This dissertation aims to explore the needs of the Young Adults Group in the Lutheran Church, Hayfields, Pieterrnaritzburg. Focus groups were conducted with young adults to establish their needs. During the three months of data collection, group dynamics were also observed, and at the focus groups, specific focus group dynamics were detected. The focus group interactions were recorded and transcribed. Using thematic analysis, the transcribed data was encoded using existing codes based on Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and analysed. Twelve themes of needs emerged from the data. These were: i) physiological needs; ii) safety needs; iii) the need for acceptance and love and the absence of judgement; iv) the need to be understood - by others and the church; v) the need to be valued and appreciated; vi) the need to have fun; vii) the need for nature; viii) the need to delay life's pace and prioritise; ix) the need to grow spiritually - as individuals and as church; x) the need for a spiritual outlet and expression of one's spirituality; xi) the need to be used by God for a specific purpose; xii) the need for assurance from God. Using these needs, a framework for a programme was developed. All the guidelines and exercises suggested in the programme aim to promote growth - spiritual, emotional, and personaJ - and focus on fulfilling the individual's potential within the group. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, [2006].

This study in Practical Theology has been motivated by a concern that, in post-apartheid South Africa, it has become more difficult for yoling people in general, and university students in particular to have a vision for, and hope in the future, and hence to demonstrate commitment to working for a new world. It therefore seeks to identify ways in which such commitment and leadership can be nurtured, by engaging in a critical reflection on ministry to university students. This is done through the use of the critical hermeneutical method of correlation between the Christian tradition and human life experience as employed by Don S. Browning, lames and Evelyn Whitehead, and Stuart Bate. This involves beginning with concrete practice, going to theory, and then concluding with practice, in an ongoing hermeneutical circle. A case study is presented of the Association of Catholic Tertiary Students (ACTS) at the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg (UNP), and an analysis of their situation is undertaken, using two mediations. A psychological mediation identifies the psychological structures to which university students are capable of evolving at their stage of development, which is characterised by relativism and probing commitment. A socio-cultural mediation explores the roots of the loss of a sense of commmunity, and the growth in a spirit of individualism that epitomise the central issues within the UNP ACTS group. These roots are identified in the globalisation that is taking place at an economic, social and cultural level, resulting in relativisation, rationalisation, and personalisation in all dimensions of life. This gives rise to increasing competition, individualism and cultural dislocation, which are particularly evident since the demise of apartheid and the international integration of South Africa, coupled with the collapse of many of the hopes generated in the struggle against apartheid. A theological judgement of the ministry being employed within ACTS is then made, which points to the forms of ministry which could offer good news, evoke deeper commitment, and build stronger moral leadership amongst the students. The priority emerging is to foster selfesteem amongst them, primarily through building a joyful, accepting community with a small group pedagogy so that they can discover liberating message of the gospel in their quest for God, for survival in a hostile world, and for personal intimacy and acceptance. Such empowerment, it is suggested, makes deeper commitment possible. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2000.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 229-237).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Colgate Rochester Divinity School/Bexley Hall/Crozer Theological Seminary, 1997. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 103-106).

Thesis (D. Miss.)--Western Seminary, Portland, Or., 1997. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 196-200).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Colgate Rochester Divinity School/Bexley Hall/Crozer Theological Seminary, 1997. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 103-106).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 229-237).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Colgate Rochester Divinity School/Bexley Hall/Crozer Theological Seminary, 1997. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 103-106).

This qualitative participatory action research project examined how the spiritual dimension in pastoral therapy served as a life-giving resource to facilitate healing and growth in the lives of three Christian female university students. A postmodern epistomology, social construction theory and a contextual feminist theology informed the praxis of pastoral narrative therapy. The themes of subjectivity, meaning, religious development and religious experience were the focus of this study. Narrative practices were engaged in to utilise spiritual talk in the co-construction of an alternative relational identity with the research participants. The theory of religious development is discussed from a social constructionist perspective with an accent on a personal relationship with God as central to the developmental process. The religious experiences of the participants contributed to a spiritual awareness of being connected, in a dynamic way, to God, that transformed the clients' perceptions of problems and ways of addressing problems in their lives. / Practical Theology / M.Th. (Practical Theology)

This qualitative participatory action research project examined how the spiritual dimension in pastoral therapy served as a life-giving resource to facilitate healing and growth in the lives of three Christian female university students. A postmodern epistomology, social construction theory and a contextual feminist theology informed the praxis of pastoral narrative therapy. The themes of subjectivity, meaning, religious development and religious experience were the focus of this study. Narrative practices were engaged in to utilise spiritual talk in the co-construction of an alternative relational identity with the research participants. The theory of religious development is discussed from a social constructionist perspective with an accent on a personal relationship with God as central to the developmental process. The religious experiences of the participants contributed to a spiritual awareness of being connected, in a dynamic way, to God, that transformed the clients' perceptions of problems and ways of addressing problems in their lives. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M.Th. (Practical Theology)