Pastoral Care

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Veterans - Prayer Requests

These prayer requests are provided as many voices are calling for the church to be a significant partner in the complex readjustment process of returning home for military veterans.

July 12, 2011
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Veterans Resource Guide

These resources focus on PTSD as a result of combat or military exposure. Many voices are calling for the church to be a significant partner in the complex readjustment process of returning home.

June 27, 2011
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Veterans - Websites

These congregational resources are provided as many voices are calling for the church to be a significant partner in the complex readjustment process of returning home for military veterans.

June 27, 2011

Leadership in Times of Change

Change is always happening in the church, whether we like it or not! The challenge for leaders is to manage that change in ways that lead to greater health in their congregations, rather than conflict and discontent.

April 6, 2011
Worship Resources in Times of Natural Disasters

Many of these resources, initially created for an immediate response to specific events, may be adapted or may help provide ideas for similar resources for other natural disasters or for services remembering these events.

March 16, 2011

Healing and Worship

The season of Lent is a good time to be intentional about incorporating prayers for healing into worship and to offer a special service of prayers for healing and restoration.

March 10, 2011
Jubilee: Reflections

This was a handout at one of two plenary sampler sessions that introduced several of the leaders at the Calvin Symposium on Worship and the Arts on Friday, January 14, 2000.

February 24, 2011
Coop's Column - Risen Indeed

"On the third day he arose again from the dead." Simple words often capture life's most profound and important truths the best. How better, therefore, for Christians to make their most astonishing declaration about Jesus Christ than by this direct, unadorned, and so forthrightly clear confession?

February 11, 2011

How Communion Trains Us in God’s Hospitality

The more that you experience God’s grace through the sacraments and in ordinary life, the more attention you’ll pay to who’s not at the Lord’s Table.

February 7, 2011
Hospitality as Paying Attention

Randy Smit sees all of life as a gift and the Lord’s Table as the “quintessential place for experiencing the hospitality of Christ. And so who’s at the table becomes pretty significant.” He suggests focusing less on “fencing the table,” more on opening it to children or others who may be left out.

February 7, 2011
Coop's Column - So Marred, So Beautiful

Their suffering Savior’s immense love for them, far beyond their mind’s feeble ability to grasp or comprehend, now prompts Christians to worship him

January 14, 2011