Who cares for the shepherds? | Ministry self-care during COVID-19
| | | | | How do we care for congregational leaders? |
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Who cares for the shepherds? âWhile pastors have the responsibility of leading churches during these tumultuous times, they are still whole people with their own anxiety about COVID-19, maybe their own financial issues, their own angst about the state of the world." - Jessica Young Brown |
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| The last six months have taken quite the toll on congregational leaders. If we haven't already, now is the time that we develop strategies to support them as the COVID-19 crisis persists. |
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Personal rituals can help sustain clergy, even during a pandemic |
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| A leading researcher on well-being at work describes how adaptable, restorative practices can help during times like these. As Matt Bloom writes, "Simple practices that require small amounts of time really do create benefits, as long as we make them rituals, activities that we engage in regularly." |
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Resources to respond to the coronavirus.
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How poetry can help kids -- and all of us -- practice lament |
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| The writer Amy Peterson looks to the example of the book of Lamentations as a way to find words for our feelings. The poetry in that book can also offer a form to contain that which so often feels uncontainable and uncontrollable. |
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When it's hard to find our own words |
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| Much of the vocation of congregational leadership is about finding the right words for the right moment, and yet, there are times when it's hard to know what to say. Carolina Hinojosa-Cisneros offers us the words of poets to express what we're feeling. |
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A Guide to Ministry Self-Care: Negotiating Today's Challenges with Resilience and Grace
By Richard P. Olson; Ruth Lofgren Rosell; Nathan S. Marsh and Angela Barker Jackson |
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| Ministry has never been an easy path, and the challenges of todayâs changing church landscape only heighten the stress and burn-out of congregational leaders. A Guide to Ministry Self-Care offers a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of both the causes of stress and strategies for effective self-care. Written for both new and long-time ministers, the book draws on current research and offers practical and spiritual insights into building and maintaining personal health and sustaining ministry long term. The book addresses a wide range of life situations and explores many forms of self-care, from physical and financial to relational and spiritual. |
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I finished seminary before there was a significant emphasis on clergy self-care. My classmates and I knew that we needed to do something different than our mentors in ministry had done, but we didn't have an imagination for what that "different" could be. Now, in many religious traditions and congregations, there are robust conversations about how clergy and other congregational leaders can care for themselves in the midst of the pressures of ministry. The challenges of 2020 have only made those conversations more important.Â
So, please take care of yourself, and until next week, peace! |
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Managing Director, Alban at Duke Divinity |
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| | | | alban.org // alban@duke.edu |
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