There are many people in South Afrika that yearly get affected by crisis and trauma for example rape, murder, child molestation, divorce, loss of work, floods, fire, gang violence and critical motor, aircraft or industrial accidents. When we also take into account all the people that are dying due to HIV/AIDS and the children that are being left behind, it seems very characteristic of a tidal wave of people in misery. Christians are in no way exempt from all the heartache and pain in this present evil and broken world. The after-effects of crises and trauma effect them as well and they also struggle to fight through the emotional pain - therefore the necessity of the essential assistance and guidance from the church.
From the exegetical research it became clear that guidance and teaching be deemed as an essential element to a crisis counseling equipping program of church office-bearers regarding the effective pastoral guidance of believers during or after crisis experiences. Within such a teaching program the charismata - that is essentially gifts given through the Holy Spirit for the equipping of believers within the body of Christ - must received central focus. In this regard the office-bearers fulfill a special function because part of their task is especially to guide traumatized believers to the truth of who God actually is - this can assist in creating an environment in which it will be more easy to abolish certain disbeliefs and negative feelings regarding their relationship to God.
From the theological basis theory it became evident that office-bearers have an ideal position to assist believers in times of crisis, largely due to the unique position that spiritual leaders have in general within the congregation and community. Basic knowledgeable regarding effective crisis counselling is not necessarily acquired over years of training. It is therefore practically possible for office-bearers to be trained and equipped in basic counselling to assist the body of believers after a crisis or trauma.
Within the chapter that dealt with pastoral guidance regarding complicated trauma, it became clear that it is important for church office-bearers to have extensive knowledge of the typical symptoms and causes of complicated trauma. This is specifically related to situations where the symptoms on average take more than six weeks to be resolved.
With regard to the metatheoretical perspectives special focus was placed on possible insights from the neighouring sciences regarding the counselling of people after trauma and crises. The various phases of a traumatic experience seemed to be of special importance in this regard. Assistance in every specific phase will result in various levels of assistance and much focus is placed on this. From the results of the empirical research the interviews emphasized very clearly that where pastors are equipped, members of the congregation would prefer to be counseled by them. It also became quite clear that the pastoral guidance of church members can largely contribute to reducing post-traumatic stress.
In the practical-theoretical part of this study an equipping program is proposed that will enable church office-bearers for meaningful pastoral assistance of people during and after times of crisis and complicated traumatic events. This equipping program can effectively be utilised by congregations and will largely contribute to the prevention of negative post-traumatic effects. / Thesis (M.A. (Pastoral))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NWUBOLOKA1/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/2625 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Snyman, Gerrit |
| Publisher | North-West University |
| Source Sets | North-West University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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