Understanding Resilience: Lessons for Member Care Workers

By Duncan Watts

Resilience has become something of a buzz word in recent years, especially in the field of member care, but what is it? This book aims to answer this and other important questions. Part one evaluates over forty years of resilience research, exploring how it has been understood in different contexts, and what it looks like in the context of cross-cultural mission. Part two reviews methods used for assessing resilience and suggests different means by which it may be enhanced.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Regnum Books International
• Release date: Nov 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781912343850

Book preview

UNDERSTANDING

RESILIENCE

Regnum Series Preface

While we delight to serve the academic community, our mission is to enable the global church to engage more readily in God’s mission in its very diverse contexts. To do this we seek to bring practitioners and academics together. Our desire is that this series will bridge the gap that sometimes exists between, on the one hand, Christian leaders and mission practitioners and, on the other, Christian researchers. Regnum is delighted to co-publish this volume with Redcliffe College.

Redcliffe College

Redcliffe College exists to enable Christians engaged in God’s mission to deepen their knowledge and develop their practice. Part of our commitment to serve the mission community is to encourage the publication of valuable pieces of research carried out through our MA programmes. I had the privilege of supervising Duncan’s work on resilience and Redcliffe is delighted to be co-publishing his book on such a vital Member Care theme. We pray it will bear fruit for God’s mission all over the world.

For more information about our MA programmes in Member Care, Leadership in a Complex World, and Contemporary Missiology please visit www.redcliffe.ac.uk

Dr Tim Davy, Research Fellow, Redcliffe College

About the Author

After several years living in Central Asia with his wife and children, working alongside organisations with a focus in animal health, Duncan Watts now lives in Oxford where he combines his work as a member care worker with Interserve Great Britain and Ireland with work in a local veterinary practice. When he’s not working he enjoys spending time with his family, walking and running in the local countryside and making music.

UNDERSTANDING

RESILIENCE

LESSONS FOR MEMBER

CARE WORKERS

Duncan Watts

Copyright © Duncan Watts 2018

First published 2018 by Regnum Books International

in association with Redcliffe College

Regnum is an imprint of the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies St. Philip and St. James Church, Woodstock Road, Oxford, OX2 6HR, UK www.ocms.ac.uk/regnum

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The right of Duncan Watts to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher or a license permitting restricted copying. In the UK such licenses are issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 9HE.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-912343-74-4 Print

ISBN: 978-1-912343-85-0 epub

ISBN: 978-1-912343-86-7 mobi

Typeset in Palatino by WORDS BY DESIGN

Cover design by WORDS BY DESIGN

DEDICATION

For my wife and children.

You are a constant source of encouragement to me.

Thank you.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Introduction

PART ONE

Understanding Resilience

1.A Review of Literature on Resilience

2.Resilience in Context

PART TWO

The Implications of a Deeper Understanding of Resilience on Its Assessment and Enhancement in Cross-Cultural Mission Workers

3.Assessing Resilience in Those Applying for Cross-Cultural Mission Work

4.Enhancing Resilience in Cross-Cultural Mission Workers

Concluding Remarks

Appendix: Definitions of Resilience

Bibliography

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am one of a small but significant number of people working in the member care field with no formal training in the area. My understanding of member care has developed through my own experiences as a cross-cultural mission worker with two different mission organisations and going through the joining, serving and reentry process – twice.

When I finally returned to the UK in 2010 after several years in Central Asia, I heard the term ‘resilience’ with increasing frequency. It was a term that intrigued me. I wanted to know what it was, and whether it was possible to assess it or enhance it.

I had initially anticipated that my search for the answers to these questions would involve conducting some fieldwork amongst the cross-cultural mission community I worked with. However, as I started reviewing the literature, I quickly realised that, although resilience was a new subject to me (and apparently many others member care workers), much research had already been conducted on the subject. Consequently, I decided that a thorough review of the literature was necessary in order to provide a foundation for any future fieldwork I or any other member care workers might undertake. The book you are now reading is the result of my research and is based on the text of the dissertation I submitted to Redcliffe College for my Master’s degree in member care.

There are many people I need to thank for their assistance in this project but, first of all, I would like to thank Helen, my wife, for her constant encouragement and for freeing up the time for me to study. I would also like to thank my children for their patience with a frequently preoccupied father.

Thanks are also due to Marion Knell and Colin Bulley for their enthusiasm in getting me started on my research. I am also indebted to Tim Davy for his support and encouragement – and for saving my sanity on several occasions. I also thank Mark Snelling for the provision of the Resilience Briefing background paper which has proved to be a very rich resource. And, finally, I want to thank the management team at Interserve Great Britain and Ireland for their support of my studies

A great sword must be made out of the very best steel. But what truly makes the sword great is what happens to the sword after it is made.

We call this the ‘testing’ of the sword.

The sword is hammered and hollered into shape by the bright hammer. It is thrust into the fierce heat of the fire where it softens, and then it is quickly quenched in water where it hardens again. The higher the temperature and the fiercer the fire, the tougher and stronger the sword eventually becomes.

The whole testing process can make a sword or break it.

The same could be said for the Making of a Hero (Cowell, 2013, p. 30).

… and perhaps the making of a cross-cultural mission worker.

INTRODUCTION

In my role as a personnel co-ordinator for an international mission organisation, I meet many people from the UK wanting to serve God in Asia and the Arab World. These people are full of enthusiasm for the task God is calling them to and intend to fulfil this calling with every ounce of zeal they possess. Zeal and enthusiasm are not enough, however, and after leaving our ‘green and pleasant land’, many find themselves in situations they have never dreamed of. During my seven years in this role, the people I work with have experienced armed robbery, road accidents, the murder of colleagues, civil unrest, natural disasters and much more. These events have taken place alongside life’s more ‘normal’ challenges such as family bereavements, marital conflict and personal illness.

As I worked with these remarkable people, I started to consider what it was that enabled the majority of them to be ‘made’, rather than being ‘broken’, by their experiences. Discussions with others repeatedly led me to a specific word: resilience. I wanted to understand what resilience was; whether it was possible to assess it in those applying for cross-cultural mission work; and whether it was possible to enhance it, both in those hoping to engage in cross-cultural mission work and those already doing it. The book you are now reading is my attempt to answer these questions.

The book is in two main parts:

Part One explores how resilience is understood.

•Chapter One is a comprehensive review of over forty years of resilience research, and forms the foundation for the subsequent chapters. It is the longest and most detailed chapter of the book, but is essential reading for anyone wanting to have a more