Recalling Our Own Stories: Spiritual Renewal for Religious Caregivers

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

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.

EDWARD P. WIMBERLY is a Methodist minister, a professor at Atlanta's Interdenominational Theological Center, and a highly regarded author, speaker, and workshop leader in the pastoral counseling field. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia.