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The needs of ELCSA ministers as they cope with burnout, in their ministry to people affected by and infected with HIV and AIDS.

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Date

2006

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Abstract

Ministering in the face of HIV and AIDS has posed many challenges. The work of ministers before HIV and AIDS experienced many problems which resulted in ministry burnout. HIV and AIDS have increased the demand for ministers because of the sick, the dying and the grieving people. The increase number of funerals means that a minister conducts many funerals over the weekend and sometimes during the week. This is not the only task of the minister; there are other duties such as house visitation, administration matters, counseling, Sunday services, confirmations and teachings in the church. Furthermore, ministers are often most intensively involved with people in times of crisis and distress. This research deals with the ways ministers are coping or not coping with ministry burnout which may be a result of ministering to people suffering from HIV and those dying of AIDS. This study recognises that an understanding of the minister's problems, as well as helping them to cope, by all who are involved in the church as a vocational system is necessary in the face of HIV and AIDS. The major beneficiary of care and support to ministers will be pastoral ministry itself and the church. Interest in this study therefore stems from both academic and pastoral concerns. Academically, one would like to see the discipline of pastoral care making a scientific and academic contribution that is capable of helping ministers. As for the pastoral concern, one believes that this study and similar studies are ways by which ministry can be strengthened and supported. There is need to equip the church to observe, listen to and respond to ministers in pain more knowledgeably and sympathetically. The researcher endeavours to describe these phenomena accurately through narrative type descriptions, interviews and pastoral conversations. Furthermore, Rediger created a model for avoiding burnout called AIM, which has led to a creation of a model to cope with ministry burnout in the face of HIV and AIDS, which is AIMS: A-Awareness, 1- Impose, M-Management, S-Support. The model has been created in the face of the emotional involvement of ministers in HIV and AIDS

Description

Thesis (M.Th.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.

Keywords

Church work with the sick., AIDS (Disease)--Patients--Care., AIDS (Disease)--Religious aspects--Christianity., HIV infections--Religious aspects--Christianity., Pastoral care., Clergy--Job stress., Burn out (Psychology)--Religious aspects--Christianity., Theses--Theology.

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