Clergy Burnout: Recovering from the 70-Hour Work Week... and Other Self-Defeating Practices

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Fortress Press - Religion - 147 pages
In this highly accessible book, Fred Lehr clarifies the nature and practice of clergy codependence. In twenty-two, short, insightful, and highly readable chapters, filled with many examples and stories from his own life and those of others he has counseled, Lehr identifies the typical forms codependence takes in the life and ministry of clergy: (1) the chief-enabler, the one who keeps things functioning; (2) the scapegoat, the one on whom everything's blamed when it goes wrong, the one who's responsible; (3) the hero, the example, the pure and righteous one; (4) the lost child, the one no one really knows or cares about; (5) the rescuer, the one who saves the day, makes the visit, fixes the problem, makes everything all right again; (6) the mascot, the cheerleader, the one who offers comic relief, brings down the tension level after a heated discussion.
 

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Contents

Painful Pastoring
3
Signs of Trouble
4
A Scenario
6
Burnout and Codependence
10
Defining Codependence
11
Rules and Roles of Codependence
12
More Characteristics of Codependence
17
Personalities and Codependence
20
An Open Future
65
The Gospel and Recovery from Codependence
66
Developing Spiritual Maturity
68
Discipleship
70
TransitionTransformation
72
Life in the Spirit
73
Spiritual Life Survey
75
Regaining Balance
83

Understanding Personalities and Temperaments
21
Guilty Gus
22
By the Book
23
Gotta Be Right
24
Temperament Characteristics and Boundaries
25
The Church and Codependence
29
The Codependency Graph
30
Interdependence
32
Hidden Codependence
33
Hopelessness
35
Codependency
36
Moving from Codependence to Interdependence
38
Movement to Hidden Codependence
40
Movement to Hopelessness
42
Moving to Interdependence
45
The Institutionalization of Codependence
47
Holiness and Spirituality
48
The Holy Person
50
The Clergyperson as Holy Person
51
From Extradependence to Intradependence
52
From Extradependence to Codependence
53
Some Spiritual Issues
55
Becoming GospelCentered
61
Good News
62
Unconditional Love
63
Advocacy
89
Wholeness
93
A Balanced Life Checklist
96
Stretching and Bridging
98
Stretching
99
Bridging
101
Knowing the Boundaries
103
Do No Harm
104
Definitions and Specific Issues
106
Confidentiality
107
Role Considerations
108
Time Spent with Parishioners
109
Place and Space
110
Money and Gifts
111
Language
112
Summary
113
Boundaries Checklist
114
Becoming Empowered
118
Choosing Our Power Currencies
120
Embracing Empowerment
123
UnTrashing the Temple
124
Personal Assessment
128
Study Guides
135
Notes
145
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