The City ◽  
The Church

Summary The article tries to outline the position of Piotr Skarga in the Jesuit debates about the legacy of humanist Renaissance. The author argues that Skarga was fully committed to the adaptation of humanist and even medieval ideas into the revitalized post-Tridentine Catholicism. Skarga’s aim was to reformulate the humanist worldview, its idea of man, system of values and political views so that they would fit the doctrine of the Roman Catholic church. In effect, though, it meant supplanting the pluralist and open humanist culture by a construct as solidly Catholic as possible. He sifted through, verified, and re-interpreted the humanist material: as a result the humanist myth of the City of the Sun was eclipsed by reminders of the transience of all earthly goods and pursuits; elements of the Greek and Roman tradition were reconnected with the authoritative Biblical account of world history; and man was reinscribed into the theocentric perspective. Skarga brought back the dogmas of the original sin and sanctifying grace, reiterated the importance of asceticism and self-discipline, redefined the ideas of human dignity and freedom, and, in consequence, came up with a clear-cut, integrist view of the meaning and goal of the good life as well as the proper mission of the citizen and the nation. The polemical edge of Piotr Skarga’s cultural project was aimed both at Protestantism and the Erasmian tendency within the Catholic church. While strongly coloured by the Ignatian spirituality with its insistence on rigorous discipline, a sense of responsibility for the lives of other people and the culture of the community, and a commitment to the heroic ideal of a miles Christi, taking headon the challenges of the flesh, the world, Satan, and the enemies of the patria and the Church, it also went a long way to adapt the Jesuit model to Poland’s socio-cultural conditions and the mentality of its inhabitants.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document