Philosophy of Personal and Spiritual Formation - Essay Example

THE PHILOSOPHY OF PERSONAL AND SPIRITUAL FORMATION: A PERSONAL REFLECTION Introduction I am a religious to my core. I was born into a religious family and I have spent my life understanding religious concepts. Everything I do aims at generating faith taught by the Unitarian Universalism. I relate curiously with individuals, but courageously open to love. I believe in the teachings of the Bible with deep trust that the world provides me with the best concepts. I translate cultures and paradigms naturally due to my obsessive synthesis of information. My motivation comes from the fuel of faith to overcome unusual energy. All this information conspires to generate passionate leaning and creative opportunities in my life. As a religious leader and student, the years of experience as a mentor help me relate to principles narrated in the Bible and multiple intelligences. Learning is a sacred process and I believe that every individual has the right to have basic needs to learn (Flora 2001). My religious growth was linked to hailing from a religious background. I do not remember differentiating my religious nature and the church life. Interaction through public and tribal education generates the need for me to hold sacred opportunities and explore religious opportunities. When I opted to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Theology, I aimed at reaching a divinity level. I was using my religious knowledge to answer to religious ministry. I chose the degree specifically to aid in teaching religious concepts to community learners. Who I am and what I have become relies on the religious concepts generated throughout. The various concepts of life largely depend on the opportunities presented to me in the religious concept (Flora 2001). Life learning and religious development Family My theological background originated from identification with my religious family. I interpret my origin by applying a Universalist mandate. There was a possibility that I could have been born into a non-religious family. Even in my early ages, I took religion very seriously. As soon as I could read, I read religious material from books and the bible, easily accessed from home. I became engrossed with the stories of people wanting to live a religious life. It soon developed into a lifelong spiritual discipline of wanting to teach people on religion and its importance. I theologically became related to stories of teaching the word of the Bible. I give gratitude to my family for their struggles, lives and gifts that made me who I am today. Home environment I grew up in a small town where farming was the primary source of income and the culture was reserved. In my childhood experiences, the one time that I felt joyous is when I watched the animals graze over the farmland. I loved singing, being silly, and learning. The cultural diversity in the area was very clear with the people in the area following the beliefs to the latter. I made a commitment to myself that when I grew up I would be a community leader that would teach people on living harmoniously. My grandparents fully supported my views. Grandparents Dwight (2000) states that, “a safe person in the life of a child can secure the resilience (35)”. My grandparents deeply saw and believed in me. I stayed with them for much of my childhood. In the morning, I would watch them pray for the day and the simple things in life. Over breakfast, they would teach me the importance of faith as stated in the Bible. After the teachings, they always asked for my opinion on every communicated matter. At the tender age of seven, I sheepishly told them that I would be a minister, and they answered that I was already a minister. My teacher While in the third grade, our teacher instructed us to work on a project. In a flurry of activities, we assembled the materials we needed to complete the project. Looking at the teacher, I saw her folding a small blanket and placing it under the table. She then tucked in a small boy for a nap. In a friendly manner, she smiled at us and told us to stay silent for the boy to sleep. 1The trust and friendly environment exhibited taught me the importance of faith in social gatherings. School Vote In the 8th grade, I was voted the person likely to become a religious leader. This motivated me to discover new avenues of generating social relations among students. The concept continued in high school when I was awarded the Baccalaureate sermon for the graduation worship. This vote originated from my classmates which made me realize that they wanted me as a religious leader. I preached on the importance of love as the only thing that will save humanity. The reception of the sermon was positively received and I used the same sermon to communicate in a sermon I preached in university. I attended university with the aim of acquiring theological experience. This learning experience increased my capabilities to reach out to the community. Core competence in building a personal and spiritual formation The concepts I chose in determining my personal and spiritual growth lied in the understanding of basic management problems that easily caused disarray in a community setting. The community faces problems with multicultural, conflict management, and pastoral care. Multicultural The motivation behind analysing this problem arises from relationships. Many family members go through struggles of addiction, domestic violence, and inaccessible health care. My cousin is chronically ill with two of his siblings serving life sentences. The experience I have in complete family setup made it easier for me to understand institutional racism. I learnt that some of the religious settings available in the community find it difficult to accept offenders into the community. Through the religious setting, I learnt how to interact with individuals who are closed to culture by giving them religious examples from the bible (Foster 2005). Managing conflict 2The life of a student has its difficulties. Getting into conflict is unavoidable, and this creates the need to analyse its origin in a religious concept. Being a member of the Christian union in the university, I have to deal with cases of members disagreeing. I have learned that management of conflict best exhibits through case studies, role-plays and communicating with the individual. Through the teaching process, I have learned that managing conflict starts by understanding the origin of the conflict. In religious faith, meditating on the issue helps in creating an understanding between the two parties (Hoes 2005). Pastoral care and family Through parenting classes, I learnt from my mentor on the importance of self-absorption. My mentor helped me develop skills on authority and responsibility while handling spirituality in children. I learned on the importance of family priorities and making choices based on them. Through foster parenting, I learned that loving someone could mean placing them in an environment that is far from comfortable. The experience involved a family setting, with homemade kids that gave me the perspective in a practical manner (Jent 2006). The years spent in university help me gain skills in Pastoral care and Clinical Pastoral Education. As an intern in the local church, I gained experience in constantly reflecting theologically on the loving challenges exhibited by my peers. I learned that success comes with having faith and believing in you. The practical aspect of the study enabled growth and development in handling patients with chronic diseases (Porter 2008). Using spiritual parenting on children helped in creating a link between two generations. Faith and Human Development Considering I have taken undergraduate courses in this area and read literature on the topic, I have more interest in the real life examples in comparison to the theory and academic aspects. The study of faith development is objective as it equips humans with the tools to empower one another (Roehlkepartain and Benson 2005). I now understand that we are developed chronologically to handle the formality of faith in an academic and emotional manner. It involves incorporating complex journeys to what we read and understand. 3The learning process exhibited included an analysis of the emotional, development, sociological and academic needs. Development of religious leaders needs to incorporate teachers that reach out to understand their faith and human development. The approach makes it easy for the participants to understand their congregation (Putnam and Campbell 2010). Vision for the future My personal and spiritual growth aims at seeing learning institutions taking interest in reforming the public orientation of religion. This expression caters for the process of seeking justice, and learning religious education. The spiritual foundation started with the aim of providing education to students. It is time the institution took them back as leaders to restore the vision in the modern setting. I envision more students taking this course with the purpose of bringing knowledge to their communities. Religion is often misconnected making it difficult to relay to individuals at the community level. Students arising from this religious institution can reach out to their communities through tutoring programs. I would like to see the institution reaching out to investors to develop resources that flourish and expand help programs. Religious growth comes with continued faith and education. Having teachers that understand this concept may see the institution increasing the number of students registered for this course. I see educators receiving blessing rituals in annual ceremonies that target to motivate their work. The institution having scholarships for 50 % of the students as an outreach program promotes underprivileged students wishing to pursue the course (Smart 2009). I have faith that the students will be treated to an environment of more sports, trips, camps and other motivational resources. The institution of faith starts with believing in unseen things and moving to education. The people in the university value education and the need to share it to others remains a privilege. 4Creating better communication platforms for the university helps in creating more individuals that have the power to communicate to others (Stuebing 2000). Religion is a diverse topic with personal faith and adoration being just one concept that can help the institution. References Dwight, Judy H. "Spiritual Formation:An Interdisciplinary Field in Protestant Seminary Education." An International Journal of Spiritual Direction 1, no. 1 (2000): 35-44. Flora, Jerry R. "The Best of the Best on Spiritual Formation: A Review Article." AshLand TheoLogicaL JournaL 33 33, no. 1 (2001). Foster, Richard. "Spiritual Formation ." The Journal of Christian Ministry 1, no. 1 (2005): 1-15. Hoes, Marcella. "Many Colored Kingdom: Multicultural Dynamics for Spiritual Formation ." Sage Journals 33, no. 16 (2005). Jent, Dr. Glenn A. "Spiritual Formation: or the formation of faith ." Torch Trinity Journal 1, no. 1 (2006): 62-81. Porter, Steve L. "Sanctification in a New Key:Relieving Evangelical Anxieties ver Spiritual Formation ." Journal of Spiritual Formation & Soul Care 1, no. 2 (2008): 129–148. Putnam, Rober, and David Campbell. American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us . New York : Simon& Schuster , 2010. Roehlkepartain, Eugene C., and Peter L. Benson. "Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence: Moving to the Scientific Mainstream ." Sage Publication 1, no. 1 (November 2005): 1-16. Smart, Ninian. Ninian Smart on World Religions . New York: Ashgate Publishing , 2009. Stuebing, Richard W. "Africa Journal of Evangelical Theology ." Steubing Spiritual Formation in Theological Education 18, no. 1 (2000). Read More