If you have a loved one entering hospice care, you will have access to a hospice chaplain. The hospice chaplain is part of the interdisciplinary care team that includes a physician, registered nurses, nurses aids, social worker, chaplain, volunteers, and bereavement specialist. The chaplain’s primary function is to help patients and families cope with the internal struggles that often arise … Continue reading →
There are eight Bible passages/verses that I keep close by when I’m called to a patient’s hospital room. I’ve never unloaded all of them in a single visit and I can’t image a situation where I would reference more than two or three. I’m sharing eight here because they cover the most difficult of circumstances, offering the most helpful insights … Continue reading →
There is one verse in Scripture that gives us God’s intentions of calling pastors into the service of His church and its Ephesians 4:11 which states, “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers.” The word that the King James translates as “pastor” is actually the word for “shepherd” and that is … Continue reading →
If you are a church pastor or a church lay person who has taken up the assignment of visiting church members during their hospital stay, this post is for you. I want to address seven points of etiquette and guiding principles when it comes to visiting a parishioner in the hospital. Unless you work in a hospital, the dynamics and … Continue reading →
For me, there is nothing more important in conducting a hospital visit with a patient than sharing an appropriate verse of Scripture. Sharing the right Bible verse will provide encouragement and hope for a Christian hospital patient and family. Here, I want to share some Bible verses for you to choose from to share on your visit. You can share … Continue reading →
I want to speak to pastoral care in the context of ministry within the role of serving as a pastor. So here I wish to bullet a few points to consider. • Too often the image of a pastor is built around a “leader-executive” role, but not that of a shepherd. The pastor is expected to focused on getting butts … Continue reading →
You may not be familiar with the term “spiritual self-care” so I am going to give you some definition. First, “spiritual” means that element that is non-material in the holistic understanding of man as body, mind, and spirit. The spiritual aspect of our being that is most recognized with the religious that reaches beyond ourselves to a higher existence and … Continue reading →
One of the saddest things for me to witness is a person who is nearing the end of their days without any spiritual strength to draw from. It’s something I’ve seen many times in my pastoral and hospital chaplaincy ministry. An individual is facing death but having no spiritual strength in them their emotional stress is compounded with spiritual distress. … Continue reading →
Here in America, we have close to 50,000 people a year who die by suicide. The majority of whom were struggling with a mental illness, either a diagnosed condition or acknowledged depression. Think of this, a person has to be in a very low state of mind to actually take their own life. So whether a person is on mental … Continue reading →