D.Phil. / Communities in a society consist of individual members of the communities. Only when the individuals in communities are thriving can the communities contribute to the health of society. This study focuses on the members of macro communities. A macro congregation was used as an example of a macro community. An unhealthy imbalance between individual growth, self-assertion, and a healthy self-esteem, on the one hand, and functioning as part of a larger community, on the other hand is indicative of massification that has a detrimental effect on the wellbeing— spiritually, psychologically, socially and potentially even physically—of the individual. Little or no research has been done about the role of the spiritual disciplines in personal wholeness, specifically as far as members of macro communities are concerned. The following question can therefore be asked: "What can be done to accompany members of a macro community to understand the importance to be self-responsible to implement the disciplines of spirituality?" The purpose of this study is to develop a model for accompaniment of members of macro communities to promote wholeness. A theory generative, qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual research design was used to conduct this study. The fieldwork was done by having semistructured interviews with members of macro communities. The results obtained were analysed and categorised. The findings from all data were contextualised and a literature control was carried out. In this way findings were validated. The results obtained from the analysed data reflect the fact that members of macro communities are preoccupied with the mass gathering of the community during the Sunday service. Members of macro communities often associate strongly with the macro community, its leaders, dogma, philosophy and culture, but fail to grow as individuals. Members of macro communities are in desperate need of exercising selfresponsibility for spirituality. A lot can be done to facilitate self-responsibility for spirituality. The central concept of facilitation of self-responsibility for spirituality can be defined as the facilitator creating a safe space in order to assist, intervene, empower and motivate a community member to bring about self-awareness, selfacceptance and the making of a conscious effort in order to bring about selfdiscipline to practice spiritual disciplines and private spirituality in order to grow towards wholeness. A model was developed as framework of reference to facilitate self-responsibility for spirituality. The interrelated divisions were identified for the model of facilitation of self-responsibility for spirituality namely initiation, facilitation and mobilisation. The unique factor about the model of facilitating self-responsibility for spirituality is that members of macro communities are facilitated to live in a way that they will not be victims of massification. The aim is to assist them in living with a new inner functioning. This new inner functioning is available through the self-discipline of practicing the spiritual disciplines. That would bring about the healthy condition of an inner locus of control and a healthy relationship with the macro community, promoting hope, positive beliefs and personal growth. Members of macro communities can exercise self-responsibility for spirituality through self-awareness, self-acceptance and the making of a conscious effort. This thesis therefore proposes a model of facilitating self-responsibility for spirituality on which guidelines can be operationalised. This will assist members of macro communities to exercise self-responsibility for spirituality in order to continue in the lifelong process of growing towards wholeness.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:9239 |
| Date | 14 August 2012 |
| Creators | Van der Merwe, Jakobus Potgieter |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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