Pastors’ Awareness of Clinical Pastoral Education in the Three Adventist Divisions in Sub Sahara Africa

Abstract

The study investigated the level of Clinical Pastoral Education using a sample of 304 pastors in the East-Central Africa (ECD), West-Central Africa (WAD), and Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Divisions (SID) of the Adventist Church. Data from the self-constructed questionnaire was analyzed using SPSS 27 and SmartPLS 4.0 for statistical treatment. The pastors in the three Divisions exhibited a high level of CPE awareness with WAD having a higher level followed by SID and ECD. They affirm that CPE is essential for enhancing pastoral ministry, improves the management of emotions, and enhances intrapersonal and interpersonal skills. This phenomenon could be explained by the fact that there’s an ongoing emphasis on Clinical Pastoral Orientation training on the continent as well as the presence of CPE training at AUA and Babcock. Concerning CPE training, ECD has 2.84%, WAD has 6.4% while SID has 3.91% of pastors that have taken at least a unit of CPE as of February 2025. In general, out of 7,585 pastors on the continent of Africa, only 302 representing 3.98% have at least one Unit of CPE as of February 2025. There is no significant difference in the level of CPE awareness when age is considered. The Adventist University of Africa (AUA) and other theological institutions to embrace the establishment of the CPE center as a continental training hub for graduate students in the theological seminary and integrate CPE into standard ministerial curricula. CPE be a must-do training for all seminarians. AUA-CPE center to source ministry partners to offer scholarships or donations to sponsor CPE participants. The 3 Adventist Divisions on the continent of Africa to examine denominational policies and collaboration with government agencies to strengthen the structural implementation of CPE. For future research, a moderated mediation study on the functionality status of chaplaincy facets and CPE across Africa would be interesting. A comparative study with other continents could highlight global best practices and provide a roadmap for scaling up CPE training across African divisions.