The Introduction to Pastoral Care, Leadership, Learning and Global Responsibility course has been instrumental in my knowledge and development in areas I, heretofore didn’t believe relate to pastoral care. I have been challenged to rethink my understanding and previous perceptions of pastoral care and relate it to a global view. We reviewed several definitions of pastoral care The definition we chose to use in class is pastoral care consist of helping acts done by representative Christian persons, directed toward the healing, sustaining, guiding and reconciling of troubled persons, whose trouble arise in the context of ultimate meanings and concerns (Clebsch and Jackle 1967, p.4). Knowledge In the movie Dive! Jeremy Seifert levies a heavy …show more content…
The film, Dr. Burzynski: The Movie, depicts unethical behavior of The US Food and Drug Administration along with large pharmaceutical companies. Their blatant attempts to thwart Dr. Burzynski’s efforts to secure approval of and market a series of drugs that have been shown to cure various types of cancer are heinous. Furthermore, the documentary film, the 11th Hour, written and directed by Leila Conners Petersen and Nadia Conners extends the premise that ethics is not second nature to those in power. The speakers in the film shared a common theme, which is those who are in power demonstrate through their disregard for the planet that human society is separate from nature when in fact we are directly connected to nature. The disharmony described in the film relates to our selfishness, economics and politics. Based upon the information learned from these two films and research, one can become an advocate for fairness in cancer research and work with like minded organizations who are serious about ensuring the sustainability of the earth and its resources. Communication Effective communication ensures the message we are endeavoring to convey reaches the hearer properly and we understand what the sender is trying to convey to us. Stephen R. Covey’s habit 5 of highly effective people is “seek first to understand, then to be understood.” Most misunderstandings relate to ineffective communication. Emmanuel Lartey in his book, In Living Color implores us to consider different cultures when approaching pastor care. We must recognize that cultural differences require diverse strategies and methods of pastoral care.