Theological (Christian) Formation
This is a personal statement in relation to how Theological (Christian) formation and human development have influenced my leadership skills as a Christian. Estep have documented many developmental factors contributed by Christian theology which include Intellectual Development, Personality Development, Moral Development, Faith Development, Adult Development, Spiritual Development, and Cultural Development. However, for the purpose of this assignment I will evaluate on how Moral Development and Spiritual Development have positively affected my Christian leadership.My spiritual life as a whole is guided by certain principles and code of conducts that govern the way I associate with other people as well as with my environment. In the society today, most people seem to realize who they truly are and their main purpose in life. Discovering the inner self of an individual and knowing one’s purpose in life helps one adopt way in which to achieve his/her purpose in life.
However, there are various external factors that may directly or indirectly affect the way an individual behaves or conducts him/her. In this regard, it is wise to implement some spiritual assessment and analysis that defines who a person truly is. Despite how simple that question may appear, the fact is a large percentage of people do not know who they really are hence conduct themselves in an undirected manner. In most cases, both Christians a non Christians are often faced with situations that may sometime call for a considerable amount of moral evaluation and assessment. In this regards, all Christians must be in a position to distinguish between rights and wrong hence arrive at the best possible decision.
My motivation to live a morally upright life comes as a result of knowing that my actions affect the people that I interact with hence the need for proper judgment. In religious concept, Jesus spoke more about the temporal versus the eternal than any other topic. This however is one of the most ignored concepts in the modern world. People do not seem to distinguish just how the decisions they make affect their lives as well as the lives of the people they love. Leaders are meant to be disciplined.
Level of discipline differs and it is not easy to be consistent in whatever they do unless they have a spiritual divine intervention. Throughout the theological training I was able to grow spiritually over the years as the spiritual growth is not instantaneous and one faces many challenges, but once he is able to overcome it he gradually precedes to another level of spirituality. As a disciplined Christian leader I am able to becontrolled when pursuing goals to be met by those whom I lead. Being disciplined makes leaders focus on their goals and they are not distracted despite of the situations which may occur. Spiritual leadership enables one to sense whenever situation gets complicated and he feels like abandoning set goals and objectives. Apart from selection of a leader by people, Christians also do believe that leaders are appointed by God.
In reference to that, God does judge people depending on their spirituality and how they follow his teachings. Therefore, I do believe that thanks to being spiritual I was the one to be appointed a Christian leader by God. Such a leader is bestowed with responsibilities of leading the others spiritually and unless he is strong in his spirit, he will not have skills to lead and nurture others to grow spiritually.Paradigm Spirituality is considered to be one of the guiding principles in Christian life. The term is used to define an implicit or explicit set of rules that molds a person’s perspectives, affects the way he sees and shapes his view of the world In a Christian life, all Christian must come to a point where they have to make a decision between what is and what seems to be, the eternal and the temporal.
It is a common belief that everybody wants to have the things that God says are lasting treasure. However the challenge comes when people have to balance these lasting treasures with earthly substances such as money. Like it is s stated in the bible, money is a temporal and not an eternal substance. In order to align our mind as per according to the teachings of God, we must shift the cultural way of seeing life to a biblical way of seeing life. The reason why most people are tempted to vie life in a cultural perspective is going by the fact that cultural views are very ambient and so constant and seem to contain some sort of invitation to see things from this present darkness, rather than from God’s perspectiveRelation spirituality is also one of the main guiding principles in a Christian’s life.
This principle personally influences me in such a manner that I am able to realize that my true identity always transcends yet includes relationships. This crates a self analysis with respect to personal relationships and the application of God’s commandments such as the one on loving thy neighbor. Self inquiry is one way of trying to relate with the inner self and rediscovering who a person is really is. This also helps us discover the people we live without withstanding human awareness which is our intrinsic Truth, the Reality from which we are always operating, feeling, perceiving, and thinkingIn modern world, staunch Christians who aggressively pursue the growth of their faith often struggle with maintaining the proper balance between discipline and dependence. According to the teachings of the bible, the extreme side of discipline is to overemphasize the role of what we do and to minimize what is done for us in and through Christthis perception is based on the moral standing of an individual as well as the ability to conduct oneself in a noble manner. Over the years, I have acquired exchanged life spirituality that has greatly helped me in building my character.
As a child, I would have considered my character to be blank but this old character has been transformed to take on God’s character requirements. This is seen as to what Paul refers to as having a similar attitude with God (Phil. 2:5) This implies that the more we abide by Christ and his teachings, the more we develop in character that is similar to how wishes.My life can therefore be summarized in the context of devotion. Devotion is the living in the presence of the lord.
Different religious groups devote their lives to the lord in different manners and methods. The Catholics have the rosary, the Hindus receive and gather blessings in the temple, Muslims make pilgrimage and Jews wrap themselves in prayer shawls. This is a clear indication that devotion to the lord is the main basis behind living in Christ. Spiritual development has been viewed by theologians as such kind of development which takes place in stages. Throughout my leadership I have been able to develop spiritually which actually allowed me to go through all the stages over time. However, I cannot claim to be perfect since spiritual growth takes place continually as someone overcomes new challenges posed by it.
Spiritual growth deals with the aspect of achieving holiness and perfection; this is the most controversial issue I have experienced in my spiritual development.
