Since beginning Seminary I have come to find out just how key and central pastoral care is to my ministry. During my time as a Chaplain Intern at Hershey Medical Center I was given glimpses into the lives of such a variety of people all in different stages of life, of living, and of dying.
After completing my Clinical Pastoral Education I began a spiritual practice on Mondays that identifies me as a clergy person. You see I choose to wear a clerical collar, you know the black collar with the little white square, so that others can identify me as a clergy person, whatever that might mean to them. Each Monday I don my collar and walk out into the world, running errands, doing some work at the coffee shop and just being present in a world full of pain.
There are people in the world who see the collar as a sign of oppression from their religious past, and there are others who see it as salvation. I have ministered with people in the spaghetti sauce isle, I have counseled a single mother with a screaming toddler, I have prayed with a homeless family in the drug store parking lot.
People see my collar and come looking for blessings and grace, but what they don’t know is that I wear the collar because I am seeking blessings and grace by being asked to serve them.
Continuing into my parish ministry internship it was my pastoral care skills that really helped me to be trusted quickly in my congregations. Pastoral care is more than visiting someone in the hospital, it is truly listening when someone is talking, it is taking a moment to be present with those who need it, it is finding the unusual inflection in someone’s voice and knowing that they really are not ok.
Pastoral care cannot end with the minister. A church is nothing without a congregation, and it is that family of people who are needed to sustain one another both in times of struggle and in times of joy. As the minister, I would work with a team of lay people who are interested in providing pastoral care, give them the training they need to be successful, and help support them when needed. Pastoral care is something we must do together because it allows us to be broken with one another so that we don’t have to pick up the pieces alone.
This is a video I made while I was away at a minister’s conference. The hashtag #MeToo surfaced while I was away and my heart was calling me to connect with my beloveds.