Recalling Our Own Stories: Spiritual Renewal for Religious Caregivers (Jossey-Bass Religion-In-Practice Series) [Paperback]

Edward P. Wimberly (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 7, 1997 | Series: Jossey-Bass Religion-In-Practice Series

Reconnect with your original call to ministry and passion for caregiving with this spiritual reneretreat in book form.

Clergy and other professional religious caregivers routinely find that parishioners and clients expect from them a superhuman level of empathy and love?a level that embodies God's love. Many of these caregivers expect no less of themselves. This myth of perfection often leads to burnout in caregivers, who then run the risk of damaging themselves and others.

Minister and counselor Edward P. Wimberly crafts a powerful and innovative path to renewal based on his popular workshops and retreats. He guides religious professionals?trained to attend to the stories of others?to reexamine the personal and professional stories that shape their own lives as individuals, family members, and ministers. Recalling Our Own Stories, a spiritual renewal retreat in book form, guides religious professionals in reconnecting with their original calling. Most important, it offers readers ways to reauthor their personal mythologies, giving them renewed vigor in ministry and caregiving.

Wimberly shares the varied life stories of caregivers of diverse cultural backgrounds while walking readers through the process of revisiting their lives, recognizing unrealistic expectations, and transforming wounded beliefs into sources of compassion, strength, and renewal.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A creative and practical work."

"This book teaches us how to care; not only for ourselves, but for those who care among us. Based on sound and mature spiritual and psychological principles, Recalling Our Own Stories will serve as an antidote for burnout as no other work can." (Brian H. Childs, PhD, Professor of Pastoral Theology and Counseling, Columbia Theological Seminary)

"Wimberly moves beyond the individualistic focus of many books on self-care of religious caregivers, and attends to how cultural myths about gender and ethnicity interact with personal and familial myths to shape our religious vocations as caregivers. This is a refreshing and thoughtful resource to those of us who want to remember and reclaim our vocations." (Carrie Doehring, Assistant Professor of Pastoral Psychology, School of Theology, Boston University)

"Religious caregivers will find the process of reauthoring myths, described through Wimberly's own vulnerability and a wide range of case studies, a powerful personal resource." (Bishop S. Clifton Ives, The United Methodist Church, West Virginia Area)

"This book provides a warm invitation to vital spiritual growth by exploring the pivotal stories and images that give us roots for our life journey. A wonderful resource." (Richard A. Hunt, PhD, Graduate School of Psychology, Fuller Theological Seminary)

From the Inside Flap

This spiritual renewal retreat in book form helps "burnt-out" religious professionals reconnect with their original call to ministry by recalling and "reauthoring" their personal stories. Embodying God's unconditional love and empathy is the unrealistic expectation many parishioners and clients have of their clergy and religious caregivers. This myth of perfection often leads caregivers to burn-out, running the risk of damaging themselves and others. Based on his popular workshops and spiritual retreats, minister and counselor Edward P. Wimberly crafted a powerful and innovative path to renewal: he guides religious professionals — trained to attend to the stories of others — to reexamine the personal and professional stories that shape their own lives as individuals, family members, and ministers. Wimberly shares the varied life stories of caregivers of diverse cultural backgrounds while walking readers through the process of revisiting their lives, recognizing unrealistic expectations, and transforming wounded beliefs into sources of compassion, strength, and renewal.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (May 7, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787903639
• ISBN-13: 978-0787903633
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #29,821 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #7 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Religious Studies > Psychology & Christianity
  • #26 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Ministry & Church Leadership > Pastoral Counseling
  • #93 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Current Events > Poverty > Social Services & Welfare

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Renewal for your weary spirit!, September 27, 2007

By 

Kevin Bridges "Chaplain Bridges" (Abilene, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Recalling Our Own Stories: Spiritual Renewal for Religious Caregivers (Jossey-Bass Religion-In-Practice Series) (Paperback)

While I won't give a long detailed academic review, I will tell you that this text is a must read. It is especially helpful for those in healthcare ministry and anyone who is experiencing burnout will find this to be a useful tool in discovering the origins of your burnout as well as developing strategies for renewal. This book just might change your life and your ministry!

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Retreat in a book, October 19, 2005

By 

FrKurt Messick "FrKurt Messick" (Bloomington, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Recalling Our Own Stories: Spiritual Renewal for Religious Caregivers (Jossey-Bass Religion-In-Practice Series) (Paperback)

One of the issues that clergy and other ministers have to face is the prospect of burn-out. Whether they are (by some definitions) sole ministers in charge of a church or chaplaincy, or whether they are part of a team, the prospect of burn-out is a very real one - this can happen in terms of physical well-being (some will work themselves too many hours a week without rest for too long, and suffer the effects), and sometimes it can occur spiritually, in terms of disillusionment, lack of direction, lack of focus, or a lack of the same kind of satisfaction of fulfilling a vocation which drew the person to ministry in the first place.

In many ways, this book by Edward Wimberly is a retreat in a book. Wimberly has experience at leading retreats and workshops for ministers and religious caregivers to 'explore our deep convictions and beliefs about ourselves, our marriages, our families, and our lives in ministry.' Over time, Wimberly noticed certain patterns, and applied the idea of narrative interpretation (setting up one's own story and mythology) to understanding these kinds of patterns and influences in our lives.

This text looks at many different issues. One issue is the idea of expectations - can ministers and religious caregivers live up to expectations? Are the self-expectations of ministers the same as those expected by members of the community or congregation? Another issue is that of cultural influences and our own interpretations of our lives - to what extent do we let the outside world define us?

After an introductory chapter that opens the field in terms of biblical and church tradition, Wimberly looks at the issues of personal, marital, family and ministerial interpretations and meaning-making successively. Wimberly uses personal stories as well as others he has collected along the way to highlight ideas and perspectives, and each chapter also has a series of self-reflection exercises to help the reader gain insight into her or his own situation.

The second half of the book (chapters five through ten) look at ways of reconstructing one's life in terms of story and narrative. Again these show examples of others who have been through this process, and the final chapter gives specific steps to follow, but also steps that are drawn broadly enough that the way in which any individual does them can vary widely. Wimberly also presents no illusion that this is a panacea or process that always works - the case of Douglas is a case in point here, of someone whose own stories were too resistant to change to work through any easy process; some of our stories are far too ingrained, and may require other processes to help us through them (and discernment can help us to identify when this is true).

Wimberly's book is a wonderful text, a very good system for those who want to renew themselves and rediscover the satisfactions of following one's vocation. I came upon this book at a critical time in my ministry, when I was feeling the sting of isolation and overwork, and while I cannot say that it solved all of my problems (and, of couse, I hasten to add that Wimberly doesn't promise such an outcome), it did help me refocus on many of the more positive aspects of what I was doing, and recast some of the more difficult pieces. It also helped me to take action to renew my connection with the broader community of ministers and caregivers.