Gain scientific and theological insight into OCD The Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Pastoral Care for the Road to Change delivers a provocative and stimulating discussion that is meant to inspire new areas of inquiry on this subject. As an OCD sufferer, pastoral counselor, mental health student, or professional, you will reach a new understanding of a complex condition that can destroy the day-to-day lives of its victims.The Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder explores the connection between religion and OCD from many different perspectives. You will explore case studies of OCD with religious connections through interviews, diagnosed symptoms, and discussion of the history of religious figures who suffered with OCD. The book also provides a reference list of organizations that focus on OCD, as well as Web sites and Internet addresses devoted to assisting caretakers and helping sufferers.The Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder will increase your knowledge of: the evolution of humans and animals in relation to personality development and the obsessive-compulsive disorder church leaders with the obsessive-compulsive disorder brain development and biology and their links to the obsessive-compulsive disorder quality of life issues for sufferers, pastors, and caregivers group therapy for OCD sufferers, including personal stories of OCD in connection with faith and religion neurobiological perspectives on theological issuesThe Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder brings you insightful new research into this complex mental illness, and will assist you in understanding and helping people who suffer from OCD.

Understand the spiritual and psychological stages of human life Life Cycle: Psychological and Theological Perceptions provides professors and students of religion, pastoral counselors, and parents with a description of human personality development from birth to death from both psychological and theological perspectives. You will examine how personalities develop and unfold as individuals grow and how they are influenced by family members and by God, helping you view the life cycle as a sacred journey. Life Cycle will help you, as a parent, to understand your children better, and as an individual, to gain a meaningful perspective of the unfolding of your own life. As a pastoral counselor, this book will help you to enlarge your comprehension of developmental problems and solutions, enabling you to better help your parishioners develop healthy spiritual identities. Through this insightful book, you will discover the natural process of development through life-stages such as the Age of Works, the Age of Friendships, and the Age of Discovery. This unique book will help you in your pursuit of self-discovery.Within these pages you will: examine the history and theories of personality development from such theorists as Freud, Erikson, and Sullivan to get a solid foundation for understanding the process of identity formation understand theological as well as psychological views of personality development. realize the impact of the family unit on the development of individuals learn to recognize the stages of human development and see how the integration of theology and psychology can clarify them Life Cycle includes a comprehensive bibliography on the subject of development, as well as beautiful and moving poems that depict personal growth to help describe new concepts and help you to better understand important identity issues. This informative book will help you clearly define the stage of life that you or the person you are trying to help is in and identify the stage where problems originated, giving you the necessary information to begin to problem solve and promote healthy spiritual and mental growth and balance.

The Christian faith is not only about belief and practices, it is also about the kind of people that we become. Yet some of the biggest barriers to our transformation come from our toxic self-narratives. These narratives shape the way we see ourselves and the way we interact in the world. God designed us with a deep longing in our souls to be wanted, loved, alive, and connected to God. Healing our souls requires more than knowing what God thinks about us. Our healing comes not through reason alone, but through revelation. "The best practice I have seen in Christian spiritual formation" was Dallas Willard's endorsement of the Good and Beautiful series a decade ago. Now this fourth book in the series, The Good and Beautiful You, addresses the self-narratives that hinder spiritual growth and the desires of the soul that only God can satisfy. James Bryan Smith reminds us how Scripture reveals the beauty and goodness of our own souls and how we long for healing that only God can provide. Complete with spiritual practices that help us live into that reality, The Good and Beautiful You will serve as a welcome companion on your journey to discover who you truly are in Christ. The Good and Beautiful Series includes four essential discipleship books from James Bryan Smith. Work through these proven Bible study resources individually or with a group to learn who God is, what it means to be a Christian, how to live in community, and how to address toxic self-narratives that hinder spiritual growth.

Explore a new way of pastoral care that enables caregivers to develop relationships and provide meaningful pastoral care to the children and youth they encounter The Pastoral Care of Children focuses on the need for pastoral caregivers, clergy and chaplains to develop relationships with youths and gives you suggestions to overcome the anxiety associated with caring for an acutely ill child through unique, playful, and child-centered approaches. Many pastoral caregivers have high anxiety when children are ill or hurt, are unsure how to have a substantive conversation with a nine-year old, or their fears of what could be said keep them from hearing what children have to say. The effective approaches in The Pastoral Care of Children are illustrated to assist you with serving the spiritual needs of children. You will explore actual pastoral care experiences that will help you gain confidence in handling situations such as a teenager 's desire to be baptized out of fear of death when neither he nor his parents believe in Christ. Intelligent and heartfelt, this valuable book gives you a complete theological exploration of ministering to children who may ask you "Why me?," "Why do people have to die?" and "What happens to children if they die before they are baptized?" The Pastoral Care of Children helps you answer these questions with meaningful responses that are genuine and grounded with yourself, and reflect the parents'beliefs. Some of the help you will discover in The Pastoral Care of Children includes: understanding the similarities and differences of caring for children in comparison to adults, such as different vocabularies but similar emotions, and realizing that children are very perceptiveusing play as a tool, for example referring to a puppet 's experience in reference to the child to eliminate the child 's self-consciousness and help him or her open upconfronting pastoral issues in acute care settings, such as fear, guilty feelings, and anger, from parents, family and the childhelping children recover from mental health issues such as depression, eating disorders, and identity and self-esteem issues by using cognitive therapyconducting prayer and rituals with children such as baptism, naming ceremonies, anointings, and funerals to assist the child and family through this spiritual rite of passage Complete with child and family focused approaches for dealing with the questions surrounding death, The Pastoral Care of Children also provides you with several cited scriptures, and a list of questions you may be asked by a child who is facing death. You will learn from actual circumstances pastoral caregivers have encountered and discover how to approach topics, and answer questions on God and death. The Pastoral Care of Children, an extremely resourceful book that will assist you in overcoming anxiety and help you deliver thoughtful and uplifting pastoral care to children and youth.

Series Information:
Clinical Counselling in Context

The shift from adolescence to adulthood, a recently identified stage of life called "emerging adulthood," covers an increasing span of years in today's culture (roughly ages 18-30) due to later marriages and extended education. During this prolonged stage of exploration and self-definition, many young adults drift away from the church.
Here two authors--both veteran teachers who are experienced in young adult and campus ministry--address this new and urgent field of study, offering a Christian perspective on what it means to be spiritually formed into adulthood. They provide a "practical theology" for emerging adult ministry and offer insight into the key developmental issues of this stage of life, including identity, intimacy and sexuality, morality, church involvement, spiritual formation, vocation, and mentoring. The book bridges the gap between academic and popular literature on emerging adulthood and offers concrete ways to facilitate spiritual formation among emerging adults.

The Christian life is not an easy one. Satan longs to get his hooks in us and challenge us every step of the way. To combat him and to draw closer to God, it's essential to gain insight and knowledge of the Scriptures.

Full of inspiration, "A Pleasing Disciple" is a Christian-based curriculum for those in every stage of spiritual maturity, from the new convert who requires help in understanding the value of true discipleship, to the lifelong churchgoer who has the desire to cultivate a more intimate relationship with God. Tracie Tackett delivers honest, Bible-based studies to start you on the path to understanding how the Scriptures can be a blueprint for your life.

Short, easy-to-read chapters contain lessons on key aspects of the Christian life with accompanying verses to ground you in the Word of God. Questions for further reflection and learning follow each chapter. Topics include searching the Scriptures, spending time with God, putting God first, and many more.

Patterned and compiled to serve as a Bible study guide for either one person or an entire classroom, "A Pleasing Disciple" can help you develop an intimate knowledge of the Bible and a closer relationship with its Creator.

Describing the difficulties of balancing a career and family life, The Pastor's Family: The Challenges of Family Life and Pastoral Responsibilities is a personal narrative that discusses the all-too-familiar practice of neglecting your family for your job. Pastors will learn the importance of balancing time and attention between their families and religious careers by exploring the problems caused by one pastor's prolonged absence from home. Containing research and first-hand experiences, The Pastor's Family calls for a change in ministry policies that will enable pastors to devote as much time to their families as they do to their congregations.Containing stories and anecdotes from the author, his wife, and his two children, this book offers suggestions on how to improve the physical, emotional, and spiritual health of a pastor's family. The information and insight provided by The Pastor's Family will also help pastors'wives realize that they are not alone in their demanding roles and will help church policymakers discover the need to improve relations between the congregation and the pastor's family. With the hope that the universal problems of pastors'families will be revealed, the author shares with you methods that have helped bring him and his family closer together, including: understanding the expectations of the stereotypical "superpastor" and learning how to set boundaries between family life and career realizing that a pastor's family is subject to the same problems and challenges other families face and helping your family deal with this pressure learning the various definitions of codependency and how this can attribute to the neglect of your family discussing the history of abuse of pastors'families through the Bible and famous religious figures recognizing the discrimination of a pastor's wife and her sufferings, such as coping with her husband's various psychological challenges and being expected to always help her husband with his career discovering how conflicts can provoke communication, release emotions, identify and clarify problems, and permit individualization understanding why people feel a loss of power or personal rejection when their requests are not grantedEmphasizing the practice of setting boundaries, The Pastor's Family examines ways to promote assertiveness through self-talk and self-differentiation that will help you defeat codependent behavior. This will teach you that it is all right to say "no"-- that it is all right to do things for yourself. From The Pastor's Family, you will learn how to correct the ideology that makes many pastors feel they must honor every parishioner request, despite the effect it will have on his family. Through stories of hardship and personal revelations, this book will help you realize the need for church policy reforms that will allow pastors to be looked upon as humans who have familiesbesides their parishioners.

Describing the difficulties of balancing a career and family life, The Pastor's Family: The Challenges of Family Life and Pastoral Responsibilities is a personal narrative that discusses the all-too-familiar practice of neglecting your family for your job. Pastors will learn the importance of balancing time and attention between their families and religious careers by exploring the problems caused by one pastor's prolonged absence from home. Containing research and first-hand experiences, The Pastor's Family calls for a change in ministry policies that will enable pastors to devote as much time to their families as they do to their congregations.Containing stories and anecdotes from the author, his wife, and his two children, this book offers suggestions on how to improve the physical, emotional, and spiritual health of a pastor's family. The information and insight provided by The Pastor's Family will also help pastors'wives realize that they are not alone in their demanding roles and will help church policymakers discover the need to improve relations between the congregation and the pastor's family. With the hope that the universal problems of pastors'families will be revealed, the author shares with you methods that have helped bring him and his family closer together, including: understanding the expectations of the stereotypical "superpastor" and learning how to set boundaries between family life and career realizing that a pastor's family is subject to the same problems and challenges other families face and helping your family deal with this pressure learning the various definitions of codependency and how this can attribute to the neglect of your family discussing the history of abuse of pastors'families through the Bible and famous religious figures recognizing the discrimination of a pastor's wife and her sufferings, such as coping with her husband's various psychological challenges and being expected to always help her husband with his career discovering how conflicts can provoke communication, release emotions, identify and clarify problems, and permit individualization understanding why people feel a loss of power or personal rejection when their requests are not grantedEmphasizing the practice of setting boundaries, The Pastor's Family examines ways to promote assertiveness through self-talk and self-differentiation that will help you defeat codependent behavior. This will teach you that it is all right to say "no"-- that it is all right to do things for yourself. From The Pastor's Family, you will learn how to correct the ideology that makes many pastors feel they must honor every parishioner request, despite the effect it will have on his family. Through stories of hardship and personal revelations, this book will help you realize the need for church policy reforms that will allow pastors to be looked upon as humans who have familiesbesides their parishioners.

Proven Methods for Churches to Attract and Engage Young People One question faces every church leader looking to the future: How do we attract younger generations? Many things have been tried, but in this book, church consultant David Stark shares practical methods that have been proven to work in a variety of congregations. Stark helps leaders identify and use their church's strengths to engage millennials, even those with negative views of Christianity. Based on principles that built the church of the New Testament, he shows how churches today can reach out to their communities in ways that align with the natural, positive interests of young people.

Neighborhoods are moving. While neighborhood changes can mean exciting and fresh opportunities for some, the experience can be vastly different for long-time residents. The rapid movement of people means changes in employment, economics, landscape, demographics, and the feel of a community. Churches often experience the painful impact of these shifts. Depending on how a church navigates through these changes determines if it will either live, die, or be reduced to a tragic existence on life support. Mark Strong knows the obstacles connected with gentrification and the challenges it brings. As a pastor, he led his church through its own moved neighborhood in Portland. Strong shares the frustrations, surprises, and joys that his church experienced as their neighborhood shifted, and he provides the roadmap that his own church used to navigate the change. Who Moved My Neighborhood? gives insight to churches that need to heal from the wounds of gentrification and economic change, and revamp their mission amidst an uncertain future. Using the discussion guide included in the book, churches can discuss their own moved neighborhood and explore the unique next steps that God has for their community. There is hope and a future for congregations that face a moved neighborhood.

The relationship between pastor and parishioner is the essence of pastoral counseling--a simple truth with profound implications. Dr. Richard Dayringer explores these implications in The Heart of Pastoral Counseling: Healing Through Relationship, Revised Edition to help pastoral counselors understand how to use the relationship to bring about the desired ends in the therapeutic process. Drawing on research from the disciplines of psychiatry, psychology, marriage counseling, family therapy, and pastoral counseling, this book lays the foundation for utilizing the pastoral counseling relationship to bring about positive change as it explores topics such as observation, listening, communication, handling transference, and termination of therapy. Because the interpersonal relationship is the vehicle of therapy, it is critical that pastoral counselors understand the psychological assumptions that play a large part in the characteristics of relationships as well as the factors requiring attention in order to establish a secure counseling relationship.The Heart of Pastoral Counseling will help you attain this understanding as you also improve your knowledge on: how pastoral relationships may be applied outside the therapeutic hour in general pastoral work eclectic methods for clarifying feelings, developing intellectual insight, interpreting, questioning, and assigning certain behavior employing the problem-oriented record in pastoral counseling distinguishing relationship from transference and countertransference the unique problem that counseling acquaintances presents personality traits that attract people to the minister/pastoral counselor counselor attitudes that foster relationship how a client's view of the counselor has an impact on the effectiveness of therapy The Heart of Pastoral Counseling brings a solid base of research to pastoral counselors, seminary students, graduate students in counseling, professors of counseling, and specialists in pastoral psychotherapy so that you might better understand the nature of pastoral counseling relationships and how they are helpful and constructive in people's lives.You will be challenged to rethink your role in initiating and carrying out therapeutic change and realize why you should build your ministry on relationships, rather than on friendships.

What is depression, and what are its many and varied types? Who becomes depressed, and how can it be recognized? How can depression be measured, and what are its suicidal potentialities? What are the therapeutic interventions the pastor can use in helping people who are undergoing the pain of depression? The Pastoral Care of Depression: A Guidebook answers these questions and many more. With a focus on the pastor as an instrument of healing in cooperation with families, physicians, and other mental health professionals, this book will help you understand some of the current research and procedures used in helping people suffering from depression. As the frontline mental health workers in many communities, pastors need confidence, competence, and skill in handling people with emotional problems. As Author Binford W. Gilbert explains, "Depression is among the most treatable of major illnesses. It enters the realm of the spiritual and demands the best of the pastoral leader to guide, assist, and enhance the struggle for peace and soundness of mind and body." The Pastoral Care of Depression helps caregivers by overcoming the simplistic myths about depressive disorders and probing the real issues. This book covers: a thorough description of clinical depression predisposing factors that may lead to depression the need for a multidisciplinary approach, and the role of the pastor on the treatment team the importance of church and family involvement diagnosis--the ability to distinguish between normal grief, ordinary blues, situational depression, and clinical depression ministers'own emotional, physical, mental, and relational health the pastor's privileged role that gives him/her unique abilities and opportunitiesA valuable resource for pastors, chaplains, counselors, psychiatrists, psychologists, physicians, family members, and teachers of pastoral care, The Pastoral Care of Depression is meant to inspire action-oriented counseling; to establish cooperative relationships between ministers, families, and the medical community; to carry out responsible and innovative creative therapeutic interventions; and to treat the whole human being.

What is depression, and what are its many and varied types? Who becomes depressed, and how can it be recognized? How can depression be measured, and what are its suicidal potentialities? What are the therapeutic interventions the pastor can use in helping people who are undergoing the pain of depression? The Pastoral Care of Depression: A Guidebook answers these questions and many more. With a focus on the pastor as an instrument of healing in cooperation with families, physicians, and other mental health professionals, this book will help you understand some of the current research and procedures used in helping people suffering from depression. As the frontline mental health workers in many communities, pastors need confidence, competence, and skill in handling people with emotional problems. As Author Binford W. Gilbert explains, "Depression is among the most treatable of major illnesses. It enters the realm of the spiritual and demands the best of the pastoral leader to guide, assist, and enhance the struggle for peace and soundness of mind and body." The Pastoral Care of Depression helps caregivers by overcoming the simplistic myths about depressive disorders and probing the real issues. This book covers: a thorough description of clinical depression predisposing factors that may lead to depression the need for a multidisciplinary approach, and the role of the pastor on the treatment team the importance of church and family involvement diagnosis--the ability to distinguish between normal grief, ordinary blues, situational depression, and clinical depression ministers'own emotional, physical, mental, and relational health the pastor's privileged role that gives him/her unique abilities and opportunitiesA valuable resource for pastors, chaplains, counselors, psychiatrists, psychologists, physicians, family members, and teachers of pastoral care, The Pastoral Care of Depression is meant to inspire action-oriented counseling; to establish cooperative relationships between ministers, families, and the medical community; to carry out responsible and innovative creative therapeutic interventions; and to treat the whole human being.

Dying, Grieving, Faith, and Family: A Pastoral Care Approach enables grief counselors, pastors, hospice specialists, hospital chaplains, mental health practitioners, educators, and seminary students to bring an understanding of faith development, family systems, and gender and ethnic differences into their professional practice as they work with dying and grieving persons. No other book covers all these themes. Not only a great resource for practical guidance, this book is also meant to be provocative, suggestive, and stimulating to professionals and educators charged with working with and teaching about dying and grieving persons.With 50 years of providing pastoral care to dying and grieving persons and 30 years as a pastoral educator, George Bowman understands the nature and concerns of dying and grieving persons. In Dying, Grieving, Faith, and Family he answers the questions you should be asking yourself--including: How does faith development affect relationships of the dying person and family and friends? How does faith development affect grief management by the survivors? How does the family systems approach help the pastor or counselor work with dying persons and their survivors? What gender and ethnic issues are important to remember in helping to minister and serve persons in crises of dying and grieving?The value of Dying, Grieving, Faith, and Family lies in its approach to dying and grieving from the perspectives of faith development, family systems theory, gender, and ethnicity. Bowman's unique work proposes that personal development and faith development influence the way one deals with the crises of dying and grief work.

The Trinity can be one of the most difficult ideas in the Bible to understand. How can our God be made up of three different people? Andrew Hedges answers this question in Creative Bible Lessons on the Trinity, an in-depth guide perfect for small groups and student discussions. Divided into three sections, one for each aspect of the Trinity, this book presents students with a clear understanding of the role each part plays. Biblical evidence is supplemented with discussion questions so your small group can talk about how they see the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit work in their own lives. Creative Bible Lessons on the Trinity also includes a guide to identifying and working with different learning styles, so you can connect effectively with each of the students in your small group. With this knowledge, you ll be able to effectively teach your students to incorporate what they learn about the Trinity into their day-to-day lives."

Until now, the church has been unaware of the need for ministry to those suffering from pregnancy loss. At a time when approximately one in four pregnancies ends in loss, the need to understand and provide caring ministry is painfully obvious. Pastoral Care in Pregnancy Loss introduces the religious community to the issue of pregnancy loss and describes the ministries that can be helpful to those who experience these tragedies. Effective ministry in pregnancy loss requires that one develop basic life theories in order to prepare for such in-depth care. Thus, the book is more than a "how to" as it explores why there is suffering and why some suffer more than others, how to find grace when God seems far away, how to minister when we don't have answers, and how religious ministry can consistently work with other helping professionals in support of the individual. With the foundation of ministry theory provided by Pastoral Care in Pregnancy Loss, you can help your faith community develop strategies for ministry to those suffering from pregnancy loss. Numerous case studies illustrate what is usually done wrong in providing pastoral care in these difficult and delicate situations and explain why those who experience loss may blame themselves, why they may blame God, and why they may not feel able to return to church. Providing helpful insight to hospital pastoral care departments, church libraries, funeral directors, counselors and psychologists, nursing and obstetrics professionals, and seminaries with a marriage and family ministry specialty, this book provides readers with information about: three types of pregnancy loss--miscarriage, still birth, and neonatal loss church outreach the grieving process victims as "consenters" or "experiencers" the spiritual needs of those suffering loss practical ministries crisis support and long-term support.Pastoral Care in Pregnancy Loss furthers your understanding of pregnancy loss by enumerating theories on how suffering and loss are viewed by those suffering--either as a time of testing, a time of training, a mystery of God, a sign of punishment and warning, or as having no meaning. The book also shows how pregnancy loss affects five different types of personal relationships and discusses both immediate and long-term concerns of providing pastoral care. From helping the victim find meaning or reason for the loss to providing support in preparing for future pregnancies, this book provides much-needed guidance to an often-neglected ministry.

An easy-to-learn, easy-to-use tool for in-depth Bible study

With a patented reference system beloved and acclaimed for more than five generations, the Thompson® Chain-Reference® Bible is unparalleled in its ability to enrich personal devotions, topical study, and sermon preparation. This easy-to-learn, easy-to-use system enables you to see the breadth of Scripture’s teachings on thousands of topics. With over 100,000 references listed in the Bible’s margins, covering over 8,000 topics, the chain-reference system is an ideal tool for comprehensive topical study. You can also expand your Bible study with even more tools, including biographical sketches, an archeological supplement, and outlines of each book of the Bible. The Thompson Chain-Reference Bible allows Scripture to interpret itself without commentaries.

Features:

• Full text of the English Standard Version (ESV)
• Easy to understand Chain-Reference System with over 100,000 references in the margins
• References cover over 8,000 topics, each with its own pilot number for exhaustive topical study
• Complete alphabetical and numerical indices listing all 8,000 topics with corresponding pilot numbers and Bible references for comprehensive topical study
• Bible study aids such as biographical sketches of the most prominent people in the Bible, an archeological supplement, glossary, concordance, Bible harmonies, and outlines of each book of the Bible
• Key Verses and Key Thoughts provide basic information you can use to develop your own study
• Verse Analysis shows the topics and themes of every verse and provides easy reference to other verses with the same topics or themes
• 16-page full-color map section
• Words of Christ in red
• Presentation page for gift-giving
• Satin ribbon marker
• 8.3-point type size