Teaching Meaning: A Pedagogical Strategy to Help Ministry Students Understand Meaning Making in Narrative Perspective

This article describes a pedagogical classroom exercise that encourages ministry students to understand the jarring experience some people may confront when their life stories are disrupted and their ways of making meaning are challenged. Contemporary work in narrative and meaning making that grounds the exercise is presented. This exercise may be helpful to professionals who teach or mentor ministry students in their care of those enduring loss.

Qualitative Research: A Field Manual for Ministry Students

Qualitative research helps investigators better understand the experiences of others. Qualitative Research: A Field Manual For Ministry Students assumes no prior background in research involving human subjects. The examples and exercises in this book are drawn from variety of ministry settings and religious communities. The book addresses the distinctive features of final projects in Doctor of Ministry programs, including how to evaluate a project’s success. Some research methods textbooks discuss theory in depth but provide little explanation about how to conduct a study. This book explains how to use specific techniques and procedures, from study design and recruitment of participants to collection of data, analysis (coding), and interpretation of findings. Included is a databank containing transcribed interviews from qualitative studies. These data can be used to practice the analysis techniques discussed in the book.

Education

Edwards focused much of his pastoral energies on children, youth, and ministry students. This chapter seeks to trace and build on the research (mainly presented in dissertations and in Minkema’s biographical introductions) that deals with ‘Edwards as educator’. For Edwards, education’s primary aim was to serve the salvific knowledge of God, which then had to shape the learner’s whole life. In order to achieve this aim, education had to take place within a close, triangular relationship between Christ, the teacher, and the learner. Emphasis was placed on learning with understanding and on the individual responsibility to learn. Edwards’s educational methods revolved around questioning and discussion. Although his educational ideas were not wholly original, his educational impact, as mediated by his New Light followers, was significant. The chapter ends with a tentative evaluation of his educational legacy in light of his revivalism.

Theology as social activity: theological action research and teaching the knowledge of Christian ethics and practical ministry

Theological Action Research (TAR) is a way of doing and teaching theology and forming students that surmounts the problems associated with both formal theologies and theological ethnographies. Drawing from models of action research developed in other fields, this paper outlines an approach to teaching practical ministry grounded in a collaborative mode of inquiry capable of generating new insights into humanity's relation to God while also engendering the ethical-political powers that give shape to collective life. As a process of what anthropologist Lia Haro calls eth-o-graphy, Christian formation and knowledge production cannot be disconnected from cooperative participation in communities of practice dedicated to this kind of social, ecclesial activity. The paper goes on to describe how the author has begun to implement this TAR model at a Catholic, Jesuit institution, offering some promising preliminary findings on the potential it holds for training ministry students.

Manajemen Pendidikan Agama Kristen Melalui Pelayanan Penggembalaan Dalam Kelompok Sel

Christian Religious Education Management is carried out in smaller groups. The church is a broader community. Through pastoral care, the implementation of Christian Religious Education is expected to have a real impact on church members. Cell groups are small groups that can be optimized to achieve the goals of Christian Religious Education. This research uses quantitative research methodology with data analysis using the Rating Scale using 87 respondents of GBI Graha Pena members who responded to the statement given. The results showed the respondents understood the management of Christian Religious Education in pastoral care. Still, it needed the encouragement of leaders to make disciples so that they could carry out pastoral care—they need for members for pastoral care and Cell Group members to be more involved in ministry. Students learn to become cell group leaders by doing what they already understand to serve others. AbstrakManajemen Pendidikan Agama Kristen dilaksanakan dalam kelompok yang lebih kecil. Gereja adalah komunitas yang lebih besar. Pelaksanaan Pendidikan Agama Kristen melalui pelayanan pastoral diharapkan dapat memberikan dampak nyata bagi anggota gereja. Kelompok sel adalah kelompok kecil yang dapat dioptimalkan untuk mencapai tujuan Pendidikan Agama Kristen. Penelitian ini menggunakan metodologi penelitian kuantitatif dengan analisis data menggunakan Rating Scale dengan menggunakan 87 responden anggota GBI Graha Pena yang memberikan respons atas pernyataan yang diberikan. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan responden memahami manajemen Pendidikan Agama Kristen dalam pelayanan pastoral, namun perlu dorongan pemimpin untuk memuridkan anggota supaya mampu melaksanakan pelayanan pastoral. Kebutuhan anggota akan pelayanan pastoral dan anggota kelompok sel untuk lebih banyak terlibat dalam pelayanan. Murid belajar untuk menjadi pemimpin kelompok sel dengan melakukan apa yang mereka sudah mengerti untuk melayani orang lain.

Library Research Instruction for Doctor of Ministry Students: Outcomes of Instruction Provided by a Theological Librarian and by a Program Faculty Member

At some seminaries the question of who is more effective teaching library research is an open question. There are two camps of thought: (1) that the program faculty member is more effective in providing library research instruction as he or she is intimately engaged in the subject of the course(s), or (2) that the theological librarian is more effective in providing library research instruction as he or she is more familiar with the scope of resources that are available, as well as how to obtain “hard to get” resources. What began as a librarian’s interest in determining the extent to which Doctor of Ministry (DMin) students begin their research using Google, resulted in the development of a survey. Given the interesting results returned from the first survey in fall of 2008, the survey was conducted again in the fall of 2011. The results of the comparative data led to the discovery of some useful data that will be used to adjust future instruction sessions for DMin students. The results of the surveys indicated that the instruction provided by the theological librarian was more effective as students were more prepared to obtain and use resources most likely to provide the best information for course projects. Additionally, following the instruction of library research skills by the librarian (2011 survey), DMin students were more likely to begin the search process for information resources using university provided catalogs and databases than what was reported in the 2008 survey. The responses to the two surveys piqued interest regarding both eBook use during the research process and the reduction of research frustration to be addressed in a follow-up survey to be given in 2014, results of which we hope to report in a future article.