Courageous Conversations

Courageous Conversations is designed to assist with the complexities of pastoral supervision in a variety of settings, such as local congregations, seminary programs of field education, clinical pastoral education, clinical training of spiritual directors and certified pastoral counselors, and more. The preparation and training of supervisors is diverse and often learned through "on-the-job-training." This book draws on a wide variety of experienced supervisors in clinical pastoral education to seminary faculty members. The topics covered in the book address very pragmatic aspects of supervision, for pastors in local congregations who supervise seminary interns to well-developed theoretical aspects of supervisory education that are utilized in clinical pastoral education. Readers of this book will benefit from theoretical viewpoints as well as practical hands-on application to their ministry. Special attention is given to the task, purpose, and methods of pastoral supervision, and helpful suggestions are provided for working with important issues such as pastoral identity, skill development, attending to ethics, postmodernism, gender, sexuality and more.

William R. DeLong, Ed.D., is director of Spiritual Care Services at Advocate BroMenn Healthcare in Bloomington, Illinois. DeLong is a certified ACPE supervisor and an APC Board Certified Chaplain. He is ordained in the Presbyterian Church, USA.