Category: self-care

The Leadership Journey Podcast: Portstewart Keswick special edition

Posted on by jsalanwilson in burnout, Christian leaders, Christian leadership, church leadership, church ministry, Podcast, self-care

Last week Pauline and I had the opportunity to share some thoughts on ministry resilience in the context of a leadership seminar at the Keswick at Portstewart Convention. The overall theme of the convention week was unshakable and the week featured some outstanding Bible teaching from Gilbert Lennox on Daniel, and from Jonathan Thomas and Andrew Ollerton on Romans.

In keeping with the overall theme (and with a little nod to James Bond) we called our seminar, Shaken but still Standing. Our presentation took the form of a conversation that we built around a structure that Pauline developed. If you want a quick takeaway, we start with the reminder that we are disciples and followers before we are leaders, and this means learning to walk with Jesus, which in turn means RELATIONSHIP, REST, and ROOTEDNESS.

Here is a link to a PDF of the slides we used during the seminar:

keswick-portstewart-2023-shaken-but-still-standing-1Download

The Leadership Journey Podcast: Debbie Hawker on Resilience

Posted on by jsalanwilson in books, leadership, Podcast, self-care

This week’s guest on the podcast is Dr Debbie Hawker. Debbie is a clinical psychologist who works along with her husband, Dr David Hawker, to support mission partners and humanitarian workers. Their work includes providing assessments and reviews as well as retreats and training. The organisations she has worked with include Tearfund, Latin Links, Interserve and YWAM. Debbie has provided training or consultations in a significant number of countries, from Argentina and Australia to The US and the UK.

In addition to her contributions to specialist publications, she has written a couple of recent books that are aimed at a wider audience – including ‘Resilience in Life and Faith’, which she has co-authored with Tony Horsfall, a recent guest on the podcast.

In the podcast we talk about the book and Debbie shares about a model for thinking about resilience that she sums up with the acrostic SPECS.

  • Spiritual aspects of resilience;
  • Physical aspects of resilience;
  • Emotional aspects of resilience;
  • Cognitive and Creative aspects of resilience;
  • Social and systemic aspects of resilience.

If you’d like to get a copy of the book Debbie and her family have written on creation care, it is ‘Changing the Climate: Applying the Bible in a Climate Emergency’.

For more information on Kintsugi Hope, which we mentioned in the conversation, you can list their website.

The Leadership Journey Podcast: David Cupples

Posted on by jsalanwilson in burnout, church leadership, church ministry, Podcast, self-care

This week’s guest on the podcast is David Cupples, minister of Enniskillen Presbyterian Church in County Fermanagh. David had been minister there for over 30 years, having arrived in the town in September 1987, just weeks before the community was devastated by a Remembrance Day bomb.

In our conversation David talks about some of his experience as a minister at that time. He also talks about some of what he has found to be important in sustaining a long ministry in one place. he shares a bit about his time on the Camino Santiago and, as with other guests on the podcast, has some advice for his 20-year-old self.

David has written a book on his Camino experience and you can order a copy by contacting him via Enniskillen Presbyterian Church.

The guest on the podcast in a couple of weeks will be Tod Bolsinger who will be talking about his most recent book, Tempered Resilience: How Leaders are Formed in the Crucible of Change.