Case Study

Case study is a method in research that focuses on gaining an in-depth understanding of a particular phenomenon, entity or event at a specific time. As such, a case study is used in a way to examine a precise, or a set of, individual(s), organization(s) or event(s) (Willig 2008:74). Patton (1990:99) also states that case studies are mostly conducted to evaluate individualized client outcomes. ―They focus on collecting information about a specific event or activity and the idea is to obtain a complete picture of the entire situation‖(Hair et al. 2007:196). The choice of participants followed a sampling plan, which in this case is a purposive sampling. This was done by selecting participants from clergy in circuits, students in college – specifically third year students, lay leaders and clergy leadership. Among them are tutors, bishops and Connexional staff. It is critical to note that in this study ―the research question, objectives and the scope of the study are central in defining the target population‖(:73).

28

The target group for this case study were individual clergy and lay leaders of the MCZ selected purposively from Harare West and Masvingo districts. They are relevant to this study because they possess the information the research is designed to collect (:173). Harare East district has a selection of third-year students in training at UTC. Ma. Dalores Tongco (2007:147) states that ―purposive sampling technique is also called judgment sampling. It is a deliberate choice of an informant due to the qualities the informant possesses‖. It is a technique that does not need underlying theories or a set number of informants. Simply put, the researcher decides what needs to be known and sets out to find people who can and are willing to provide the information by virtue of knowledge or experience (Ma. Dolores Tongco 2007:147, Bernard 2002). Purposive sampling is especially exemplified through the key informant technique (Palys 2008: 697-8, Bernard 2002). Therefore third-year students were selected because they are in their final year of learning at college and ready to be stationed in circuits to execute their duties. The assumption is that they have gone through the process of ministerial formation. Parktown and Budiriro societies in Harare West district were also chosen to hear responses from lay leaders on the impact of the prosperity gospel. For Stake, case studies reveal data that has been gathered using a multiplicity of means, including, but not limited to, interviews, observations, video, audio and document collection. The aim of gathering data through a diversity of means is done to boost the theory-generating capabilities of the case, and to give additional validity to claims made by either the researcher or the participants in the case itself. There is also debate in the field of research about the involvement of the researcher as part of any particular presentation of a case study, as well as to let the case speak for itself (Stake 2005:443-446).

As noted by Stake, the researcher can be part of the organisation and this may compromise objectivity of the study. The researcher is a minister of religion in the MCZ under study. In order to mitigate the effects of my personal position13 within the church and within

13

As has already been indicated the researcher is an ordained clergy in the MCZ. It should be noted from the outset that the role of the researcher has no influence on the collection of data because he has no jurisdiction in terms of power over the informants for example the researcher has no control or influence over the 3rd year students at college, he has never worked in circuits where the lay leaders are drawn as interviewees. The researcher is an ordinary clergy who is also a subordinate to the Bishops, Superintendents and Connexional officers who are the majority of the interviewees serve for a few clergy who are also at par with the researcher as ordinary clergy. The involvement of the researcher as an insider is more of one who has knowledge about the MCZ and not about position of power.

29

Zimbabwean society in general, reflexivity14 is employed as espoused by George Soros (2003) when he said:

I call the interference between the two functions ―reflexivity‖. I envision reflexivity as a feedback loop between the participants‘ understanding and the situation in which they participate (Soros 1987:2).

By using reflexivity, one can let the phenomenon speak for itself and maintain a gap between being an insider and an outsider in order to answer the following research question:

How do MCZ clergy appropriate Wesleyan teachings on health and wealth themes in the doctrine of Salvation (Ordo Salutis), and to what extent does it equip them to respond to the religio-cultural challenges posed by the prosperity gospel in Zimbabwe since 2000?

In using reflexivity, the researcher acknowledges that he is an insider who can be biased by preconceived ideas about the health and wealth issues taught at college by MCZ, since the researcher went through the training process. However this method will try and mitigate bias in the process of inquiry and analysis. Focus was therefore on the experiences of the clergy in Harare West and Masvingo districts, third-year students in college, tutors and lay leaders of

14 _{A technique that I argue to be important to all types of research, and is of particular importance to the insider} researcher, is the practice of reflexivity. Within sociology, Pierre Bourdieu‘s work on the notion of reflexivity is highly regarded and well cited. He calls for an active engagement of the self in questioning perceptions and exposing their contextualized and power driven nature (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1992). According to Van den Hoonard (2002:88), ―Self-reflexivity involves the researchers taking into account his or her own consciousness.‖ Of particular relevance to the insider researcher are the relations between researcher and participants, one of several diverse sets of reflexive relationships explored by Doucet (2008). The extent of reflexivity that is called for in insider research is perhaps not addressed nor practiced to the degree it is or should be in qualitative research; particularly so in outsider research. Discussions of reflexivity to date have focused on the social location of the researcher and the ways in which the researcher‘s emotional responses to participants may influence the analysis of their narratives; certainly situating oneself socially and emotionally in relation to participants is a crucial part of reflexivity (Mauthner & Doucet, 2003). Establishing and maintaining an appropriate degree of both social and emotional distance is also an important element of the reflexive process; of course this requires the researcher to determine what that appropriate level of distancing is, which no easy task is. It is suggested that researchers consider the interplay between their multiple social locations and how these intersect with the particularities of their ―personal biographies…at the time of analyzing data‖ (Mauthner & Doucet, 2003: 419). The tedious process of separating out the narratives of the researcher and the researched is summed up by Taylor (2011:9) as follows: Where the researcher-self is a part of the other‘s narrative, the narrative of the researched and the researcher become entwined. The researcher, then, is forced to look both outward and inward, to be reflexive and self-conscious in terms of positioning, to be both self-aware and researcher-self-aware and to acknowledge the inter-textuality that is a part of both the data gathering and writing processes. In my research proposal, I included a section to acknowledge my position as an insider researcher, identifying the methodological and ethical implications and ways in which reflexivity could be practiced. Van den Hoonard (2002:123) writes ―If we are to take self-reflexivity seriously, we must recognise that we are always producing two works- a research biography and an autobiography.‖ This is an interesting alternative way of viewing the subject/object and researched/researcher dichotomies. Instead of worrying over whether one is too much of an insider or outsider, researchers should strive to be both. There is much to be gained from being close to one‘s research, as there is much to be gained from keeping one‘s distance and having an outside perspective. ―…Ideally the researcher should be both inside and outside the perceptions of the researched‖ (Hellawell, 2006: 487).

30

MCZ in a bid to understand how MCZ clergy are theologically formed to appropriate Wesleyan teachings of health and wealth as motifs in salvation, in order to respond to the religio-cultural challenges and opportunities posed by the prosperity gospel. Accordingly, the researcher employed reflexivity attitude that involved a different way of looking at the investigated subject matter of the prosperity gospel and health and wealth issues. By doing this, ―the phenomena was imbued with meaning, and experience gains a deeper meaning‖(Patton 1990:407).

The researcher was also able to use observation approach during an Easter crusade that was held in Mbare Circuit to augment interview findings. Six of the interviewed clergy were giving sermons and teachings on different subjects among which healing, deliverance and giving were taught. The researcher attended the Easter crusade to observe the phenomenon as it unfolded, as shall be explained later in this chapter under observation. In order to produce unbiased research the researcher will be using the lived experiences of the respondents.‖ In this case, it is the lived experiences of clergy who have undergone training at UTC and ZIMTEE, the third-year students who are training, and the lay leaders receiving the teachings from the trained clergy on issues of health and wealth, as Wesley taught, in response to the prosperity gospel that has been flourishing in Zimbabwe since 2000.

In using interviews and observations, the aim is to provide a very rich and detailed description of the human experience in the selected case study of the MCZ. In the interview method, the results of the study emerge from the data instead of being imposed by a structured statistical analysis. It allows the interviewees to provide the answers rather than imposing solutions on it. In using interviews and observation, the experiences of the selected Methodist society leaders and interviewed clergy shape and give originality to the study.

Through using observation it gives room to the researcher to observe the phenomena as they appear rather than as they are understood through opinion prior to the observations. Since the researcher is an insider, i.e. being a Methodist clergy, observation helps to suspend the researcher‘s knowledge and lets the experiences of the phenomenon of the prosperity gospel, as understood by the selected lay leaders of societies and clergy interviewed, unfolds. The believer became the primary source of data. The believer is understood, respected and credited, and the researcher refrains from imposing on them the researcher‘s own values and judgments. In this case, the impact of the prosperity gospel gives the church insights as to how well MCZ clergy are equipped during their ministerial formation to appropriate issues of

31

health and wealth, as they preach and teach their members in an environment influenced by the prosperity gospel.