empowerment, growth and healing possibilities. Fortological empowerment is crucial for missional pastoral ministry, especially in recurring and persisting pathological socio-economic contexts (cf. Louw 2008:31). MISSIONAL PASTORAL MINISTRY IN BLACK COMMUNITIESMissional theology is instrumental in attending to environmental, socio-economic and political challenges (Ballard & Pritchard 1996:3, 23). Missional pastoral methodology bridges the gap between a pastor-client approach and liberation pastoral ministry (Johnson 2004:480). Contemporary pastoral ministry is embedded in an individualised pastoral focus within a 'crisis' maintenance paradigm that can only be addressed through the continuing conversion of pastoral theology (cf. Guder 2000:150). Missional pastoral ministry is shaped by its role in God's mission. The transformation and healing of a broken world is the objective - restoring it to God's ultimate vision for the world (cf. Barret et al. 2004:x). The missional13 pastoral vocation and ethos of the church should embody everything the church is and does. Pastoral theologians should review their ecclesiological presuppositions (Bosch 2005:370). Research indicates that some of the poor Black and White church communities in Southern Africa seem to be more 'missional' than some of their more affluent 'White' counterparts (Van der Walt 2007). Our recent liberation struggle for democracy schooled Black churches in being missional (Institute for Justice and Reconciliation 2004). Missional churches present a critical approach towards their surrounding contexts. It engages actively with faith and existential issues through reciprocal partnerships within the praxis of the Trinity (Marais & Taylor Ellison 2008).14Partnerships for missional pastoral ministry in Black communities refer to a systems approach in which congregations cluster together in their missional vocation (Wepener 2003:8). The following two distinctive models are self-explanatory: Sister Simonne Coene of the International Catholic Mission's Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) led supervisory training in Manila's Makati Medical Center in the Philippines. This hospital is a good example of the church's ability to create partnerships for missional pastoral ministry in pathological contexts (Coene 1983). CPE is a relevant clinical missional pastoral ministry in focusing on the existential crisis of the poor: ... the poor are ultimately the privileged community and agents of salvation[ministers?!] ... the Church does not merely work for the poor in the manner of a beneficent institution but more so with [CPE!] the poor, sharing their life and their aspiration, knowing their despair and their hope, walking with them in their search for authentic humanity in Christ Jesus ...'(Coene 1983:91-92)The core methodology of CPE is learning from the 'human document of persons in crisis'. Coene works in a squatter or informal settlement. She observes that crisis 'is economic - poverty and its gruesome consequences: hunger, sickness, landless, homeless. [T]he poor are trapped in a vicious circle, grappling with moral, social, physical crises ...' (Coene 1983:92). The impact and levels of economic crisis should not be underestimated in relation to communities, families and social systems. Wimberley (1979) offers practical pastoral engagement with the 'human document of persons in crisis'.15 Communal16 pastoral ministry generates the total caring resources (worship, church administration, preaching and teaching) as the 'dominant concern' of the church in caring for persons and families in crisis: 'Pastoral care exists when