The Church Has Left the Building: A Leadership Perspective of Online Church versus Traditional Church

Where it was once thought that the decline of traditional church goers into a brick and mortar edifice meant that America was becoming less “faith based”, the everincreasing number of online worshippers indicates otherwise. Due to the rapidly shifting culture toward an online worship experience, the traditional church must re-evaluate and reform their processes to include this new wave of Christianity. If churches cannot transition to accommodate the new culture of church that is only accessible via the Internet, there is a possibility that they could lose the opportunity to share the Gospel Message with a population that may never enter a church building. The aim of this study is to determine how the needs of the Internet church differ from the traditional church, and how this dynamic can be strategic in determining the most effective method of serving the e-church community. It will examine ways to build strong relationship bonds between the pastor and the Internet congregation and how social media can be instrumental in this effort. Thus, the research questions are as follows: Does the online church meet the religious needs through the internet connectivity, fellowship, and relational interaction? What is the role of a pastor who shepherds both traditional and Internet congregations? Does online church satisfy our corporate need to have a meaningful worship experience? In this context, the intent is also to identify and describe the Internet congregation’s demographic and how it impacts the pastor’s role, by researching the story behind the needs of the current Internet audience and how to effectively engage them in online participation. On this basis, it is recommended that pastors consider the major benefits of online church; the convenience xi that online religion permits, the unrestricted usage of a multiplicity of platforms, and the cost efficacy of reaching the world for Christ

An Exploration of Diabetes Care in Durban, Kwa-Zulu Natal, Suburbs as Seen Through the Work of Diabetes South Africa

This study portrays the lived experiences of diabetics and diabetes caregivers in Durban suburbs through the lens of Diabetes South Africa (DSA), a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) operating out of Durban. Furthermore, this study also analyzes the progression of the treatment and services offered to diabetics. The specific aim of this study was to understand the situation of diabetic care in the suburbs and the obstacles to improvement. Because diabetes is registered by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a worldwide epidemic and because the rate of diagnosis will be increasing (World Health Organization: Diabetes updated March 2013), it is necessary to comprehend the current state of care in order to cope with the worsening situation as the population of diabetics is increasing. This study provides a unique perspective on diabetes care facilitated by DSA and others through narrative, triangulating my personal experience and others’ personal experiences about being diabetic or offering services to diabetics. Interview was the most significant vehicle for obtaining information, and the interviews are retold in narrative form. Members of DSA, an endocrinologist, two nutritionists, a podiatrist, and a community member have all offered their experiences as aids to understand the situations that face diabetics in Durban. The primary site for the project is DSA and my relative personal experiences while volunteering with DSA as a Type 1 diabetic have also been recounted in this comprehensive report. Each individual that was interviewed about their experience with diabetes had different experiences in that they each interpreted their involvement and relationship with the disease differently. In this study, I found that my opinion about diabetes care and management in Durban shifted from critical and skeptical to an opinion that is now appreciative with increasing trust in the medical system of South Africa. The services that are currently offered via hospital (public and private) or clinic are not offered effectively to diabetics, but the system is ever-improving. The support system that DSA offers is utilized widely in the Durban suburbs and DSA supplements necessary knowledge to diabetic patients, even from suburbs where public hospitals or clinics are not able to perform on par. I personally have become inspired by the amount of work that DSA accomplishes with limited staffing and monetary (donation) resources

Transformative realism: reflections of reality in political avant-garde and contemporary fine art film - Spanish Labyrinth, south from Granada

A turn towards documentary modes of practice amongst contemporary fine art video and filmmakers towards the end of the 20th Century, led to moving image works that represent current social realities. This drew some comparisons of these forms of art to journalism and industrial documentary. The practical research is embodied in a single screen film that responds to recent political and ecological realities in Spain. These include the mass demonstrations that led to the occupation of Madrid’s Plaza del Sol and Spain’s in 2011 and largest recorded forest fires that spread through Andalusia in August of the following year. The film, titled Spanish Labyrinth, South from Granada, is a response to these events and also relates to political avant-garde film of the 1930’s by re-tracing a journey undertaken by three revolutionary filmmakers, Yves Allegret, René Naville and Eli Lotar, in 1931. The theoretical research for this project establishes an historical root of artists’ film that responds to current social realities, in contrast to news media, in the Soviet and European avant-garde movements of the 1920s and 1930s. The main aim of this method is to argue the status of the works that I identify, both avant-garde and contemporary, as a form of art that preceded a Griersonian definition of documentary film