Browsing by Author "Gamboa, Luis Alberto Facundo"

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    Profile of a Religious Social Minister Focus On Human Maturity
    (Tangaza University College, 1998-04) Gamboa, Luis Alberto Facundo
    The idea of writing a paper in this line came to my mind after some experiences of living in some religious communities of my institute in different countries of Africa. It is not good to judge people about how they handle their lives in community, work and in their way they relate to others in their ministerial work. But what impressed me was to find similar problems related to human maturity wherever I was. Seeing how some of my confreres lived their cross cultural ministry, I felt deeply struck and I questioned myself if that would be my future. It is also true that I am speaking about people whose preparation was not the best to face the challenges of our missions and did not have the opportunities that the people of my generation are having today. I am not blaming anybody; what I want to emphasise is that as a religious social minister I realise that our presence in a world which presents complex realities and big challenges today has to be meaningful, bringing the novelty of the Gospel in a new creative way that makes our message believable. Relationships are more important than ever, now that we are moving into a new understanding of mission and evangelisation being relational. I believe that we can hardly be in ministry to another if we have not come to be in relationship to ourselves. In this way I see the importance of having an acceptable, intellectual preparation and human maturity supported by a strong spirituality that allows us to minister efficiently and effectively in a world that calls for that. This paper wants to be, first of all, a work for my personal reflection that helps me to grow as human being, as a religious and as social minister, trying to place myself in the actual context of the world, especially in third world countries that are a big challenge for the mission of the church. The actual situation of the world demands new identified ministers that own a strong human basis and a clear and renewed spirituality. I am aware that to bring about a new world I need to start with myself In the first chapter of this paper I describe the identity of the religious social ministers who are engaged in a new complex society. This society presents specific challenges to ministers in cross cultural settings, describing that they are agents of social transformation, being involved in human promotion. What I try to show in this chapter is the actual reality of the world that social ministers face today and the importance of being aware of the challenges they meet while ministering. In the second chapter I present an analysis of the role of the religious social minister, describing certain attitudes and values that make social ministers more competent and relevant as they perform their ministry. Lastly in the third chapter I speak about the spirituality and formation required for religious social ministers. I see the importance of a spirituality more incarnated in the world to help ministers to be more human and to consider social care as genuine spirituality. Concerning formation, I propose a suggested integral formation program that I consider to have all the elements needed in a global formation for religious social ministers.