Pastoral Care . Oct 20, 2021 . 16 Mins Read . PC - Admin .
Keynote Paper
The theme of this conference is such a much needed one in a time like this when religious institutions are been challenged by growing secularisation and all forms of vices. When pastors who are seen as shepherds have in some quarters turned themselves into ‘wolves in sheep-clothing’. A time when ‘holy crimes’ pervade ‘holy places’, thereby turning sacred and awful places to ‘citadels of iniquities’, ‘dens of robbers in chief security outfits’, ‘theatres of entertainers in cassocks’, and the rest.
We may be wondering, what is the relevance of this theme: “Intentional Positive Nurturing Practices: Panacea for National growth and Sustainable Development” to pastors and all involved in pastoral counselling studies? By way of etymology, the English word ‘nurture’ evolved from the Middle English norture, from Anglo-French nureture, from Late Latin nutritura (act of nursing) from Latin nutritus, past participle of nutrire, and carries the meaning: to nurture, nourish, with the view to promoting growth (Merrian –Webster Dictionary. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nurture). Furthermore, the Cambridge Dictionary defines nurture as: to take care of, feed, and protect someone or something, especially young children or plants, and help him, her, or it to develop (https://dictionary.cambridge.org/
dictionary/english/nurture), thus, emphasizing care-taking as a strong basis for development. Similarly, the Late Latin nutritura, together with the German entwickeln and Spanish cuidado, crianza, ternura, levantamiento, and desarollamiento - also carry the meaning of an ‘act of nourishing or nursing; tender care; education; and training - all geared towards growth and sustainable development of our world (The English Dictionary. http:wiktionary.org).
Thus, in Guidance and Counselling, when we talk of ‘nurturing’, pastors and Christian counsellors in general fit in more perfectly into the position of parents and or caregivers as primary administrators of nurturing practices. We see pastors in and outside the Christian Church as spiritual parents, and often accord them so much respect in this regard even more often than our natural parents, with the understanding that they are occupying the noble seat of spiritual parents as custodians of divine ethical rules of conducts; as people who are heavenly called, professionally prepared and divinely commissioned to ‘feed the flock of Christ’ as little babes with what in Greek text of the New Testament Scripture is called logikon adolon (the sincere undiluted milk (of the word of God) – see I Peter 2 verse 2. (Barbara Aaland, et. al., 1998: 788).
Deplorably, the contrast is what we have in some quarters today. Pastoral Counselling has been grossly abused by some as a means to satisfy their own ends than nurturing church members and Christians in general as spiritual babes unto spiritual, physical, emotional and psychological maturity and balanced growth. As it is a statement of fact that unbalanced diet leads to unbalanced growth, so a number of Christians in some churches today are suffering from unbalanced and stunted growth, due to the dietary fault of their feeders, the care-givers, the spiritual parents, I mean the pastors and other Christian counsellors, some of whom are in contemporary time more concerned with feeding themselves, and satisfying their emotional and psychological thirsts and hungers, than feeding the church members who are entrusted to their care as babes in dire need of effective nurturing for effective growth. This in turn is constituting an hindrance to national growth and sustainable development in our dear country, Nigeria.
For Nigerian national growth and sustainable development, pastors and Christian counsellors in general as spiritual parents and caregivers need to imbibe the culture of intentional positive nurturing practices. A number of problems affecting our national growth and sustainable development in Nigeria as a nation today have their origins in the religious institutions and their leaders as spiritual parents/caregivers of which the Christian Church is one. Fatokun (2015) in his work titled “Insecurity in Holy Places: A Historical Appraisal of the Church and Security Challenges from Nigerian experience” remarks that a number of security challenges in the Nigerian Church today are mostly traceable to atrocities perpetrated by some so-called ‘holy people of God’ who are the custodians of holy places. True and effective nurturing therefore will automatically bring about undistorted effective growth which in turn will foster national growth and sustainable development in the Nigerian nation.
By way of definition, ‘nurturing practices’ is to support, encourage, care and protect the child in childcare. These are the expected positive nurturing practices expected in child caring. When applied to pastoral counselling, nurturing practices refer to the supports, encouragements, tender care and protection that are much expected of pastors and other Christian counsellors as spiritual guardians which in turn will bring about national growth and sustainable development.
Gail Innis (2013) of Michigan State University Extension categorically states that children who are well nurtured learn to treat themselves, others and their environment in a nurturing way. Thus, if pastors and Christian counsellors at large in the Nigerian Church and nation can provide the spiritual children entrusted into their care as spiritual care-givers with good nourishment – supports, protection, encouragements, and tender care, they will in turn grow up well to grow the Nigerian nation unto sustainable development.
As rightly stated by Gail Innis: “Increase the health and wellbeing of children by improving your nurturing skills” (Innis 2013). He identifies four (4) intentional ways that a parent or caregiver can nurture children, which as pastoral counsellors we can use as our template for positive intentional nurturing practices to facilitate national growth and sustainable development in the Nigerian nation. These are:
1. Practice Empathy – That is, observing another’s actions, recognize the related feeling that they are having and then vocalize it in a way that shows that you understand. This, as further explained is ‘seeing with the eyes of another, listening with the ears of another, and feeling with the heart of another’.
By application, for intentional nurturing, pastoral counsellors would do well in their responses to the situations their clients are passing through if they can imagine the situation and put themselves in the same. Pastoral counselling will be more productive and aid personal and even national growth if Christian counsellors can just put themselves in the shoes of their counselees to feel their pulse, then they will be able to give a more practical and productive counselling than a counter-productive often occasioned by lack of empathy.
2. Establish Routines: Here, Innis talks about the significance of provision of regular routines in child caring. In pastoral counselling, like in children caring, your counselees, as spiritual children, need schedules and depend so much on your spiritual insights and foresights to provide structure for them. Providing schedules for them with regular routines guarantees your counselees’ security and reduce their anxieties about what they are passing through presently. It equally equips them with boldness to face future challenges.
3. Use Positive Touch: Innis identifies use of gentle touches as one of the ways of providing intentional nurturing practices in child care. In a similar way, in pastoral counselling, occasional use of positive gentle touches will go a long way in assisting your counselees to develop a healthy sense of self, a self-re-assurance, and re-gaining control of their lives as you point out to them where they have missed it and re-direct their paths, and or assure them of hope in their seemingly hopeless situation. However, at this juncture, pastoral counsellors should exercise caution when dealing with the opposite sex. Be careful of negative touches, or intended positive touches that can be mistaken or degenerate into series of negative touches.
4. Provide Safe Environment: Provision of safety is emphasised by Gail Innis as a very significant intentional nurturing practice in child-care. In pastoral counselling, effective nurturing equally requires provision of a safe environment. As Christian counsellors, the safety of your counselees as your spiritual children should be paramount in your hearts. The life of your counselee is endangered when you are counselling in an unsafe environment, where the environment is not safe, the counselee will not be free enough to release the much needed information to you or give full attention to your counselling.
Exploring the above four intentional positive nurturing practices in child caring within the context of pastoral counselling as a panacea to the problems facing national growth and sustainable development in Nigeria will be the focus of scholars in Pastoral Counselling and different cognate fields as we are gathered for this great conference. This theme is a very significant one in academic discourse in such a time like this when our nation Nigeria, in spite of her celebration of 60th Independence Anniversary, is still suffering from socio-political and developmental ‘teething problem’, and is seriously is need of a ‘made in Nigeria academia pastoral counselling teething powder’, which I strongly believe the academics from different parts of the country gathered together for this conference will provide before the close of this week through their inter-disciplinary paper presentations at this conference.
The conference organisers have done a very good job by painstakingly breaking our theme into very strong, viable and thought-provoking sub-themes. These include: Mentoring and Sustainable Development, Religious Leadership and Sustainable Development, Youth Care and Sustainable Development, Care of the Aged within the Context of Sustainable Development, Religious Governance and Sustainable Development, Religious Tolerance and Sustainable Development, Biblical Economics and Sustainable Development, and a host of other relevant areas.
It is a fact that mentors set the phase for the mentees either positively or negatively. A number of negative traits that characterise our national leaders today were imbibed from their mentors. ‘Show me your friend, and I will tell you who you are, is a popular adage in English; but in mentorship, the impact is more than that of friendship. Mentors are role models for those who follow them. If a mentor is corrupt, expect the mentees to be absolutely corrupt. If a mentor embezzled a million dollars, his mentees’ embezzlement charges will roll into trillions of dollars, due to the multiplication effects of negative traits on mentees and the power of mentorship. Unfortunately, a number of political mentees in Nigerian political history, as revealed in many shocking revelations in our national dailies and magazines, are criminals breeding hardened criminals as political office holders. Lucado (Lucado, 1998:5) observes that the heart of Jesus was pure. The Saviour was adored by thousands, yet content to live a simple life. If our mentors can but just have the heart like that of Jesus, definitely Nigeria and Nigerians will enjoy the dividends of democracy and without much trouble, our sustainable development goals will be things easily come by.
Eldred Echols (Echols 1994: 23) remarks that imposed leadership that does not take into account the will of the people sows the seed of rebellion, not harmony. This is true of leadership in our nation today. Bad leadership is a fundamental challenge to national growth and sustainable development in Nigeria. Ayantayo (2017:24) identifies a list of negative traits which are badly affecting Nigeria’s national growth and sustainable development. These include, carelessness, self-centredness, selfishness, indifference, and covetousness. However, leadership re-birth through nurture practices will undoubtedly overhaul our political sector and will in turn promote good governance.
The place of inculcation and development of moral values in national development and sustainable development cannot be over-emphasised. W.A. O. Egbetakin (2010) in his PhD thesis titled, “Iwa as a Cardinal Virtue of Being in Yoruba Religious Philosophy”, using the Yoruba cultural society as a good example, notes that the nature of Yoruba moral system and altruistic philosophy of live-and-let-live and respect for elders and traditions had in the past helped to achieve outstanding progress based on the cultivation and assimilation of iwa (character) as a fundamental virtue of human life. That the survival of the people is traceable to the concept of Omoluabi (a person of good behaviour), which is woven into the entire fabric of the culture. Unfortunately today, Iwa is lost in Nigerian society; and one of the primary ways of restoring it is through the inculcation of intentional positive nurturing practices. A revival of ethical practices will lead to national-rebirth in all sectors of the country. This in turn will aid national growth and sustainable development.
A major challenge to our national growth and sustainable development which equally calls for scholarly consideration in this conference is the problem of security instability. General (Rtd.) Olusegun Obasanjo in his paper (2019:57) identifies one of the fundamental causes of the horrendous situation in Nigeria as defective and ruinous leadership. He observes that “definitely, political recklessness, mismanagement of public funds, insincerity and moral insanity of the political class have in most places complicated the already bad political situation”. Security instability in Nigeria, as noted by Ayuba Isyaku (2013: 19), came to an increase since the inception of democracy. In his words: Nigeria, which has the largest population in Africa, with its oil wealth, is blessed with human and natural resources, aimed at lifting the country into the rank of developed countries but has been faced with incessant security challenges. This can be largely attributed to our faulty nurturing process even in our national security units as can be seen in the current nation-wide ‘End SARS Protest’. Enforcement of positive nurturing practices in our multi-faceted national security units like the Nigerian Army (NA), Nigeria Police Force (NPA), Nigeria Civil Defence Corps, and State Security Services (SSS), and the likes, will aid national growth. Political instability is a major threat to sustainable development and national growth of any country. No foreign investor would love to invest in a country that is besieged by security threats. Security issues in Nigeria can be better addressed through intentional positive nurturing practices.
It is a fact well established that nurturing is a life-long exercise which begins from conception and continues throughout life till physical death. As opined by Innis (Gail Innis, 2013), all human beings need to be nurtured and nurturing needs to begin before birth and continue throughout life. But looking at the Nigerian situation, ironically, some in our Christians churches today are physically alive but are dead spiritually, emotionally, psychologically and socially due to the problem of malnutrition in the hands of pastors and Christian counsellors whom they entrusted themselves unto as spiritual parents and caregivers. To leave pastoral counselling unstructured through a means of a conference like this is to encourage the continuous scourge of ‘spiritual kwashiorkor’ that is plaguing a number of people in the Christian Church today who have suffered a great deal from careless and selfish semi-tutored Christian counsellors.
In conclusion, poor mentoring breeds poor leadership. And poor religious leadership is antithetical to national growth and sustainable development. In what areas have poor mentoring and poor religious leadership contributed to the stunted growth and development of our nation Nigeria over these sixty years of her existence? When we talk of youth care and sustainable development, in what ways have our past and current political leaders prepared Nigerian youths for national growth and sustainable development in our dear country? Is our nation at all concerned with breeding our youths for national development or national disaster? Are there good lessons to learn from religious governance through our religious leaders that can endear sustainable development? With the present high rate of proliferation of churches in Nigeria, is crime rate in the country increasing or decreasing? Is the Nigerian Church situation not that of ‘many churches, many crimes? Why is the impact of the Church in Nigeria not so much felt in the rise against the alarming rate of crimes in our country? In what ways can application of intentional positive nurturing practices aid in solving the problems associated with Nigerian national growth and sustainable development? These and other pertinent questions call for scholarly interrogation as we proceed in this conference.
In all, apart from interrogating the nature and causes of the multi-various problems confronting our nation as a result of poor mentoring and bad leadership, I would love our paper presenters at this conference to equally come up with possible solutions to Nigerian ‘teething problem at 60’ so that we can all as pastoral counsellors advance the much needed national growth and sustainable development in our nation Nigeria. I wish all conference participants, lead paper presenters, and parallel sessions’ presenters a much rewarding and memorable conference.
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