German text / Vor dem Hintergrund gegenwärtiger Reformprozesse, sowohl in der Evangelischen Landeskirche Württembergs, als auch in der Evangelischen Kirche Deutschlands, reflektiert und kommentiert die vorliegende Arbeit das Reformbemühen der letzten Jahre und stellt es in den Kontext empirischer Forschung. So versucht die Studie explorativ pragmatisch Zugangswege zu den bisher nicht erreichten Menschen zu eruieren, die bei der Entwicklung einer zukünftigen Sozialgestalt von Kirche mitbedacht werden könnten. Mittels eines mehrstufigen Zufallsauswahlverfahrens wurden die Befragungspersonen ermittelt und 628 standardisierte Interviews durchgeführt. Dabei stehen zunächst die religiösen Einstellungen zur christlich-abendländischen Kultur- und Werteorientierung, zur kirchlichen Arbeit als solche und zum christlichen Glauben im Forschungsinteresse, dann die Erfahrungen mit Gottesdienst, Kirche und Leben, Erwartungen, Bedürfnisse und Interessenlagen und schließlich der Stellenwert von Gebet und Bibel als Bausteine christlich-spiritueller Lebenspraxis. Ausgehend vom Gottesdienst, als Zentralort gemeindlichen Lebens, will die Forschung die Chancen gottesdienstkultureller Ausdifferenzierung ergründen und nimmt unter anderem alternative Gottesdienstformen in den Blick. Ehrenamtlicher Mitarbeit in der Kirche, gemeindlicher Kleingruppenarbeit und religiöse Erwachsenenbildungsangebote sind von potenzieller Bedeutung und wollen ebenso als Zugangswege kirchlicher Zukunftsentwicklung bedacht sein, wie der Stellenwert gemeindlicher Seelsorge- und Lebensberatung in Umbruchsituationen, oder die Einrichtung einer landeskirchlichen Gemeindegründungsbewegung in bisher unerreichten soziokulturellen Umgebungen. Die vielfältigen Erkenntnisse und potenziellen Möglichkeiten zukünftiger Kirche sind nicht zu trennen von einer missionstheologischen und ekklesiologischen Positionierung, die in der Herausbildung von kulturrelevanter, multioptionaler Gemeinde, als Gemeinschaft von Brüdern und Schwestern, das Zentralgeschehen nachhaltiger Gemeinde- und Kirchenentwicklung erkennt. Damit ist die Studie als Diskussionsbeitrag in den Entscheidungsprozessen aktueller Reformdebatte platziert. / Against the background of current reform processes in the Evangelische Landeskirche von Würrtemberg (protestant national church of Baden-Württemberg as) well as the Evangelische Kirche von Deutschland (protestant national church of Germany), this paper reflects and comments on the reformation efforts of the past years and places them into the context of empirical research. The aim of this survey is to investigate in an explorative manner various forms of pragmatic access to people hitherto unreached, who could be factored into the church's future social form. The participants were selected using a multilevel random selection process and 628 standardised interviews were subsequently carried out. To begin with, this research focuses on the interviewee's religious stance on christian-occidental culture and values,on the work of the church in general and on christian faith, then on their personal experience with services, church and life, their expectations, needs and interests, and lastly the significance of prayer and the bible as integral parts of a spiritual Christian life. Based on the service as the centre of a congregation's community life, this survey wants to fathom the chances of service differentiation and takes a look at alternative forms of service among other things. Volunteer work in the church, work in small groups as well as religious education programmes for adults are of potential importance and need to be taken into consideration as possible access paths to the future development of the church as well as the value of pastoral care and life coaching in situations of radical change or the start-up of a national movement to establish new congregations in hitherto unreached sociocultural environments. The manifold findings and potential possibilities of our church in the future cannot be separated from our position with regard to missiology and ecclesiology, which identifies the central development of congregation and church as the formation of culturally relevant, multioptional congregations, as the community of brothers and sisters. This survey thus contributes to the current discussion of reform and the associated decision-making process. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D. Th. (Missiology)

Children heading their households are not a new phenomenon in South Africa. Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) has been the number one cause behind the emergence of many child-headed households in sub-Saharan Africa. This qualitative research inquiry was guided by an interpretivist epistemology. Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory was used as the theoretical framework that guided this study. A case study design was used with un-structured interviews being the primary method of data collection. Participatory task-based methods in the form of metaphors and story writing, informal observations, questionnaires and field notes augmented the data generation process. Purposive sampling procedures were used and two participants were chosen for this study. Thematic analysis of data generated the themes and sub-themes which provided insight into the lives of children in the role of parents. Findings of this study reveal that orphaned and vulnerable children in the role of parents have the task of taking care of their siblings by providing food, washing their clothes, sending them to school and helping with their homework. They also have the added task of making decisions in the home and providing parental guidance to their younger siblings in the absence of their parents. Children in this study also experienced poverty and faced stigma and discrimination from relatives, peers, neighbors and members in the community / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Guidance and Counselling)