The Pastor in a Changing Society

This book examines how social change affects the role of the pastor in an African context. Through field study in African churches, author Zawadi Job Kinyamagoha explores how pastors work amid the tensions of rapid social change and suggests how pastors can constructively respond to social change by using it as an opportunity in their pastoral ministry.

Contemporary society is characterized by three cultural spheres: the economic sphere, the public sphere, and the democratic or self-governance rule, the realities of which many pastors seem to overlook. Church authorities seem to adhere rigidly to strict principles and rules without accommodating the realities of society. Conversely, a changing society demands that pastors work with the reality at hand, leaving pastors caught between two conflicting tensions: the pressure from church authorities and from a changing social reality.

The Pastor in a Changing Society seeks to help Tanzanian and African pastors rethink existing doctrines and practices in order to better respond to the reality of a changing society.


""Kinyamagoha's book is an important contribution in the field of pastoral theology from Africa. Kinyamagoha not only 'brings alive lived-experiences' of social change affecting the pastor's role in Africa, but also proposes how church leaders can respond to the challenges facing pastors in their ministry. The book is insightful and an important resource in the study and practice of pastoral theology worldwide. I recommend it to students of theology, pastors, theologians, and church leaders.""
--Stephen S. Kimondo, Lecturer in New Testament, University of Iringa, Iringa, Tanzania

""Zawadi Job Kinyamagoha's book comes at the right time of great change in all spheres of life amid globalization. Pastors, as among the important agents of change, need to be informed about the waves of the change, otherwise they will be caught by surprise and fail to give direction to the society. This book not only fits pastors but also other professionals from Africa and around the world. The changes are either opportunities or burdens, depending on the attitude of leaders going through these waves of change. Take a positive attitude and seize the opportunity to lead the change!""
--George Mark Fihavango, Assistant to the Bishop in the ELCT-Southern Diocese, Njombe, Tanzania


""Zawadi Job Kinyamagoha has in this volume managed to give insights to pastors and other church ministers in Africa who face the challenge of social change in their ministry. I am very favorably impressed by the way this volume has set the reality that the church has to reevaluate itself before it understands society, hence pastors are to be conscious of those changing realities of the society, on interrelationships and differences of faiths, and on their practices as they carry out their tasks.""
--Msafiri Joseph Mbilu, Lecturer for New Testament and Greek, Tumaini University Makumira, Arusha, Tanzania


Zawadi Job Kinyamagoha (MPhil, University of Oslo, Norway) is Assistant Lecturer at the University of Iringa's Amani Center in Njombe, Tanzania. He currently teaches religious and secular studies in the Department of Counseling Psychology at the Ilembula Unit of the Amani Center.