It's putting it lightly to say that we're living in interesting times. We've put together a brief collection of relevant reads to equip you to support your congregations and communities as they face a variety of challenges. When it feels like so much is going wrong, we don't need to feel alone; we can turn to one another for comfort and encouragement.
Evelyn L. Parker
Evelyn L. Parker's Tangible Grace offers professors of homiletics, Christian education, pastoral care, and worship resources to help equip students with an interventionist lens toward teen dating violence. The book also is for religious leaders in congregational settings who want to integrate such interventions in their ministries.
Cody J. Sanders
Cody J. Sanders's Spiritual Care First Aid provides instruction in the basics of spiritual care in a way that nearly anyone can use. A field guide to serving as a spiritual-care first responder whenever and wherever help is needed, the book offers an accessible approach of hearing, helping, and healing.
Edited by M. Jan Holton and Jill L. Snodgrass
As awareness of the widespread presence of trauma grows, popular culture can name everything stressful "traumatic." Yet, diagnostic definitions of trauma overlook cultural understandings that refine our concept of trauma. In Reframing Trauma, M. Jan Holton and Jill L. Snodgrass offer a theory and theology of trauma to navigate such complexities.
Brenda Bos
Life as a caregiver is hard. There are no easy answers, and hope can feel elusive. Bos, a Lutheran pastor and a fellow caregiver, shares a spiritually grounded message of solidarity steeped in the conviction that God meets us in the hard places—even when it's difficult to see beyond our pain.
Micah L. McCreary
This book lives at the intersection of trauma, race, and counseling. African (Black), Latino/a/x, Asian, and Native (Indigenous) Americans (ALANAs) experience trauma in the context of systemic, institutionalized, and cultural racism. Any work by trauma-informed professionals must take into consideration the intersection of race and trauma.
Injustice and the Care of Souls, Second Edition
Edited by Sheryl A. Kujawa-Holbrook and Karen B. Montagno
Injustice and the Care of Souls, Second Edition, explores injustices in church and society and their impact on pastoral caregiving. The book offers pastoral and spiritual caregivers broader contexts, knowledge, and skills to respond effectively to marginalized people and to reflect on how their own social locations affect their work.
Trauma-Informed Pastoral Care
Karen A. McClintock
In Trauma-Informed Pastoral Care, pastoral psychologist Karen A. McClintock offers clergy competence and confidence as they care for trauma victims in their congregations and communities, provides practical skills to lower the risk of secondary trauma, and suggests culturally sensitive models for healing.
Touched
Shanell T. Smith
Touched, by Shanell T. Smith, makes visible the often silenced or ignored narratives of survivors of sexual violence. It tells the author's story of her personal traumatic experience with sexual violence by a church leader and focuses on the responses that she received from people in the church (clergy and lay folk) once she "sounded the alarm."Touched helps readers learn how to respond to those who seek refuge and care.
