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The Crisis: Provisions for the Pastoral Family |
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Most churches in the Philippines are small (80% below 54 membership) and consequently cannot support their own pastor. Because of this, the typical Filipino pastor struggles in the upkeep of his family. Naturally, he will look after his family despite the church demands. While there are some who have difficulty with priorities, most have decided to be bi-vocational or leave the ministry for good.
The Zambales situation is no different. Churches are even smaller than 54. Because our ministry is in a depressed relocation area, the crisis is even higher. Some have even expressed dismay at the height of opportunism of the pastoral populace.
Our Response: The CBAP 2006 Biennial Conference in GCF-Ortigas served as an eye-opener for CBS-Asia. In that Conference we gathered a huge number of pastors to interact with them concerning training. Although there was tremendous plaudit for ministerial/training being carried out at a regional level, there was an equally tremendous clamor to address the issue of this crisis. One lay leader remarked during the conference about the wretched state of theological ignonance in the pastorate, but equally wretched is the poverty among them, too. This is the reason why part of the curricular program of the Zambales Project is the development of bivocational skills.
The approach is a balanced curriculum addressing the four key programs of the training. These four key programs comprise the uniqueness of the Zambales Project:
- theology/bible
- pastoral/ministerial
- bivocational skills
- community development.
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