D.Litt. et Phil. / The whole world, including Africa and South-Africa, is moving in transitional phases between premodern, modern and post modernistic tendencies. In Southern-Africa we see the coexistence of at least these three worldviews. On the one hand we witness signs of Pre-modernism, as well as an increase in Modernistic tendencies. On the other hand we experience a strong growth and emphasis on the so called Postmodernism (Compare Gibbs 2001:30, Hendriks 2004:16; Niemandt 2007:25-28). Post modernism, also called Post colonialism in the African context, is basically an attempt to make sense of what is happening in the current period (Powell 1998:17). It endeavours to reconceptualize the way the world is experienced and explained (Boje 1996:2). Post modernism can also be summarized as an increasing awareness that the last say has not been said on anything. That there will always be yet another perspective about life and about God (Niemandt 2007:47-48). The world-wide realities of cultural shifts coupled with the transitions between the traditional-, modern- and post modern worldviews, have implications for leadership in general. In various institutions, including commercial, educational, medical and religious circles, leaders are facing growing challenges of ever changing ways of living, thinking and doing. The collective impact of all these changes in thought and culture, information tegnology, the advent of globalization, as well as the plurality of race and religion, has displaced the historical role of the church and its leaders (Gibbs 2001:19). It also contributes to the marginalization of the church as an institution (Regele 1995: 182). One of the consequences of this, is that the nature of leadership in the church also has to change. Congregational leaders experience a disintegration of culture and traditional values in the daily operation of their congregations and many do not know how to adress the resulting changing demands on their leadership (McLaren 2003:141). The point of departure in this study is that in order to develop a better notion of the demands that the current time frame places upon congregational leaders and to support them as leaders, it would be valuable to listen in an explorative way to their practical experiences. From their experience, it should be possible to observe certian phenomena and tendencies and to develop potential strategies to support them in addressing the demands placed upon them as leaders in the local assemblies. Consequently this study followed a qualitative, explorative, descriptive, contextual and phenomenological research design (Compare Brink 1996:11; Maxwell 1996:59). The research was done by conducting seven semi structured focus groups in which fifty congregational leaders participated. The research took place in two phases: In phase one congregational leaders’ experience of the demands of the current time frame were explored and described. Phase two was conducted in two steps: In step one a conceptual framework was derived from the results of phase one. In step two, strategies based on this conceptual framework were described. The researcher made use of Tesch’s method of data analyses (Creswell 1994:155-156). Word for word transcriptions of the focus group interviews were used for the data analyses, which was verified by an independent coder. As this is a phenomenological investigation, it was not directed by literature. A literature study to confirm the results of the research and the experience of congregational leaders about the demands of current times, was done later in the study. The data analyses exposed a main theme and six sub-themes relating to the experience of congregational leaders about the demands of current times on them as leaders. Their main experience was that fast changes over a broad spectrum of society, places great pressure on the internal and external capacities of congregational leaders. Many of these leaders experience ever increasing emotional exhaustion and distress, because of present-day demands. This leads to them experiencing dejection, loneliness and guilt.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:2466 |
| Date | 06 June 2012 |
| Creators | Weideman, Henri Jacobus |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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