New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary

BackgroundCommunity health workers (CHWs) are an essential and rapidly growing part of the public health workforce. CHW activities are traditionally conducted in person, such as in clinics and at community events; social media could further extend their impact. Many health professionals use social media for disseminating health information, engaging patients, and promoting positive health change, while also navigating risks, such as privacy concerns. Training could be an effective approach to equipping CHWs with skills to maximize social media’s benefits while mitigating risks. Furthermore, artificial intelligence (AI) tools are increasingly popular for creating, refining, or tailoring social media content and could be useful for CHWs who use social media. In this study, we conducted qualitative interviews to explore the potential benefits and drawbacks of using social media as a CHW tool, CHW preferences for social media skills training, and interest in learning how to use AI for social media content creation.MethodsWe recruited CHWs in Louisiana, USA, through targeted e-mails to a CHW professional organization and agencies that employ CHWs. Between October 2024 and February 2025, we conducted 15 interviews. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed for analysis. We used deductive and general inductive approaches to analyze transcripts and generate themes. Results were finalized with input from experienced CHWs.ResultsWe identified five themes related to the benefits and drawbacks of social media use: reach and engagement, privacy and confidentiality, health education, organizational policy and expectations, and time and effort. For example, in terms of reach and engagement, CHWs highlighted social media as being particularly effective for reaching specific groups, such as young people, but also recognized that many clients they serve live in rural areas with limited internet access. All participants were supportive of a social media skills training, except for one. Participants commented on the format, teaching approaches, and content they would like to see in a social media skills training program for CHWs, such as incorporating interactive elements and teaching how to develop culturally sensitive content and navigate personal-professional boundaries. Many CHWs expressed hesitancy about training on how to use AI for content creation, noting concerns about authenticity and accuracy.ConclusionsSocial media could be a powerful tool for boosting outreach efforts and expanding access to health information. However, using social media can present challenges in maintaining personal-professional boundaries and the privacy and confidentiality of CHWs and their clients. Results from our study can be used to inform the development and testing of a social media skills training that is responsive to CHW needs.

Background: Community health workers (CHWs) are an essential and rapidly growing part of the public health workforce. CHW activities are traditionally conducted in person, such as in clinics and at community events; social media could further extend their impact. Many health professionals use social media for disseminating health information, engaging patients, and promoting positive health change, while also navigating risks, such as privacy concerns. Training could be an effective approach to equipping CHWs with skills to maximize social media’s benefits while mitigating risks. Furthermore, artificial intelligence (AI) tools are increasingly popular for creating, refining, or tailoring social media content and could be useful for CHWs who use social media. In this study, we conducted qualitative interviews to explore the potential benefits and drawbacks of using social media as a CHW tool, CHW preferences for social media skills training, and interest in learning how to use AI for social media content creation. Methods: We recruited CHWs in Louisiana, USA, through targeted e-mails to a CHW professional organization and agencies that employ CHWs. Between October 2024 and February 2025, we conducted 15 interviews. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed for analysis. We used deductive and general inductive approaches to analyze transcripts and generate themes. Results were finalized with input from experienced CHWs. Results: We identified five themes related to the benefits and drawbacks of social media use: reach and engagement, privacy and confidentiality, health education, organizational policy and expectations, and time and effort. For example, in terms of reach and engagement, CHWs highlighted social media as being particularly effective for reaching specific groups, such as young people, but also recognized that many clients they serve live in rural areas with limited internet access. All participants were supportive of a social media skills training, except for one. Participants commented on the format, teaching approaches, and content they would like to see in a social media skills training program for CHWs, such as incorporating interactive elements and teaching how to develop culturally sensitive content and navigate personal-professional boundaries. Many CHWs expressed hesitancy about training on how to use AI for content creation, noting concerns about authenticity and accuracy. Conclusions: Social media could be a powerful tool for boosting outreach efforts and expanding access to health information. However, using social media can present challenges in maintaining personal-professional boundaries and the privacy and confidentiality of CHWs and their clients. Results from our study can be used to inform the development and testing of a social media skills training that is responsive to CHW needs.

Politeness is generally understood as culturally bound. Recently, however, scholars have been mining the world's languages to discover a typology of linguistic politeness. While living languages have been studied extensively, scholars have also begun investigating ancient languages, such as Egyptian and Hittite, for evidence and use of such language. Scholarship on the Hebrew Bible has made some initial steps in this type of study. The research thus far has centred on speeches within Hebrew narrative with little to no attention paid to poetry. This is disappointing as the book of Psalms consists of performative prayers directed to YHWH. To begin to fill this gap in research, this article highlights the significance of the taxonomy of linguistic politeness in order to bring more clarity to the language of prayer in the Psalms and in Ps 7 in particular.

Poverty and hunger have become global crises, especially in Africa. African political leaders have continued mismanaging public resources while many have embezzled public funds. Some have misappropriated public funds and borrowed senselessly from the West, making it difficult for them to dissociate themselves from the dictates of Western powers. Another factor that has impoverished Africa is intertribal war, caused mainly by leadership negligence because of their political calculations. Other problems that have contributed to the escalating poverty level in Africa are political instability, economic downturn, and religious intolerance. Despite the poverty crisis in Africa, the church has remained proactive in alleviating poverty in Africa. The church has been missional in its approach, but with its missionaries’ efforts, it has had to become strategic in the contemporary time to record successes in its missions’ endeavour in Africa, especially in Nigeria. Therefore, this paper attempts to explain the anthropological strategies that mission agencies and missionaries employ to record success in the face of poverty escalation in Africa; this will be achieved by explaining the concept of poverty in Africa, historically examining missions’ success in Africa and identifying anthropological strategies employed by missionaries in Africa despite the escalating level of poverty in Africa. This study reveals strategies for mission success to ensure missionaries of different denominations are aware of previous achievements and to do more.

The ‘redress of poetry as poetry,’ means, according to the Irish poet and Noble Prize winner Seamus Heaney, an awareness of ‘an eminence established and a pressure exercised by distinctly linguistic means.’ Poetry, he asserts, ‘is the imagination pressing back against the pressure of reality.’ The imagination of Psalms poetry needs to be rediscovered. This has begun with the monumental book by Dobbs-Allsopp (2015). Yet, more work is needed. This article explores how the Psalter, being poetry, makes claims to and on the imagination, reality, and the confluence thereof. It is an attempt to see how the redress of Psalms poetry might refine our reading of the biblical book. Psalm 98 serves as key illustration.

Students of the Greek New Testament may often be surprised not to find the traditional English ending, or doxology (“For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”), of the Lord’s Prayer in the current critical editions of the Greek text (NA28/UBS5). This doxological ending finds its way into Greek manuscripts roughly around the fifth century, although the doxology is possibly found earlier in non-canonical Christian literature. Current translations around the world are split on adding or not adding the doxology. This article is divided into two parts: (1) a text-critical evaluation of the variants at the end of the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew and (2) a survey of the textual history of the doxology of the Lord’s Prayer specifically through five phases: oral tradition, early transmission, late transmission, early critical texts, and modern translations. Concluding comments suggest a mutually beneficial relationship between text-critical scholarship and the church/liturgical practices.

Abstract This article challenges the ideas that we should either re-read the form or appeal to a present tense rendering of וַיָּעַל in 1 Sam 2:6. Instead, I argue that the prospect of gnomic semantics due to the surrounding participles is leveraged to highlight a past time wayyiqtol “he raised up.” This past time makes sense of the context both within the poem itself (1 Sam 2) and the preceding narrative (1 Sam 1). What is more, a past tense meaning of וַיָּעַל is corroborated by recent robust linguistic research of the form. Reading the wayyiqtol as past makes reference to a specific, historical action done to Hannah. This reference to the past tightens the cohesion of and provides further coherence for Hannah’s narrative (1 Sam 1) and her song (1 Sam 2).

Many issues of concern have been raised by different scholars about leadership and human endeavours in Africa over ages; issues pertaining to relationship, communication, attitude, position, power, politics, policies, influence and the likes. The demand of leadership is so enormous, task-full and delicate. The various attempt of different scholars across the globe to determine what leadership should be or should look like had led to many propounded theories, styles, principles, and techniques of exhibiting leadership. Many scholars and a host of others had written and or researched on leadership in various aspects which could be regarded as areas involving pro-activeness of leaders; attitude; qualifications of leaders; qualities; problems of leadership; theories of leadership; styles of leadership; philosophy of leadership and contemporary issues in leadership. All of their positions cannot be undermined in leadership discuss, especially in Africa and beyond; although none of these aforementioned and other scholars had written directly on psycho-philosophical leadership. The researcher’s drive on embarking on this work rested on his observation of some problematic issues that devastate the Church in Africa as a result of inadequate or proper inquiry into the problem and a logical approach to resolving such issues. The desire to see pastors in Church in African become inquiry-based and problem-solving leaders is the motivation for the work. Hence, the thrust of this paper is to present psycho-philosophical approach to leadership; intimating pastors as leaders on the necessity of developing critical mindset without undermining the Spirit of God in handling critical issues that are devastating the Church in Africa so as to ascertain efficacy of pastoral ministry through inductive-thinking, critical and deep-thinking; as well as raising the consciousness of pastors as leaders to the fact that pastoral call is not a call to lazy or myopic exhibition but that which requires thorough inquiry and problem-solving approach. The real power of leadership lies in the ability of the leader to think deeply and productively. Article visualizations: