What Does Pope Francis Insights On Pastoral Ministry?

Julie Livingston and Angela Garcia both provide ethnographies centered around the theme of illumination. In the case of Julie Livingston, Improvising Medicine works to illuminate the growing cancer epidemic in Africa as well as the unique way cancer is handled in situations of improvisation. Angela Garcia also works to illuminate via her ethnographic work, The Pastoral Clinic, by emphasizing the importance of dispossession in treating heroin addiction in the Española Valley and also working to counter common beliefs regarding heroin addiction. In defending these respective arguments, both authors use similar tone and voice; however, the structure of each ethnography is markedly different. Even with some weaknesses being relatively apparent

Galindo analyzes that the fundamental “mission” of a congregation is the same as any other congregation that exists in any part of the world. He argues that though every congregation has a mission and a vision, at the same time, it shares a basic common mission. (43) This reminds me of my home church The First Church of Evanston and my Field Site, The Evanston Vineyard Church. Both churches have a common mission of welcoming people to the church, irrespective of their ethnic, cultural, racial, and economic and, gender backgrounds. The mission is to help people be received in the house of God with due and deserved Christian love so that they feel loved and welcomed. Both these churches encourage church attendees to attend the service and receive the Eucharist.

This book calls the church to rethink and modify its practices, by providing a middle path between the emerging church and the conservative that aims to benefit all. There are major shift happening in the Western Church that has people talking. The problem is that churches fail to follow a mission-centered approach. Chester and Timmis have found that in order to refocus the churches

As missional leader, my task is to help my congregation, synod, and church wide to understand the need for adaptive leadership if we are to be vital and thriving hubs for missional outreach in the world. Additionally, I must motivate parishioners and lay leaders to be agents of change; not to be agents of status quo. Additionally, my goal allow the Spirit to transform my congregations from an inward focus of maintenance to an outward focus of mission and to invite my congregation to be agents of adaptive leadership and transformation beyond their comfort zones of homogeneity in their current community context. In other words, my assignment is to help my congregation to understand that the task of the church is to be the church. I must show them the importance of evangelism and outreach, but our doing is important must be married with our being the church. I must help my

It was the first time that I felt God’s presence at an annual conference. As odd as it may sound, it is true. Bishop Chow tipped off the conference with an open dialogue about the state of the church. Of course I debated with the young man next to me that it was our inability to attract and keep youth. I argued that our traditional structure has built a fence too high for millennials and screenagers (Generation Z) to climb; making them feel boxed in and unwelcomed. But Bishop Chow quickly proved us wrong. His diagnosis was that the Holy Spirit had left the church. Because we’ve become so entangled with who we are, the Holy Spirit cannot move within the church. He asserted that new programs and initiatives cannot fix a dead church; that we must loosen the chains that we’ve given ourselves so that we can fully praise God. Only then, will his people draw near. I could feel God move amidst the hearts of the conference.

Now, certainly, Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever (Heb 13:8), but as POPE JOHN PAUL II reminded priests “to proclaim the "Good News" to all and to practice in a constantly renewed way Christ 's perennial command: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations... teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you…even to the end of the world" (Mt 28:19-20). So, here is what I might offer to challenges of our day: I mentioned it earlier, to hand on in a timely way what Christ IS entrusting to his Apostles, they in turn hand on by their preaching and writing, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to all generations, until Christ returns in glory. Here is a very brief review of the important syllogism: Peter is to Francis as the Apostles are the Bishops:

In The Disciple Making Church: From Dry Bones to Spiritual Vitality, author Glenn McDonald addresses what he sees as the critical element missing from the modern Christian Church: discipleship. McDonald, who owns a Master of Divinity Degree from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, is the senior pastor at Zionsville Presbyterian Church, which was once a traditional large suburban church, in that it focused more on the needs of the church than the needs of the parishioners. In this book, McDonald discusses how he helped transform his church from a traditional church to a church that emphasizes discipleship.

Our modern church has difficulty doing this because, as I said a few weeks ago, it too often finds itself identified with the culture. Jesus was a prophet, he stepped away from his culture and therefore saw it objectively—and he paid the price. Are we persecuted? Are we reviled by our culture? What would that even look like? It is hard to imagine this in a church culture that worries about being popular and giving the culture what they want. If we speak prophetically to our culture we will be taking a risk just like Jesus did two thousand years ago. Let’s face it, that culture of division, conflict, comparison, ambition, competition, isn’t only out there, it’s in here (point to heart). We need to first speak prophetically to ourselves—we need to empty ourselves like the Christ did—remember, “Blessed are the poor spirit, blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God”.

A-30 of The Leaders Box, a resource for church leaders in the United Church of Christ, contains information for one who is seeking to become an ordained minister. One of the requirements of a candidate for ordination is to provide their association committee on ministry with a paper “dealing with the person 's theological perspective and grasp of the historic Christian faith; understanding of the history, theological roots, polity and practice of the United Church of Christ; and the person 's faith pilgrimage and understanding of ministry.” The Leaders Box: www.ucc.org/ministers_leaders-box

Over the years, many models have been developed and implemented to endeavor to make disciples. Some of the models have been effective and others have not. Among some of the most biblical and efficient models are the ones that involve small groups. Within the small groups models, they can be broken down into further detail, such as pastoral involvement, the church’s goal, missions mindedness, etc. In this paper, I will explain my philosophy of small groups in a church and the importance of the relational group in authentic disciple making. I will also explain how missional groups can help the body of Christ move out into the community. Finally, I will summarize my status in regards to living in community with other believers and being missional with that community.

The Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR) is much indebted to Saint Pope John Paul II for its growth and acceptance in the Church through the unfailing support it received throughout his Pontificate. At a special audience on 7 May 1981 to the participants of the Fourth International Leaders’ Conference in Rome, Saint John Paul II said that he made his own the words of St Paul, “I give thanks to God every time I think of you” (Phil 1:3).

Pope Francis continues in chapter two with the discussion of religion. He first explains the role of faith in motivating the human being to care for the poor and the environment. This leads to the biblical accounts that establish human life involving three fundamental relationships with God, with others, and with the earth. However, these relationships have been broken by sin. Thus, distorting our view and use of God’s creation. Human distortion of creation leads Pope Francis to discuss creation. “Creation is of the order of love,” meaning God’s love has made everything in nature (LS, no. 77). With that, God has given every object its own place in the world. We, as humans, have no right in changing the destiny God has for any of His creation.

Christ is the leader of the Church, Paul in Ephesians 1:22 said “God placed everything under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the Church” however, God entrusted the authority to lead to his servant whom he set them aside to lead the community. Pastor as a public Leadership is to lead community. A person who is called by God to lead public has a responsibility to be in the community, with the community and for the community. One of best questions raised in the class during public leadership discussion was “How we can be a community pastor rather than just a church pastor?” This really a kind of question we are to consider as pastor especially as rural congregation pastor. In most cases when pastor are called to

The Protestant Reformation indicated that a human can “connect to God and can do so without the aid of a priest.” The ecclesiology behind this is basically what aids me in my ministry. Peterson, in his book Essential Church, explains “the primary affirmation is not that each person is his or her own priest but that each Christian can be a priest, advocate, intercessor, and evangelist to others.” William Willimon, Pastor: the Theology and Practice of Ordained Ministry, highlights a variety of ways in which a pastor functions. In this paper, I am going to explain the ways in which my current ministry setting connects with the concept of priest as pastor in relation to worship and the connect and context of pastoral care while teaching others that they are able to accomplish the same task.

Furthermore, it is vitally crucial for the church leadership to clearly articulate its missional vision, which is to be embraced by the rest of the church’s community. The process of spiritual transformation starts from the invitation and continues through engagement and discipleship. This transformational process embodies the missional vision and the language for 'right now ' and 'here '. Surely, the church’s vision ought to be aligned with the missional attributes of the gospel itself, which are 'the good news is for everyone ' and 'belonging before believing '. Our witness should take place amidst relationship and listening. One principle that I consider to be exceptionally useful in my community is St. Patrick’s idea of Celtic Evangelism: establish community, engage in conversation, and invite commitment (2009, 101).