Metamorphosis: experiences of a spiritual ecosystem designed for the religious needs of students in Argentina

Abstract

Metamorphosis is a youthful proposal of divergent spiritual growth and development, that points to innovation, disruption and religious entrepreneurship. This proposal arises up as a result of a strategy of the Chaplaincy of the Instituto Superior Adventista de Misiones (ISAM), in the state of Misiones in Argentina, for creating the most contemporary, the most progressive and the boldest spiritual environment within the institution. For that end, there were applied some basic research exercises for the analysis of the context and the spiritual situation in the institution; these exercises allowed to diagnose the level of success of what had been done till that moment related to School Religious Education (hereinafter SRE), and make various projections on what shall be the impact of a new religious project focused on students’ needs, specifically their talents (the most valuable asset in SRE), as wells as the investment required of other people like: teachers, administrators, parents and neighbors.
It was from that exploratory and reinvention work that Metamorphosis arose up. A versatile spiritual ecosystem, defiant and intentional which propitiates better experiences of life for an organic spiritual development and sustainable of young people. Through an aggressive campaign of promotion of diverse options of participation, young people were helped to find out their own space, a personal one, and in accordance to their likes, as to belonging to a new movement of real connection to God, a place that included them, so that from their birth talents, their character strengths, and all of their potential, they became the changers of the religious leadership, one that invited them to set themselves apart as the leaders of a new generation of young people: young people with a profound knowledge about Jesus, young people shaped in principles and values according to Jesus´s life, and young people transformed into the image of Jesus.

It was from that exploratory and reinvention work that Metamorphosis arose up. A versatile spiritual ecosystem, defiant and intentional which propitiates better experiences of life for an organic spiritual development and sustainable of young people. Through an aggressive campaign of promotion of diverse options of participation, young people were helped to find out their own space, a personal one, and in accordance to their likes, as to belonging to a new movement of real connection to God, a place that included them, so that from their birth talents, their character strengths, and all of their potential, they became the changers of the religious leadership, one that invited them to set themselves apart as the leaders of a new generation of young people: young people with a profound knowledge about Jesus, young people shaped in principles and values according to Jesus´s life, and young people transformed into the image of Jesus.