Kategoria BISAC: Religion >> Christian Ministry - Counseling & Recovery

In groundbreaking fashion, physician and lay minister Pat Fosarelli provides this quick reference and how-to manual for pastors and church groups charged with the care of families facing difficult situations. Each chapter in this one-of-a-kind resource opens with a vignette illustrating a complex and prevalent problem facing families today and continues with a presentation of facts and figures about the problem and an outline of the physical, emotional, and spiritual challenges that are posed for family members. Immediate, suitable responses to these problems are proposed for pastors,...

This book offers an excellent introduction to the mystery of God's call into ministry. Anyone who is struggling with a call, who doubts the call they have recieved, or are considering ministry as a vocation will benefit and be inspired by James Chatham's Is It I, Lord?.

What do you do when a parishioner tells you that his or her marriage is in trouble? What should you say? What resources can you turn to? In this helpful book for clergy, Charles Rassieur provides some clear and practical answers. Pastors will find in this book a plan for short-term counseling with married couples that gives the pastor a quick plan to put in place at the first signs of marital trouble. Because the plan for short-term counseling is simple, straightforward, and focused, it allows both the pastor and the married couple to concentrate on the problems with confidence. Rassieur...

An expert in the field of pastoral care, John Patton demonstrates that pastoral care is a ministry of the church. He focuses on the community of faith as an authorizer and source of care and upon the relationship between the pastor and a caring community. Patton identifies and compares three paradigms of pastoral care: the classical, the clinical pastoral, and the communal contextual. This third paradigm emphasizes the caring community and the various contexts for care rather than focusing on pastoral care as the work of the ordained pastor.

As Howard Clinebell states in his forward, the problem of battered women is a "tragedy that has reached epic proportions in our society." Recognizing that it is pastors to whom abused women will often turn for help, and that their advice can be counterproductive, Rita-Lou Clark directs this important book to them. She provides a thorough and clear discussion of the problem and gives practical guidance for care, considering such topics as the crisis situation, couple counseling, and help for the abusers.

Wayne Oates, one of America's leading pastoral counselors, draws on psychological insights to describe in everyday language several common personality disorders that make human interaction so difficult. He examines the reasons why individuals develop as they do and illuminates how personality disorders can result in destructive relgious behavior. Proposing pastoral care approaches that combine understanding with empathy and firmness, Oates discusses how the resources of the Christian faith can unmask these disorders so the real person can emerge. He concludes with a sixfold agenda for the...

In this book, Paul Pruyser explores the first step in the helping process: the diagnostic assessment. He develops a set of guidelines for conducting pastoral-diagnostic interviews that acknowledges the pastor's professional uniqueness and meets the parishioner's expectations.

In the contemporary church, pastors take on many roles. One of the most important roles a pastor must play is that of counselor. However, this isn't always a natural fit for every pastor. In this creative and readable book, Wayne Oates offers a definitive argument for the history and future necessity of pastoral counseling.

In this important book, James Leehan emphasizes the use of the religious communities' spiritual, physical, and financial resources to alleviate the problem of family abuse. He sees ministers and their congregations as a source of support that no other sector of society can provide. This book will be an asset to anyone involved in helping the survivor of abuse.

Pastoral counselor J. Bill Ratliff shows that facing change in our lives doesn't have to be a traumatic experience--it can be a time of enlightenment. Ratliff describes the types of chosen and unchosen changes one is likely to encounter in life and then tells how to deal with endings, uncertainties, and new beginnings. If we listen for the voice of God, Ratliff says, we can emerge from a time of major change more whole than we were before we entered.

Drawing on touching stories and personal experiences, Herbert Anderson and Freda Gardner illuminate many of the aspects of living alone--loneliness, grief, and solitude--and offer encouraging suggestions for living well and faithfully.

The Family Living in Pastoral Perspective series examines crucial times in family life in light of the family as a social unit. Each book addresses major changes that ordinarily occur in the life cycle of a family. Each volume takes into account family system theory and social and economic factors that affect the family.

Marriage is a pilgrimage; a journey characterized by beginnings and endings as the life cycle of a particular family evolves. This timely and important book addresses how relationships need o be refocused when couples face changes such as the launching of young adult children, job change, the death of a parent or a child, the arrival of a "surprise" child, infidelity, retirement, illness, role change or reversal, and many others. Also addressed is the dissolution of marriage and the establishment of a new relationship through remarriage.

The Family Living in Pastoral Perspective...

Edward Wimberly utilizes case studies to illustrate how spiritual discernment can be used in pastoral counseling. He shows the value of seeking to discern God's presence in the counseling process to bring healing and wholeness to those who suffer from broken relationships. A discernment model of pastoral/Christian counseling is provided for three groups of people: individuals, couples, and families.

The birth of a child is important in the lives of women, families, and communities. It can also be a vital force to churches in providing them with a model for strength, endurance, and compassion, says Margaret Hammer. Despite a wealth of fascinating material, childbearing is an underdeveloped theme in theology and ministry. Hammer intends to remedy that with this fascinating book.

Child sexual abuse wounds its victims deeply. Physical wounds can be seen; invisible wounds and scars touch the soul. Catherine Foote offers this book to survivors of abuse, especially survivors of childhood sexual abuse, offering them a way of exploring the impact that abuse has had on their relationship with God.

Because their work focuses primarily on the fields of theology and psychology, pastoral caregivers have often neglected to take into account the social forces that affect both the careseeker and the caregiver. In this groundbreaking book, sociologist and chaplain George Furniss introduces them to a third discipline, sociology, to draw upon in their work. Furniss offers an introduction to sociological approaches that are particularly relevant to those in the field. Brief biographical notes about key figures in sociology and a glossary of terms are supplied to assist those who lack extensive...

This resource for counselors who work with lesbian couples gives a clear assessment of the issues faced in working through their relationship within the context of their sexuality and society's oppression of lesbians.

The purpose of the Counseling and Pastoral Theology series is to address clinical issues that arise among particular populations currently neglected in the literature on pastoral care and counseling. This series is committed to enhancing both the theoretical base and the clinical expertise of pastoral caregivers by providing a pastoral theological paradigm that will...

In this ground-breaking book, pastoral counselor Andrew Lester demonstrates that pastoral theology (as well as social and behavioral sciences) has neglected to address effectively the predominant cause of human suffering: a lack of hope, a sense of futurelessness. Lester not only looks at the reasons why addressing the ideas of hope and despair has been overlooked by pastoral theology and other social and behavioral sciences. He also offers a starting point for the development of addressing these important dimensions of human life. He provides clinical theories and methods for pastoral...

David Augsburger believes conflict is inevitable in human life, but that it is essential and can be quite constructive. He proposes a shift to an "international" approach in resolving conflict. He focuses on interpersonal and group conflicts and provides a comparison of conflict patterns within and among various cultures.

In this book David Augsburger discusses the dynamics of pastoral care and counseling across cultural lines. Augsburger combines theology with global perspective and cultural sensitivity to posit an inclusive understanding of pastoral care. This book will be of great interest to pastoral counselors in both academic and practical contexts.