Spiritual Wholeness For Clergy

The authors combine clinical psychology and spiritual direction to create a practical model of spirituality that integrates theology, psychology, and an understanding of individual frailties in a new way. Spiritual Wholeness draws on counseling experience with more than 400 clergy and pinpoints the human problems, traps, and temptations awaiting those who choose the clergy role. Clergy will learn to develop and maintain a psychologically healthy spirituality in relationships with others. Judicatory executives and therapists working with clergy will gain insight into addiction problems and how to help clergy move toward greater emotional and spiritual health.

Counseling for Spiritually Empowered Wholeness is an introduction to Wholeness Counseling (also called Growth Counseling), a whole-person approach to pastoral counseling, psychotherapy, and education as developed by Howard Clinebell. He begins the book by emphasizing how the role of healthy spirituality and reality-based hope is crucial to facilitate healing and growth in all dimensions of life. He encourages readers to apply the principles and methods in the book to their own growth and to develop their own growth-centered approaches--approaches that reflect their particular styles and personalities--to counseling, therapy, and education. This newly revised edition of Growth Counseling makes readily available an understanding of the Wholeness Counseling approach and its methods for both pastoral and secular counselors and professional and nonprofessional readers. Dr. Clinebell has a psychological understanding of the universal human need for healthy spirituality and, as he writes from this perspective, he opens doors for readers to distinguish healthy from unhealthy religion and provides them with methods to enhance their own spiritual health. Readers who desire to explore the Wholeness Counseling approach will find that Counseling for Spiritually Empowered Wholeness guides them through: insights and methods they can use to accelerate their personal and professional growth in each of the seven dimensions of life the roots in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures of this approach which helps readers grow and be healed the importance of playfulness to balance work in a healthy lifestyle The primary target audience is theological seminary teachers and students, clergy in all denominations, members of congregations who work in the healing and helping professions, and laypersons interested in learning ways to enhance their own wholeness or being trained to serve on lay pastoral care teams. Others who will benefit from Counseling for Spiritually Empowered Wholeness include those in the counseling, healing, and teaching professions who wish to know more about a growth-oriented approach which includes a robust emphasis on the role of healthy spirituality for total well being.

Like Aaron and Hur who lifted the arms of Moses during battle (Exodus 17), this book highlights the critical work of clergy care providers in America. These individuals and organizations support clergy by providing counseling, coaching, spiritual direction, funding, hospitality, education, and benefits upon which clergy rely. Their ministry strengthens congregations and has the capability to produce an exponential return for the kingdom of God. Yet, these providers are often disconnected. Our groundbreaking national research reveals gaps in the training, qualifications, and formational experiences of clergy care providers. We note differences in language that hinder effective communication as well as significant disparities in the literature that informs clergy care. Addressing these disconnects has the potential to improve the lives of clergy and the congregations and communities clergy serve. Whether you are a clergy care provider, a clergyperson, or a lay leader, we invite you to respond. Working together, we envision a connected network of providers offering more effective support for clergy and improving the congregations and communities they serve.

Tending to the Holy: The Practice of the Presence of God in Ministry invites pastors to embody their deepest beliefs in the routine and surprising tasks of ministry. Inspired by Brother Lawrence's classic text in spirituality, Tending to the Holy integrates the wisdom and practices of the Christian spiritual tradition with the commonplace practices of pastoral ministry. Bruce and Katherine Epperly utilize a variety of spiritual disciplines especially Benedictine, Celtic, Ignatian, Rhineland, and process spiritualities to provide a framework for helping clergy nurture the awareness of God, creative imagination, and personal well-being in every aspect of their ministerial lives. Practicing God's presence in the ordinary tasks of ministry inspires wholeness, spiritual transformation, vision, imagination, endurance, and healthy self-differentiation in ministry. Commitment to joining spiritual practices with the routine and repetitive tasks of ministry provides an important antidote to unhealthy stress, burnout, and loss of vision in ministry. By seeing their congregational leadership in terms of spiritual transformation, imaginative practice, and relational interdependence, ordinary ministerial practices can become ways pastors can deepen their relationship with God. Growing out of their work with pastors at every season of ministry, as well as combined ministerial experience of nearly sixty years, Bruce and Katherine Epperly invite pastoral leaders to complement and expand on their understanding of spiritual leadership, pastoral excellence, and self-care, integrating traditional and contemporary spiritual practices with the concrete arts of ministry.

What factors contribute to active Christians in ministry leaving their church and becoming exiting statistics? Every year dedicated Christian people leave churches because of spiritual abuse. The stories of people who left their home church because of a negative and hurtful experience paint a picture of a widespread occurrence which beckons consideration by church leaders and church congregants alike. Spiritual abuse, the misuse of spiritual authority to maltreat followers in the Christian Church, is a complex issue. This book shows how people processed their grief after experiencing spiritual abuse in their local church and how they rediscovered spiritual harmony. Their spiritual journey shows how one may grow through this devastating experience. This book offers a thoughtful look at the topic of spiritual recovery from clergy abuse through the eyes of those who have experienced it. It invites church leaders to consider this very real dysfunction in the Church today and aims to demonstrate a path forward to greater freedom in Christ after a season of disillusionment with church leadership.

Drawing on forty years' experience in this ministry, the author shows how prayer helps people to emerge from their past hurts and limitations, and gradually reclaim their real selves under the awesome power of God's love. Powerful testimonies underline his call for the Church to empower clergy and laity to meet the needs of people suffering in a wide range of stressful life situations. The stories of some of the hundreds who have come to his home seeking help indicate how effectively people's needs can be met through ordinary people in parishes, and offer a model for development. People are seeking prayer for inner healing, some travelling long distances. More will come forward as The New Evangelisation gathers pace, especially those who have moved away from the Church, and those practising their faith but who are not sufficiently evangelised. This book shows from Church documents that prayer for inner healing which leads towards greater holiness is an essential part of evangelisation, yet this ministry is only rarely available and receives scant, if any, attention in seminaries. Some readers will wish to consider their own lives in the light of the insights and testimonies shared, and seek healing for themselves. Others will realise that they themselves have the capacity and calling to become involved in the ministry of healing. Those in a position to institute change at a higher level within the Church will find suggestions as to how the structures of the Church can respond to the needs of all its people. Priests and religious need prayer for inner healing as well as lay people. Part healing handbook, part honest autobiography, part powerful witness and teaching, this book is wholly focused on spirituality, the chances we have to gain freedom through Christ, and on how the Church can and should help.