Beyond Church Walls: Cultivating a Culture of Care - Softcover

Rouse, Dr. Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1451490348 ISBN 13: 9781451490343

Publisher: Fortress Press, 2016

Synopsis

Pastoral care has been traditionally understood as pastoral acts administered to individuals or small groups by an ordained or lay religious practitioner. As congregations in the twenty-first century begin to reclaim the missional nature of church, this view must be broadened to include care and concern for the needs of the larger community. A missional perspective of pastoral care embraces the notion that all of God's peoplenot just trained professionalsare called to partner in the healing and redemption of the world.

In Beyond Church Walls, Rick Rouse sets out to articulate precisely what such an approach to pastoral care looks likeand the substantial impact it can have on congregations and communities. A skilled teacher and pastor with deep experience in real communities, Rouse leads readers through the changing realities of the twenty-first century and to new ways for missional churches to succeed in offering pastoral care for the whole community.

About this title

About the Author

Rick Rouse is an ELCA pastor, having served congregations in Arizona, California, Washington, and Oregon. He has also served as executive director for church relations and continuing theological education at Pacific Lutheran University for twelve years. The author of several books, Rouse has also appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show and has had his story of forgiveness and healing reported in USA Today, Reader's Digest, and The Lutheran.

Review

"What often passes for ‘pastoral care’ in many churches is a degradation of truly, peculiarly, mission-driven pastoral care. Rick Rouse connects our care with our leadership of a church that realizes we can only be faithful by being the church beyond the walls of the church, joining in Christ's active embrace of his beloved Creation. Rouse calls us forward to truly Christian pastoral care." --Will Willimon, Duke Divinity School

"Rick Rouse is a vibrant, transformative, resilient, and evangelical leader whose rich life experience and passion for the church oozes through the pages of this book and its helpful appendices. Knowing that the church is called, in the name of Jesus, to heal and bless the whole world, Rouse makes the theological case for congregations to turn their focus outward and to invest their energies in raising up and deploying people rather than maintaining programs. Congregations who are able to replicate the culture of care put forward by Rouse will discover they truly have become authentic communities who think like Jesus, love like Jesus, and act like Jesus." --Rick Barger, President, Trinity Lutheran Seminary

"Rick Rouse not only calls congregations to move into Christ's mission, he provides examples and strategies that really work! Discipleship is both an individual and community process that revitalizes Christ's church and Rouse provides a path for vital ministry." --Michael W. Foss, Pastor, St. Mark Lutheran Church, West Des Moines, Iowa

About this edition

• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1451490348
• ISBN 13: 9781451490343
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 188