Calling and Career in Christian Ministry

Christopherson, Richard W.

doi:10.2307/3511890

Cited by 43 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…MacDonald (1991) found that hospice social workers did not have a clear set of tasks with which to define themselves, and consequently did not have a distinct professional identity within hospice. Other social support personnel form an occupational identity that includes a sense of calling (Christopherson 1994;Dreher, Holloway, and Schoenfelder 2007) or an emphasis on performing saintly work (Solari 2006). …”

Section: Identities Of Care Workersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating Dark Humor and Compassion

Cain

2012

Journal of Contemporary Ethnography

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In The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Goffman drew attention to the various ways that individuals present themselves across settings. One aspect of his discussion was the division of space into front and back regions. In this article, I use data from two years participant observation and forty-one interviews with hospice workers to examine the ways that workers identify as well as how they use those identities to account for discrepancies between front and back region behaviors. Front stage behaviors emphasize compassion, while backstage behaviors include dark humor, strategizing, and detachment. This article argues that workers create a hospice identity that emphasizes authentic emotional expression and enlightenment about death as a way to explain away discrepancies in behavior. This work challenges assumptions that fronts are only performances and that back regions are more authentic by showing how workers integrate the two into a professional sense of self.

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Section: Identities Of Care Workersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating Dark Humor and Compassion

Cain

2012

Journal of Contemporary Ethnography

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“…Although the project was not limited to understanding the role of professionals in these organizations, this was an early focus because of the importance of professionals in organizations as discussed above. The four themes discussed in this article arose as a result of explicitly coding with an eye toward normative processes based on themes that previous research, discussed above, about professionals in general and religious professionals in particular suggest would be important (Christopherson 1994; Finke and Dougherty 2002; Friedson 1984; Friedson 2001; Leicht and Fennell 1997). The patterns thus emerged throughout the reflexive process of data gathering and analysis.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Congregational planning thus proceeds according to a different set of criteria rather than simply trying to attract or accommodate growth, the two congregational planning phenomena for which pastors traditionally receive the most professionalization and, not coincidentally, experience the most oversight (Marty 1988). As Christopherson found in his study of traditional pastoral careers, “when clergy talk about what they want to accomplish, what it is that they are called to do, they inevitably talk about change and growth” (Christopherson 1994:228). This is isomorphism at its finest as it is clear that the institutionalization of accounting and planning procedures for managing congregation growth are taught explicitly in seminaries.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Resisting Institutionalization: Religious Professionals in the Emerging Church*

Packard

2011

Sociological Inquiry

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This article discusses how organizations can resist normative institutional pressures associated with the use of formally trained and credentialed professionals. This research draws on neoinstitutional theories of isomorphism and utilizes a framework of religious training developed by Finke and Dougherty (2002), which emphasizes both the social and religious capital gained during professionalization, to show that resistance to normative institutional pressures is possible. The data demonstrate that organizations which act to reformulate the role of religious professionals in a way which limits both the opportunities and ability of clergy to implement and maintain organizational routines and processes can successfully avoid normative institutional forces. This research draws on over 50 interviews and 100 hours of fieldwork with people in the Emerging Church, a religious movement that has arisen in the last 25 years as a response to increasing distrust of institutional authority. This study helps to close the gap between institutional studies of organizations and the sociology of religion by suggesting that some, currently overlooked, organizational activities can be more accurately understood as deliberate attempts to resist institutionalizing forces.

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“…Moreover, previous research (e.g. Christopherson, 1994; Goetz, 1997) has suggested that constructs similar to the dimensions of internality are also related to ministry satisfaction.…”

Section: Internal Orientation To Ministry and Positive Outcomesmentioning

confidence: 97%

Ministry orientation and ministry outcomes: Evaluation of a new multidimensional model of clergy burnout and job satisfaction

Miner

Dowson²,

Sterland³

2010

J Occupat & Organ Psyc

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In secularized countries, where the authority of religious institutions has declined, church ministers face pressures that may precipitate burnout and threaten ministry satisfaction. This study examined the relationship of ministry orientation to burnout and ministry satisfaction in a large sample of Australian clergy. The sample comprised 2,132 church leaders surveyed as part of the 2001 National Church Life Survey in Australia. They completed brief, alternative measures of ministry orientation, burnout, and ministry satisfaction. Data were analysed by means of confirmatory factor analysis, a multiple indicator multiple cause model, and structural equation modelling. Results supported the validity of three‐factor models of ministry orientation and burnout as applied to clergy, with burnout mediating the relationship between an internal orientation to ministry and satisfaction in ministry. The independence of personal accomplishment from satisfaction in ministry was also established. The usefulness of ministry orientation as predictive of ministry outcomes in the context of secularization is discussed.

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Calling and Career in Christian Ministry

Cited by 43 publications

References 14 publications

Integrating Dark Humor and Compassion

Integrating Dark Humor and Compassion

Resisting Institutionalization: Religious Professionals in the Emerging Church*

Ministry orientation and ministry outcomes: Evaluation of a new multidimensional model of clergy burnout and job satisfaction

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