Melissa Gepford
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Ministerio Del Cuidado Congreg – (Spanish)
$24.99Add to cartAprenda a desarrollar, implementar y sostener un ministerio de cuidado congregacional en su iglesia, sin importar el tamao, su forma o a la denominacion a la cual pertenezca.
Los pastores y lideres de la iglesia realmente quieren cuidar a las personas en sus congregaciones y comunidades. No obstante, ellos no pueden cuidar a una iglesia por si solos. Ademas, la mayoria del liderato laico no tiene la capacitacion requerida para ejercer este ministerio de cuidado. El Ministerio del Cuidado Congregacional es un modelo del cuidado de persona a persona, el cual su efectividad ha sido comprobada en iglesias pequeas y grandes en los EE. UU. Es un ministerio centrado en el servicio del laicado. Estos lideres reciben una capacitacion rigurosa, y luego son comisionados para servir como ministros del cuidado congregacional (MCC), para brindar el cuidado en sus congregaciones y comunidades extendidas. Este notable enfoque del cuidado congregacional fue primeramente desarrollado, por la autora, Karen Lampe, junto con su equipo, en la Iglesia Metodista Unida de la Resurreccion, en Kansas City. El mismo ha sido probado, refinado y fortalecido, y ahora se esta adaptando a todo tipo de contextos congregacionales. Una de las primeras adaptadoras de este modelo fue la coautora, Melissa Gepford, quien desarrollo un Ministerio del Cuidado Congregacional en su iglesia rural. Juntas han creado esta guia, inmensamente practica, para cualquier pastor/pastora o lider que busque desarrollar un Ministerio del Cuidado Congregacional. Este libro presenta el modelo de ministerio, y explica los cinco pasos esenciales que establecen el fundamento para el ministerio. Es extremadamente practico, lleno de listas de verificacion y otras herramientas para ayudar a los pastores y a otros lideres a comprender (y explicar) esta forma de brindar el cuidado congregacional. El libro tambien incluye una seccion enfocada en el componente vital de este ministerio: el ministro/la ministra del cuidado congregacional, o el/la MCC. Esta seccion describe completamente las caracteristicas de los MCC, tales como: reclutar personas para este ministerio; como discernir quienes son los candidatos idoneos para el ministerio, y como llevar a cabo la capacitacion de los MCC durante un periodo de varias semanas. Detalla, ademas, informacion importante que los MCC deben saber y los comportamientos y habitos que deben practicar para ser efectivos en el desempeo del ministerio.
Learn to build, launch, and sust
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Concise Guide For Congregational Care
$14.99Add to cartAn essential resource for pastors, care ministers, chaplains, and anyone else who provides spiritual care for people in hospital, hospice, or home settings.
A key feature of The Concise Guide for Congregational Care is its rich assortment of prayers, scripture passages, and other brief readings for spiritual caregivers to use on-the-spot. These are arranged topically, so that caregivers can quickly find the right words to share in each situation. The book also includes important procedures and protocols for providing spiritual care, talking points for particularly challenging circumstances, and links to other helpful resources.
The Concise Guide is based on resources developed at Abingdon Press for use in congregations as part of a comprehensive congregational care ministry. Those resources equip pastors and others to develop, launch, and sustain a congregational care ministry, and to train volunteer care ministers. (See The Congregational Care Ministry: Implementation Guide, and The Congregational Care Ministry: Care Minister’s Manual, by Karen Lampe and Melissa Gepford, and www.thecaringcongregation.com.) The Concise Guide is a take-along resource for care ministers of all types to use while they are providing care. It supplies the essential information and words needed for a variety of care situations, in a format that is easy and appropriate to pull from a bag or pocket at the bedside or other intimate setting.
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Caring Congregation Ministry
$19.99Add to cartPastors and congregations everywhere yearn to care for others, especially those who are suffering from loss or pain of any kind. But pastors cannot care for an entire church, and laity typically don’t have the training to do it. The Caring Congregation Ministry is a model for ministry that’s been proven to work in small and large churches across the U.S. It is a laity-centered ministry, where laypersons receive rigorous training and then are commissioned to serve as Congregational Care Ministers, caring for one another, for their own congregation.
This remarkable approach to congregational care was first developed by author Karen Lampe and her team at The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection, in Kansas City. It has been tested, refined, and strengthened, and is now being adapted in all sorts of congregational settings. One early adapter was co-author Melissa Gepford, who launched a Caring Congregation Ministry in her own rural church. Karen and Melissa have partnered to share this immensely practical guide for any pastor or leader seeking to create a version of this ministry in their own church.
This Implementation Guide is the main book for getting started. It introduces the ministry model and explains the Five Essentials which form the ministry’s foundation. It is extremely practical, full of checklists and other tools to help pastors and other leaders understand (and explain) this way of providing congregational care.
The Implementation Guide also includes a section focused on the crucial component of this ministry–the Congregational Care Minister, or CCM. This section fully describes the characteristics of CCM’s, how to recruit people to this ministry, how to discern if candidates are a good fit, and how to conduct the CCM training over a multi-week period. It details the critical information CCM’s must know, and the behaviors and habits they must practice in order to be effective.
Note that the companion book, The Caring Congregation Ministry: Care Minister’s Manual, is required for the CCM training. It serves as a training workbook, which then becomes the CCM’s personal reference manual.
The Implementation Guide closes with thoughtful and immediately helpful chapters full of information on situations involving special care, including personal crisis and trauma, community trauma, mental illness, recovery/addiction, and important considerations for doing this ministry in times of social distancing.
This book provides ev