Pastors, including clergy, need to be able to provide the right kind of circumstances, teaching and care to enable people to face crisis and come through difficulties stronger as human beings and as Christians. They also need the quality of resilience to be involved in Christian ministry. This book draws on the experience and literature of the desert as well as on resilience studies and on contemporary theology, particularly that of Rowan Williams, and applies theological understanding to the pastoral task.

Justine Allain-Chapman

Cover

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Title page

Imprint

Dedication

Acknowledgements

1. The need for resilience in pastoral ministry

2. Developing resilience: research and themes

3. The desert: landscape and metaphor for developing resilience

4. Desert Christians embrace adversity for growth

5. Rowan Williams and resilient believing

6. From wounded healer to resilient pastor

7. A pastoral theology of resilience

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__How can I help others to be strengthened during difficulties in life?__

__How can I cope when I'm overwhelmed with the demands of helping others__

Pastors, including clergy, need to be able to provide the right kind of circumstances, teaching and care to enable people to face crisis and come through difficulties stronger as human beings and as Christians. They also need the quality of resilience to be involved in Christian ministry.

Justine Allain-Chapman's thoughtful book draws on the stories and themes of Christian theology and tradition, on contemporary research into resilience and the insights of psychology to help people make sense of the personal costs of pastoral care.

This book is an important resource for pastors, written to help them recognize the dynamics of developing their own resilience as well as enabling them to strengthen others. It is an essential guide to understanding how what is preached and taught in churches prepares people for life's difficulties.

How can I help others to be strengthened during difficulties in life? How can I cope when I'm overwhelmed with the demands of helping others? Resilient Pastors is for anyone - ordained or lay - who asks these questions, particularly for those who live their lives in the context of Christian discipleship and ministry.

How can I help others to be strengthened during difficulties in life? How can I cope when I'm overwhelmed with the demands of helping others? Resilient Pastors is for anyone - ordained or lay - who asks these questions, particularly for those who live their lives in the context of Christian discipleship and ministry. Justine Allain-Chapman's thoughtful book draws on the stories and themes of Christian theology and tradition, on contemporary research into resilience and the insights of psychology to help people make sense of the personal costs of pastoral care. This book is an important resource for pastors, written to help them recognize the dynamics of developing their own resilience as well as enabling them to strengthen others. It is an essential guide to understanding how what is preached and taught in churches prepares people for life's difficulties.

'Original and thought-provoking for those in ministry and those who train and support them. Resilience is needed to minister at challenging times.' The Rt Revd Christopher Lowson, Bishop of Lincoln

Justine Allain-Chapman has worked in parish ministry in the Diocese of Southwark, as both curate and Vicar, and is now Vice-Principal of the South East Institute of Theological Education (a course which trains a large number of students for ministry).

"Original and thought-provoking for those in ministry, and those who train and support them. Resilience is needed to minister at challenging times." - The Rt Revd Christopher Lowson, Bishop of Lincoln  
  
"This is a book to be read by anyone who is actively engaged in living, or helping others to live, with adversity. Struggling with life is not to be avoided, but embraced as an experience of the wilderness that can make us resilient and give us inner depth and strength. I heartily commend this exploration of the theme of resilience, drawing as it does on the wisdom of the Christian tradition which has so much to say to the world of today." - The Very Revd Dr Frances Ward, Dean of St Edmundsbury

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Resilient Pastors seeks to develop a ‘pastoral theology of resilience’ in order to help pastors strengthen the people they serve as they face significant challenges in their lives and to help pastors themselves be strengthened for their role. Allain-Chapman wisely recognises this two-fold objective for the church needs mature ministers capable of processing personal exposure to pain and suffering in a way that is beneficial for all.  
An exercise in practical theology, Resilient Pastors draws extensively on secular understandings of the ‘journey from adversity to altruism’ as well as Christian tradition and scripture, and especially the experience of the desert. Adopting Stephen Pattison’s ‘critical conversation’ methodology, Allain-Chapman enters into conversation with a wide range of conversation partners from psychosocial science research, the biblical stories of Hagar and Moses, to the writings of Rowan Williams. In particular, the established notion of ‘wounded healer’ is re-examined as the pastoral theology of resilience develops.

Resilient Pastors

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Resilient Pastors

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