Recalling Our Own Stories: Spiritual Renewal for Religious Caregivers (Jossey-Bass Religion-In-Practice Series) (Paperback)

Review
"A creative and practical work."

"This book teaches us how to care; not only for ourselves, but for those who care among us. Based on sound and mature spiritual and psychological principles, Recalling Our Own Stories will serve as an antidote for burnout as no other work can." (Brian H. Childs, PhD, Professor of Pastoral Theology and Counseling, Columbia Theological Seminary)

"Wimberly moves beyond the individualistic focus of many books on self–care of religious caregivers, and attends to how cultural myths about gender and ethnicity interact with personal and familial myths to shape our religious vocations as caregivers. This is a refreshing and thoughtful resource to those of us who want to remember and reclaim our vocations." (Carrie Doehring, Assistant Professor of Pastoral Psychology, School of Theology, Boston University)

"Religious caregivers will find the process of reauthoring myths, described through Wimberly′s own vulnerability and a wide range of case studies, a powerful personal resource." (Bishop S. Clifton Ives, The United Methodist Church, West Virginia Area)

"This book provides a warm invitation to vital spiritual growth by exploring the pivotal stories and images that give us roots for our life journey. A wonderful resource." (Richard A. Hunt, PhD, Graduate School of Psychology, Fuller Theological Seminary)

Product Description
Reconnect with your original call to ministry and passion for caregiving with this spiritual reneretreat in book form.

Clergy and other professional religious caregivers routinely find that parishioners and clients expect from them a superhuman level of empathy and love?a level that embodies God′s love. Many of these caregivers expect no less of themselves. This myth of perfection often leads to burnout in caregivers, who then run the risk of damaging themselves and others.

Minister and counselor Edward P. Wimberly crafts a powerful and innovative path to renewal based on his popular workshops and retreats. He guides religious professionals?trained to attend to the stories of others?to reexamine the personal and professional stories that shape their own lives as individuals, family members, and ministers. Recalling Our Own Stories, a spiritual renewal retreat in book form, guides religious professionals in reconnecting with their original calling. Most important, it offers readers ways to reauthor their personal mythologies, giving them renewed vigor in ministry and caregiving.

Wimberly shares the varied life stories of caregivers of diverse cultural backgrounds while walking readers through the process of revisiting their lives, recognizing unrealistic expectations, and transforming wounded beliefs into sources of compassion, strength, and renewal.

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First Sentence
I HAVE BEEN ASKED to do a number of spiritual renewal retreats. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover

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1 Review 5 star:  (1) 4 star:    (0) 3 star:    (0) 2 star:    (0) 1 star:    (0)           Average Customer Review 5.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)		Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   2 of 3 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Retreat in a book, 20 Dec 2005 By  Kurt Messick "FrKurt Messick" (London, SW1) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    One of the issues that clergy and other ministers have to face is the prospect of burn-out. Whether they are (by some definitions) sole ministers in charge of a church or chaplaincy, or whether they are part of a team, the prospect of burn-out is a very real one - this can happen in terms of physical well-being (some will work themselves too many hours a week without rest for too long, and suffer the effects), and sometimes it can occur spiritually, in terms of disillusionment, lack of direction, lack of focus, or a lack of the same kind of satisfaction of fulfilling a vocation which drew the person to ministry in the first place. In many ways, this book by Edward Wimberly is a retreat in a book. Wimberly has experience at leading retreats and workshops for ministers and religious caregivers to 'explore our deep convictions and beliefs about ourselves, our marriages, our families, and our lives in ministry.' Over time, Wimberly noticed certain patterns, and applied the idea of narrative interpretation (setting up one's own story and mythology) to understanding these kinds of patterns and influences in our lives. This text looks at many different issues. One issue is the idea of expectations - can ministers and religious caregivers live up to expectations? Are the self-expectations of ministers the same as those expected by members of the community or congregation? Another issue is that of cultural influences and our own interpretations of our lives - to what extent do we let the outside world define us? After an introductory chapter that opens the field in terms of biblical and church tradition, Wimberly looks at the issues of personal, marital, family and ministerial interpretations and meaning-making successively. Wimberly uses personal stories as well as others he has collected along the way to highlight ideas and perspectives, and each chapter also has a series of self-reflection exercises to help the reader gain insight into her or his own situation. The second half of the book (chapters five through ten) look at ways of reconstructing one's life in terms of story and narrative. Again these show examples of others who have been through this process, and the final chapter gives specific steps to follow, but also steps that are drawn broadly enough that the way in which any individual does them can vary widely. Wimberly also presents no illusion that this is a panacea or process that always works - the case of Douglas is a case in point here, of someone whose own stories were too resistant to change to work through any easy process; some of our stories are far too ingrained, and may require other processes to help us through them (and discernment can help us to identify when this is true). Wimberly's book is a wonderful text, a very good system for those who want to renew themselves and rediscover the satisfactions of following one's vocation. I came upon this book at a critical time in my ministry, when I was feeling the sting of isolation and overwork, and while I cannot say that it solved all of my problems (and, of couse, I hasten to add that Wimberly doesn't promise such an outcome), it did help me refocus on many of the more positive aspects of what I was doing, and recast some of the more difficult pieces. It also helped me to take action to renew my connection with the broader community of ministers and caregivers. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this) Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review › See all customer reviews...		Ad feedback   Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews

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