Fortress Press

Trauma-Informed Pastoral Care: How to Respond When Things Fall Apart

Karen A. McClintock (Author)

In Trauma-Informed Pastoral Care, pastoral psychologist Karen A. McClintock offers clergy competence and confidence as they care for trauma victims in their congregations and communities, provides practical skills to lower the risk of secondary trauma, and suggests culturally sensitive models for healing.

Lay Pastoral Care: A Narrative Approach

Joretta L. Marshall (Author), Christie Cozad Neuger (Author)

Pastoral Care: A Narrative Approach offers guidance for care companions across a spectrum of care. Grounded in narrative theory, Joretta L. Marshall and Christie Cozad Neuger describe practices--based on mutual learning, deepening spiritual growth, and collaborative support--that inform lay care companioning. Curriculum support is included.

In the Midst of Chaos: Caring for Children as Spiritual Practice

Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore (Author)

In the Midst of Chaos, by Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore, explores parenting as spiritual practice.

Both honest about the difficulties and attentive to the blessings present in everyday life, it explores how parents might use seven daily practices, such as play, reading, chores, and saying goodbye or goodnight, as rich opportunities to shape both parent and child morally and spiritually.

Leading with Love: Spiritual Disciplines for Practical Leadership

Elaine A. Robinson (Author)

The first principle of ministry leadership is love: love that emerges from life rooted in God. Healthy leadership requires a spirituality that enlivens us to move beyond rigid, dualistic frameworks. Robinson provides practical tools for cultivating spiritual practices that lead ministers into the world as agents of faith, hope, love, and justice.

The Deepest Belonging: A Story about Discovering Where God Meets Us

Kara K. Root (Author)

This book is for all pastors and church leaders, as well as for those disillusioned with Christianity and the church and longing for something more real and honest. The Deepest Belonging is a call not to resist but to embrace our vulnerability. As a move away from religion seeking security, protection, and influence, this story invites individuals and congregations to return bravely to the core of our humanity: our belonging to God and one another.

In Deep Waters: Spiritual Care for Young People in a Climate Crisis

Talitha Amadea Aho (Author)

Climate change is creating a spiritual emergency that hits young people harder than any others, observes author Talitha Amadea Aho. In Deep Water guides readers of any generation to develop a communal practice of ecologically informed spiritual care, especially for today's youth.

Shelter Theology: The Religious Lives of People without Homes

Susan J. Dunlap (Author)

Shelter Theology offers insight into the worlds of the invisible: individuals experiencing homelessness and those living in extreme poverty. Based on over ten years of chaplaincy in a homeless shelter, Dunlap shares the nuanced theology of people in harsh circumstances and outlines how their beliefs and practices enable survival and resistance.

Aging and Loving: Christian Faith and Sexuality in Later Life

James M. Childs Jr. (Author)

In Aging and Loving: Christian Faith and Sexuality in Later Life, James Childs addresses the social, ethical, physical, and spiritual issues related to sexuality and aging. The book is written for various professionals who minister to the aged (pastors, chaplains, other care providers), for the aging and aged themselves, and for their families. The book provides an ethical account of Christian love that liberates as it engages the special issues of sexuality in later life.

The Divine Art of Dying, Second Edition:Living Well to Life's End

Karen Speerstra (Author), Herbert Anderson (Author), Ira Byock (Foreword by)

The Divine Art of Dying aims to empower people who are dying to live as fully as they can until life's end. The book includes reflections from Karen Speerstra's hospice journal and essays written jointly by Speeratra and Herbert Anderson on learning to wait, letting go, giving gifts, and telling stories. Each chapter has suggestions for caregivers.

Corpse Care: Ethics for Tending the Dead

Cody J. Sanders (Author), Mikeal C. Parsons (Author)

This volume develops robust, constructive, practical ethics of corpse care that address economic, environmental, and pastoral concerns for caring for the dead.

Trauma and Race: A Path to Wellbeing

Micah L. McCreary (Author)

This book lives at the intersection of trauma, race, and counseling. African (Black), Latino/a/x, Asian, and Native (Indigenous) Americans (ALANAs) experience trauma in the context of systemic, institutionalized, and cultural racism. Any work by trauma-informed professionals must take into consideration the intersection of race and trauma.

Lived Vocation: Stories of Faith at Work

Timothy K. Snyder (Author)

The collection of reflections based on stories of contemporary work challenges congregational leaders to listen to the stories of Christians putting their faith into action. Hearing and reflecting on these stories will help leaders empathize with the difficulties of integrating faith in everyday life and encourage them to tell stories of their own.

Experiencing Scripture: The Five Senses in Biblical Interpretation

Victor H. Matthews (Author)

To recreate or envision life in biblical times it is essential to acknowledge that humanity in every time and place is constantly immersed in sensation and derives meaning from sensual experience. The biblical text not only hints at sensual impressions, but also indicates how the senses are valued for interpretation.

Hiding in the Pews: Shining Light on Mental Illness in the Church

Steve Austin (Author), Robert W. Lee (Foreword by)

In 2012, Steve Austin, then a pastor, nearly died by suicide. He wondered: if church folks had talked about mental health, suicide prevention, abuse, and other hard issues, would that have changed his story? Hiding in the Pews challenges and equips leaders to transform their communities into places where suffering people can find a sense of safety.

Pastoral Imagination: Bringing the Practice of Ministry to Life

Eileen R. Campbell-Reed (Author), Christian Scharen (Foreword by)

Pastoral Imagination: Bringing the Practice of Ministry to Life informs and inspires the practice of ministry through "on the ground" learning experienced in a variety of ministry settings. Each of the fifty chapters explores a single concept through story, reflection, and provocative open-ended questions designed to spark conversation between ministers and mentors, among ministry peers, or for personal journal reflections. The book is closely integrated with the author's Three Minute Ministry Mentor web resource.

Dementia and the Church: Memory, Care, and Inclusion

Mary McDaniel Cail (Author)

Churches have a vital role in helping people with dementia and their caregivers, and much to learn from them too. Cail pairs poignant stories with strategies, lesson plans, and advice for ministries that compliment community needs and church resources. Readers will find here tools for preparing their congregations to engage this important work.

Dutiful Love: Empowering Individuals and Families Affected by Mental Illness

Elizabeth L. Hinson-Hasty (Author), Bill Gaventa (Foreword by)

Dutiful Love explores the distinctive relationship between self-sacrificial love and caregiving when that duty to care extends over the course of an entire lifetime because of social limitations placed upon people with severe mental illness. The author draws upon her own experiences as the sibling of someone with mental illness. The book includes discussion questions, making it an ideal resource for individual reflection, church study groups, and college, seminary, and university classrooms.

Joyful Defiance: Death Does Not Win the Day

Anna M. Madsen (Author)

Joyful Defiance encourages readers to reflect on experiences of anxiety, anger, exhaustion, and grief, emotions not always welcomed in the Christian tradition. Lament is an act of faith in God that acknowledges pain and protests death. Joy is a counterstory and a truer tale, less a feeling than a way of being for the self and for the world.

Clergy Burnout, Revised and Expanded: Surviving in Turbulent Times

Fred Lehr (Author)

In Clergy Burnout, Fred Lehr explores the nature and practice of codependence in the life and ministry of clergy. In short, insightful, and easily accessible chapters, he offers many useful examples along with hard-won and carefully distilled wisdom for ministry amid today's cultural shifts.

Bearing Witness: The Wounds of Mass Trauma at Memorial Museums

Stephanie N. Arel (Author)

Bearing Witness is a poignant account of the global movement to commemorate the dead at memorial museums. Dr. Stephanie Arel offers an insightful look into the professional lives of those who remember and an inspiring argument for tenderness when tending the wounds of mass trauma.