Customer Reviews

The Compassionate Congregation: A Handbook for People Who Care

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Collaboratively written by educators and seminar speakers Karen Mulder and Ginger Jurries, The Compassionate Congregation: A Handbook for People Who Care is a thoroughly "user friendly" guide for Christians seeking to become compassionately helpful to their friends and fellow church members caught up in the midst of inevitable and diverse crisis. Individual testimonies and anecdotes regarding matters of illness, parenting struggles, relationship difficulties, disabilities, and more fill out the pages of this helpful and very highly recommended instructional and inspirational guide to being truly good to those in need.

This is a book that has been published since 2002. It was introduced to me through my service to the Austin District Lay Speaking Committee, which a ministry of the United Methodist Church in Austin, Texas. (Here is the link to our Facebook page: [...] )

The Austin District Lay Speaking Committee is sponsoring a course on Pastoral Care in September. I am one of the people who has been honored with the chance to teach a segment of this course. In preparation to teach, I read this book, which has been selected to be the textbook for this course.

I loved this book from page one and on. To me, this should be the bible of Pastoral Care giving. It is also a good reference for how to be a friend.

This book is divided into four sections. Section 1 is entitled "Wisdom of the Wounded: Their Stories and Advice". This is my favorite part of the book. Topics in Section One cover thirty-eight topics in alphabetical order from "Abortion" to "Violation of Privacy and Freedom". Each of the situations has a testimony from someone who has suffered from this particular challenge. These testimonies are heartfelt, honest, real and full of grace. Most of these segments are accompanied by scripture which is relevant to the situation.

After the testimony, another sub-section that is discussed is called "Wisdom for the Caregiver." This lists helpful guidelines as advice for what to do and what not to do.Other sub-sections include "Additional Wisdom for the Caregiver", "Helplines", and "Books and Other Resources". These provide more wisdom and guidance to assist the friend, lay pastor and pastor for ministering to people who are living through their difficulties.

Section 2 covers the issues of prayer, listening and respecting the grief process, complete with a chart illustrating the many stages of grief. This is a must-read for anyone who participates in the ministry.

Section 3 is entitled "109+ Ways to Say `I Care'". This struck me as the "how-to" guide on friendship. This is full of great, proven, creative ideas for providing comfort and practical help to others. There is even a spot at the end to add your own ideas to this list.

Section 4 is entitled "Four Self-guiding Sessions for Small Groups". This touch on scriptural references for this thing called Pastoral Care, as well as practical applications in listening and the grief process. This section gives plenty of opportunity to apply the information in the book to a classroom or teaching setting.

This book is well-organized, interesting, helpful, and relevant to the practical challenges that we all face as parents, friends and ministers. I recommend that every adult read this book. I have already applied some of the things that I have learned to my parenting repertoire.

Happy Reading!