Dear Postgraduate Students,
For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Greta Cornish – currently, I’m working at Alphacrucis, teaching pastoral ministry units in our Bachelor of Contemporary Ministry. Additionally, I'm also finishing off my Masters of Theology - the last step before I can venture on to a PhD.
Similar to the MA(CS), the completion of my Masters requires a research project, which I am working on at this present moment. My area of interest is ACC pastors and pastoral care – essentially, how pastors’ backgrounds (age, gender, education, experiences, etc.) shape their perceptions of and responses to various pastoral care scenarios.
Specifically, the target audience focused upon for my research paper are ACC pastors (Australia-wide) who have held their OMC and ministry positions in ACC congregations for at least the last two years. With this target audience, I am interested in doing two things:
- Interviewing some ACC pastors (i.e. having them fill out a short questionnaire and then in a guided conversation, getting them to reflect upon their answers – this can occur in person, over the phone or via Skype – whichever works best), OR;
- Having those in my target audience fill out an online questionnaire (which takes about 20 mins)
As is the usual practice for a study like this, my research has been approved by both my place of study (Wesley Institute) and Alphacrucis’ ethics committees. In addition, to maintain denominational transparency, we have been in contact with Ps Wayne Alcorn regarding this study – and have offered a summary of the insights once the project is completed.
If you, relevant staff at your church, or any other relevant ACC pastors you know would be interested in participating in this study (in one of the two above-mentioned ways), I would be delighted to hear from you – please feel free to contact me via greta.cornish@ac.edu.au and I can pass on more information.
Blessings,
Greta