Clergy Self Care: Finding a Balance for Effective Ministry

Rating:
Summary: Care-full advice
Review: The Alban Institute is a well-known and respected source of publications for clergy and congregations. Their many monographs deal with issues of vital importance to the well-being of the church in a clear, concise, and useful manner. The same is true of this text, Roy Oswald's 'Clergy Self-Care: Finding a Balance for Effective Ministry.' A senior consultant with the Alban Institute, Oswald combines authorial and parish leadership experience into a practical, and in many ways inspirational, guide. It is written with an ecumenical mindset, so ministers of any denomination should find useful information here.

It is somewhat ironic that those who go into the helping and caring professions of ministry seem to be the most likely to neglect their own needs in the process of doing their jobs. Oswald begins with the basic assumptions that health and wholeness on several levels (physical, emotional, spiritual and intellectual) are both our business and our self-responsibility. An unhealthy minister lacks effectiveness in dealing with congregations and individuals in need.

Oswald looks at the issues of stress and burnout. Ministry is a profession with a high level of professional burnout. The stress involved in day-to-day ministry over time can be overwhelming, and the temptations toward becoming overcommitted and stretched too thin are great. Few ministers are good at saying 'no' - saying yes is, after all, what got them to where they are in the first place! The psalmist who talked about the cup running over could have been talking about the pace of ministerial life in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries; the overflow is not always a good thing.

The bulk of this text examines strategies for self-care, in practical terms. The various aspects of life (physical, emotional, spiritual and intellectual) are all taken into account, and different strategies developed to address the need for wholeness and completeness in life. These include things to be done individually (time out, letting go, therapeutic 'tune-ups', etc.) and things to be done in cooperation with congregation or community (support systems, detachment, etc.). Ministers need to become skilled at living with conflict and tension, as this will never go away. Ministers also need to be aware of what the best role for themselves is - perhaps ambitions for the bigger church, the higher office, etc. will not be the best outcome; as followers of gospel principles which include the appreciation of 'the least of these' and of servant ministry, ministers should examine their ambitions and hopes for proper grounding.

Oswald's final section looks at the kind of transformation possible with a congregation lead by ministers with an appropriate sense of self-care. Oswald gives examples of healing ministries and emphases on wholeness by clergy and parishes that are inspiring. As chaplain in a retirement community where healing is often a primary concern, this is the part that intrigues me most. More about practical steps for starting a ministry such as this would be helpful, but perhaps off-topic for the book as a whole.

In all, this is a tremendously important book for ministers, future ministers, family members of ministers, and congregational leaders to read, to examine their own roles in the ministry (as all have a role, explicit or not) and provide for the care not only of the priest or minister in charge, but for the whole congregation and community.