The Transfer Of Ministers In The Seventh-Day Adventist Church Of The German Democratic Republic And Its Effects On The Minister\u27s Service And Family Life

Problem Transfers from one pastoral district to another are part of the life and work of ministers of the Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA) in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Every transfer deeply affects all aspects of his life, and that of his family. It also influences his relationship with the administrators of the church and touches the respective congregations. The aim of this study was to find out (1) whether transfers have solely a pragmatic character, or whether they also carry biblical-theological implications; (2) whether transfers do encumber interpersonal relations and, if so, what possibilities exist to solve these tensions or indeed to prevent them from occurring; and (3) how many, years a minister should work in a given district in order to serve the congregations optimally according to his particular gifts. Method The theological relevance of the transfer of ministers was developed deductively from the motif of the pilgrim people of God and the Exodus community of the Old and New Testaments. The various stages, forms, and aspects of the pilgrim people of God in salvation history had to be examined in order to discover what particular principles and characteristics of the pilgrimage are also hallmarks of the transfer of ministers. For the investigation of the practical pastoral aspect of transfers all groups involved were sent a questionnaire. These groups included pastors and their wives, their children over eighteen, and a selection of church elders. In order to check the written answers, personal interviews were conducted in the homes of the ministers and their wives and in the homes of church elders. In addition, each member of the executive committee of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the German Democratic Republic which plans and determines the transfers was also interviewed. This assured the consideration and evaluation from all viewpoints. Results As long as the church lives up to its calling as the pilgrim people of God, transfers remain necessary. They result from the vicissitudes of life and from changes in organization thereby helping the ministers in the development of their gifts and preventing congregations from becoming one-sided. Tensions between administrators and ministers result when the brotherly co-operation and openness enjoined by Scripture is lacking. Stress in marriage and family life occurs when mutual consideration, a common sharing of burdens and a sympathetic approach to problems caused by a transfer are inadequate. In the past, pastors and their families have generally been moved too frequently. Ordained preachers should on the average work eight years in a district so that their service can be as productive as possible in all the areas of the church\u27s life and work. Recommendations The executive committee of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the GDR should be involved in more long-term planning of transfers, with careful consideration of the development of the minister, his family situation, and the needs of the local church. All those who are affected by the transfer should be included in the planning and should be fully informed. The minister and his wife need to help each other, and together stand by their children in order to help them deal with potential problems resulting from a transfer. The minister should, of course, responsibly execute all the duties of his office up to the time of his transfer. On special occasions church administrators should speak with the ministers and their wives about the many-faceted and complex-whole of problems of a transfer, as well as about its potentials. Administrators also ought to be equally open to the legitimate concerns of individual ministers and their wives before a decision about their transfer is made. It is essential for all parties concerned to remember that transfers are a manifestation of being the pilgrim people of God

Super-paramagnetic clustering of yeast gene expression profiles

High-density DNA arrays, used to monitor gene expression at a genomic scale, have produced vast amounts of information which require the development of efficient computational methods to analyze them. The important first step is to extract the fundamental patterns of gene expression inherent in the data. This paper describes the application of a novel clustering algorithm, Super-Paramagnetic Clustering (SPC) to analysis of gene expression profiles that were generated recently during a study of the yeast cell cycle. SPC was used to organize genes into biologically relevant clusters that are suggestive for their co-regulation. Some of the advantages of SPC are its robustness against noise and initialization, a clear signature of cluster formation and splitting, and an unsupervised self-organized determination of the number of clusters at each resolution. Our analysis revealed interesting correlated behavior of several groups of genes which has not been previously identified

Trends in Consumer Behavior Literature: A Content Analysis

While a comprehensive review and classification of consumer behavior literature has been called for periodically, none has been forthcoming. This paper attempts partially to rectify this situation. It classifies by several key variables 32 years of consumer behavior literature from selected journals and proceedings

Discussion of Boundary-Layer Characteristics Near the Wall of an Axial-Flow Compressor

The boundary-layer velocity profiles in the tip region of an axial-flow compressor downstream of the guide vanes and downstream of the rotor were measured by use of total-pressure and claw-type yaw probes. These velocities were resolved into two components: one along the streamline of the flow outside the boundary layer, and the other perpendicular to it. The affinity among all profiles was thus demonstrated with the boundary-layer thickness and the deflection of the boundary layer at the wall as the generalizing parameters. By use of these results and the momentum-integral equations, boundary-layer characteristics on the walls of an axial-flow compressor were qualitatively evaluated

Discussion of boundary-layer characteristics near the casing of an axial-flow compressor

Boundary-layer velocity profiles on the casing of an axial-flow compressor behind the guide vanes and rotor were measured and resolved into two components: along the streamline of the flow and perpendicular to it. Boundary-layer thickness and the deflection of the boundary layer at the wall were the generalizing parameters. By use of these results and the momentum-integral equations, the characteristics of boundary on the walls of axial-flow compressor are qualitatively discussed. Important parameters concerning secondary flow in the boundary layer appear to be turning of the flow and the product of boundary-layer thickness and streamline curvature outside the boundary layer. Two types of separation are shown to be possible in three dimensional boundary layer

A New Distance to The Antennae Galaxies (NGC 4038/39) Based on the Type Ia Supernova 2007sr

Traditionally, the distance to NGC 4038/39 has been derived from the systemic recession velocity, yielding about 20 Mpc for H_0 = 72 km/s/Mpc. Recently, this widely adopted distance has been challenged based on photometry of the presumed tip of the red giant branch (TRGB), which seems to yield a shorter distance of 13.3+-1.0 Mpc and, with it, nearly 1 mag lower luminosities and smaller radii for objects in this prototypical merger. Here we present a new distance estimate based on observations of the Type Ia supernova (SN) 2007sr in the southern tail, made at Las Campanas Observatory as part of the Carnegie Supernova Project. The resulting distance of D(SN Ia) = 22.3+-2.8 Mpc [(m-M)_0 = 31.74+-0.27 mag] is in good agreement with a refined distance estimate based on the recession velocity and the large-scale flow model developed by Tonry and collaborators, D(flow) = 22.5+-2.8 Mpc. We point out three serious problems that a short distance of 13.3 Mpc would entail, and trace the claimed short distance to a likely misidentification of the TRGB. Reanalyzing Hubble Space Telescope (HST) data in the Archive with an improved method, we find a TRGB fainter by 0.9 mag and derive from it a preliminary new TRGB distance of D(TRGB) = 20.0+-1.6 Mpc. Finally, assessing our three distance estimates we recommend using a conservative, rounded value of D = 22+-3 Mpc as the best currently available distance to The Antennae.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, 1 table (emulateapj; uses amsmath package). Accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal, Vol. 136. Figs. 1 & 2 degraded to reduce file size