Career Counseling Program for the South Ghana Conference of Seventh-day Adventist Church

204 Pages·2016·1.92 MB·English

by  Samuel Amoh

AAnnddrreewwss UUnniivveerrssiittyy
DDiiggiittaall CCoommmmoonnss @@ AAnnddrreewwss UUnniivveerrssiittyy
Dissertation Projects DMin Graduate Research
2011
CCaarreeeerr CCoouunnsseelliinngg PPrrooggrraamm ffoorr tthhee SSoouutthh GGhhaannaa CCoonnffeerreennccee ooff
SSeevveenntthh--ddaayy AAddvveennttiisstt CChhuurrcchh
Samuel Amoh
Andrews University
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ABSTRACT

CAREER COUNSELING PROGRAM FOR THE SOUTH
GHANA CONFERENCE OF SEVENTH-DAY
ADVENTIST CHURCH

by
Samuel Amoh
Advisor: Harvey Burnett
ABSTRACT OF GRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH
Project Dissertation
Andrews University
Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary
Title: CAREER COUNSELING PROGRAM FOR THE SOUTH GHANA
CONFERENCE OF SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH
Name of researcher: Samuel Amoh
Name and degree of faculty advisor: Harvey Burnett, Ph.D.
Date completed: August 2011

Statement of Problem
A large number of converts into Seventh-day Adventist churches in South Ghana
Conference (SGC) are young adults in colleges and universities. These educational
institutions do not offer career counseling or job placement guidance to help these young
adults choose programs and fields of study that match their abilities and talents and
develop their potentials. Instead, the schools usually impose on students a particular field
of study. The lack of appropriate guidance has led to a large number of graduates who are
either unemployed or underemployed. A negative residual effect is seen in the physical,
mental, spiritual, and professional growth of these young adults.
Some members have to dropout from school as they go through such difficult
times of struggling to adjust to the study that has been prescribed to them but usually
breakdown in the process and decide either not to be serious in class or dropout
completely.
Method
A questionnaire was developed for the purpose of obtaining the knowledge and
understanding of the career counseling project. Help was gleaned from current students,
teachers, parents, pastors, and former students. A Logical Framework was developed to
show the method of the project during implementation. The target group is to go through
various training, workshops and seminars that have been developed to be implemented in
order to achieve the goals of the project.
Results
It is anticipated that young adults in the South Ghana Conference will experience
the benefits of career counseling and enjoy the privilege of studying and eventually
working in the labor force to produce their best with passion, courage and certainty. This
will result in developing future leaders who are serving their Creator, church and
enjoying fulfillment for life.
Conclusions
I discovered in the theological research that God’s calling extends to all who
understand that their vocation is a ministry. The literature review provided the
importance of preparing the young people in career planning and guidance, choice of
career, and career development. This will encourage and inspire them to make the
necessary career choices, which will eventually improve their abilities to be useful
workers and citizens. To develop useful citizens is one of our Christian objectives in the
Conference.
Andrews University
Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

CAREER COUNSELING PROGRAM FOR THE SOUTH
GHANA CONFERENCE OF SEVENTH-DAY
ADVENTIST CHURCH
A Project Report
Presented in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Doctor of Ministry

by
Samuel Amoh
March 2011
©Copyright by Samuel Amoh 2011
All Rights Reserved
TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii

LIST OF TABLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x

Chapter
1. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Personal History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Statement of Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Statement of the Task . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Justification for the Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Definition of Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Organization of the Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

2. A THEOLOGY OF CALLING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
The Biblical Concept of Calling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
The Youth and Young Adults’ Calling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Calling and Young Adult Ministry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Knowing God’s Call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
The Secondary Calling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Spiritual Gifts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
How to Discover One’s Spiritual Gifts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
The Difference between Talent and Spiritual Gifts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Ellen White’s Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Calling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Vocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Talents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Educate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Leadership of Calling in the Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
iii
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

3. LITERATURE REVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Employment and Unemployment in Ghana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
The South Ghana Conference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Ethnic Groups of SGC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Community Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
SGC Membership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Religious Demography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Young Adult Participation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
The Secret of the South Ghana Conference and Ghana Union . . . . . . . . . 51
Tithing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Career Counseling—A Brief History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Career Counseling in Ghana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Life Planning and Career Guidance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Career Guidance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Inclusion by Person-centered Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Career Choice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Stages of Career Counseling and Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Career Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Organizational Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Career Assessments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Assessment Tools and Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Holland’s RAISEC Model for Personality Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Realistic (R) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Investigative (I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Artistic (A) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Social (S) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Enterprising (E) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Conventional (C) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Leadership in Career . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

4. METHODOLOGY AND IMPLEMENTATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Profile of the Ministry Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Research Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Instruments Used for Career Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Spiritual Gifts Assessment Inventory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
The Keirsey Temperament Sorter II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Self Direct Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Questionnaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
iv