Ronald Richardson, Becoming a Healthier Pastor: Family Systems Theory and the Pastor’s Own Family. Augsburg Fortress Press, 2004.
Prequel: Richardson, Creating a Healthier Church
Referenced in: Leadership and Emotional Systems, Self-Differentiation
LifeandLeadership.com Summary
Many Christian leaders, upon learning about emotional processes in congregations, want to grow in that area, but feel ill-equipped in the growth process. This sequel to Creating a Healthier Church addresses that need. Richardson develops one simple premise, that a leader’s development and experience within his/her family of origin is a major but usually hidden component of how one functions emotionally as a congregational leader. When anxiety arises, unresolved family issues and old behavioral patterns return. Richardson explores these patterns, how they operate in church situations, and how pastors can do their own family-of-origin assessment through genograms, talking to family members, etc. While some may believe Richardson overstates the value of family work, his volume is the standard tool for this purpose.
Becoming A Healthier Pastor distills the most useful insights from three of Richardson’s previous works:
- Family Ties That Bind: A Self-Help Guide to Change through Family of Origin Therapy (Self-Counsel Press, 1999).
- Birth Order and You: How Your Sex and Position in the Family Affect Your Personality and Relationships (Self-Counsel Press, 1990).
About the Author
Ronald W. Richardson is former Clinical Director of the North Shore Counseling Center, pastoral counselor, author of many books on family systems theory and is currently a retired pastor living in West Vancouver, BC, Canada. He is a member of various groups including North Puget Sound Presbytery, a Diplomat for American Association of Pastoral Counselors, and Clinical Member and Approved Supervisor for American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. He also held many workshops for his work in many different organizations.
Ronald is author of Family Ties That Bind: A Self-Help Guide to Change through Family of Origin Therapy (Self Counsel Press 1984),Birth Order and You: How Your Sex and Position in the Family Affect Your Personality and Relationships (Self Counsel Press 1990), and Creating a Healthier Church: Family Systems Theory, Leadership, and Congregational Life (Fortress Press 1996).
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