Customer Reviews

African American Pastoral Care

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Edward Wimberly should be commended for writing such a powerful book in a few words. The book is short enough to read in just a few settings. This book is very helpful for the African American pastor because it sheds insight on how pastoral care is carried out in the black church. Wimberly addresses the various stages in life--birth, adolescence, young adulthood, middle adulthood, and older adulthood that has it peculiar problems. Moreover, I ejoyed his insight into the art of story telling. He suggests that people sometimes struggle because they feel they are all alone in what they are facing. By telling stories from the Bible and from experince the parishioner can find themselves in a place that assures them they are not alone. Just as God worked in the lives of the saints in the Bible, He is willing to work in our lives as well. Finally, Wimberly suggested encouraging people facing difficulties to wait until God is through working in them instead of throwing in the towel. God's plan is not always understood initially but He can be trusted to work for our good. Excellent book!

"African American Pastoral Care" is Edward Wimberly's 1991 "sequel" to his 1979 "Pastoral Care in the Black Church." In his newer work, Wimberly continues his important focus on sustaining, healing, reconciling, and guiding, while highlighting a new emphasis--pastoral care through narrative.

Narrative therapy has been a growing model for at least two decades. Wimberly nicely blends the historical African American use of oral tradition with the insights of post-modern narrative therapy.

In his introduction and first chapter, Wimberly concisely explains the nature of narrative story-telling in African American pastoral care. In each subsequent chapter, he demonstrates how this model can be used in various counseling issues such as addiction, bereavement, life stages, marriage, and family matters.

Reviewer: Robert W. Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of "Soul Physicians," "Spiritual Friends," and "Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction."

The author wrote in clear detail about counseling techniques and how to be an effective counselor as a pastor of a church. This book is very informative. The information in this book will help me become an effective counselor to my congregation.

I highly recommend this book. It was very helpfull for me during my Pastoral Care Class. It is a book everyone should have on the bookshelf to go back and review when ever needed.