reviewed by Vern Ratzlaff
It is an old book, but still relevant in the attempt to equip lay people minister to others. Peel not only helps lay people to minister to others, but stimulates us to identify the areas where the congregation can be strengthened and helped.
While hospital visitation is probably the readers’ first identification of an area of visitation, Peel identifies a basic technique of creative listening to help the congregation strengthen its membership: Hospital visitation, visiting the elderly, housebound young mothers, stressed workplace individuals, neighbours across the back fence, parents of Sunday School students, newcomers to the congregation. Peel sketches the shape of creative listening to include not only hospital patients but also their relatives and friends. And the hospital staff! What he attempts is to see the shape of caring from a pastoral orientation that sees the need for better training of congregational membership to the sustained exercise of pastoral care by an articulate membership.
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