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From Behind the Pulpit, Using Collage in Arts-Informed Research to Share Stories of Clergy Facing Perfectionism
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- Author / Creator
- Eden Emily Ross
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This research utilizes an arts-informed approach to witness the stories of four Pentecostal pastors in Alberta who have experience with perfectionism in their lives. Collage and verbal dialogue help to communicate the spiritual impact that perfectionism can have. The root of this research topic has come from my personal journey with perfectionism, of which I share in some detail. The experiences of pastors with perfectionism are of particular interest to me. I believe the quality and longevity of their work lies in the health of their spiritual relationships with God. The career of pastoral ministry, however, is known to have certain stressors within it that at times cause pastors to quit. Certain forms of perfectionism are also known to cause stress. The hope was to discover whether perfectionism impacted pastors spiritually, and what their experiences were like. The information this research reveals is that maladaptive perfectionism is spiritually negative. In addition, working through maladaptive perfectionism is seen to result in spiritually beneficial changes. The final piece shows adaptive perfectionism can have a positive spiritual impact. These findings offer insight into possible reasons pastors leave ministry, and may help prevent future disintegrations.
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- Subjects / Keywords
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- Graduation date
- 2014
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- Type of Item
- Thesis
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- Degree
- Master of Arts in Pastoral Psychology and Counselling (Art Therapy Specialization)
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- License
- This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.