Spiritual Practices: Writing
This week, I spoke to a spiritual direction student about spiritual practices, sometimes called spiritual disciplines. When speaking to folks familiar with spiritual disciples, the first things that come to […]
Re-membering
“What or who are your grieving and how has it affected you?” The questions echoed through the gathering space at the university I was invited to volunteer as a chaplain. […]
From Competition to Collaboration
What happens when a small church decides to stop competing? Everyone wins. The small, suburban bedroom community where I pastor is saturated with churches. There is a main road that […]
A Theology of Play
The spirit of play is very important in my ministry as a pastoral caregiver at a psychiatric hospital. That spirit comes out in various ways. Sometimes I joke with my […]
The Heroine’s Journey, Part Ten: Heroine Integrates the Masculine and Feminine
This devotional is the final installment in a series exploring the kinship between the Heroine’s Journey as established by Maureen Murdock, my lived experience of ministry as a female clergy […]
Pastoral Care with Persons with Narcissistic and Antisocial Personality Disorder: An Interview with The Rev. MaryJane Inman
Although I work in a specialized setting of a state psychiatric hospital, when speaking to church pastors I sometimes recognize behaviors and problems they describe as having similarities to those […]
Ministering to Persons who Have Depression or Anxiety
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), depression and anxiety are the most common mental illnesses diagnosed in the United States. With almost a third of adults experiencing […]
Pastoral Care with People with Thought Disorders
For most church pastors, it can be intimidating to consider giving pastoral care to someone with a psychotic disorder, such as schizophrenia, or someone who is paranoid. People who face […]
Love and Limits: Pastoral Care for Persons with Borderline Personality
In seminary, one of my mentors said, “Beware the first person to introduce themselves to you in a new congregation—they’re probably borderline.” I’ve heard similar refrains in clergy circles ever […]
The Heroine’s Journey, Part Nine: Heroine Heals the Wounded Masculine Within
This devotional is the ninth installment in what will be a series of ten exploring the kinship between the Heroine’s Journey as established by Maureen Murdock, my lived experience of […]
