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Pope Francis in his Exhortation Gaudete et Exsultate (Rejoice and be Glad) 2018 -henceforth GE- creates awareness that the kernel of shepherding the Lord’s flock is to bring about authentic joy and gladness as one addresses socio-economic- religious and cultural factors of all categories of people including urban youth by way of commensurate fundamental approaches that result in paradigms triggering beneficial ministry to changed and changing generations in diverse life situations. Underlying the above is the concretization of Matthean pericope on a specific beatitude (Mt 5:11-12) that has to do with rejoicing and being glad hence the title to the above Pontiff’s policy document. In this 22,064 words shepherding document consisting of 5 chapters and 177numbered paragraphs, the term “hell” is mentioned only once (GE no. 115). A closer look at the context in which the solitary concept, which is utilized so much by the agents of the Gospel especially towards shepherding the youth, happens to be both radical and concretized. To have that word “hell” only once in such a huge pedagogical document is a pointer to the expectation that the mandate of the Church shepherds is not so much to preach condemnation – more so of the urban youth – but to re-examine her identity and models that influence the shepherding role thereby disposing self and others properly in service towards integrated sacrality (GE, no. 177).
By her essence as “community of communities” the Church is thus required to employ more ongoing viable innovative approaches to ministering the youth in their historical concrete existence by identifying more appropriate Church models that incorporate all people and to play the shepherding roles more effectively and indiscriminately. Consequently, the ecclesial shepherds have the role of being servants ministering for the community welfare taking after Christ who established his community as “Body of Christ” by serving selflessly as “Suffering Servant of Yahweh” embracing relevant models as He identified Himself as the Good Shepherd (Jn 10: 10-18). Such an issue provokes the study to find out whether a combination of the “Church community” and “servant Church” models could be part of the answer. That is why the main goal of the paper is to find out whether the merger of Church community and servant models are invaluable in effectively shepherding and transforming the youth at St Peter Claver’s Catholic Parish Nairobi County and other related localities. The guiding theories employed in the endeavor are: Social learning theory, Mediation theory and Redaction Criticism theory.
The paper’s main finding is that intertwining the two significant ecclesial images namely “Church community” and “servant Church” will go a long way in effectively shepherding and transforming the Catholic youth at St Peter Claver’s Catholic Parish Nairobi County and elsewhere.
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In-Text Citation: (Wachege & Langat, 2018)
To Cite this Article: Wachege, P. N., & Langat, J. C. (2018). Ecllessial Community and Servant Models towards Shepherding the Youth more Effectively in St Peter Claver’s Catholic Parish, Nairobi County-Kenya. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 8(12), 1960–1980.
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