Interviews (Semi-structured Interviews)

The point of departure on this important aspect of qualitative research is to understand what is meant by interviewing. Patton (1990:278) demonstrates that, ―the purpose of interviewing is to find out what is in and on someone‘s mind.‖ Open-ended interviews are conducted in order to access the point of view of the person being interviewed and not to put things in someone‘s mind. Interviews are done to discover from people those things we cannot directly observe since we are limited, in one way or another, from observing everything. It is a fact that we cannot observe feelings, thoughts and intentions. We are limited to observe how people have organized the world and the meanings they attach to what goes on in the world. The only way to have answers is to ask questions about those things; hence the aim of interviewing, then, is to allow us to enter into the other person‘s world.

The qualitative interviewing process starts with the hypothesis that the viewpoint of others is meaningful, knowable, and able to be made explicit. This clearly demonstrates that the major aim of an interview is to enable the person interviewed to bring the interviewer into his or her own world. It shows that the observation method is complemented by interviews in order to close the gaps that may be left during the research process. In this case, the interview method mitigates gaps left by observation and other secondary sources such as data from books and archives.

For this study, interviews were used to collect data that provide answers to the research question. This method is very useful as it closes various gaps left by archival sources. Personal interviews took the form of interactive conversational narratives, where open-ended questions were asked (see Appendix 6) and some follow-up questions were employed where there was need for clarification and probing further for quality findings. As earlier mentioned in the case study section, the choice of participants followed a sampling plan of purposive sampling. This was done by selecting the participants from clergy in circuits, students in college (in this case third-year student), lay leaders and clergy leadership. Among them were tutors, bishops and Connexional clergy staff.

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A total of fifty participants were interviewed, where thirty-eight were full-time clergy (this is 21.5% of the total number (177) of full time MCZ15 clergy), while six were students in training, and six were lay leaders. Among these participants, ten were female and forty were male. Out of the forty-four clergy interviewed, six were in the leadership system of the MCZ; three were in the top leadership of the church including the Harare West district Bishop, while three were tutors at UTC and ZIMTEE. Six were third-year students in training at UTC. Twenty-five were clergy from Harare West district, where eleven trained with ZIMTEE while fourteen trained with UTC. Seven clergy were from Masvingo district, where four trained with UTC while three trained with ZIMTEE.

Having looked at the strategies used in determining the participants, it is critical to mention that the researcher began the interview process by engaging with individual respondents by phone, calling them to book appointment dates and advising them on the venue and time of the interview. For third-year students, a schedule was organised and agreed with the tutor to utilise their period for Polity classes on the 5thand 25th of April 2017. The researcher also made prior arrangements with Superintendents for Budiriro and Parktown circuits for them to identify lay leaders to be interviewed, three from each circuit. Budiriro society settled for the 23rd of April 2017 while Parktown was pencilled in for the 14th of May 2017. Likewise, the researcher also discussed with Masvingo District Bishop (Rev Chinhara) over the phone, the dates the researcher could visit to conduct the interviews. The Bishop agreed to avail time for the researcher on the 19th of April 2017 where he had a brief meeting with clergy in preparation for the Synod. The briefing ended around nine o‘clock in the morning and the whole day was left for the researcher to interact with clergy in the interview process. Interviews were conducted individually in the church office.

For clergy in Harare West District, the researcher visited the District offices to seek permission from the District Bishop to conduct interviews in his district. He gave permission and asked the researcher to make arrangements with individual clergy. As a matter of procedure, the researcher also visited the Connexional office to book appointments with the leaders of the church for interviews. Dates, times and venues were agreed upon. Before the interviews began on the 29th of March 2017, the researcher made enough copies of consent

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According to The Methodist Church in Zimbabwe Agenda of the 39th Conference held from 24-28 August 2016 at Kadoma Hotel hosted by Harare West District page R52. The 2016 statistics indicate that the total number of full time clergy was 177. In percentage, 21.5% of 177 gives 38.1 and to the nearest whole number is 38. The total number of clergy in training in both colleges is 47. In percentage, 13% of 47 = 6.11 and to the nearest whole number = 6.

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forms. All the respondents were people who were literate in English. They ranged from those who were studying for their diploma in Theology and Religious Studies at theological colleges, while four had a PhD, four were PhD candidates, seven had a Master‘s degree, twenty-one had a first Degree and eight had Diplomas in various disciplines, including lay leaders. Hence there was no need to translate the consent form and interview questions into the vernacular language.

As already indicated above, gatekeepers are endowed to give permission to the researcher to conduct interviews in areas of their jurisdiction and not to give consent for individual willingness to be interviewed; that is the reserve of the individual person to be interviewed. On the day of engagement with respondents, the researcher started by explaining the purpose of the interview, the topic and the ethical considerations as enshrined in the consent form. This included, among others, the right of the interviewee to withdraw at any time he or she feels necessary to do so without being penalised. The researcher also assured participants that confidentiality was to be upheld, including keeping their names undisclosed by using pseudonyms, save for those who were in position of authority like the Presiding Bishop (Rev Dr Solomon Zwana), General Secretary (Rev Dr Jimmy Dube), Mission Director (Rev Dr Kennedy Gondongwe), Bishops (Revds Tawanda Sungai and Blessmore Chinhara), and Tutors (Rev Dr Levee Kadenge, Rev Manenji Munikwa, and Rev Clement Matarirano).

According to Patton (1990:213), ―reports conceal names and other identifying information so that the people who have been observed or interviewed will be protected from harm or punitive action.‖ The researcher used pseudonyms for participants who hold no positions of authority, for their protection. For third-year students in college, the pseudonyms or code names used are Student A, B, C, D, E and F. Pseudonyms or code names used for lay leaders who participated in the interviews are Laity 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. For clergy who took part in the interview process their pseudonyms or code names are M1, M2, M3, M4, M5, M6, M7, M8, M9, M10, M11, M12, M13, M14, M15, M16, M17, M18, M19, M20, M21, M22, M23, M24, M25, M26, M27, M28, M29, and M30. These code names or pseudonyms are used in all quotations and references in the course of writing the thesis. A list of all participants who took part in the interviews are given in Appendix 13, not in any order, thereby maintaining their anonymity in terms of who said what, which is only the preserve of the researcher. Having received full ethical clearance on the 22nd of March 2017, the researcher started conducting interviews from the 29th of March 2017 until 14th of May 2017.

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Going into the field to conduct interviews was a central activity of this qualitative study. The researcher had direct and personal contact with clergy, student clergy and lay leaders under study in their own environment, to understand how MCZ clergy are theologically formed to appropriate Wesleyan teachings of health and wealth as themes enshrined in the doctrine of Salvation, in a religio-cultural environment engrossed by the prosperity gospel. This is supported by Patton (1990:46) who states that:

…qualitative approaches emphasise the importance of getting close to the people and situations being studied in order to personally understand the realities and minutiae of daily life.

This means that the data obtained from these interviews comes from direct quotations of clergy and lay-leaders about their experiences, opinions, feelings and knowledge on issues of health and wealth in relation to the prosperity gospel currently being preached, vis-à-vis Wesleyan teachings on these aspects. Patton (1990:24) further indicates that, ―direct quotations are a basic source of raw data in qualitative research revealing respondents‘ depth of emotion, the ways they have organised their world, their thoughts about what is happening, their experiences and their basic perceptions.‖ Some other open-ended questions derived from the broader research question were constructed and follow up questions were asked in a bid to get answers from respondents about the research question.

Furthermore, interviews in this study were used to complement the rich findings from archives and books. The weakness of interviews as a source of information is that memory slips and when it drops people have a tendency to fill the gaps in a way that might misrepresent reality; hence it has to be treated with care. The other risk is that people are mortal and once they pass on, that is, as the source or holder of these memories, knowledge and experience dies, the knowledge goes with them (Gondongwe 2011:20). For the purpose of this research, the results of the interviews are analysed in a bid to come up with a balanced testimony. In addition, information from the interviews is compared with the outcome from other sources such as observation, books and archives so as to present a reliable and factual academic account.

The strength of this method is that it can unveil what written sources fail to show. Denis contends that verbal sources are concerned about what normally is hidden. Not all information can be written down. As such, oral sources make the story become more vivid and, in the case of interviews, it gives room to the interviewer and the interviewee to revive

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the experience (1995:32). In summary, this method revives memories and brings the emotions associated with the event back to life. This methodology is particularly in ―sync with the African context because Africans have always preserved that which is important to them in oral form‖ (Gondongwe 2011:20). John S. Mbiti (1969:3-4) argued that ―ATR does not exist in written form but it exists in the minds and hearts of the believers.‖

Before interviews were conducted, all interviewees were requested to sign an informed consent form (see Appendix 7). The interview consent form was signed after the interviewer narrated all the facts concerning the interview to the interviewees. These included the right of the interviewee to withdraw from the interview at any given time if he or she deemed it necessary. The researcher also pointed out that there were no financial rewards for participating in the interview. Permission to record the interview proceedings was sought from the interviewees who later had to sign a consent form to that effect. All-important ethical issues were attended to before engaging in this study. This is authenticated by Jacob and Furgerson (2012:7) who warn that the interviewer should not proceed with interviews without collecting the signed consent form. One has to give participants plenty of time to read through the form and ask as many questions about consent as she or he needs to ask. Giving interviewees assurance that you will hold their confidence and that they may withdraw from the study at any time is an important aspect of building their trust in you. If they trust you, they will share their experiences with you. The interviews were recorded, where possible, using an electronic device and were later transcribed. For samples of interview questions, see Appendix 6.