Based on her twenty years of teaching and on her own experience in pastoral care, Jeanne Stevenson-Moessner has written a basic pastoral-care text to assist in the emotional and spiritual preparation of pastoral caregivers.
Stevenson-Moessner sees pastoral care as the interconnection and interplay of love of God, love of neighbor, and love of self. Her brief book engenders confidence and caring in the initiate, and assuages the fear and anxiety that naturally occur when one accompanies people in life-changing pain and travail. Through bibical parables — especially the Good Samaritan and the Good Shepherd — and stories from her own experience, Stevenson-Moessner imparts genuine wisdom and meaningful support to those who courageously dare to offer caregiving ministry in whatever situation or through whatever method or paradigm.
"Beginning caregivers, be they ordained or lay, will find the encouragement they need along with good, practical guidance — often couched in wonderful illustrative stories — about how to effectively bear Christ into the pain and sorrow of the people to whom they are privileged to minister."
— The Rev. Dr. Henry F. French, Lake of the Isles Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, MN.
