The Church needs to understand itself as a part of the “Beloved Community" which is brought into being by God’s love for humanity. The Church should be a healing community which acknowledges, celebrates and employs the diversity of gifts persons bring into the local church community and the “mestizaje ”* , “multiplicity”* and “marginality ”* which characterize and surround twenty-first century post-modern globalized ministry contexts and all of creation. “Mutuality”* and “pragmatism”* should guide the approach to congregational visioning for mission and the creation and implementation of mission programming. This thesis project offers the experience of a group of lay leaders at a Latino multicultural Disciples of Christ congregation in Hammond, Indiana and of the writer, as one extensively trained in pastoral psychotherapy, which covenanted in the spring of 2007 to become a “theological reflection and pastoral care pilot group” for the purpose of creating a shared theological vision for the congregation which would serve as the foundation for the development of a congregational model for pastoral care which would be intentional, characterized by mutuality and committed to mission involvement as a vehicle for inner healing. The above stated objective was achieved through a process which included learning and reflection upon, human development, personal life/faith journeys, and required focus on the nature and mission of the Church and its capacity to serve as a healing community.
