The contributors to this unique and timely book present an overview of the range of chaplaincies within the Church's mission. The publication provides various theoretical frameworks to support the inspiring work of Chaplains. The book's origin lies in a tribute to the work of one's of Ireland's longest serving chaplains, Fr Gerry Byrne, who ministered in The Blackrock Clinic. Tributes to Fr Byrne are offered by a consultant and the relative of a patient at the Clinic. Chaplains: Ministers of Hope presents chaplaincy as a living out of the utterly gratuitous love of God as seen in the resurrection of Jesus and it is an invitation to acknowledge and celebrate God's love in the various chapters and events of life. The background to chaplaincy is covered in contributions that focus on the theological evolution of chaplaincy, its ecclesial history and its place in a contemporary ecclesial model. Further consideration is given to the scriptural origins of the ministry and its role in contemporary society. The practical evolution of chaplaincy is well covered in various contributions. The final section of the book contains contributions from Chaplains who go about their daily work as Ministers of Hope. There are contributions from a variety of chaplaincy perspectives: hospital, prison, hospice, sea-port, army, school, university, migrants, those with special needs, Travelers and the homeless.

How can I minister to people in the hospital? How can I bring grace and hope to people in pain? What is a Christian view of death and dying? Of grief and loss? Will I see my baby in heaven? Does God promise always to heal in answer to our prayers? How do we respond in the face of suffering and seemingly unanswered prayer? How does God use life's most difficult experiences? These are just some of the questions that Chaplain Rick Rood addresses in this book. Weaving together stories from his twenty-three years as a hospital chaplain and insights from Scripture, Rick provides help to those who want to minister effectively to hospital patients and their loved ones. As you read this book, you will walk with him through the various units of a hospital, and encounter situations typically experienced in each one. Rick's prayer is that the Lord might use this book to help its readers become more compassionate and more effective agents of God's grace in the lives of people in pain.

Learn to apply the lessons found in the Bible to the struggles of day-to-day life Pastoral Care from the Pulpit connects the head, heart, and soul issues of everyday life, presenting a pastoral care approach to preaching and teaching practical Christianity. This powerful, progressive book gives hope to anyone struggling to survive and thrive as a spiritual person in difficult times. The author, a practicing psychotherapist who is also an ordained minister, explores Biblical stories and passages to find practical motivations for living as a Christian, offering encouragement to those suffering from a lack of purpose, identity, or acceptance. Pastoral Care from the Pulpit makes creative use of counseling and pastoral care principles to serve as a handbook for spiritual survival against life’s everyday challenges. The book is an outgrowth of sermons delivered by the author at First Christian Church in Rome, Georgia, creative explorations of the Bible that blend theology with preaching to remain relevant to real life. It can be read a chapter at a time for daily affirmation, or taught one chapter a week as a class study; questions are provided at the end of each chapter to encourage reflection. Pastoral Care from the Pulpit provides positive principles for living and powerful encouragements for transformation during life’s journey. The book includes: The Transforming Power of Touch (Matthew 8:40-48) Seeing Possibilities and Potentialities in Your Identity (Mark 10:46-52) Does God Put You to the Test or Take the Test for You? (Genesis 22:1-18) A Not-So-Modest Proposal: Follow Jesus (Matthew 4:18-23) Wandering into Far Countries: With Whom Are You Traveling? (Luke 15:11-31) Finding Freedom from False Assumptions (John 14:25-27) Saying YES to the Way of Jesus (John 10:10) Drinking Out of a Glass with a Hole in the Bottom (Jeremiah 2:1-13) and much more! Pastoral Care from the Pulpit is an invaluable aid for ministers, chaplains, and pastoral counselors working with mainstream Christian denominations.

The first comprehensive resource for spiritual and pastoral caregivers—a vital resource for clergy, seminarians, chaplains, pastoral counselors and caregivers of all faith traditions. This essential resource integrates the classic foundations of pastoral care with the latest approaches to spiritual care. It is specifically intended for professionals who work or spend time with congregants in acute care hospitals, behavioral health facilities, rehabilitation centers and long-term care facilities. Offering the latest theological perspectives and tools, along with basic theory and skills from the best pastoral and spiritual care texts, research and concepts, the contributors to this resource are experts in their fields, and include eight current or past presidents of the major chaplaincy organizations.

How can I minister to people in the hospital? How can I bring grace and hope to people in pain? What is a Christian view of death and dying? Of grief and loss? Will I see my baby in heaven? Does God promise always to heal in answer to our prayers? How do we respond in the face of suffering and seemingly unanswered prayer? How does God use life’s most difficult experiences? These are just some of the questions that Chaplain Rick Rood addresses in this book. Weaving together stories from his twenty-three years as a hospital chaplain and insights from Scripture, Rick provides help to those who want to minister effectively to hospital patients and their loved ones. As you read this book, you will walk with him through the various units of a hospital, and encounter situations typically experienced in each one. Rick’s prayer is that the Lord might use this book to help its readers become more compassionate and more effective agents of God’s grace in the lives of people in pain.

Trends and skills for those who offer pastoral care Christian pastoral care has changed a great deal in the past few decades in response to many factors in our rapidly changing world. In part 1 of Nurturing Hope, Lynne Baab discusses seven trends in pastoral care--shifts in who delivers pastoral care, the attitudes and commitments that undergird pastoral care, and societal trends that are shaping pastoral care today. She illustrates them with stories from diverse congregations where Christian caregivers are meeting those challenges in creative and exciting ways. In the second half of the book, Baab presents four practical, doable, energizing skills needed by pastoral carers in our time. Focusing on skills that help carers nurture connections between everyday life and Christian faith, she explores the need for carers to understand common stressors, listen, pray with others, and nurture their personal resilience. Grounded in an understanding of God as the true caregiver and healer, the author offers tips for readers who are training other pastoral carers or developing their own understanding and skills. Each chapter ends with discussion and reflection questions, making the book helpful for groups. Lynne Baab brings readers hope for their caring role and for their own spiritual journey.

Reclaim Your Headspace and Find Your One True Voice As a hospital chaplain, J.S. Park encountered hundreds of patients at the edge of life and death, listening as they urgently shared their stories, confessions, and final words. J.S. began to identify patterns in his patients’ lives—patterns he also saw in his own life. He began to see that the events and traumas we experience throughout life become deafening voices that remain within us, even when the events are far in the past. He was surprised to find that in hearing the voices of his patients, he began to identify his own voices and all the ways they could both harm and heal. In The Voices We Carry, J.S. draws from his experiences as a hospital chaplain to present the Voices Model. This model explores the four internal voices of self-doubt, pride, people-pleasing, and judgment, and the four external voices of trauma, guilt, grief, and family dynamics. He also draws from his Asian-American upbringing to examine the challenges of identity and feeling “other.” J.S. outlines how to wrestle with our voices, and even befriend them, how to find our authentic voice in a world of mixed messages, and how to empower those who are voiceless. Filled with evidence-based research, spiritual and psychological insights, and stories of patient encounters, The Voices We Carry is an inspiring memoir of unexpected growth, humor, and what matters most. For those wading through a world of clamor and noise, this is a guide to find your clear, steady voice.

Structure your ministry to start with patients’needs, hopes, and resources and to be clear what difference your ministry can make!Hospital chaplains value who they are and what they do as contributions to patients’and families’healing and well-being. And they are continually stretching to enhance their ministries. Hospital administrators and other professionals on the care teams, however, often need help to grasp those same values in outcome oriented, observable, documentable, changes-for-the-better terms. The Discipline for Pastoral Care Giving: Foundations for Outcome Oriented Chaplaincy offers a powerful new paradigm for enhancing supportive, effective spiritual care for patients and families as well as communicating substantive outcomes to leaders and clinicians alike. This is all the more important in these times when every possible resource must be well used for the good of our patients and their families.By evaluating the pastoral care you offer, you can become more aware of the discrete skills you exercise in the assessment, planning, intervention, and reflection process. Such evaluation efforts highlight the discrete differences excellent spiritual care makes. This can help you track contributions you are making in terms of the patient's healing and well-being. Having a sound, replicable way to make the process more conscious also helps you communicate your assessment, strategies, and contributions more clearly to other care team members. Furthermore, consistently using The Discipline over time will enable you to discover patterns of spiritual dynamics in how people live with different health care challenges in their lives. These patterns translate into valuable insights as your care for others.The process discussed in The Discipline for Pastoral Care Giving calls on the chaplain to: identify the patient's spiritual needs, hopes, and resources construct a patient profile through identifying the individual's sense of the holy, sense of meaning, sense of hope, and sense of community design the desired outcome(s) you hope your care will contribute--for example, a person who has suffered a spinal cord injury integrates the effects of their injury in their sense of identity and meaning, a person living with cystic fibrosis healthfully grieves the loss of others in the CF community, a patient 'disabled’by the absence of her support community regains use of her personal resources for coping and self-care develop and share a plan for the patient's spiritual care choose interventions (which may range from facilitating a life review, to compassionate confrontation, to reading Scripture, to active listening, to arranging a family care conference) measure outcomes, identifying and communicating the difference your care has made in terms of the patient's healing and well-beingThe Discipline for Pastoral Care Giving offers case studies, personal experiences, helpful figures and charts, and suggestions for dealing with patients experiencing unique, complex health care challenges, including adults living with cystic fibrosis and violent victims of violence. The wise advice and practical suggestions in this book will help you recognize and document the solid value of your hospital ministry.

At the heart of the role of chaplaincy is PRESENCE. This manual, designed for new chaplains, explores four dimensions of presence: (1) As the chaplain is present to him/herself with compassion and awareness, and (2) is present to The Presence with sensitivity and authenticity, he/she then (3) moves outward to others with simple, skillful means to help lighten their loads in life, and (4) helps others to connect more deeply to The Presence in ways that serve their highest good. This is part training manual, part memoir, part prayer book, and part self-care handbook. The author provides practical suggestions for pastoral support, and prayer with others, offers bits of wisdom to apply in one's ministry, and uses stories from his pastoral work in detention and hospital ministries to provide concrete examples of ways to apply these ideas. Additionally, this book is meant to help the chaplain nurture his/her own soul through self-care and prayer.

Hospital and hospice chaplains are expected to assist individuals and families face the reality of their mortality via a gentle, calming presence. To the greatest extent possible, chaplains help people die with an awareness of being loved, of loving and forgiving, and of gratitude for the life they have lived. But terminal agitation and spiritual distress are common components of the final stage of life. How do professional chaplains honor and attend to each individual’s spiritual/religious needs to the best of their abilities in the days preceding death? This book explores that critical question.