by Ron Edmondson: We were all stunned by the death of Lead Pastor Andrew Stoecklein from California. Pastor Stocklein’s wife wrote an incredible tribute to her husband on her blog and I posted it to my personal Facebook page. The response was overwhelming. I was encouraged by the compassion people shared.
I sensed, though, that Leadership Network needed to also have some sort of response. As an organization, we are all about leadership in the church and growing churches, but we consistently remind ourselves that if we aren’t growing healthy churches, and encouraging healthy church leaders, all of our work will be in vain.
I asked one of our board members, Mindy Caliguire, to put some thoughts together for us. Mindy has a long background serving the church. In 1998 Mindy founded Soul Care, a spiritual formation ministry that exists to increase “soul health” in the body of Christ. She works at the intersection of spiritual formation and leadership. Here are a few words from Mindy:
My passion for leader’s souls began many years ago as I emerged from my own confusing and ultimately life-giving journey of soul recovery amidst ten years planting a church in Boston. My husband suffered greatly as well, and in different ways. My symptoms presented physiologically, but his went deep into the mind as my “golden boy” high-achieving husband could no longer get out of bed, shake fear and paranoia, or control his anger…
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Source: Mental Health and Our Pastors: The Elephant in the Room