Gary L. Harbaugh, Rebecca Breneis and Rodney R. Hutton, Covenants and Care: Boundaries in Life, Faith, and Ministry. Augsburg Fortress, 1998.
Referenced in: Ministry Support Systems
LifeandLeadership.Com Summary
The scope of this work is broader than covenant support groups for ministry self-care, addressing how such covenants help one enliven their service to family, congregation, and one’s coworkers. In this sense, ministry involves a level of calling and trust that requires intentional efforts to maintain faithfulness in deepening spirituality, redeeming conflict, observing boundaries, and using power. Part One, Covenant and Ministers, discusses the practice of ministry covenant groups, with instructions on how to form covenant groups. The remaining chapters demonstrate how these covenant commitments affect every area of one’s ministry and life.
From the Publisher
Everyone in-or associated with-pastoral ministry knows of the heavy toll on pastors’ personal and professional lives. Surveys commonly report time pressures, stress, overextension, loneliness and isolation, marital and family difficulties, spiritual dryness, and feelings of loss of meaning. Covenants and Care takes these hard realities into account as the authors, a team of experts in ministry and the Bible, offer skills for the long haul. They employ the Old Testament notion of covenant and ask ministers to enter a covenant both for their own self-care and as a key to framing and enlivening their care for others in ministry. True-to-life stories show how biblically-based covenantal relationships with clear boundaries promote healthy relationships, and how they are integral to faithful personal and pastoral care. The authors’ sensible yet sensitive approach offers practical help for the minister’s self-care while providing tools for meeting such challenges as conflict in the congregation, issues of sexual ethics, questions of power and conscience, and the dynamics of spirituality.
About the Author
Gary Harbaugh is Professor Emeritus of Pastoral Care, Trinity Lutheran Seminary. He has served on the Lutheran Disaster Response Staff since 1992. Harbaugh is the author of Caring for the Caregiver, God’s Gifted People, and Covenants and Care.
See Other Resources on Minister Self-Care and Preventing Burnout:
- Minister Self-Care
- Ministry Burnout, Preventing and Overcoming
- Ministry Support Systems
- Strengthening and Renewing the Ministry Call
- Pastoral Theology
See Resources on Over 100 Ministry Topics: