What are Pastoral Leaders?

Question:

Write an essay on Pastoral leaders.

Pastoral leaders are individuals who are knowledgeable in theology and religious doctrine.  They are vested with the responsibility of leading individuals to the path of faith.  Spiritual thoughts remove evil thoughts from the minds of people and help bring in a sense of peace, happiness and positivism. Pastoral leaders organize marriages, religious program and even preside over funerals. This essay focuses on discussing the responsibility of Pastoral Leaders in catering to the spiritual needs of the common layman.

Keywords: Pastoral leaders, Spirituality, Baptism, Theological thoughts, reducing stress

Pastoral leaders are individuals who show the world the path of spirituality. The word pastor has been derived from the Latin word “pastor” means shepherds. Pastoral leaders are mainly the spiritual leaders and practioners of Christian Theology. This essay provides an in-depth discussion about the responsibilities and the duties of the leaders. Along with these, the researcher has also discussed the importance of spiritual activity and its effect in the 21^st century.

Pastoral care is the ancient model which helps to find out the emotional and traditional form within a culture or tradition. Pastoral leaders are mainly followers of Christian theology.  The pastoral leaders are invested with instilling a sense of calmness among the people. They help to cure the problem of souls with the help of spirituality. Priests and bishops of the churches are mainly looked upon as pastoral leaders. The main function of a pastoral leader is to preach messages at churches and to provide enlightening sermons. Pastoral leaders are also involved in different activities like marriages, funerals and different type of other religious activities.

 Pastoral leaders are responsible for teaching human beings about the need of the spiritual thoughts and behavior. The main preaching lesson of the leaders is to spread the necessity and importance of worship. They help in strengthening the faith of the individual.  Pastorals mainly prepare the regular worship models which include sermons and messages. Sermons mainly include long hours of reading spiritual books. Confessions are also another important function of the pastoral leaders and they help in maintaining a spiritual balance within individuals. Pastoral leaders also suggest penance to the individuals so that they can show a sense of remorse for their sins and sin no more in future. Pastoral leaders are also an important member of the council. They give support to the members of the church by giving them new ideas and show them different paths.

Pastoral leaders often offer advice to the council of the church when they face challenges due to changes in rules and regulations of the churches. The leaders also solve the problem among the couples before their marriage and give them advice regarding nuptial bliss.  Pastorals also have the qualities like kindness, passion, and empathy. Pastorals leaders follow the biblical principles. Biblical principles are based on the teachings of Jesus Christ.  The principle guides individuals regarding their activities in life and the path they should follow to lead a Christian life.  The principle always remains focused on helping others and preaches kindness to all.  Individual should prohibit themselves from consuming bacon and are asked not to hurt other individuals. It also guides an individual to offer prayers to God and enlighten themselves with spiritual thoughts. Baptism is a sacrament performed by the pastoral leaders. Baptism is a ritual which is practiced by the Christians. With the help of holy water, the evil thoughts are being removed from an individual.

Importance of spiritual thoughts and activity

Pastorals leaders are highly knowledgeable and have gathered all the religious speeches which have been discussed in the Bible. They communicate with God through knowledge and spiritual thoughts. It has been believed that pastoral leaders are to be regarded as the messengers of God who have come with the mission to removes the problems of every individual with the help of spirituals speeches and practices. Theological understanding of the pastoral leaders helps them to teach and spread spiritual needs among the individuals. Worship knowledge and scripture knowledge of the leaders has made them an icon in Christianity.

Meeting the spiritual needs of the individuals is also a challenge for the pastoral leaders. Spiritual leaders engage themselves in increasing the faith of Jesus in human beings. This is a serious challenge for the spiritual leaders. Pastoral leaders organize holy meets to spread the importance of spirituality. They give spiritual speeches to the people along with its detailed analysis. This helps people to understand the importance of the spiritual activities. Spiritual leaders also organize different surveys in Australia so as to gather awareness about the spiritual need of the people and act accordingly. The surveys will help the spiritual leaders gather knowledge about how to present their thoughts to the people. Even technology has been used by the pastoral leaders to share their spiritual thoughts. In order to reach out to a larger group of the audience, Spiritual leaders have shared their thoughts with the help of media and technology.  Along with technology television, too has helped the leaders to share their thoughts. Pastoral leaders also share that love is life. People should love others and should not hate each other. Love is the best way to spread peace and happiness. Pastoral leaders also do not encourage fear. They identify fear as a “poison” for the human beings. Racism is the manifestation for fear and violence.

Pastoral leaders also say that God lies within every individual and so people should not hate each other. Kindness will help an individual to remove the evil among them and this will lead to a better world. People should avoid crime and maintain peace. Individuals cannot change their past so they should not think about the past. Instead they should think about the present which will help them to lead a better future.

Pastoral leaders fill the mind of the people with spiritual thoughts. They give information about the qualities which a human being should adopt in acquiring a holistic life style. They help in arousing spiritual thoughts n the mind of the people. Christian disciples always follow the rules and regulations which are given by the pastoral leaders. They practice religious education and helps in creating a Diocesan ministry. They also ask human beings to come and follow the spiritual thoughts of the God.

Pastor’s time is valuable in terms of quantity, flexibility, and expertise. Pastors are the head of the ministries a decade ago and have been burdened with a number of responsibilities. Pastors have a hectic work schedule, and this affects the performance of the pastors highly. The skill level of all the pastors differs from individual to individual.  However, the pastors are knowledgeable with all the important issues which are required to bring in a sense of spirituality.    Pastoral leaders spend a lot of time in spreading information about the importance of faith across the world. Pastoral leaders also discuss about the strength of an individual. They also encourage individuals to make their life with the help of hard work and different activities. Skills and talents of an individual are also enhanced with counseling provided by the pastoral leaders. This will help the individuals to reach their goal in an effective way. Pastoral leaders are of the view that it the thought of an individual which determines his actions. . Therefore, the leaders ask individuals to spend time in the thoughts of Jesus. This will reduce tension of the individuals and they will be able to lead a happy life. All these shows that the pastoral leaders are always engaged in making the life of human beings better and happy with the help of spiritual thoughts.

Conclusion

Pastoral leaders are qualified individual having  knowledge of spirituality. Pastoral leaders protect the church from different challenges and gives easy solutions. The leaders are active throughout the year and organize different rites and rituals. They also practice baptism to bring in the life of Jesus among individuals.  However the work lives of the leaders is hectic, and this affects their performance.

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