Building Integrity for Mission
This paper was presented to the participants of the 2021 General Conference to reflect on the process of deep change through generative listening in the congregation. It continues the process of Spirituality of the Heart began at the 2021 General Conference. This paper was written by Chris Chaplin msc.
The Harvard Business Review examines The Real Reason People Won’t Change. It’s a psychological dynamic called a “competing commitment” and it explains something known as Immunity to Change.
We have looked briefly at the tension between our Conscious Needs and Unconscious Needs on one hand, and our Human and Theo-Centric Self-Transcending Values on the other. We saw how our perception of reality can be influenced by our needs especially when they have been over-met, under-met, or distorted by hurts or expectations. What does this mean for our Christian living and what implications does the interaction of our needs and values have on our Christian decision-making especially in responding to a perceived religious or ministerial vocation.
RENEWAL and continuing formation are more than synonymous terms. They seem to mean one and the same thing. There are many religious who expect this ‘ongoing formation’ to solve all their present and future problems. They believe that it will ensure perseverance and fidelity, provide a bulwark which will safeguard their own proper identity against the host of changes which threaten to erode it; that it will reveal the secrets of self-education and creativity, and enable them to see what provision should be taken for the future. Read more …
In his article, Leading from Within, Parker Palmer reflects on five ways spiritual leaders tend to cast ‘shadow’ rather than ‘light’ in their ministry of leadership. In this presentation, Gerardine Doherty, fdnsc offers her interpretations on some of the ways these realities are casting ‘shadows’ in today’s church.
Continuing on from Section 7 we now look more closely at how needs can appear to be motivating us in ways that seem to have integrity but in fact are inconsistent with the values of the Gospel. Our self-understanding grows in service fo the Mission of the Heart of Christ the more interior freedom we discover through coming into healthy self-awareness.
This is the sixth section in this series of reflections on self-understanding for the sake of mission. In this section we discuss in more detail the differing dimensions of human needs, in order to gain some understanding of how we, as MSC, are influenced by our own needs.
Religious vocation is a complex reality. As we try to live our vocation with ever deepening integrity we discover that not all our motivations are always what they seem. Even as we believe ourselves to be acting out of the highest religious and spiritual values possible to us when we make our vocational choices, we are not always aware of the ways in which those choices are influenced by social factors that require adherence to certain norms and come with a personal cost. Social psychologists have found people are highly susceptible to social influences as demonstrated by classic experiments in obedience and conformity. Why do people conform?
In Section 3 we looked at each of the motivational forces; Values and Needs. Now we will consider the various values, that mould and shape our whole life of faith as MSC, what Jules Chevalier calls the sentiments of the Heart of Christ. Our starting place is to understand the nature of values and the different kinds of values that influence human behaviour.
Understanding ourselves is an important part of giving our best to the Mission. In the interplay between our felt needs and the values we aspire to live, we discover the extent to which we have interior freedom and the motivation to live the life of the Gospel. As MSC we are called to live the sentiments of the Heart of Jesus. Knowing the boundaries around our needs and how to maintain them in a healthy way is vital to living from the heart of Jesus.