Abstract
Sequential explanatory mixed research was conducted among Ethiopian evangelical churches to discover the relationship between religious support and human flourishing. Data were collected from members of five of the largest evangelical churches in five major cities of Ethiopia, using Religious Support Scale and Flourishing Scale, followed by focus-group discussions and structured interviews of church leaders of these five churches. Descriptive statistics and simultaneous multiple regression indicated that religious support contributes to psychosocial well-being for church members. This finding is supported by the ensuing qualitative data analysis, which showed the understanding and contribution of church leaders toward well-being.
In Ethiopia, evangelical Christianity is steadily growing, with evangelicals constituting about 20 percent of the population. 1 Church ministries are mostly conventional and rarely challenge the status quo. They usually focus on otherworldliness, reflecting a this-world-is-not-my-home mentality. In the midst of such a narrative, members of the Ethiopian evangelical churches continually struggle against psychosocial pressures. It is not clear whether their faith and their leaders are helping them to experience human flourishing. To what extent is evangelical Christianity in Ethiopia helping its adherents to flourish? Examining the support received in the church is critical. Hence, this study endeavors to indicate the relationship between religious support and human flourishing.
Religious support and human flourishing
Religious support is a set of church beliefs and practices that comprises three distinct but related areas of support; namely, “support from God, the congregation, and church leadership.” 2 “Support from God” refers to the experience of seeking and getting help from God during stressful moments because of one’s personal relationship with God. This stress-mitigating process will be called “support from the congregation” if it is obtained from other church members or “support from church leadership” if it is received from church ministers or other leaders. 3 Religious support is one of the contributors to mental health. In short, religious support deals with the various types of relationships and emotional support. It provides a two-level support to church members, for it possesses a “stress-buffering function” and is “an important determinant of health.” 4
Human flourishing, in contrast, refers to “human well-being,” 5 rooted in Aristotelian eudaimonia. 6 This term has been variously translated “happiness,” 7 “well-being and happiness,” 8 and “highest human good.” 9 Modern scholars have suggested “human flourishing,” 10 related both to one’s overall well-being and to the status of one’s general health. 11
In the Old Testament the concept of human flourishing is conveyed by Hebrew words such as shalom (wholeness, completeness, well-being), ’ashre (happy, blessed), barak (to bless), and tamim (wholeness, completeness, perfection). Furthermore, human flourishing is represented by metaphors borrowed from the world of botany, including perah (to cause to sprout or to bring into bloom), used to show the flourishing of the righteous; parah (to bear fruit, multiply, or reproduce), implying the multiplication or reproduction of humanity (Gen. 1:28); and tsuts (flourish, spring up), used to show the temporary flourishing of the wicked (Ps. 92:7). Community and leadership are two important factors in human flourishing. As a community, Israelites are expected to be worshiping, sharing, caring, and protecting, also to be fair and just (Lev. 19). Good leadership is a significant factor in the maintenance of such a community. 12
Likewise in the New Testament, the concept of human flourishing is presented as the restoration of humanity’s original relationship with its Creator. 13 God, as the source of human flourishing, 14 has offered restoration to all people alike. Believers experience this flourishing, referred to as “blessedness,” even in the midst of suffering (Matt. 5:10–11). 15
Theoretical framework
Our study is based on the assumption that spirituality “can help us deepen our view of human happiness and flourishing,” as spirituality is one of the “contributors to or constituents of a happy life.” 16 Spirituality “constitutes an important dimension of human flourishing”; 17 it is “an indispensable aspect of human flourishing.” 18 As spirituality is an outcome of a number of spiritual and religious activities, the contribution of those individual activities cannot be underestimated. Studies indicate that religion, as well as sociodemographic variables, influences one’s psychosocial well-being, 19 as do attending religious services, 20 religious involvement, 21 and doctrinal theology as taught by a pastor. 22
Based on this framework, this study was conducted in Ethiopian evangelical churches to find out the relationship between religious support and human flourishing. This study explores whether certain spiritual practices promote or detract from one’s overall personal well-being.
Research questions
Our research sought to answer the following questions:
How are three kinds of religious support in Ethiopian evangelical churches related to the psychosocial well-being of their congregants?
How do four demographic variables (age, gender, years of Christian experience, and ministerial involvement) affect psychosocial well-being?
What do church ministers (pastors, elders, teachers, deacons, etc.) understand about psychosocial well-being?
What are the church minsters doing to address the psychosocial needs of their congregants?
Significance of the study
To our knowledge, no research has been conducted on the relationship between religious support and human flourishing. This study is therefore significant in a number of ways.
First, it contributes to the knowledge we have about the relationship between religious support and human flourishing in Ethiopia, more specifically, among Ethiopian evangelical Christians. Second, it examines the current practices of church leaders and congregations toward contributing to the psychosocial well-being of their respective church members and one another. In doing so, the research uncovers the extent to which the churches are carrying out their biblical mandate to serve the whole person, including members who have been psychologically traumatized. And third, it is significant in laying a foundation for curricular revision of at least two of the educational programs of the Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology (EGST) that deal with topics relating to human flourishing.
Methodology
This study employed sequential explanatory mixed research. Such a design depends heavily on a quantitative approach as a primary method, followed by a qualitative approach. 23
Population and sampling
Following principles of mixed research, sampling procedures involving both quantitative and qualitative approaches were employed. Data were collected from five of the largest evangelical denominations in Ethiopia: Ethiopian Kale Heywet Church, Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus, Ethiopian Full Gospel Believers’ Church, Meserete Kristos Church, and Yehiwot Berhan Church of Ethiopia. Using a stratified sampling method, 24 samples were taken from five cities in different parts of Ethiopia that have the largest evangelical Christian presence: Bahir Dar (north), Dire Dawa (east), Hawassa (south), Nekemte (west), and Addis Ababa (central, the capital). Then a local church with the largest number of members from each denomination was selected in each city. Keeping a proportion-to-population ratio, participants from those churches were selected by convenience sampling, and questionnaires were distributed to be completed by the respondents. Based on sample-to-population ratio, 1,200 participants were selected from thirty local churches (four each from Bahir Dar and Nekemte, six from Dire Dawa, seven from Hawassa, and nine from Addis Ababa). In cities with a large evangelical presence, two local churches were selected from the same denomination. 25
For the qualitative data, purposive sampling was used to identify church leaders/ministers serving in four cities (Bahir Dar, Dire Dawa, Hawassa, and Addis Ababa). These church leaders/ministers were believed to have adequate knowledge of the practices of their respective churches. 26
Instruments used and data collection
Two instruments were employed in this study. The first one was a paper-and-pencil survey questionnaire. It combined the Religious Support Scale (RSS) developed by Fiala, Bjorck, and Gorsuch, and the Flourishing Scale (FS) developed by Diener et al. 27 The former is a twenty-one-item scale with three subscales (God support, church leadership support, and congregational support); the latter is an eight-item scale that measures “supportive and rewarding relationships, contributing to the happiness of others, and being respected by others.” 28 Some demographic variables were also included. The instruments, developed originally in English, were translated into Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia.
The translated versions of the instruments showed a satisfactory score of internal consistency: Both RSS and FS showed Cronbach’s alpha of .84 and 0.77, respectively. RSS subscales showed improvement in their respective alpha scores when an item from each subscale was deleted. When RSS with eighteen items (instead of twenty-one) was used, it showed an improved alpha score of .88, and Cronbach’s alpha scores for each of the subscales were satisfactory (.64 for God support, .83 for church leadership support, and .80 for congregational support).
The second instrument employed was structured interviews for collecting qualitative data through focus-group discussions (FGD) and key leader interviews. Such an instrument ensures “consistency across interviewers.” 29
Data analysis
Quantitative data entry and then descriptive and simultaneous multiple regression analyses were done using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, version 25. Independent variables were measured by RSS, and dependent variables by FS. Qualitative data were analyzed by transcribing and coding the data and by looking for the emergence of themes. 30 Ethical clearance for the study was obtained from the Institutional Review Board of the EGST.
Quantitative results
Out of the 1,200 participants (from thirty local churches) who received the questionnaires to fill out, 987 (82.3 percent) returned the questionnaires, but only 932 (77.7 percent) were included in the analysis because the others had missing data. Of these, 596 (63.9 percent) were male, 309 (33.2 percent) were female, and the remaining 27 (2.9 percent) did not indicate their gender. The median age of the participants was 35.9 years (N = 873), ranging from 16 to 78 years. Their Christian experience covered from 1 to 67 years, with a median of 22.7 years. The majority of the respondents (810, or 86.9 percent) were involved in ministry. Of these, some have served as long as 64 years (M = 13.3 years).
Standard multiple regression was employed to examine the relationship between religious support and human flourishing among Ethiopian evangelical Christians. Table 1 depicts the correlation between variables, the unstandardized regression coefficients (B); the standardized regression coefficients, or beta weights (b); the part (semipartial) correlations (sr2), R, R2; and adjusted R2. R for regression was significantly different from zero, F (3, 928) = 118.460, p < .001. The adjusted R2 value of .28 shows that 28 percent of the variability in human flourishing is predicted by the psychosocial support obtained from God, church leaders, and the congregation. While the unique variability of the three independent variables is .15 (15 percent), together the three contributed .13 (13 percent) in shared variability.
Standard Multiple Regression of God Support, Leadership Support, and Congregational Support on Human Flourishing
Note: “Human flourishing” is the dependent variable; the others are independent variables.
Unique variability = .15; shared variability = .13.
p > .01.
Of the three independent variables, the contribution of God support is the highest and statistically most significant contributor for flourishing, followed by congregational and church leadership support, where the beta weights are .37, .16, and .13, respectively. Looking into the semipartial correlations, a drop in one standard deviation of each of the independent variables shows the related drop in the overall contribution to flourishing. This means that while the contribution of God support results in a drop by 13 percent, that of congregational support and church leadership is small, with both contributing only 1 percent to the variability.
Two separate linear simple regression procedures were conducted to see whether the binary categorical variables of gender and involvement in ministry have predictive power to human flourishing. As table 2 shows, there is no statistically significant relationship between gender and human flourishing (p > .05).
Coefficients of Gender
With regard to the predictive power of involvement in ministry, the procedure of simple linear regression indicated that there was no statistically significant relationship between involvement in ministry and human flourishing (p > .05; see table 3).
Coefficients of Involvement in Ministry
Standard multiple regression was also employed to see whether there is any significant relationship between three of the remaining demographic variables (age, number of years since conversion, and number of years spent in ministry). Standard multiple regression indicated that age and years spent in Christian ministry do not have a statistically significant relationship with human flourishing. This can be supported by the very weak correlation that both variables have with human flourishing. However, the number of years since conversion showed a statistically significant relationship with human flourishing, p < .05. R for regression was significantly different from zero, F (3, 716) = 3.796, p < 05. The adjusted R2 value of .01 shows that only 1 percent of the variability in human flourishing is predicted by the number of years since Christian conversion. (See table 4.)
Standard Multiple Regression of Age, Number of Years since Conversion, and Number of Years Spent in Ministry on Human Flourishing
Note: “Human flourishing” is the dependent variable; the others are independent variables.
Unique variability = .011.
p < .05.
As designed, qualitative data were collected from 59 church leaders (53 were males), with 34 leaders participating in four focus-group discussions, and 24 leaders in structured interviews. Out of the 59 church leaders, 31 were pastors and 28 were elders. The majority of these church leaders (52, or 88.1 percent) served in more than one local church. They have been Christians for many years (14–50 years, M = 30.1 years) and have served in ministry for many years (9–47 years, M = 22.9 years).
Qualitative results
Analysis of qualitative data indicated that church leaders understood well-being as referring to four dimensions.
Spiritual well-being
Respondents emphatically stated that an evangelical Christian is said to be healthy if he or she is spiritually well. Spiritual well-being was one of the most recurring themes, which, according to the respondents, begins with conversion and is expressed in prayer life, understanding Scripture, worshiping and serving God, showing spiritual growth, steadfastness, having communion with the Holy Spirit, being a good disciple, bearing fruit, and Christlikeness.
A church leader from Addis Ababa said, “What I think of a healthy Christian is one who first believed in Jesus. . . . This person needs to grow . . . listening to his Word . . . fellowshiping with his Spirit. . . . I believe that such a person leads a healthy life in God’s presence.” 31
Similarly, a church leader from Hawassa noted, “A person is said to be healthy when he bears fruit. . . . He should be Christlike . . . fruitful, having healthy fellowship . . . sound service . . . leading a consistent life in every direction whether it is in the church or outside of the church.” 32
Social harmony
Another recurring theme of well-being was social harmony. Social harmony is having harmonious relationship with church leaders, church members, family, and the society at large.
Wellness, according to a pastor from Dire Dawa, was seen in one’s “relationship with the church, with the saints, with his God, as well as with the social activities he has in the external world.” 33 Social harmony can be manifested in “being merciful, obedient, loving and fellowshiping with brothers,” 34 in leading “his social affairs according to God’s Word,” 35 and “in pleasing the community.” 36
One pastor related social harmony as a reflection of spiritual well-being: “The foundation is one’s spiritual health; if one’s spiritual health is maintained, . . . his social health will also be maintained.” 37
Physical well-being
This study identified physical well-being as another emergent theme. It refers to “bodily health,” 38 “self-protectiveness,” 39 and having basic necessities.
Physical well-being is critical in one’s life: “If our hand fails to work, if our feet cannot walk, if our eyes fail to see, and if our ears fail to hear, our health is compromised. . . . The Word of God teaches us to maintain our health.” 40 A pastor from Addis Ababa related physical well-being with the basic necessities: “Physical well-being is having bodily health, a house to live in, food to eat . . . and to have necessities met.” 41 Another pastor understood physical well-being as an outcome of spiritual well-being. 42
Emotional well-being
A few church leaders tangentially mentioned emotional well-being as constituting one’s health, though emotional aspects were barely mentioned in the focus-group discussions and personal interviews. This absence does not mean that the emotional dimension was completely ignored by respondents. A pastor from Addis Ababa said that joyous Christians are known by “the life they have now, the life of internal satisfaction and restfulness . . . where that hope, that faith satisfies them, though they pass through life’s pressures.” 43
A pastor who participated in the focus-group discussion in Hawassa said, “There is also emotional health where people exhibit their feelings . . . a person rejoices, a person loves, a person gets angry, a person becomes sad. So, that is how his emotions are exhibited. . . . God’s Word teaches us to maintain our emotional and mental health.” 44
As to what church leaders/ministers are doing to address psychosocial needs, analysis of qualitative data showed that the ministry of church leaders is largely confined to addressing the spiritual dimension of their congregants. They teach and preach from the Bible, pray for their members, exhort them, and visit them. Their teachings usually focus on discipleship. All participants were asked what their members would do when they pass through pressing situations. Much of their responses had little to do with sharing with leaders and ministers. Instead, church members resort to prayer and a self-motivated fight against difficult situations. A pastor from Dire Dawa candidly admitted, “I don’t think that church leaders carry out their roles of taking care of the health of other church ministers.” 45 Likewise, a pastor who participated in Bahir Dar’s focus-group discussion said that church services lack consistency in addressing members holistically. He even went further to state that church leaders frown at a minister who requests time off for a vacation. 46
Discussion
The purpose of this study was to find out the relationship between religious support and human flourishing. Data were collected from members and leaders of evangelical churches in Ethiopia who have spent many years in ministry, with their experience going beyond that of a single local church. It is clear that these participants know the current beliefs and practices of evangelical churches broadly.
Simultaneous multiple regression revealed that human flourishing is significantly predicted by all the three subscales of religious support (God support, congregational support, and church leadership support). As church members continued getting support from God, church leaders, and their fellow congregants, they will experience an increased level of human flourishing.
These findings are consistent with earlier studies that indicated spiritual/religious practices as “contributors to or constituents of a happy life,” 47 thereby influencing one’s psychosocial well-being. 48 Practices that range from merely attending a religious service 49 to listening to doctrine and theology from a pastor 50 enhance flourishing.
Findings from the quantitative method were supported by the qualitative approach, which showed that, in dealing with pressing personal situations, church members resort to prayer and to what responses they themselves can muster. It seems that since church leaders have but minimal knowledge of the scope of the dimensions of overall health, they naturally confine much of their ministry to dealing only with the spiritual dimension.
Conclusion and recommendations
It is clear that the concept of human flourishing is an essential part of both the Old and New Testaments. The church, which professes the Bible as the Word of God, should work on developing a more holistic approach to human flourishing (including spiritual, physical, and emotional dimensions) by giving due attention to human dignity, care for creation, the family, and leadership development. The foregoing discussion on findings also indicates that religious support is significantly related to human flourishing. However, the role of church leaders in flourishing is minimal. This limitation calls for increasing awareness and for leaders to diversify their ministry to address the multifaceted needs of their congregants. Further research needs to be done into the topics of the different teachings offered in the churches to see whether topics related to psychosocial issues are covered.
Footnotes
Funding
The research project received a grant from the Nagel Institute for the Study of World Christianity, Calvin University, Grand Rapids, MI, USA, which was funded for the African Theological Advance initiative by the Templeton Religion Trust, Nassau, Bahamas.
Notes
Author biographies
(Left to right): Lidetu Alemu Kefenie, Seblewengel Daniel Woldegiorgis, Misgana Mathewos Detago, and Bekele Deboch Anshiso.