Open Access Kent State (OAKS)

In this article the author revisits an earlier study on the information seeking behavior of clergy members. Wicks found that clergy members tend to operate within closed information systems when their work role is highly dependent upon their work world. The Wicks study differentiated between the work roles of preaching, care giving, and administration and between theological, denominational, and congregational work worlds. In the current article the author reports on a qualitative research project that focuses on sermon preparation as a regular task of the preaching role. Through the current study the author confirms the findings from the Wicks study regarding the influence of clergy member theological and denominational worlds on their preaching role. The findings also suggest that the congregational world significantly affects the information behavior of clergy members engaged in the sermon preparation task, which does not contradict, but expands upon the findings of the Wicks study.