Keeping Faith in Faith-Based Organizations: A Practical Theology of Salvation Army Health Ministry

2014 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-155
Author(s):  
J. Dorrell
Author(s):  
Mikael Hallenius

Faith-based organizations and professional development: A case for practical theology? The question discussed in this article is: “in what ways can perspectives from practical theology  contribute to the study of professional development within faith-based organizations? To an swer this question, I present my critical reading of the report, När tilliten prövas: En studie av  studieförbundet Ibn Rushd samhällsbidrag (2019) and the results are analyzed utilizing per spectives from practical theology. My method is theory-testing critical reading where I search  for and present concepts in the report concerning 1) What is said of religion in the relationship  between religion and society in the report? 2) Which perspectives are raised in the report con cerning stakeholders, staff, and visitors/participants behavior? Finally, using perspectives from  practical theology, I outline two answers addressing what professional development in faith based organizations is and how practical theology can contribute in this field. Firstly, I propose  that professional development in faith-based professions occurs when one’s own and other’s  expression of intentional religion is perceived as one of many positive assets from the onset.  Practical theology has the resources to both study and develop knowledge in these processes.  Secondly, I claim that practical theology has resources to identify and utilize lessons learned  from other professions with clear religious identities. Their experiences should be of interest  for actors dealing with similar challenges and for society in general. Professional development  in faith-based organizations is a case for practical theology.  


2019 ◽  
Vol 68 (7) ◽  
pp. 853-871 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Charlotte Rast ◽  
Younes Younes ◽  
Peer Smets ◽  
Halleh Ghorashi

The so-called refugee crisis in 2015/2016 created opportunities for faith-based organizations, community initiatives, volunteers and refugees to get actively involved in refugee reception in Amsterdam. This study investigated the resilience potential of three refugee reception approaches that were taken during that transformative period: those of a semi-governmental organization (COA), a faith-based organization (The Salvation Army) and a community initiative ( Hoost). Based on qualitative data, the article shows that the nexus of regulations and flexibility in crisis responses impacts the ability to employ multiple local resources and thus predetermines the capacity to adopt resilient solutions to refugee reception during crises. The authors plead for daring governmental efforts that acknowledge, connect and facilitate the innovative power of local communities, faith-based organizations, volunteers and refugees in the refugee reception process without further withdrawals of state responsibility for refugee reception. However, it is crucial that such innovative efforts integrate and learn from existing knowledge to prevent mistakes from being repeated.


2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 378-388 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl L. Holt ◽  
Anita L. Graham-Phillips ◽  
C. Daniel Mullins ◽  
Jimmie L. Slade ◽  
Alma Savoy ◽  
...  

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin K. Tagai ◽  
Cheryl L. Holt ◽  
Mary Ann Scheirer ◽  
Sherie Lou Z. Santos ◽  
Nancy Atkinson ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 60-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfredo Fort

Though difficult to ascertain because faith based organizations (FBOs) might keep a low profile, be confused with other non-governmental organizations (NGOs), or survey respondents may not know the nature of facilities attended to, these organizations have a long presence in teaching health personnel and delivering health services in many rural and remote populations in the developing world. It is argued that their large networks, logistics agreements with governments, and mission-driven stance brings them closer to the communities they serve, and their services believed of higher quality than average. Kenya has a long history of established FBOs substantial recent health investment by the government. We aimed to find the quantitative and qualitative contributions of FBOs by analyzing two recent data sources: the live web-based nationwide Master Health Facility List, and the 2010 nationwide Service Provision Assessment (SPA) survey. Using this information, we found that FBOs contribute to 11% of all health facilities’ presence in the country, doubling to 23% of all available beds, indicating their relative strength in owning mid-level hospitals around the country. We also constructed an index of readiness as a weighted average from services offered, good management practices and availability of medicines and commodities for 17 items assessed during the SPA survey. We found that FBOs topped the list of managing authorities, with 70 percent of health facility readiness, followed closely by the government at 69 percent, NGOs at 61 percent and lastly a distant private for profit sector at 50 percent. These results seem to indicate that FBOs continue to contribute to an important proportion of health care coverage in Kenya, and that they do so with a relatively high quality of care among all actors. It would be of interest to replicate the analysis with similar databases for other countries in the developing world.


Author(s):  
Sibylle Herzig van Wees ◽  
Michael Jennings

Abstract Substantial global advocacy efforts have been made over the past decade to encourage partnerships and funding of faith-based organizations in international development programmes in efforts to improve social and health outcomes. Whilst there is a wealth of knowledge on religion and development, including its controversies, less attention has been payed to the role that donors might play. The aim of this study was to describe and analyse the engagement between donors and faith-based organizations in Cameroon’s health sector, following the implementation of the Cameroon Health Sector Partnership Strategy (2012). Forty-six in-depth interviews were conducted in selected regions in Cameroon. The findings show that global advocacy efforts to increase partnerships with faith-based organizations have created a space for increasing donor engagement of faith-based organizations following the implementation of the strategy. However, the policy was perceived as top down as it did not take into account some of the existing challenges. The policy arguably accentuated some of the existing tensions between the government and faith-based organizations, fed faith-controversies and complicated the health system landscape. Moreover, it provided donors with a framework for haphazard engagement with faith-based organizations. As such, putting the implications of donor engagement with FBOs on the research map acknowledges the limitations of efforts to collaborate with faith-based organizations and brings to the surface still-remaining blinkers and limited assumptions in donor definitions of faith-based organizations and in ways of collaborating with them.


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