Discuss about the Journal of Ministerial Deveopment?
I am a pastor of a Catholic Church in west of London, and in the year 2015 on the month of November, one of my friend invited me to his ministry. I visited his ministry, and saw that he is working on a very unique project. His project is mainly associated with different schools and the education that is being provided to the students in schools. The students in the schools are not being provided with teachings like fire drills, and things like that but they are being provided with different kinds of education; they are being taught to deal with critical incidents that may arise at any point of time. There are times when the students face critical situations like violence, abuse, injuries because of any kind of accident or something, which could create a trauma inside the students and the trauma is not only devastating for the school but also for the community as well. My friend, provide emotional support to these students or to the children so that they could easily come out of the trauma and could live a better life. He asked me to accompany in him in his project, at first I was skeptical about accompanying him because I was busy studying the Bible at that time; then I thought that if I have to develop myself as a pastor then I should be aware of the critical conditions that the sons of God face almost every day, so I changed my mind and accompanied him in his project. It is true that being a pastor I have lots of work to do and I have commitments towards my family as well, so I hesitated at first, but then I accompanied him in his project.
There are so many schools around the district where my friends work as a pastor. The schools are all good but at times there are some unexpected incidents that could take place in the life of the students that could change the life of the students studying in the schools. The different kinds of incidents that could take place in the life of the students include incidents like accidents and abuses as well as violence. Incidents like, fire, flood and other natural and man-made threats could affect the life of the student, in more than one ways, and it could emotionally affect the students as well. Therefore, fighting fires and floods and other disaster physically, should not be the main aim of the schools, they should make sure that the students who are going through the trauma of any kind of disaster should come out of it easily. Moreover at times there are students in the schools, who commit suicide, and things such as these; these acts too have a devastating effect on the students studying in the school. In short the incidents that hamper the daily activity of the schools, and that which are not welcoming in are categorized as the critical incidents.
The critical incidents not only have a negative effect on the students but at the same time the critical incidents also have a negative impact or an effect on the people working in the organization. The symptoms and the way the students and the staff will react vary with the cultural background of the students and the staff. Therefore, the critical incidents should be dealt carefully, because it could gave rise to harmful conflicts among the school personnel and at times the school authorities are also pressurize to take decision under stress.
The schools always prepare themselves for things like earthquake, floods, and fires but along with preparing themselves for these kinds of incident it is also important to prepare the students as well as the staffs for critical incidents as well. The critical incidents not only include those traumatic incidents that are taking place within the school hour and in the school premises but at the same time those incident that took place after the school hours and even away from the school premises should also be taken into consideration. The incident that could take outside the school premises and after school hours include incidents that are occurring in a sports activity or in a sports event.
The activities like a murder in the school premise, or a sudden death in the school premise, or the sudden death inside the school, through incidents like suicide could have a negative effect on the people who are there in the school. Things like, child abuse and violence, or any kind of serious injury occurring due to any cause like the use of the weapon in the school premise could also have a bad effect not only the students who are studying there but also on the other people as well (Ortoleva and Bétrancourt 2016). Things like the bomb threat too, are not at all very good for the mental health of the people who are there in the school and therefore, the school should always be ready to provide support to these people. The schools should chalk out a plan so that even if any such situation takes place inside the school premise then that could be easily avoided through the proper plans and the measures that are being taken by the school authority. The school management and the authority should also be ready to provide mental support to both the staff and the students so that they could easily overcome the trauma through which they are going and live a better and a healthy life. The school should have their plans ready for handling any kind of dangerous or critical situation, so that if it takes place the school authority and the management have enough knowledge and learning to handle the situation; the most important part is that the school authority should be ready to handle the emotional trauma through which the staffs, the teachers and most importantly the teachers and the students go through.
The schools should have a team ready so that in case there is any critical situation or if there is an occurrence of the critical incident inside the school, they can act immediately without much problem or hesitation. The team should include the principal of the school, the counselor who is there in the school and at the same time the schools should also have the head of every department and the other staffs as well; which include the clerical staff, the child care worker, the assistant teachers and the other staffs of the school.
My friend told me that the people who are included in these teams must possess certain qualities and it include qualities like compassion, friendliness, the leadership quality and the qualities such as these. Moreover the members should also have the decision making quality and at the same time the members should also have the listening quality as well. They should be able to listen to all the instruction and decision carefully and should follow the decision accordingly. Most importantly they should always be available and they should feel comfortable in working in flexible times, only then they should be there in the team.
The project really intrigued me a lot and I wanted to find out if theology could really help me to find an answer to the problems that are being faced by those who have experienced the critical incidents. I wanted to find out that if theology could provide solace to those people who had faced the critical situation? Do theology and its texts provide any kind of support, especially emotional support to those who have face the critical situation? Therefore, I looked into few texts, like the Bible, Genesis, and the gospels and into few other texts to have answers of the questions that are raised within me.
Child abuse or any kind of abuse is something that should be prohibited, at least, according to me. I wonder if Bible has anything to say about abuse or not, so I took the Bible and went through the Bible. I found out that Bible has not use the word “abuse” anywhere, although it has prohibited abuse, especially “emotional abuse” is being prohibited by the Bible. According to gospel of James, in chapter 3 and in line 9, anyone who is being created in the image of God should not be cursed in any way. In the gospel of Matthew in chapter 22 lines 35 to 40, I found out that emotional abuse actually violates two of the greatest commandments of God; among those two greatest commandments one is the love towards the God and love for all the others who are made in the image of the God. Mark in chapter 8 and in line 34 has stated that if the Man spoke the wholesome words then he denies the Christian way of living a life in a roundabout way. Therefore, in the gospel of Mark also the same prohibition, against using abuses is being found (Higton 2015). The Ephesian chapter 4 line 29 states that if a person uses abusive words then he (she) lacks the fear of God and at the same time it also means that the person’s action could lead to destruction. Therefore, the use of the abusive words actually means denying the fact that there is a presence or the existence of any kind of God.
After I have found out these facts about abuses I wanted to found out what Bible has to say about all the different kinds of violence and destruction and how the Bible or any other theological texts condemned any kind of violence (Lim 2015). Before I found out the words that are against violence or any kind of destruction I found out these lines that could provide solace to any person who has gone through any critical situation or who could actually be the medium through which violence can occur at any point of time:
“The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.” (2Timothy 2:24-26)
Violence and overcoming violence is a difficult thing and at times the trauma of violence is such that overcoming that violence becomes a challenge for the human beings. I thought if during a critical situation someone is gone through that deep trauma of violence and could not overcome it and is thinking about the ultimate sin, ending the life that is being build in the image of the God; then is there any way to bring that person out of that trauma? I thought the Bible should have something for that person and therefore, I searched for it and I found that according to the evangelist, the life that is being provided by the God is a divine life. The fact that the “Earth” is not the ultimate rather it is the “penultimate”, is a truth but at the same it is also a truth that the duties and the works that are being carried out on this Earth are sacred duties and should be carried out properly, and this penultimate reality should have a perfection of the love if there is a love towards the brothers and the sisters who are surviving on this Earth and is living an Earthly life (Hick 2015).
It is true that the Old Testament has many stories, where the examples of violence and violent acts being carried out by the order of the God are being stated. For example there is the story of Abraham, to whom God commands to sacrifice his son Isaac by binding him, although he was later saved by one of the angels. The New Testament although have reference to those facts where things like kindness, gentility, love is being given more importance than any other things. For example in case of the New Testament, these lines are being found:
“Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you”. (Ephesians 4:32)
“But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you”. (Luke 6:27)
““You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?”. (Matthew 5:43-48)
The act of violence is always being condemned in the Bible and the New Testament, especially condemns any act of violence to a great extend. The project of my friends is about those children and those people who faces critical situation in the school and thus it can be said that the project is directly related to the human sufferings, or rather to the sufferings of life. The sufferings are not only physical sufferings but at the same time it is also related to mental or to the emotional sufferings as well. I know Jesus had suffered a lot and had died for the human kind sacrificing his life, none of the human sufferings could match his sufferings but then if I had to things about human sufferings I have to know more about what the Christian theology and its texts had to say about human pain and human sufferings (Moltmann 2015).
In the Christian Theology one of the most important part is the “theology of Cross”. According to the “theology of cross”, one could only recognize the self revelation of God, through, shame, humility and through sufferings. Therefore, sufferings are an important part of the human life because without sufferings one could not think of a life because God identify with human compassion and human love through human sufferings. Therefore, sufferings of the human life are a must needed thing and one should accept the sufferings that he/she experiences. According to Pope John Paul II, “Suffering is something which is still wider than sickness”, and he states the following things because he believe that there is a kind of “distinction between physical suffering and moral suffering” (Boxall et.al 2015)
The theology and the texts therefore, helped me to know what the Bible has to say about pain, sufferings, abuse and violence. I felt that the project with which my friend is dealing is really very good and the theology and the texts of theology could be very helpful in this case (Holligan and Wilson 2015). The texts in theology could not only guide the people who are planning or rather getting prepared with a plan but at the same time, it will also help those people who are going through the trauma and they need counseling and other kinds of emotional and psychological support to get out from that trauma. The Bible and other texts such as the New Testament and the Gospels and the other texts, even the words of the Pope John Paul II are helpful and at times supportive for the students and the staff who has gone through any kind of critical experience. I also think that the team which should be prepared for combating the critical incidents whenever it occurs should also include people who have the good knowledge of the theology and the words of these theological texts would be very useful in providing the right and the correct support to those, who has gone through an emotional trauma.
The project of my friend really overwhelmed me and I thought that the people or rather the students in my ministry is also going through a same kind of experience and if I too could help in promoting such a special education system then nothing will be better than it. Therefore, I had talk with the senior pastor of my ministry and he too felt that the idea is really a very good idea and he provided me with all his support so that I could carry on with my project. I therefore, decided to arrange a meeting in my church where I addressed all the other people and let them know about my project. My project include not only providing the best support to the students and the staffs in the school, so that they could combat the critical situations whenever it takes place but at the same time I also aim at providing theological education to the students and the staff as well. The education will not be provided for any religious purpose, rather the purpose of providing this education will be to make sure that people during the time of crisis have enough mental or psychological strength, to help the others, to show kindness and love towards the others. I believe that the education will also help the students as well as the staffs to come out of any kind of trauma through which they are going and thus the theological texts will really help me to carry on with my project in my ministry Moreover, people who are being induce with the thought of suicide and other things for them the lesson of learning and the importance of having human life should be explained properly and therefore, in my project these texts will definitely play a very important role and this is the conclusion to which I have reached after the theological reflection I had.
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