Clergy Self-Care: Finding a Balance for Effective Ministry [Paperback]

Roy M. Oswald (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1995

Nationally known for his work and teaching on clergy development, Oswald integrates research and experience into a liberating perspective on the pastoral calling. Discover how imbalances in your physical, emotional, spiritual, and intellectual lives can destroy the very ministry you seek to carry out. Learn what you can do to restore that balance. Packed with self-assessment tools, real-life experiences, and specific self-care strategies.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Roy M. Oswald, a senior consultant with the Alban Institute, has provided leadership for hundreds of conferences and training events in the U.S. and Canada. A variety of denominations have called on him to focus on the pastoral role and the dynamics of parish leadership. He also frequently consults with local congregations and judicatories where his planning model utilizes norms, myths and meaning statements from a church's past. Roy Oswald is identified with research into the transitions clergy make when they enter parishes for the first time and for clergy in longer pastorates. More recently he has headed studies of the candidacy process, leadership needs of small congregations, and new methodology for assessing ministries using clergy/lay teams. He is the co-author of other Alban titles, including Beginning Ministry Together (2003), Transforming Rituals (1999), Personality Type and Religious Leadership (1998), Discerning Your Congregation's Future (1996), New Beginnings (1989), and The Inviting Church (1987).

Product Details

• Paperback: 136 pages
• Publisher: Alban Institute (1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566990440
• ISBN-13: 978-1566990448
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #663,405 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Care-full advice, November 29, 2003

By 

FrKurt Messick "FrKurt Messick" (Bloomington, IN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Clergy Self-Care: Finding a Balance for Effective Ministry (Paperback)

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.

5.0 out of 5 stars Pastor, heal thyself., April 20, 2009

By 

Aaronjon "Aaronjon" (Grover Beach, California) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Clergy Self-Care: Finding a Balance for Effective Ministry (Paperback)

Oswald's book is a fantastic counter-point to many of the so-called "self help" for clergy books out there. Unlike many others, Oswald understands the value of both spiritual renewal and honest openness regarding our humanity. If you come from a tradition that allows for it, Oswald demonstrates that a mix of counseling, exercise, good food, a nice glass of wine, and a scheduled retreat with God can heal a LOT of wounds.

If your tradition is about sucking it up, burning yourself out for Jesus, and being miserable = spiritual...well, this book will just bug you. Of course, it probably means you better buy it...

5.0 out of 5 stars Clergy Self-Care, January 28, 2009

By 

Harold O'Neal Simpson (Montgomery, Alabama,USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Clergy Self-Care: Finding a Balance for Effective Ministry (Paperback)

Wow! This book was a God-send! It opened my eyes and heart to things about myself I wouldn't want to know normally. The tools for reflection (surveys, questionnaires, etc.) were very helpful in assessment where I was as far as clergy burnout, stress, strain,etc. This is a book I will always consult for the rest of my ministry.