The impact of family instability on the effective evangelization of Christians in Rubindi Parish- Mbarara Archdiocese

Abstract

The researcher made a study about the Impact of Family Instability on Effective Evangelization of Christians with special consideration to Rubindi Parish as a case study. The researcher investigated the understanding of an ideal family, its roles in evangelization, the existing forms of family instability, their causes, their effects on evangelization and the corresponding solutions to the outlined challenges. Given the nature of the evangelizing mission of the Church in Rubindi Parish, a stable and ideal family plays a central role towards the success of this mission. Since the family is by nature a domestic Church and the basic cell of the society, preserving its stability is everyone’s responsibility for the good of the church and society. The researcher made a plan of study in which he designed the most appropriate strategies. He used both qualitative and quantitative methodological approaches of data collection with emphasis on a descriptive cross=sectional design. He focused on the research objectives while extracting answers from different respondents using questionnaires, interviews, observation, group discussions, audio recorders and telephone interviews as tools to collect primary data. In addition, the researcher studied documents, records, diaries and visited the internet to obtain secondary data. For all the data obtained, the researcher ensured high ethical and professional treatment. Indeed the study showed that the respondents understood the concept of an ideal and stable family and the corresponding role it plays in the evangelizing mission of the church, Rubindi Parish in particular. It was also revealed that the family is currently facing different forms of instability resulting from both external and internal factors. These have resulted into inefficiency and ineffectiveness in evangelization. Nevertheless, appropriate remedies were suggested to ensure stability in families henceforth bringing about effectiveness in evangelization. The study further made conclusions regarding the entire study basing on the facts and data obtained from the field. The conclusions are based on the fact that the success of the evangelizing mission of the church is hinged on the stability of the family because of its very nature as the domestic church and foundation of the society. The existence of different forms of family instability in Rubindi Parish which have contributed to the ineffectiveness of evangelization and their possible solutions was also synthesized. The researcher at the end of the study made recommendations to help achieve effective evangelization and stability in the Christian families not only in Rubindi Parish but also in all other areas facing similar challenges. These were given to pastoral agents in particular the priests and catechists, then to the pastoral councils, Christian communities, government leaders, NGOs and finally to all citizen regardless of the religious beliefs they profess.