by Wendy Cadge Meg, an interfaith chaplain, agreed to let me shadow her to learn about her work in a large academic medical center. By 9:00 a.m. on a Friday morning, we were sitting in a conference room filled with dirty…
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Neighbors and Covenant Relationships
Stu was one of the first people to help me see that the patient work of discernment was a big part of what I was called to do. I was right out of seminary at the time. I thought that…
Read MoreWhat Do I Owe You? The Nature of Exchange within Congregations
by Jeff Kunkel Not long ago, I officiated at the funeral of a young man I did not know well. After the funeral, his mother, whom I had never met, asked me, “What do I owe you?” This is the question…
Read MorePastoral Care as Healing Presence
A single parent, Deborah recalls that during her first month as pastor of a United Church of Christ congregation in Western Pennsylvania, she performed nine funerals, four of which related to a boating accident. Already weary from moving across country…
Read MoreCare-Full Listening: Ethnography as a Pastoral Practice
Most pastors are good listeners. They know how to open up a conversation and invite people to share the pain, struggles, and signs of growth in their lives. Many pastors stop there, and fail to help the members of the…
Read More(Weddings that are more than) One Perfect Day: Helping Couples Create Something Inspiring
We all have our wedding stories. We who officiate at weddings have all experienced our share of obsessive brides and grooms, fanatical family members, and theologically challenged wedding coordinators. We have witnessed wedding preparations that can only be described as…
Read MoreThe Sacred Responsibility: Supporting the Pastor We Have Called to Serve Us
Responsibility for congregational health lies with both congregation and pastor, but many congregations fail to recognize the sacred responsibility they have to the pastor called to shepherd them. Evidence of this failure can be seen in the alarming number of…
Read MoreGood-Enough Self-Care
Clergy self-care requires spending enough time to build and maintain transparent, truthful, and loving relationships with God, with those we love, and with ourselves. It is Monday morning, and she is exhausted. She had planned to take the day off,…
Read MoreThe First Five Years: Four Programs Offering Support to New Pastors
The first five years of parish ministry set an entire ministry. The habits, the inclinations, the dispositions, the way of understanding vocation is set in those first five years, and it lasts.1 That core belief—or a similar variation—is at the…
Read MoreClergy Self-Care Strategies for Good Times and Bad
Even as spring fills our senses and renews our spirits, this we know: clergy emergencies happen in all seasons. As I write I picture the faces of clergy that I know are currently in the struggle of their life—family emergencies,…
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