Self Assessment Plan for Future Ministry Theology

Ethical Practices Self-Assessment Plan and Practices for Future Ministry
A plan for future ministry outlines the ethical and self-assessment strategies that a minister expects to employ in the course of their ministry. The purpose of this text is to develop a self-assessment plan for growth and strategy in the areas of self-care, pastoral care, community care, and familial care.
Growth Areas and Strategies for Self-Care
While there is no exclusive command requiring us to love ourselves, there is Biblical support for self-care. Confronted by the Scribes to give His view on what was the first of all commandments in Mark 12: 28-31, for instance, Jesus answered that it is to love the Lord with all of one’s heart, soul mind, and strength; and to love one’s neighbor as oneself. Loving oneself, therefore, is a prerequisite for loving God and one’s neighbor.[footnoteRef:1] Christians have an ethical duty to love and care for oneself, as self-care forms the foundation of love for God and others.[footnoteRef:2] There is a need for me to grow in this duty of self-care and the realization that there is a balance between working for justice and resting in the care of God. When we take time to rest, we acknowledge that God is bigger than our efforts of goodness and trust that He is in control. [1: Jeffery Gates, “Self-Care: A Christian Perspective,” Evangelical Review of Theology 35, no. 1 (January 2015): 6 ] [2: Ibid.]
In Genesis 1 and 2, God creates the entire creation in six days and rests on the Sabbath, thereby blessing it and making it holy. The day of rest symbolizes holiness, the very essence of God’s character. Similarly, rest on the Sabbath after six days of pastoral work is one of the self-care strategies that I intend to employ in ministry.
Multiple times in His earthly ministry, Christ retreats from His ministerial demands to draw into a deeper and intimate relationship with God through prayer.[footnoteRef:3] Following His baptism, for instance, Christ retreated into the wilderness, where He spends 40 days and nights fasting and praying for God to equip Him to handle the devil’s temptations. Like Christ, it is important for ministers to retreat into solitude once in a while to seek spiritual renewal and a reconnection with God through prayer. After retreating to pray in Mark 1: 35, Christ returned and told His disciples that it was time to move to another town.[footnoteRef:4] Thus, retreat and prayer provide a means to reestablish intimacy with God so that his purpose and will is made clearer. Retreat and prayer is to be complemented with continued reading of the scripture as Christ advised in Mathew 4:4 – that man cannot live on bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. The scripture provides the armor that Christians need to resist temptations and maintain their bodies as temples of Christ. Finally, there is a need for continuous education – the apostle Peter in 2 Peter 3: 18 calls upon ministers to continually grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. Continuous education provides avenues for ministers to better understand how God works, and to provide better nourishment to the flock of Christ.[footnoteRef:5] Continuous education occurs through constant reading as well as attending conferences and camps that bring together ministers and church leaders and allow for knowledge-sharing. [3: Luke 5; 15, Mark 1: 35, Mark 1: 45, Mark 2: 13] [4: Mark 1: 35] [5: Ernie Lassman, “the Importance of Continuing Education for Pastors,” Concordia Theological Seminary Journal 19, no. 1 (March 2015), 4 ]
Areas of Growth and Strategies for Pastoral Care
Strategies for effective pastoral care are based on several facets including accountability, transparency, vulnerability, and humility. Paul, in 2nd Corinthians 6: 3, supports accountability by requiring ministers to live in such a way that no one will stumble because of them or find fault with their ministry. Christians have a duty to ensure that whatever they do in deed or word is done for the glory and honor of God.[footnoteRef:6] I plan to exhibit accountability by always taking responsibility for my decisions and actions, addressing pitfalls in my performance openly and fairly, and opening up my convictions/positions to healthy criticism.[footnoteRef:7] Christ exemplified humility in His earthly works such as when He washed His disciples’ feet.[footnoteRef:8] I will strive to demonstrate humility by bringing attention to God and not myself at all times, recognizing that the privileges and favor I enjoy come from God, listening to all regardless of their social status, and putting the needs of those I serve above my own.[footnoteRef:9] [6: Colossians 3: 17] [7: General Conference of Seventh Day Adventists, “Transparency and Accountability: a Global commitment of Seventh-Day Adventist Church Leaders,” Author, 2018, 55. ] [8: John 13: 1-17] [9: General Conference of Seventh Day Adventists, “Transparency,” 41]
In 2 Corinthians 11: 23-39, Paul encourages ministers to be transparent with God, self, and others.[footnoteRef:10] Specific strategies for ensuring transparency will include confessing when mistakes are made, free sharing of information within and between ministries, and always playing by the rules[footnoteRef:11]. The scripture supports vulnerability in ministry by calling upon Christians to love their enemies and do good to those who persecute them (Luke 6: 27-36). Christ Himself demonstrated utmost vulnerability in His suffering and eventual crucifixion because of His belief in God, but still called on God to forgive His persecutors. As with Christ, ministers like myself are required to be open to suffering for the sake of Christ because then they are strong and God’s power is made perfect in weakness as apostle Paul postulates in 2 Corinthians 12: 9. [10: Ibid., 83] [11: Ibid. ]
Growth Areas and Strategies for Community Care
Christ, in Luke 5: 1-11, demonstrates that one of the primary duties of a Christian leader is to create disciples.[footnoteRef:12] In the passage, Christ creates disciples by influencing them through his deeds (helping them realize a huge catch of fish after working all night without success) and teaching them (how to be fishers of men). Like Christ, a primary strategy for discipleship that I will employ at the community level will be to model compassion, love and unity in my daily living and interactions with members of the community, and to teach God’s word with the aim of converting non-believers inside and outside the church into disciples. Like Jesus, ministers have a duty to nurture leadership as way of ensuring the continuity of God’s kingdom.[footnoteRef:13] My plan in this regard is to have a leadership program that focuses on nurturing talent and leadership in line with the scripture. Outside the church, ministers have a duty to demonstrate God’s love and take part in community programs geared at assisting the vulnerable in the community. In Matthew 14: 13-21, Christ feeds the multitude of 5,000 after teaching them, which implies that a minister’s role in the community spreads beyond providing spiritual nourishment through evangelism. It also involves offering physical and emotional support to those in need. [12: Chris Shirley, “It Takes a Church to Make a Disciple: An Integrative Model of Discipleship for the Church,” Southwestern Journal of Theology 50, no. 2 (Spring 2008), 208] [13: Ibid.]
Growth Areas and Strategies for Familial Care
In Genesis 1 and 2, God ordained the family as the central point for His children’s eternal destiny. In Genesis 1: 28, He commands Adam and Eve to bring forth children and to love and care for each other as well as their children. A minister’s responsibility is first to their household, and then the community - in 1st Timothy 3: 4-5, Paul questions how one could care for God’s church when he could not manage his own household. In line with the apostle Paul’s teaching, I will offer familial care by establishing my family on the principles of work, compassion, forgiveness, repentance, prayer and faith.[footnoteRef:14] I will be keen to effectively balance between family care and pastoral care, establish boundaries, and ensure cohesion at the family level.[footnoteRef:15] Christ, in Mark 31: 31-35, however, introduces an important perspective to family - that the family is not tied to biological relationships, but the entire community of Christians. In this regard, modeling love and responsibility in one’s own family is not sufficient; ministers have a duty to teach their followers the importance of family as per God’s plan during creation and His expectations on relationships within the family. [14: Allen Lish, Pamela Trice, Alicia Root, and Nicole Gilbert, “Care for Pastors: Learning from Clergy and their Spouses,” Faculty Publications – Graduate school of Clinical Psychology, Paper 152 (2005), n.pag] [15: Ibid.]
Bibliography
Gates, Jeffery. “Self-Care: A Christian Perspective.” Evangelical Review of Theology 35, no. 1 (January 2015): 4-17.
Lassman, Ernie. “The Importance of Continuing Education for Pastors.” Concordia Theological Seminary Journal 19, no. 1 (March 2015): 1-5.
Lish, Allen, Trice Pamela, Root, Alicia, and Gilbert, Nicole. “Care for Pastors: Learning from Clergy and their Spouses.” Faculty Publications – Graduate school of Clinical Psychology, Paper 152 (2005): https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1197&context=gscp_fac
Shirley, Chris. “It Takes a Church to Make a Disciple: An Integrative Model of Discipleship for the Church.” Southwestern Journal of Theology 50, no. 2 (Spring 2008): 207-24.