Concise Guide for Congregational Care, The

An 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.