Religion – Scholar Publishing

The Influence of Leadership Styles on Church Growth with Special Reference to Pentecostal Churches in Zimbabwe

The study focused on the influence of leadership styles in Pentecostal churches with reference to Zimbabwe. There has not been a comprehensive study on leadership styles amongst Pentecostal churches in Zimbabwe which extends the leadership theories developed for business organizations to church organizations. The mixed methods (pragmatic) approach was adopted in the study using both qualitative and quantitative data. It allows the researcher to use multiple methods, different worldviews and assumptions as well as different forms of data collection and analysis. The pragmatic approach is not committed to one system of philosophy and reality and it gives the researcher freedom of choice of methods, techniques and procedures of the research that best answers the research problem. The mixed methods was also adopted for triangulation purposes. A case study approach using exploratory and descriptive research designs was employed. Interviews, questionnaires and observations were the main data collection tools. Document analysis was also used as a triangulation method. Three main participant groups in this study were the founders of the church, the leaders of the church such as pastors, elders, deacons and departmental leaders and finally the members of the church. Six Pentecostal churches were identified using specified criteria in order to create boundaries. Analysis of data was guided by the grounded theory propounded by Glaser and Strauss (1967) using the Constant Comparative Method. In addition the Public and Hidden Transcripts Theory by Scott (1992) was used as a discourse analysis tool. The findings were divided into four main categories, the leadership styles, growth strategies, sustainability and succession plan in order to address the influence of leadership styles on growth among the Pentecostal churches in Zimbabwe. Under the leadership styles, the study sought to find out first the leadership styles of the founders or senior pastors of Pentecostal churches in Zimbabwe. Overall the findings indicate that the transformational leadership style is the leadership style of founders of the Pentecostal churches in Zimbabwe. The second part on leadership was to find out the leadership styles of leaders in which the democratic leadership style was the mostly practiced one. The final aspect was to identify the dominant leadership style within the Pentecostal churches in Zimbabwe. The supportive leadership style was found to be the dominant leadership style in Pentecostal churches in Zimbabwe. Two models are presented as contribution to knowledge especially which can either be adapted or adopted by leaders in churches, business and management circles. The first model, the Ordinary-Questioning-Decision Making and Stability Model (OQDS) identifies the levels that people are at within the organisation (church). After that identification relevant leaders need to groom them using the Contextualised Leadership-Follower Model (CLF), in order to bring about loyalty and commitment.

A Threshold Experience

Although the most noteworthy development in the area of Victorian studies over the past two decades has been rethinking on its relation to modernity, scholars have not sufficiently acknowledged the correspondences between women’s poetry of the late Victorian epoch and Modernism. However, the late Victorian women’s poetry seems to participate noticeably in the Modernist experimental writing of the period as the 1880s was a time of new ideal for women because they fight for “suffrage, marriage rights, economic equality, and bodily rights” (Hetherington 12). Owing to these ideals, the late Victorian women poets take the pen to develop a much more critical attitude towards the identity that focuses on sexual attributes and gender. They represent gender boundaries and identities in new artistic ways relevant to Modernism. Nevertheless, the contribution of the late Victorian women’s poetry into Modernism has been neglected since as Lisa Rado writes in her book Rereading Modernism, male advocates of Modernism rejected the inclusion of many late Victorian women writers into the canon of Modernism. For Rado, a group of early male writers including Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, James Joyce, and Wyndham Lewis created a “Modernist manifesto set against the Romantic and the feminine of writing, and their repudiation of the feminine influenced the way publishers and agents received women-authored text” (18). In that respect, it seems that early male Modernist writers see themselves as the creator of literary Modernism but associate women poets of the period with the Romantic tradition of personal and confessional writing. Thus, they exclude female writing of the late nineteenth century from canon. Moreover, their flagrant disregard for the experimental writing by the late nineteenth century women influences the way the critics and publishers respond to the late Victorian women’s writing. As such, many women writers of the period remain overlooked until literary theorists start to revise the history of literary Modernism and rediscover the forgotten women Modernist writers from 1980s onwards.

Educação e Religião numa Cultura Organizacional Education and Religion in an Organizational Culture

The relationship in organizations between education and religion can be highly interwoven. This book highlights the interrelationship between the educational and shelter organization for disadvantaged female children and youth, Asilo de Infância Desvalida da Horta [Asylum of the Disadvantaged Children of Horta], Faial, the Azores, Portugal, and the entrance of the Religious Sisters of Congregação das Irmãs Franciscanas Hospitaleiras da Imaculada Conceição [Congregation of the Hospitaller Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception]. The book concludes with the presentation, in digital facsimile, of the 1933 Statutes and the Contract between the Asylum Board of Directors and the Religious Congregation established in 1932, which shaped a profound change in the organizational culture of the Asylum.

Normative Framework in the Organization – Statutes and Regulation of Asilo de Infância Desvalida da Horta [Asylum for the Disadvantaged Childhood of Horta] in the Monarchy and the 1st Republic

Asilo da Infância Desvalida da Horta [Asylum for the Disadvantaged Childhood of Horta], located in the city of Horta, Faial island, in the Azores, Portugal, was established in 1858 and operated under this name until 1971. Its central goal was to assist female children and young women in a situation of extreme poverty and neglect. At the time of the monarchy in Portugal, the 1860 Statutes and the 1876 Regulation provided the normative guidelines for the functioning of Asilo de Infância Desvalida da Horta. After the republic was established in Portugal, in 1910, the 1912 Statutes started to normatively guide the institution’s operation. While it is interesting and useful to compare the different documents that, contrary to what might be expected by this transformation of the political regime, this legal framework does not demonstrate, however, a profound change in this formal dimension.

Linguistics, Literary Studies and Communication: A Digital Perspective: A Festschrift for

Literature serves many functions in the society. As a mirror of the society, it gives an image of that society, which may be true or distorted, either in reality or perceived as distorted by the society as a whole. As a lamp, literature helps us to imagine alternative realities or new pathways in which we may walk. George Orwell’s 1984, a prognostication of governments’ intrusion into citizen’s privacy has become a reality in our day: with the emergence of the “Internet of Things”, Orwell’s Big Brother is now truly watching us. Against the backdrop of literary imagination becoming scientific reality, this paper investigates how nanotechnology has been and is being imagined in literature. 120 works of fiction in different media: movies and movie series, novel, comics/other media, cartoon, computer games, short story, are analysed to provide answers to the following questions: is nanotechnology imagined as a force for good or evil? How legitimate are these “prognostications” in the light of current realities? Literary conceptualizations of nanotechnology are ambivalent at best, and horrifying at the worst. This leads us to conclude that the prospects of nanotechnology give us a cause to pause.

Mythology and Folklore: Study Guide

Myth in itself is very much associated with religious belief. In one way or another, it relates to some actual events and is partly traditional. When we talk of a thing or an event which is traditional in nature, more often than not, we cannot be sure of its origin. This is the reason why in the study of myths, “suspension of disbelief” serves as key to a substantial understanding. If you are a wide reader of mythology and folklore topics, you would discover that myth stories have similarities in themes and characterizations. You may even get to know more about the folk’s own version of creation story or values and beliefs handed down through oral tradition and by generation. It seems that we cannot call a certain province or town “cultured” if it does not have its own collection of mythical stories.

Mending The Breaking Cord: African Christian Spirituality & Human Progress)

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The Christian church in Africa has changed not only in form and structure, but also the nature of its core message and relevance to society. Any critical observer will find that there is growing disengagement of the Christian message along with the corollary of socioeconomic challenges on the continent. It is an important yet overlooked feature of the African church’s story that most of the popular theological and self-improvement books for African Christians within and outside the continent, have rarely touched on the issues that are being examined in this book. From the Nubian African Christian heritage, through the Catholic and Protestants movements, to the birth of the African Independent churches, the African Christian church has gained the accolade as the front runner in global Christianity. The charismatic renewal has been a key driver of the Christian church’s growth, from the early decades of the twentieth century, to the present. The African church remains a dominant social force on the continent. The lives of most Africans revolve around religion. The irony is that increasing (church) membership is happening alongside prevailing inequalities – economic and social. Questionable state policies led by religious political leaders, have been blamed for citizens’ poor living conditions. If religious national leaders are failing to deliver public goods, then faith groups that nurture these leaders must accept a fair share of the blame too. It is interesting that former President Jacob Zuma of South Africa waded into this paradox by saying: