pastoral care

Twenty of us gathered to talk about having a job that requires us to weep with those who weep.

My conversation partner may have been a prophet—or a quack. My job was simply to listen.

Why are you still in the church? Why bother with Christianity at all?

Michael O’Loughlin paints a vivid portrait of the complex, compassionate, and sometimes daring ways individual Catholics responded.

Arthur Kleinman’s memoir gets at the heart of what it means to be human.

There’s something uniquely precious about being physically present with people.

Sometimes truth is better than comfort.

Pastors coping with the pandemic need our encouragement, not our carping.

A response to Will Willimon and Stanley Hauerwas

Woundedness is the predictable price we pay for being sent on outrageous assignments by Jesus.

When everyone is traumatized, caregiving takes on new dimensions.

Shortly after his ordination, a home visit unexpectedly throws a new pastor in the deep end.

How can we accompany people through this valley of anxiety, fear, and death?

What use are boundaries when you’re sitting with a friend who is about to die?

Sonia Waters sees pain and trauma at the heart of this particular type of soul sickness.

The roller coaster, the marathon, and the deep end

The man turned in a visitor card. I pulled up my web browser.

The teenager told me she was down to her last option: a hanger. 

Christy Gunter Sim, a trauma expert and domestic violence survivor, offers case studies for church leaders.

Here he was: prostrate, limp, a huge tube going down his windpipe.