Children with serious illnesses experience life disruptions that are of consequence to long-term health and development. The spiritual is integral to health, yet many healthcare providers claim a lack of understanding and comfort with attending to spiritual issues in practice. This hermeneutic phenomenological inquiry explores spirituality as lived by children with cancer and cystic fibrosis and highlights the importance of spirituality in the provision of holistic child healthcare. Four children aged nine to fourteen from each illness group (six males and two females) were interviewed and asked to draw pictures, forming the primary data for interpretation. Conversations with family members were also included in the analysis as supplements to the primary data. Study findings offer insights into children’s lived experiences of the spiritual. They reveal unmet spiritual needs and unique ways of living the spiritual that often went unrecognized by adults. The experiences shared were profound and deeply meaningful, revealing hidden wondering and wisdom that defies contemporary views of how children understand and deal with the complexity of living with serious illness. Findings provide more nuanced understandings of the spiritual that allow for the voices and emotions of children to be heard, revealing a sense of struggle and the need to find meaning in illness with all its disruptions and demands on time and freedom. Findings also reveal the meanings in relationships that sustained children in their efforts to live well with illness. These findings provide possibilities for viewing child health differently—a view that includes the spiritual and its implications—that can lead to a more conscious awareness, wisdom, and sensitivity in practice. Findings offer ways of engaging children in conversations about illness meanings and the spiritual that recognize the complexity in language and the need for alternate strategies to mine the depths of experiences that are often hidden. Because the spiritual does not always wait for experts to arrive, findings are relevant to all healthcare providers and caregivers of ill children. Implications for interprofessional research, education, and practice are also explored, providing possibilities for seeing, exploring, and living the spiritual in our practices of caring for ill children.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1998.

Despite the numerous examples throughout history, the study of secular spirituality in art was mostly ignored until recently by contemporary writers, critics, historians, philosophers and educators. In my thesis, through the examination of selected images and writings, I determine how a differentiation between doctrinal and secular spirituality can be established. The importance of a rooted cosmopolitan outlook with respect to cross-cultural artistic manifestations is explored with the aim of synthesizing spiritual elements that transcend all cultures. The political, social and educational implications of ignoring spirituality are examined. A proposal to incorporate spirituality into education is introduced using art as a means to self-knowledge and understanding the implications of interconnectedness.

<p> Recent publications on the topic of safety, my observations of some church members' reluctance to be involved, and a serendipitous experience of added safety I had outside of the church coalesced to point me to lack of spiritual and emotional safety in my church as a possible cause of deficient personal spiritual growth in some members and of a resulting want for greater church efficiency. Emotional safety seems to be a core component of the ideals of love usually professed in the church. This indicated to me a possible need to focus on facilitating <i>practice</i> of emotional awareness and safety that would be experientially confirmed as conducive to personal growth in contrast to simply using the traditional methods of just preaching and teaching on these subjects. </p><p> The theological and biblical study specifically allowed me to describe the type of individual spiritual growth stemming from genuine personal awareness acquired through a sense of safety. I was able to legitimately equate such spiritual growth with the concept of personal stewardship or "sanctification" used in the Bible&mdash;in an understanding of it that encompasses the development of all of one's life as part of the spiritual endeavor. This involves all aspects of life and not just those commonly understood as "spiritual" in a narrower religious sense. Others have used the term "individuation" to describe this spiritual development. This is different from other understandings that associate "sanctification" with lists of concrete attitudes and behaviors which, in the mind of some outside observers, are "evidence" of spiritual growth, but may not always be reflective of such. </p><p> My assumption at the beginning of this project was that <i>practice </i> of emotional safety could enable increased awareness leading to spiritual growth. This foundational element, in my estimate, seemed to be the missing piece in the promotion of spiritual growth and organizational effectiveness in the church. However, my study revealed two more foundational levels of safety that must precede the practice of safety because they either enable it by their presence or foil it by their absence. <i>Practiced </i> safety is greatly impaired by a lack of structural safety (i.e., retained parts of organizational structures that enable lawful harm to some); and a lack of <i>structural</i> safety may be the outworking of a lack of <i>theological</i> safety&mdash;that is, retained personal and organizational elemental worldview, assumptions and beliefs about self, God, and the universe that generate unsafe space instead of a place of safety and trust. Lack of safety deters people from seeking awareness that can lead to growth, while the presence of safety can facilitate a fuller experience of awareness leading to satisfying and genuine spiritual growth. But such safety which enables awareness towards growth cannot occur without its foundational <i> theological, structural,</i> and <i>practiced</i> components being attended to, in this order. </p><p> Two circles of causes and effects are proposed to the consideration of the reader through this project. One is a circle of theological, structural and practiced safety which seems to facilitate individuals' willingness to engage in the pursuit of increased conscious awareness, resulting in greater spiritual growth and a safer world. The alternate circle is one which continues to perpetuate theological, structural and practiced dangers, thus apparently metastasizing individuals and organizations' inhibitions towards greater conscious awareness into regressive conformism and dangerous projections. </p><p> The process successfully used in this project at the Fox Valley Church in Neenah, Wisconsin, to increase a sense of safety conducive to conscious awareness and spiritual growth among project participants is proposed to all readers and entities willing to recognize a lack of safety as a reality to be addressed, and it may serve as a model to any such individual or organization to improve safety, with the ensuing increased spiritual growth and organizational efficiency, within their sphere of influence. (Abstract shortened by UMI.) </p>

<p> The one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church faces a crisis: a postmodern world has taken away our Lord. As seeker-sensitive mega-churches retreat after a desperate bid for relevancy, traditional congregations see their demise as part of a more widespread collapse. Yet, who knows? Perhaps God has called all churches, regardless of worship style, for such a time as this. </p><p> The mostly-retired members of <i>Asbury United Methodist Church </i> wonder how much longer the congregation will survive on the corner of DuPont Highway and Basin Road. Yet while young families have left the church, the <i>Asbury Child Care</i> welcomes fifty children each week. The money the Child Care pays the church for rent keeps the church afloat. We wondered what would happen to the relationship between the congregation and child care family if the church became host instead of landlord. </p><p> Since we were gifted at making and serving food (to each other and to our hungry neighbors), we decided to invite our child care family to a series of suppers on Wednesday nights during Lent. We trained our members to serve as Table Hosts. We welcomed children by offering them the freedom of unstructured play after supper as well as an invitation to join in stories, songs, and activities celebrating the special place of children in God's realm. </p><p> In the course of the suppers, we discovered Christ's presence in the gap between our congregation and our neighbors. As we celebrate our Seventieth anniversary, we see God's grace as an abundant gift to all, rather than a dwindling resource. Christ's calling to host our neighbors in love invites us to discover the body of Christ in our neighbors. In this new millennium, Jesus Christ calls the one, holy catholic, and apostolic church to a Pentecostal Pilgrimage from our pews to a feast of love and grace with our neighbors. And if we need help, the little children will show us the way.</p>

<p> For a variety of reasons, many churches in our cultural moment do not include creeds in their corporate worship. Some associate creeds with the disastrous hubris and overreach of the Modernist church as it attempted to nail down, and be the arbiter of, what is true. Others see them as simply boring and irrelevant relics of a bygone era and style.Yet in their right place, creeds have an important role to play today, framing the story of faith, and declaring the central core of what the local worshipping community holds in common with the church across the ages. Just as the lyrics of a song can seem lifeless without the music, so too, creeds can seem lifeless when extracted out of the life of faith.</p><p> In 2005 I led a team to design a new emerging church worship service for the First Presbyterian Church of Ambler which was called <i>SouthRidge. </i> As the service flourished and the liturgy began to settle into a familiar pattern, I noticed that the service was consistently devoid of creeds. There was a sense that something was missing, yet many in our new, young congregation had a distaste and distrust of prescribed corporate readings said by rote. We wondered if there were new ways of experiencing the Apostles Creed that might make it more accessible to a new generation.</p><p> In 2013 I led a team from our church to explore new ways of experiencing the Apostles' Creed. We developed eight different encounters with the Creed for both corporate worship and on-line resources. In particular, we found the encounter we called a "Creedal Testimony" to be a highly helpful way to experience the Apostles' Creed. This paper examines the history of the Apostles' Creed, the development and use of the eight encounters we created, and evaluates the impact these encounters had on our local community. The paper concludes with some tentative suggestions as to which of these encounters may be most helpful to other faith communities.</p>

<p> Researchers who specialize in the area of self-transcendence and servant leadership behavior have concluded that the presence of servant leadership behavior and spirituality may be essential in creating adaptive and successful organizations. Given the demand and concern for ethical, moral, and spiritual leaders&rsquo; conscious of others and the greater world community, interest in self-transcendence and servant leadership behavior has grown substantially. A limited body of evidence exists regarding the ways in which self-identified spiritual leaders implement servant leadership behavior in the spiritual, organizational setting. Gaining additional information on the ways in which self-identified servant leaders and spirituality apply in organizations is valuable to enable organizations to meet the challenges of the 21st century. In this research, the purpose of this study was to examine whether a relationship existed between the variables of self-transcendence and perceived servant leader behaviors among senior leaders and their followers at New Thought Spiritual Centers in the United States. This study sought to examine whether a leaders&rsquo; selftranscendence as measured by the Assessment of Spirituality of Religious Sentiments Scale (ASPIRES), correlates with being recognized as a servant leader among one&rsquo;s followers as measured by the Servant Leadership Behavior Scale (SLBS). The conclusions extrapolated from research question 1 suggested there was a significant positive correlation between selftranscendence and servant leadership behavior. The findings for research question 2 suggested partial support for leaders&rsquo; self-assessed self-transcendence and self-assessed servant leadership behavior. The highest scores for leaders&rsquo; reported from the ASPIRES scale was the subscales of <i>Prayer Fulfillment,</i> and less high among the subscales <i>Universality</i> and <i> Connectedness.</i></p>

<p> The purpose of the current phenomenological research was to explore the assimilation experiences of adult new converts into churches affiliated with the Baptist Missionary Association of America in order to help ministerial leaders understand what new converts experienced at conversion, looked forward to, or resisted regarding their assimilations. The researcher interviewed 28 participants representing seven BMA churches located in the Ark-La-Tex region of the southern United States. Participants included 21 new converts, baptized within the past one to three years, and a leading staff member from each church. The researcher recorded and transcribed interviews, separated excerpts from the interviews into categories, analyzed the data, and determined common themes from the data. Nineteen findings resulted from the study. New converts described their experiences of conversion, what they anticipated or resisted regarding retention and spiritual growth, the effect of church assimilation strategies, and how ministerial leaders might benefit from their experiences. Findings included the proximity of conversion to major life events, the eagerness of converts to join a family-like fellowship, acknowledgment of particular fears regarding baptism, contrasting views between converts and leaders regarding how converts learn what to do next, inability to describe intentional assimilation processes, and the importance of available leaders to assist new converts. The researcher determined 14 conclusions that resulted in eight recommendations for churches and church leaders and 14 recommendations for future researchers. The researcher attempted to fill a gap in knowledge by seeking the input of new converts regarding assimilation.</p>

This thesis is a study in the history of ideas in late 19th and early 20th century New Zealand: it examines the writings and correspondence of the Pākehā ethnographer, Elsdon Best, and his principal Tuhoe source, Tutakangahau of Maungapohatu. His intellectual influences are analysed, especially the writings of Edward Tylor and Max Müller, and their views on socio-cultural evolution, human progress, and a myth-making stage in humanity's development. Such mentors combined to produce Best's over-riding literary image: the mythopoetic Māori. The study charts his transformation from field anthropologist to government ethnographer at the Dominon Museum (Wellington), arguing that Best is the father of received versions of Māori culture. The work traces Tutakangahau's history in published sources and official correspondence, to evince the political reality in which Māori were fully engaged. This conflicts with Best's romantic vision of the surviving "oldtime Maori" as yesterday's men. By writing of Māori as primitive survivals, Best managed to both exoticise and detemporalise his subjects. The sources are his articles, correspondence, notebooks and published monographs; in Tutakangahau's case, letters and reports in the AJHR. The thesis questions the political argument that Best has misrepresented Māori, presenting him instead as the author of modern visions of Māori authenticity. Best sought a lost Māori being (ontology), obliterated by colonisation; the essential, pre-contact Māori psyche he described has remained active and pervasive in subsequent literature. His views have been absorbed into a reconstructed authentic Māori being, based on tradition - particularly in the post WW2 Māori renaissance. Many advocates of such essentialism seem unaware of the presence of Best's image of Māori authenticity in their writings. The study argues that there is no possibility of a late 19th century Māori epistemology unmediated by Pākehā influence. Through an evidential examination of Best's use of sources, a metamorphosis of views on Māori spirituality is observed taking place in the period. The thesis concludes that the post-mortem rejection of Best's methods and conclusions have led to an under-estimation of his underlying influence in the literature.

<p> The purpose of this dissertation is to answer the question: 'What does a spiritual formation model for the members of a missional church entail so that members of a church are transformed into missional Christians?' Community Life Church Cherrybrook (CLCC) in Sydney Australia is a twenty three year old established church that, generally speaking, has been engaging in an attractional paradigm. Over the last few years the church has slowly been moving towards a missional paradigm that affirms the biblical view of the church as a group of God's people sent into the world to be on mission with him. The author has become convinced that a primary way for the church to further engage with the missional paradigm is for its members to adopt a spiritual formation model in order for new practices to be learnt which will form people into missionaries within their context. By correctly viewing the church essentially as a body of people who are 'sent into' the world on God's mission, the church can once again regain its purpose to be a light in our world and an active witness to the kingdom of God. </p><p> The ministry project will therefore identify formational missional spirituality practices emerging from a missional theology that a sample of people from CLCC can engage in, so that transformation from a non-missional expression of Christianity to a more missional expression can occur. </p><p> An analysis of the biblical and theological material will show that there is support for a missional spiritual formation model of the church. A preliminary review of the literature on the missional church and practices will also reveal that support for a missional spirituality exists. Based on this, a model for the spiritual formation of a missional church will be formed according to an approach which seeks to produce missional formation through a series of practices and subsequent reflection on those actions. Finally, an assessment will be used to gauge at the final stages of the project the extent to which the participants have moved from non-missional expression of Christianity to a more missional paradigm.</p>