Images That Heal
In a conversation recently, Howard Clinebell, professor of psychology and pastoral counseling in California at the School of Theology at Claremont, told us that most people with religious backgrounds store away powerful images which can have a healing influence on a person’s inner life.
Thus, in his counseling sessions Clinebell will sometimes ask, “Now, in your own words, why don’t you tell me your favorite Bible story.” This brings out of the person “living images” that obviously have some importance attached to them-otherwise they would have been forgotten.
If Clinebell hears the counselee reveal an image which might be therapeutic to whatever ailment he or she is experiencing, he may ask the person to meditate on that image, first in the counseling session and then later at home.
“If, for instance, I am counseling someone who feels bound emotionally or mentally, and that person vividly recalls the Old Testament story of the Jews’ exodus from Egypt, I will suggest that the person play the story through his mind, put himself into the action, and finally relate it to his own experience.” Clinebell has seen more than one person who has been helped to gain release from various sources of captivity by meditating on this image of deliverance.
The counselor remembers another time when, by recalling details of the story about the prodigal son, a person received healing strength for a problem that was a direct result of unresolved adolescent rebellion. The New Testament parables, the Cross, the Resurrection-each have provided healing images and symbols in Clinebell’s counseling sessions.
“Of course, it’s not the images that do the healing,” Clinebell says, “but the images help people open up to the Holy Spirit, who then does the healing.”
Clinebell never prescribes from his own experience a story, image, or symbol to his clients because “each image has to come out of the client’s experience. A living symbol to me might be a dead one to someone else. The counselor’s task is to help the client reach deep into his memory and recall his own meaningful images.”
Improving Each Visit
In an effort to give more structure and meaning to visitation of the elderly, a church in Minnesota encourages its volunteers to fill out personal evaluation forms after each visit.
The Befrienders, a group of elderly people who visit other senior citizens, operates out of St. William’s Catholic Church in Fridley.
Two forms are used: Processing My Visit, and Thirty-one-Day Inventory.
The first form features six questions, one to be answered before each visit, the other five to be answered after each visit:
1. What do you know about the person you are visiting? Program director Ruth Smith says, “This forces volunteers to sit down, consider the needs of the person they’re about to visit, and decide how they might be able to exercise their gifts in helping that person.”
2. What did you observe about the person regarding dress, attitude, mood, surroundings, etc? “This helps the volunteers recall and examine details that may be useful in discerning needs of people they visit in the future. For instance, if a person is dressed in a bathrobe in the afternoon, and all the drapes are drawn, it’s a good clue that he or she may be suffering from depression, fear, or withdrawal from life in general. By observing this, the visitor will be more prepared next time. “
3. What was the significant part of the visit? “Often we find that the original reason for the visit was not even close to what the real needs of the person visited were. Thus we encourage the befrienders especially to remember how the real needs were uncovered.”
4. How did you react to things that were shared during the visit? “Sometimes the person being visited will share something that triggers an emotional response to a problem the befriender has not yet worked through (such as the death of a spouse). Answering this question allows the befriender to sit down, identify feelings, write them down, share them with other befrienders, and be ready in case the same thing happens another time.”
5. How did I minister to the person, and how did he or she minister to me? “This is simply a time of evaluation, an opportunity to record tangible results of the visit.”
6. If you visit this person again (or someone with similar needs), what would you do differently?
The second form is a more specific daily inventory of how the befriender reacts to people in the visits. One side of the page features a column called “Liabilities x .” The other side features one entitled “Assets + .” Between the columns are squares for each day of a 31-day period. After each visit the befriender scans the lists of liabilities and assets and indicates with an x or + whether he exhibited suspicion or trust, fear or acceptance, dominance or cooperation, etc.
“The Befrienders have been very good about answering all the questions honestly,” Smith says. “They have a vision for helping other senior citizens and they aren’t afraid of making mistakes. They understand that the evaluation forms are for their own benefit.”
Illustration Length
Most experienced preachers agree that long drawn-out sermon illustrations detract from the points of the sermon. But when does an illustration get too long? Haddon W. Robinson, president of Denver Conservative Baptist Seminary, gives us these clues:
“In regard to length, illustrations fit into two general categories: 1) the full-blown story, and 2) the specific instance (usually only a sentence or two in length).
“In oral discourse, the amount of time spent on a point is a major way of emphasizing that point. Sermon outlines include major points and subpoints. When I’m illustrating a major point I need a full-blown story. When I’m illustrating a subpoint I need a short, specific example.
“For instance: I might say, ‘Up in New England there is a rustic, ivy-covered church that was built in the late seventeen hundreds. In the bell tower there is a bell the church brought over from England. The church, old and stately, is a local landmark; it is known to everyone in town. Yet, every Sunday the warden of the church rings the bell to call everyone to worship.’ This would be an example of the full-blown illustration.
“If I wanted to use the same illustration to support a subpoint in my sermon, I would say, ‘A stately old church doesn’t stop ringing its bell and calling its people to worship just because everyone in town knows the church is there.’ “
Robinson’s point of view suggests that a sermon should never have more lengthy illustrations than it has major points to cover. So the question, “When does an illustration get too long?” is not so much a matter of length as it is one of frequency. If you have three major points in your sermon, and you use five full-blown illustrations, your sermon may be unnecessarily long.
Robinson adds, “More preachers lose effectiveness because they preach too long, than because they preach too short.”
Church Over A Garage
The Arlington Temple Methodist Church, Arlington, Virginia, occupies the upper level of a gas station. It leases the downstairs to an oil company.
“We moved here from the banks of the Potomac River so we could have a direct ministry to urban and commercial Arlington,” says Jack Sawyer, pastor.
During the week, the church provides space for a community counseling service, a Catholic university and Alcoholics Anonymous. “We wanted to show people God exists in the concrete jungle too,” says Sawyer.
Shortly after the church purchased the building, the oil company rented the downstairs for two cents per gallon of gasoline sold. Now it pays the church a flat monthly rate. The revenue allows the church to provide free space for the community groups.
The church has a good relationship with the gas station manager and employees. During the last energy crisis, the manager opened the station specially for church members after each Sunday morning service. The station attendants send people up to Sawyer for counseling during the week.
Previously, the church had used a lumberyard, a school, and a local hotel. Now, after ten years of this facility arrangement, Sawyer believes the church has found a home.
A Good Setting For Pastoral Counseling
“What kind of office setting works for you in counseling?” was the question LEADERSHIP asked a number of pastoral counselors. We discovered the following:
¥ Each pastor used the words “professional,” “neat,” “clean,” and “uncluttered” to describe the type of setting needed for effective counseling.
¥ Most of the pastors said “a living-room setting” sets people at ease and is good for communication. Three or four comfortable chairs placed in a circle around a coffee table was preferred by some.
¥ Most of the pastors said that an unnecessary number of books makes the office look too busy and cluttered. However, one pastor felt that a few books pertinent to pastoral counseling can look professional.
¥ Each pastor agreed that table lamps are good because they help create an atmosphere of warmth. Fluorescent lights, according to several pastors, are cold and sterile.
¥ All the pastors said that communication usually is poor when counseling from behind a desk. “Anything put between you and the counselee is not good,” said one pastor. Another said, however, that it’s all right to use a desk when you’re counseling young people. “Desks can convey authority,” he said, “and young people often listen better to an authoritative figure. Ninety percent of the time, though, physical closeness is better.”
¥ Two pastors felt that their personal appearance was important in counseling sessions. One said, “How would you feel if you went to a medical clinic, and the doctor came out in last Saturday’s golf shirt? You’d be less likely to view this person as a professional.” The other pastor said, “I try not to look too businesslike. I never wear a three-piece suit; I usually wear a conservative sport coat and tie, but I never open my shirt and loosen the tie.”
¥ Pictures and wall-hangings convey warmth and. calmness, according to the pastors. Landscape scenes of water and/or mountains were preferred, as were wall tapestries with warm colors.
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