| No volume of this size can do more than begin the process of describing the varying
and complex images of caregiving: the warm and spiritually led volunteers who
gather around someone who needs an assist; the family caregivers who put aside
their own immediate needs to lovingly support a spouse or partner, parent or
child through difficult times; the congregation that must first look within
and accept the vulnerability of its own members before beginning a caregiving
ministry within its own walls.
These few pages can impart only a portion of the thought and experience
that under-girds the caregiving movement. It can share only a few of the
examples and models that have emerged.
Caring and caregiving are concepts that are at once both simple and universal,
varied and intricate. The simplicity derives from the very human and elemental
need to care and be cared for. The complexities arise from that same core
and the multifaceted dynamics of the relationships between the people involved.
In the first section, The Changing Context of Caregiving, we see that family
caregiving largely affects women. We read that changing demographics in both
church and society have created an environment in which new modes of compassionate
care are required. We then learn of the evolution of care team ministry,
from tentative and scattered responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic to a widely
accepted new model for congregational caregiving for persons facing a wide
variety of needs.
Moving on, we are privileged to be able to reprint "Congregational
Caregiving" by Earl E. Shelp and Ronald H. Sunderland (chapter one
in their foundational work, Sustaining Presence: A Model of Caring by
People of Faith, Abingdon, 2000). The authors' premise is that "to
be church requires caregiving" (p. 11). Nevertheless, the contemporary
church often finds itself challenged to provide more than pastoral calls,
prayer and the occasional covered dish when members find themselves in situations
of short-term health-related crisis. When the condition becomes chronic and
long-term, few know how to respond. Increasingly, parishioners turn to paid
professionals rather than to their faith community. While there are cultural
reasons for both members' reluctance to ask for help and congregations' hesitation
to offer it, the authors suggest that the underlying problem is that most
congregations do not have in place a ministry specifically designed to respond
to the needs of the people who are chronically ill or severely disabled among
their membership.
Growing out of their experience of developing congregationally-based care
teams in Houston, in response to the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, the authors
go on to develop a significant rationale for an inclusive care team ministry
in response to a variety of life-challenging needs. They write,
Congregations in most instances are not gifted to meet all the needs of
a member or family in crisis. But, without exception, congregations are
gifted to be a sustaining presence in solidarity with broken people, bearing
their
burdens with them …. We are excited about and in awe of the care
that congregations give when their gifts for caregiving are discovered
and nurtured.
(p.26)
The balance of their book and the balance of this issue of Church & Society serve
to tell the story of and provide resources for congregational care team ministry.
Thus, Biblical and Theological Resources for Care Team Ministry constructs
a biblical and theological framework for the Christian call to care through
a program of congregational care teams. The importance of the "spiritual
center" in one's sense of health and wholeness, particularly
when the role of caregiver suddenly becomes a major part of one's life
pattern, is also discussed. While we learn ways in which caregiving can take
a toll on the caregiver, we also find suggestions for both personal and congregational
support—support that can extend the energy and commitment of both
primary caregivers and the care team volunteers who assist them.
As Shelp and Sunderland suggest, congregations are not always prepared—theologically
or organizationally—to provide intentional and compassionate care
to their members with chronic health needs. As we read in the story of McKinley
Memorial Presbyterian Church ("Learning the Ministry of Care" by
Laura Aull Johnston), persons who have spent their lives thinking of themselves
as strong, capable and called to give to and care for others, the shift to
needing support and assistance is psychologically very difficult. Likewise,
a congregation that has focused its ministry outward has challenges when
it tries to provide a more intentional program of care of its own members.
Some 50 years ago, sociologist, Dr. Talcott Parsons, suggested that there
was a self-assumed negative connotation surrounding the state of not being
well (The Social System, Free Press, 1951). Those who are in need of care
feel or are seen as helpless or incompetent or even as having abdicated or
evaded societal responsibility. Such deeply held perceptions lie at the core
of the challenges congregations face.
How does all this impact congregational caregiving? It alerts congregations
to ready themselves for the eventuality that some members will need caregiving,
to be certain to integrate a simple mechanism for access to the care team
into the other ministries of the church, and, to recognize that care team
members may have to take initiative, gently, to identify persons among their
members who might benefit from the program of intentional caregiving. It
also reinforces the need for those who become care partners to be treated
with respect and dignity, assured of their continued viability and autonomy
through both language and team actions.
While some congregations struggle, others have met the challenge of organizing
and providing care through a variety of means. Through the Stories of Congregational
Caregiving provided here, we glimpse many facets of care team ministry—in
urban centers and semi-rural communities, in congregations large and small,
in collaborative programs that bring the resources of several congregations
together, in programs that address a particular disease and those that prepare
teams to be flexible.
Building on this montage, the next section The Presbyterian Care Team Community:
Encircling Care outlines the emerging denominational emphasis on the care
team approach to caregiving ministry. The method as well as specific materials
and resources that congregations can access to help with care team development
are described.
Finally, to fully complete the circle of care requires something more:
vigilance and the historic Presbyterian sense of social justice. At times,
and for some, the most effective way to demonstrate care is to serve as an
advocate. Where Do We Go from Here? includes basic information for those
who are willing to become advocates, as well as health- and caregiving-related
topics that will need our attention and advocacy in the months and years
to come.
Welcome to this issue of Church & Society—and welcome
to the ministry of compassionate caring through care team ministry. We hope
that these materials
stimulate your thoughts and creativity, and move you to expand your personal
and congregational approach to caregiving. |
