…generously supported by The Jerusalem Trust

“Of all the reasons why people attend churches, uppermost is a strong and basic need for human connection.”

A free workshop run throughout the year to equip church leaders in the areas they raise as the most challenging in pastoral work. It is our belief that the church can be a re-parenting agent that reaches beneath fear, anxiety and overcompensation to meet the core human needs that often underlie complex life difficulties and challenges.

When asked about the toughest encounters they face in church life, a panel of clergy reported that without exception, the situations that tested them the most were those in which emotional boundaries had been broken.

The church has an important mission steering against the tide of individualism that prevents people connecting with one another as Jesus commanded his followers to do.

Clergy find themselves in a uniquely challenging position. They live where they work.  Accessibility is expected and more often than not, that it is free. Open access is given to large numbers of people in a parish, which impacts clergy and their families. This is a different structure to other ‘helping professions’ and boundaries may be blurred.

How can the Church play a guiding role in healing relationships?

Dealing with resentment and hopelessness is impossible if one is not aware of core unmet needs that lie beneath.

Course content

This workshop will cover the following important topics:

Repairing Boundaries

• Ways to directly address core emotional needs that otherwise, if unmet, cause people to leave churches, leave families and lose hope.
• Using empathy to ‘deconstruct’ complex pastoral issues
• Internal and external boundaries to carry out the effective, reconciling work of the church.

Forgiveness

• How empathy ‘deconstructs’ complex pastoral and emotional issues
• How forgiveness carries out the effective, reconciling work of the church

What did attendees gain most from the training?

“…a new paradigm of understanding myself and others, which I can see will be very useful.”

“…never give up hope that everyone can change!”

“…insight and understanding about the mind and the influence of the brain on how we operate and behave.”

“…much greater understanding of the mind, and the possibility of healing.”