We do not lead with advice, guidance, or correction. Instead, we pay careful attention to the emotional and spiritual location of the person to whom we minister.
All tagged pastoral care
Confident Insecurity: Embracing Vocational Marginality
Frustration and insecurity are difficult vocational experiences. However, invaluable growth can result from embracing insecurity, uncovering paths to deeper ministry and mission.
A Witness of Integrity: Mission and Pastoral Care
As Christians grounded in an integrity that is developed in Christ, there is healing power and witness in bringing that presence to those who are searching, hurting, disenchanted, or wounded from spiritual abuse.
Ministering From Our Broken Places
But if you have brought these experiences to the feet of Jesus and continue to experience his grace, forgiveness, and renewal, then those experiences can be the very things that give our ministry life, breath, and breadth.
How to Be Pastoral in a Rancorous Political Season
In the current election season I have felt a pressing need to address the people of God and urge them to speak and act in a way that represents Jesus.
Moral Injury and the Church: No One Stands Alone
No one should ever have to stand alone in their suffering or their shame. Instead, we need to become a safe harbor for those who are floundering; this is our sacred calling.
Moral Injury and the Power of Forgiveness
I want to delve into moral and spiritual injury, looking at ways that we as Christians, ministers, pastors, counselors, and chaplains can respond when we encounter it.
Thoughts on Elders as Shepherds
Many elders are frustrated because all they do is act as a board of directors. Instead of being in the lives of their flock, they’re spending time in meeting after meeting.
Leadership in Complex Times
What sort of leadership is needed in this time of complexity and uncertainty? I want to explore some implications of Complexity Leadership Theory (CLT) for congregational life.
Thinking About Church Leadership in a Different Way
Many of us talk to churches about how to rethink our approach coming out of the pandemic. This is a chance to do things differently.
Too Many Prophets, Not Enough Pastors
The message of Jesus is prophetic enough as it is. Ministers must obviously retell that message in a faithful manner. That act of proclamation is prophetic enough on its own. Given the difficulty with hearing who Jesus was and was really about, the story doesn’t need much additional help beyond that.
Human Trafficking: A Church Issue?
As Christians, we strive to be more Christlike: to see marginalized people in their pain and vulnerability. To listen to them and their stories. To give them the kind of love that Jesus showed the outcasts.
Reflection Roundup: Topics That Stretch
Christ confesses in his Phil. 2 hymn that every knee that bows brings glory to God the Father.
What Dying People Want – and Need – to Talk About
I spend a lot of time in hospitals, hospice, and living rooms talking with people about dying. I have noticed that often they worry about things of a spiritual nature.
Reflection Roundup: The Many Faces of Empathy
Friday is National Lemonade Day, so buy an extra cup and share it in Jesus’s name, confident that it makes a difference for eternity.
To Those in the Gap
Caregivers are arguably one of the most overlooked segments of the population, which I believe was true even before the challenges of the pandemic.
Reflection Roundup: Stormy Bank or the River?
Can anyone else relate to the image of crossing a river, standing on stones you’ve just thrown into the river from the comfort of the riverbank?
Reflecting On “Heart-Shaped Pickles”
As church leaders, parents, and invested adults, I know we all see this need for supporting children through times of grief. I want to share a little perspective and some resources that I pray you find helpful.
Visiting the Sick
As more things open up, many hospitals are once again allowing visitors. But some Christians are not sure how to visit the sick. They feel a little intimidated.
Be an Open Door
As churches continue returning to spaces of in-person community, what are some ways that we can minister to the multitudes who remain in isolation?