Following 9/11 and the growth of religiously legitimated violence in Islamic countries, the focus of public discussion moved to imams and teachers of religion as actors supporting Muslim isolation and the lack of willingness to integrate--imams became central figures in the debate on Islam. With great enthusiasm, politicians discovered them to be…

The seminary is an educational institution that exists for the purpose of training people for a variety of vocational and academic ministries such as local church pastors, missionaries, educational instructors, seminary professors, and a plethora of other local church positions, and para-church organizations. The seminary has existed in various…

This study has the aim of examining the effects obtained mainly through the leadership development process through small group dynamics for the purpose of making the youth group church, vitalized. The church reached the conclusion that the important problem for continuous church development was how to find a trained leader and to help the…

Can one uphold a call from an ecclesiastical body while teaching in a college classroom? This paper will argue that the dual roles of pastor and professor can be integrated by the adoption of faith development as a learning goal. This goal seems to stand at odds with three important aspects of academic teaching: the demographic reality of…

This article presents Nonviolent Communication (NVC) as a humanizing ecclesial and educational practice. NVC is a four-step process of communication designed to facilitate empathy and honesty between individuals and groups. Through an interdisciplinary dialogue with Reformed theology, this article argues that NVC is one concrete means of living as…

This study explored the effectiveness of communication training for clergy, working to create an outcomes assessment model for such endeavors. Clergy-participants (N=46) completed an extensive training process designed to increase the transformative quality of their sermon communication. Training outcomes were assessed with a prepost test design,…

The Rev. Thomas Beecher, a nineteenth-century Protestant minister in Elmira, New York, publicly advocated billiards, dancing, and card playing despite the outrage of his critics. (JMF)

On the whole, the experiences of clergy with funerals and funeral directors were positive, although a significant minority provided negative judgements. The general consensus of the clergy was that people did need more protection from inappropriate funeral practices than they were presently getting. (Author)

Spiritual living demands growth, and spiritual development has many parallels with human development. Ministers who are knowledgeable of the various stages are best prepared to assist and optimize spiritual growth. The primary benefit of nurturing believers through developmental stages is assured spiritual health and maturity in the context of a…

This study addresses eight models for "doing" ecclesial adolescent ministry in the United States from both a Catholic and ecumenical perspective. The article offers youth ministers in the field with creative insights to further enhance their ministry with adolescents. The eight models represent an inclusive theological and pastoral…

This study examined stress, strain, and coping mechanisms in women religious leaders. Subjects were nuns (N=51), Reform women rabbis (N=45), Episcopal women priests (N=32), United Methodist clergywomen (N=45) and Presbyterian clergywomen (N=45), matched for age and years on the job and pulpit assignments. All subjects were given the Osipow and…

The past decade has shown a surge of interest in faith-based resources for a variety of social problems. However, these resources have not been systematically studied for children with emotional and behavioral problems. We investigated religious activity and use of pastoral counseling among Protestant youth with serious emotional disorders (SED)…

Claims local Protestant church leaders can confront problem of depression by providing parishioners with information about symptoms and reasons for depression; distorted understandings and uses of biblical ideas about perfection, self-denial, surrender, and expressions of anger and grief; and principles of parenting that encourage children's…

In this article, the author discusses the "child-to-child evangelism" technique designed by evangelist Franklin Graham to convert America's children to his brand of Christianity. Starting in local public schools, Graham put out this plan whereby children could study evangelism techniques over the Internet and then march into their schools to…

Studies of clergy have emphasized the effects of stressors inherent to the profession and the impact of these on the minister's personal and family life. A model of family stress was employed to extend the focus to include three classes of variables: demands, social support, and perception. Results indicated that perception variables are more…