Attend to Stories: How to Flourish in Ministry
Refresh, renew, rekindle passion for ministry by helping others revisit their stories.
Reinvigorate your ministry as you help others. Author Dr. Karen Scheib says that to experience a new sense of freedom in caring for others, we must first help them attend to their story and connect their story with others and God. But to do so effectively, we must be willing to revision our own story, so that we can exemplify Christian happiness and offer others a path toward fulfillment. As Scheib points out, Christian flourishing is less a destination than a journey and rarely a direct route.
More information can be found here.
Contents
Preface
1. Story Care: Attending to Stories of Personal and Pastoral Identity
2. Learning to Read Ministry Stories
3. Restorying: Challenging and Revising Unsustainable Narratives
4. A Christian Vision of Flourishing
5. Practices for Flourishing
6. Writing as Spiritual Practice and Story Care
Praise for Attend to Stories
In Attend to Stories, Karen Scheib has really found her stride. Written in beautifully clear prose with wonderfully helpful exercises woven seamlessly into the text, this book shows how the stories we tell about ourselves impact our wellbeing. Best of all, Scheib amends popular cultural narratives about “self-care” with richer Christian imagery and, on top of that, exponentially expands our repertoire for healing, ending with a brilliant chapter on how to use writing as a spiritual practice of care. This is a book that will make a difference!
—Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore, E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of Religion, Psychology, and Culture, The Divinity School and Graduate Department of Religion, Vanderbilt University
Karen Scheib has written a deeply insightful book that will be a welcome addition to on-going conversations concerning pastoral identity and care. Listening to the ministry stories of others and engaging in the practical invitations included in these pages, she leads us to understand and interpret the narratives of our own lives. This framework, then, provides a means to flourish in our lives as well as our ministry. As we give more attention to pastoral self-care, health, and wholeness, this book will be a most valuable resource.
—Larry M. Goodpaster, United Methodist Bishop (retired), serving as Bishop-in-Residence, Candler School of Theology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA Author Information:
Karen D. Scheib is Associate Professor of Pastoral Care and Pastoral Theology at Candler School of Theology, Emory University. Dr. Scheib is the author of Challenging Invisibility: Practices of Care with Older Women and Pastoral Care: Telling the Stories of Our Lives. She is active in the Society for Pastoral Theology and has served as co-editor of the Journal of Pastoral Theology. Dr. Scheib is an elder in The United Methodist Church.
