Clergy Renewal

Planned time away from the parish for study, rest, and spiritual renewal can be beneficial-and often necessary-for any pastor, as well as for the congregation. In this thoroughly revised and expanded edition of Alban’s popular Sabbatical Planning for Clergy and Congregations, Bullock and Bruesehoff provide the definitive guide to putting together refreshing pastoral sabbaticals that can help keep ministry vital and growing for the long term

Sabbaticals are becoming increasingly common practice in congregations, and while there are many books on helping pastors prepare for their time away, there are no texts that approach the experience with the congregation in mind, from start to finish. This guide for congregations and their pastors draws on nearly two decades of wisdom from the Lily Endowment Clergy Renewal Program and helps draw the conversation away from a pastor-centric model and towards a holistic congregational framework for thinking about how the entire community can benefit from a pastor’s sabbatical.

“Time to reflect. Time. This is what clergy renewal is about. To continue in ‘the heat of work’ our whole career is to rob ourselves and our congregations of the time we and they need to reflect on our lives and our call. Here is where change begins.” - Melisa Bane Sevier “Melissa Bane Sevier – fresh from (and refreshed by) a much-needed sabbatical – offers personal testimony, practical advice, and an array of helpful resources that will inspire and empower pastors to seek and then to drink deeply of a time apart. This is a moving statement from and on behalf of our hard-working clergy, written for them but also for those who care about their well-being and that of the congregations they serve.” - Dorothy C. Bass - Author, Receiving the Day: Christian Practices for Opening the Gift of Time “Vital congregational ministry depends on the leadership of pastors, priests, and rabbis whose hearts sing with vision, creativity, faith, competence, and passion. In Journeying toward Renewal Melissa Sevier uses her pastoral sensitivity to tell her own renewal story and the stories of those who have been lead in the planning and practice of renewal leave by the question “What will make my heart sing – again?” Whether you’re planning an extended time of renewal leave, or just trying to bring regular sabbath time back into your days and weeks, this book will be a trustworthy guide.” - Richard Bruesehoff - Director for Leadership Support, ELCA - Co-author of Clergy Renewal: The Alban Guide to Pastoral Sabbaticals

What would you wish for in retirement? Good health? Financial Stability? A supportive social community? Retiring well is everyone’s goal, but accomplishing this end requires planning and effort. Family physician Gwen Halaas recognizes the challenges professional caregivers such as clergy experience as they try to practice good self-care, particularly as they approach the significant changes inherent in retirement.

In the wake of the clergy abuse scandal of the last decade, many media commentators predicted the “end” of the Catholic priesthood. Demands for an end to celibacy, coupled with calls for women’s ordination, dominated discussions on the effectiveness of the Catholic Church in America. Renewal argues that rather than a decline of the priesthood and a diminishing influence of the Catholic Church, we are living in a time of transformation and revitalization. The aging generation of progressives that continues to lobby Church leaders to change Catholic teachings on reproductive rights, same-sex marriage and women's ordination is being replaced by younger men and women who are attracted to the Church because of the very timelessness of its teachings.

What energizes someone in pastoral ministry for the long haul? Holy days like Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost are the exception. Ordinary Time, the longest season of the Christian year, is where pastors spend most of their ministry. James Harnish invites pastors and other ministers to see Ordinary Time as a metaphor for the ordinary days of ministry. "Whether we thrive or merely survive depends on what we do with the ordinary days," he writes. Harnish encourages ministers to develop spiritual disciplines and personal relationships to nourish their souls for long-term ministry. He highlights the importance of reflection on scripture, spiritual reading, journaling, prayer, and spiritual conversation with trusted friends. This 6-week study focuses on themes Harnish found crucial in over four decades of ministry: power, people, places, proclamation, perseverance, and promise. Daily readings help readers develop their own customized practices of spiritual formation to sustain and strengthen their life and ministry

How religious caregivers can find spiritual renewal in their own story Recalling Our Own Stories, which author Edward P. Wimberly describes as "a spiritual retreat in book form," is designed to help clergy and religious caregivers face the challenges of ministry. It is also a valuable resource for practitioners who assist these clergy and caregivers in meeting the challenges of their work. Wimberly enables caregivers to map out and come to grips with cultural expectations of their profession. He also helps readers explore and edit the mythologies that make up their self-image, attitudes toward others, expectations about their performance and role, and convictions about ministry. Finally, he provides a model for spiritual and emotional review grounded in narrative psychology and spiritual approaches. As Wimberly explains, this book offers a way to renew our motivation for ministry by reconnecting to our original call, visualizing again how God has acted and remains intricately involved in our lives. Wimberly demonstrates how religious caregivers, often facing burnout, can tap the sources of renewal that reside in the faith community.

A practical guide for helping congregations and pastors make the most of a pastoral sabbatical time.

In this book Wynnetta Wimberley addresses the often overlooked crisis of depression in African American clergy, investigating the causes underlying this phenomenon while discussing possible productive paths forward. Historically, many African American pastors have had to assume multiple roles in order to meet the needs of congregants impacted by societal oppression. Due to the monumental significance of the preacher in the African American religious tradition, there exists a type of ‘cultural sacramentalization’ of the Black preacher, which sets clergy up for failure by fostering isolation, highly internalized and external expectations, and a loss of self-awareness. Utilizing Donald Winnicott’s theory of the ‘true’ and ‘false’ self, Wimberley examines how depression can emerge from this psycho-socio-theological conflict. When pastors are depressed, they are more prone to encounter difficulties in their personal and professional relationships. Drawing from a communal-contextual model of pastoral theology, this text offers a therapeutically sensitive response to African American clergy suffering with depression.