2010 Conference

October 25-29

San Francisco Seminary 

    Plan now to attend the 11th annual conference of the Presbytery Pastoral Care Network. The conference will take place on the campus of San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo, California.
     Whether you are an individual pastor concerned with how to maintain a rich, creative balance in your ministry; have a responsibility for helping prospective members prepare for the ministry; or have a responsibility for helping prospective candidates for ministry, this can be of value for you.  In addition to the conference presentations, this is an opportunity to share with colleagues who have the same interest and participate in invigorating workshops that will increase your skills. 
     So mark your calendars and prepare to be enriched in ministry.
   
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Compassion Fatigue Prevention

 and Resiliency

A PCUSA Resource for Care-Givers
by Carol Allen, PPCN Board

"Compassion Fatigue Prevention and Resiliency" was the theme of a recent Chicago Presbytery training day led by members of the National Response Team of Presbyterian Disaster Assistance. Church leaders came to consider how caring for those who have suffered overwhelming life experiences can be traumatic for care-givers and lead to compassion fatigue.  As a consequence of their own caring for first responders to disasters and wanting to learn more about how to sustain their own health, the PDA team, Florida pastors, Jim Kirk, Laurie Kraus, and Bruce Wismer, had consulted with J. Eric Gentry, an internationally known leader in the study and treatment of compassion fatigue.  Their conversations resulted in the workshop handbook and this summary of their insights and recommendations.

Compassion fatigue affects all dimensions of a professional care-giver's life. It can lead to a higher level of tension and anxiety, less physical exercise, and to sleep disturbances. It can contribute to finding less pleasure in intimate relationships and to becoming more cynical and pessimistic. It can generate work-related nightmares and difficulty in making every day decisions. It can result in a loss of self-esteem, loss of interest and enjoyment of regular activities, depression. and feelings of hopelessness.  Care-givers may begin to dread going to work and become less connected to their religious and spiritual beliefs. They may avoid spending time with friends and family or taking time for themselves. They can't get work off their minds and become less productive on the job and may feel like quitting. Paperwork and menial tasks begin to get in the way of enjoying work.

There are many avenues of help when symptoms of secondary trauma last more than a few weeks. Be intentional. Connect with others.  Tell your story.  Engage in appropriate self-soothing and self-care activities.  Find help to understand and lessen the affects of your inner talk that is overly critical and self-destructive. You are not weak or crazy.  Other colleagues experience what you are experiencing. Connect with a support group.  Rest, eat well-balanced and regular meals even when you'd rather not, and keep a regular daily schedule.  Set good limits and boundaries when engaging with traumatized person. Pray for them and pray for yourself.

Do aerobic exercises, practice yoga, t'ai chi, or centering prayer. Walk with and hug a loved one. Play with a pet. Get a massage. Sit in a hot tub or take a hot shower. Imagine sitting with someone who has been a source of wisdom. Tell this person what has been happening and for what you yearn.  Ask a question.  Listen for a response.  This could be the beginning of an insightful journal entry. I place the name of a person or situation with which I'm struggling onto a piece of paper in a jar on a closet shelf. I let go of it for awhile, knowing it'll still be there when I'm ready to reengage.  Google "Relaxation Exercises" and find something that works for you. PDA's message: it is possible to do the hard and tiring work of care-giving and to remain healthy and resilient in our calling to love God and love others. 

Want to arrange a workshop, become a certified volunteer, or locate resources for continuing education, contact ppc@ctr.pcusa.org

Post-Christmas Celebration 

     A presbytery might want to consider having their own post-Christmas celebration for their clergy and families. The week following Christmas might be an opportunity for an evening of fun and caring that could express appreciation for the hard work that has just been concluded.
     If the presbytery is small enough that people know each other, it might be an opportunity for some "roasting" of fellow clergy. Someone might prepare a fun poem about the work of clergy. Find some of the musically inclined people and have them compose some new words to the carol tunes that are still ringing in our ears. Remember the "pumpkin carols" that someone composed building on Charlie Browns celebration of the coming of the great pumpkin. Make it fun.  For example: "O Come, all ye clergy, tired and exhausted, O come ye O come ye to laugh once more."etc.
     Create some bizarrely humorous job descriptions for fictitious openings and have people suggest who among them might be the perfect candidate. Have people bring gag gifts and as a person opens a gift, they must describe why this is the perfect gift to support them in their ministry. Read the description of a fictitious but familiar type of member and ask who would like to trade for another member of their own church.
     Encourage people to submit the best joke that they have heard and share them during the evening. If someone is good at comedy, have them compose a monologue on humorous insights on the ministry.
      The goal is to have a fun evening in which people can interact, enjoy each other, and know that they and their ministry is appreciated. Have fun, get creative, and experience the joy of sharing with each other.

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Tool Box

 
     The Tool Box that was introduced at the 10th PPCN Conference at the Big Tent is now available on line. Go to www.pastoralcarenetwork.org and click on the Tool Box icon. 
     This is intended to be a resource for the entire church. Feel free to recommend it to others. It will soon be expanded to include even more ways to support our clergy.

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Presbyterian Writer's Conference

     Following up on their highly successful writer's conference at Columbia Seminary, the Presbyterian Writer's Guild is planning their next conference for April 28-29, 2010. The conference again features Cec Murphey whose book, 90 Minutes in Heaven, has been on the New York Times best seller list and sold more than three million copies.
     This year's location will be at the Scarritt-Bennett Center in Nashville, Tennessee. Included in this year's opportunities will be sessions on poetry and song writing, more than 20 other workshops on a variety of aspects of the publishing field as well as an opportunities to talk to agents, and get an inside look at the publishing field.

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Self Care and Self Indulgence 

      In a recent issue of Presbyterian Outlook, (November 23,2009), there was an article that was almost a screed against the idea of emphasizing pastoral self-care. The essence of the rant was that it is mutually contradictory to respond to God's call to take up our cross and to also focus on taking care of ourselves. One of his phrases that caught my attention was, "no matter how we slice it, there is often a fine line between insanity and following Jesus Christ."
     While I think the author has made a questionable assumption that Jesus willingness to face the cross and our commitment to be faithful to the call even when it costs us dearly requires us to reject a psychologically healthy life, I do think that in the midst of his tirade, he raises an interesting point. The core of ministry is a willingness to be a servant even as Jesus was a servant to others. Such service comes at a cost to our own comfort and pleasure. When we focus on self-care, it is not an invitation to draw boundaries that exclude our responsiveness to the needs of our neighbor. Faithfully responding to God's call to ministry does require us to be other centered.
     Yet I would suggest that there are healthy and unhealthy ways to do that. Jesus did take time out of a busy, demanding ministry, to be in touch with the God who called him. When he invited his disciples to come away and rest, it was not because all of the needs of others had been met but that a good caregiver addresses the needs of others best when s/he also recognizes the need for self-care. To use a practical example, how many of you would like to be operated on by a surgeon who has been up 24 hours without a break?
     I know of pastors who are so focused on protecting themselves with their carefully constructed boundaries that they appear unreachable by their congregants. But I also know of pastors who are so strung out by their exhausting schedule that their response to their congregants comes from an unhealthy place. It is often such pastors who succumb to inappropriate temptations or are so filled with anger that they fail to offer compassionate ministry. We can do better than that.

 Presbytery's Celebration of The Call

Psalm 111

Adapted in Celebration of Clergy Ministries

(Leader) "Praise the Lord! (We) will give thanks to the Lord with (our) whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation.

(People) We recognize John, Ellen, Byron, and Beth who have felt the call to develop their gift of teaching that extends beyond their local congregation and blesses the community around them

(Leader) "Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them."

(People) We celebrate the creative ministries of Joan, Philip, Floyd, Bob, and Ellen who have advocated for justice in ways that have prodded our conscience and moved us to a deeper understanding of the justice of God.

(Leader) "Full of honor and majesty is God's work, and God's righteousness endures forever."

(People) We lift up Susan's work in creating a grief support group and Beth's work with the shelter for foster children. We honor Arthur's work with Hospice and Florence and Henry's ministry on behalf of returned veterans.

(Leader) "God has gained renown by God's wonderful deeds; the Lord is gracious and merciful."

(People) Today we praise the call that has extended the ministries of Brenda, Russ, Carlton, and Rick on behalf of feeding ministries in their communities.

(Leader) (God) provides food for those who fear him; God is ever mindful of God's covenant."

(People) We commend the ministries of Evan, Carol, and Earnest who have worked to strengthen the bonds of their communities and bring people together across diverse boundaries.

(Leader) "God has shown his people the power of God's works, in giving them the heritage of the nations. The works of God's hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy. They are established forever and ever, to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness."

  As david bailey sang in his Christmas album, Some Quiet Night, "Don't leave the baby Jesus in the manger but follow him to the empty tomb."  www.davidmbailey.com

Have a blessed Advent and Christmas.