SELF CARE, THE FOUNDATION OF ALL MEMBER CARE
Self Care Assessment Instruments
Self-Care Assessment created by Cross Cultural Teams
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Webinar on Self Care: Is self care important? Is it biblical? Is it selfish? Missionary and counselor Amy Newsome answers these questions and more in her excellent seminar, which she has presented many times at missionary gatherings. She encourages us to view self care as stewardship; as fuel for the marathon of change we are currently running together.
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Articles on Self Care
Soul Care: A guided and deep interaction with the song, "We Will Feast In The House of Zion" by Sandra McCraken
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Helpful Books on Self Care
A Praying Life: Connecting With God In A Distracting World Author Paul Miller shares his insights and conclusions about how to connect the broken pieces of your life and allow prayer—even poorly delivered—to fill the gaps with meaning and substance. Miller's down-to-earth approach and practical nature will help you see that your relationship with God can grow and your communication with Him can get better.
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Abba's Child: The Cry of the Heart for Intimate Belonging: Is an impostor robbing you of God’s love?
We’ve bought into the lie that we are worthy of God’s love only when our lives are going well. If our families are happy or our jobs are meaningful, life is a success. But when life begins to fall through the cracks and embarrassing sins threaten to reveal our less-than-perfect identity, we scramble to keep up a good front to present to the world—and to God. We hide until we can rearrange the mask of perfection. Sadly, it is then that we wonder why we lack intimate relationships and a passionate faith. Brennan Manning encourages us to let go of the impostor lifestyle and freely accept our belovedness as a child of the heavenly Father. In Him there is life. |
Beyond Duct Tape: Holding the Heart Together in a Life of Ministry - In Beyond Duct Tape, you will read about others' journey in this unique calling and discover that you are not alone. In these pages, you will not find a list of what you are supposed to do and how you should do it. Instead, you will find tools and stories to help you experience freedom in Christ - even freedom in ministry! Freedom to be who God designed you to be, freedom to love boldly and passionately, and freedom to serve in a way that deeply trusts God's love for you, your family, and your church.
Invitations from God: Accepting God's Offer to Rest, Weep, Forgive, Wait, Remember and More: Adele Calhoun, author of the popular Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, offers a book about invitations like these—divine invitations we miss or ignore because we've said yes to going with the cultural flow. While these invitations from God can sometimes be difficult to accept, they can heal and restore even as they shape where we go, what we do and who we become. What we say yes to, what we say no to forms the terrain of our future. Included in this book are reflection questions and exercises as well as overview charts with recommended disciplines to guide you through each theme. As you attend to the often hidden, quiet voice of the Great Inviter, you will find yourself as God created you to be. J Curve: Dying and Rising with Jesus in Everyday Life: Life's inconveniences, disappointments, and trials can leave us confused, cynical and eventually bitter. But the apostle Paul traces out the path of dying and rising with Jesus--what Paul Miller calls the "J-Curve"--as the normal Christian life. The J-Curve maps the ups and downs of daily life onto the story of Jesus. It grounds our journeys not in some abstract idea but in union with Christ and his work of love. Understanding our lives in light of the J-Curve roots our hope, centers our love, and tethers our faith to Christ. In this FREE live webinar, Paul Miller, author of J-Curve: Dying and Rising with Jesus in Everyday Life, will help you understand: https://serge.org/webinar/dying-and-rising-with-jesus-in-everyday-life. |
Life of the Beloved: Recommended by Missionary Training International as a key book for soul care. Initially written for a Jewish friend, Life of the Beloved has become Henri Nouwen’s greatest legacy to Christians around the world. This sincere testimony of the power and invitation of Christ is indeed a great guide to a truly uplifting spiritual life in today’s world.
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Resilient Ministry: Recommended by MTW Missionary and Counselor, Kiki Adams. What does it take to have fruitful ministry over the long haul? The authors undertook a five-year in-depth research project among working pastors. The authors uncover five key themes that promote healthy, sustainable ministry that lasts--spiritual formation, self-care, emotional and cultural intelligence, marriage and family, leadership and management.
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The Inner Voice of Love: Recommended in the "Life Overseas" blog. This is Henri Nouwen's "secret journal." It was written during the most difficult period of his life, when he suddenly lost his self-esteem, his energy to live and work, his sense of being loved, even his hope in God. Although he experienced excruciating anguish and despair, he was still able to keep a journal in which he wrote a spiritual imperative to himself each day that emerged from his conversations with friends and supporters.
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Spiritual Disciplines Handbook: Practices that Transform Us In Spiritual Disciplines Handbook Adele Calhoun gives us directions for our continuing journey toward intimacy with Christ. While the word discipline may make us want to run and hide, the author shows how desires and discipline work together to lead us to the transformation we're longing for―the transformation only Christ can bring.
The Gospel Centered Life: Lots of Christians talk about the gospel, but how many really understand the gospel and know how to apply it to their lives? Featuring nine self-contained lessons with discussion questions, articles, practical exercises, and comprehensive leader s notes in the back, The Gospel-Centered Life helps participants understand how the gospel shapes every aspect of life. |
The Soul of Shame: Retelling the Stories We Believe About Ourselves: We're all infected with a spiritual disease. Its name is shame. Whether we realize it or not, shame affects every aspect of our personal lives and vocational endeavors. It seeks to destroy our identity in Christ, replacing it with a damaged version of ourselves that results in unhealed pain and brokenness. But God is telling a different story for your life. Psychiatrist Curt Thompson unpacks the soul of shame, revealing its ubiquitous nature and neurobiological roots. He also provides the theological and practical tools necessary to dismantle shame, based on years of researching its damaging effects and counseling people to overcome those wounds. Rewrite the story of your life and embrace healing and wholeness as you discover and defeat shame's insidious agenda.
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Abide in Christ: A 31-Day Devotional for Fellowship with Jesus: Here are thirty-one heart-warming readings that show you how to live daily in closer communion and fellowship with Jesus. In just five minutes each day, Abide In Christ will be sure to bless and encourage you as fall in love with Jesus as He is revealed to us throughout Scripture. And, in so doing, you will better understand the benefits and blessings of Abiding in Him, and all the blessings that entails as you continue your walk of faith.
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Events and Programs to enhance Self Care
Battle for the Heart, Wellspring International: Brian Deringer, MTW Dir of member care has done their training and speaks very highly of it. Wellspring Group is broken-and-beloved men and women who are seeing God redeem their stories, individually and collectively, through the grace of the Gospel. We are experiencing the joy and the disruption of living from our whole hearts and discovering our part in God's eternal, larger love story. We are being changed – so much so that we can’t help inviting, inspiring, and equipping other people to join us, so that they, too, may increasingly become who God created them to be. We believe that if it has happened for us, it can happen for you, too.
Journey Resources, the Soul Care Project: The SoulCare Project is dedicated to providing culture shapers and influencers intentional space for rest and communion with Christ. Our desire is to provide a safe place to experience the quiet assurance of God’s love without becoming over-worked, exhausted, and burnt out. The majority of this vision is been accomplished by exposing people to the significance of Spiritual Formation and Soul Care, and by providing retreats with an opportunity to set aside the busy and productive life in order to listen and hear God through stillness.
Pathway Learning: For most aspiring church leaders around the world, a high quality, seminary-level education is out of reach. They lack the training and tools to develop churches that transform lives and have a lasting impact on their communities. Using an innovative online and onsite platform, we can now bring affordable, practical, seminary-level courses to students where they live, in their language, and adapted to their culture. We are launching pilot courses in 2017 for under-resourced church leaders in North America, West Africa, East Asia, and Western Europe. And we're looking for partners to help us bring this solution to more than two million church leaders in the next ten years.
Parakaleo: By training, supporting and encouraging women in church planting we create a virtuous cycle of health, joy, community and education. These women replicate their training by teaching others and pouring these truths back into their home church. Couples have a high success rate for the survival of their church and marriage when both are trained and coached.
Serge (formerly known as World Harvest, authors of Sonship Mentoring): Movements of grace reaching all people, renewing all believers, and restoring all things for the world’s good and God’s glory.
TOOLS TO ASSIST YOU IN SELF-CARE
Community Bible Reading: The CBR Journal was created in 2012. It was designed to help the members of one small congregation in their desire to meet with God privately through His Word and connect with one another in His Word. Based on the effectiveness of the tool in the lives of individuals, The CBR Journal began to spread in a viral fashion around the globe. Our current focus is on equipping leaders who desire to be used by God to create a viral culture of Gospel-Centered, Spirit-Led, Inter-dependent Daily Bible Reading in their Community. Not only do we train leaders in how to provide our Workshops to their community, we also coach leaders as they look to permeate their community with The CBR Journal.
Well Watered Women: Our mission is to equip women to know Christ fully through the Word of God and apply the glory of the gospel to everyday life. Through creating Bible study tools, we aim to sharpen women’s focus, mission, and purpose as we set our eyes on Jesus. We believe that putting the Word before the world will arm women with what they need to live life from a place of victory and abundance through Jesus.