Pastor’s Woundedness in the Adventist Divisions in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

The study investigated the Pastor’s Woundedness using a quantitative descriptive design on a sample of 304 pastors in the East-Central Africa (ECD), West-Central Africa (WAD), and Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Divisions (SID) of the Adventist Church. Data from the self-constructed questionnaire was analyzed using SPSS 27 and SmartPLS 4.0 for statistical treatment. Anchored on grit theory, the results show that the pastors exhibited a high level of woundedness. The pastors experienced hurt, emotional woundedness, betrayal, abuse of authority from superiors, have few supportive friends, and still feel the pain. Yet, 82.6% of pastors were satisfied in ministry. An independent sample t-test conducted to compare the level of Pastor’s Woundedness aged Below 39 years and Above 40 years old found that although the older pastors had a higher level of woundedness, the magnitude of the difference was not significant. Pastors experienced hurt, and emotional abuse. betrayal, abuse of authority, and very few supportive friends to lean on in times of need. In terms of territories, the results show that the pastors in WAD have a higher level of the Pastor’s Woundedness while ECD and SID do not differ significantly. Further research would study how woundedness affects spouses and children of pastors.