Societal Factors and the Discipline of Pastors' Children in the Context of Church Mission in Tigania West Sub-county, Meru County, Kenya

Abstract

Discipline, whether of children or adults, has a lot of impact in any society. The peace, unity, and prosperity of any society are dependent on the discipline of its people. As important as it is, discipline is at times affected to the detriment of society by some factors. Globally, continentally, nationally, and locally, there have been reported issues on the discipline of pastors' children. The discipline of pastors' children affects the performance of the pastor.  Therefore, this study sought to establish the effect of societal factors on the discipline of pastors' children in the context of church mission in Tigania West Sub-County, Meru County, Kenya. The researcher used a qualitative research approach and phenomenological research design in this study. The target population was 431 people. Purposive sampling was used, and twenty-five (25) respondents were engaged in this study: 10 pastors, 10 pastor's children, and 5 church elders. Thematic narrative analysis of data was adopted in this study.  The study established that pastors' children always feel pressured to be right hence making them stressed. Prolonged stress leads to depression resulting in more indiscipline cases like immorality and drug and substance abuse. The study recommended that church managers should engage counselling professionals who would occasionally provide one-on-one counseling sessions to the pastors' children and always keep in touch with them for their mental and physical wellbeing. Further research should be done to establish the influence pastors’ children have on each other's behaviour