Browsing by Author "Holton, Jan"

This thesis will examine hospital chaplaincy and its role within the changing paradigm of population health by addressing the question of what chaplaincy looks like beyond the walls of the hospital. The thesis will include several moves that account for the development of the profession and possible areas of growth in dialogue with public health and behavioral health. The first move is historical. This section will cover the development of chaplaincy at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist and its relationship to counseling, community engagement, and accrediting bodies. It will also discuss the formation of FaithHealth as both a divisional identity as part of Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist and a distinct department of community engagement. The second move will be to present the role of chaplain manager within the division of FaithHealth of Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist and its pioneering work of integrating chaplaincy, community engagement, and licensed counseling. The third move will describe the function of chaplain managers during the coronavirus pandemic and the structure that allowed the model to adapt to a changing landscape. The final move will evaluate the role of chaplain managers from the individuals that assume these roles and leaders within the medical system and provide a snapshot into future possibilities for this role and innovative ministry opportunities.The purpose of this work is threefold: 1) to provide a model for integrating spiritual care, behavioral health and population health into the role of chaplain manager; 2) to advocate for the profession’s continued expansion by adapting chaplaincy’s skillsets in community health; 3) to begin a conversation about modifying educational and professional bodies to best prepare graduates and professionals for the changing landscape of healthcare. Such a model could provide clearer vocational pathways for dual degree divinity school programs and forge new partnerships between public health and divinity schools. Furthermore, given the reinstated associational connection between pastoral counseling and clinical pastoral education, this model of integration could create new associational paths to certification. The connection between pastoral counseling and chaplaincy that thrived before managed care will be revisited as it shows different, yet complementary, fruits of deeply rooted spiritual care.

Transgender, gender non-conforming, and nonbinary people have historically had a bad relationship with Christianity. We have experienced rejection, physical harm, and spiritual violence justified in the name of faith. Such a history of trauma means it is hard for transgender, gender non-conforming, and nonbinary people to find refuge and sanctuary in the church. Those who have reconciled or remained connected to faith are often looked upon suspiciously by others within our communities. Even the most affirming churches fail to recognize the unique needs of transgender, gender non-conforming, and nonbinary people. Many others stand by and remain complicit in the harm done in the name of faith. Using memoirs and resources written by and about the lives and experiences of transgender, gender non-conforming, and nonbinary people, this resource equips pastors and lay leaders to understand better the spiritual needs of transgender, gender non-conforming, and nonbinary people and communities.

Multiethnic churches could be places of healing and profound witness to the reconciliation found in Christ. Unfortunately, our habitus, that interior framework that shapes the way we conceive of the world, is not currently sufficient to allow for the flourishing of multiethnic churches. Western cultural habitus has shaped us to see divisions as normal, to place value judgments on people and see them as other, and to prioritize success and efficiency over the slow growth of humans and relationships. The church has largely accepted this habitus, which has resulted in Christians who are unable to imagine and live into the realized reconciliation, communion, that is the hallmark of the new creation in Christ.Multiethnic churches and their people need a new habitus to enable them to reimagine their gathered life together. Drawing upon Paul’s discussion of the Lord’s Supper and the body of Christ in 1 Corinthians, we find that Spirit-led communion with Christ allows us to reimagine communion with others. Herein, four elements emerge as helpful in forming the new habitus: finding identity and belonging in communion with Christ; discerning the body of Christ; waiting for and receiving one another; and becoming a witness to the crucified and risen Christ, for the sake of the world. These suggest slow, embodied practices that, when led by the Holy Spirit, reshape our vision of the world and our ways of gathering. Ways of engaging a number of such practices toward the formation of a new habitus, and thus a new communion, will be suggested. Slow communion becomes a way of describing both the long journey of reconciliation, and those practices that reshape us for communion on this journey. Our communion is slow because it takes time to form a new habitus, and be formed by it. It is slow because the new vision of life together requires us to engage the brokenness we wrought in our old habitus of division and speed, a reckoning which cannot be skipped over or rushed. And it is slow because it leads toward a realized reconciliation, a communion for lifetimes together, never ending, always seeking to follow close to the leading of the Holy Spirit. By learning to see the life together as a Spirit-shaped, slow communion, multiethnic churches may be able to become bodies of true communion, living and proclaiming the reconciliation of Christ, for the sake of a weary and hopeless world.

Multiethnic churches could be places of healing and profound witness to the reconciliation found in Christ. Unfortunately, our habitus, that interior framework that shapes the way we conceive of the world, is not currently sufficient to allow for the flourishing of multiethnic churches. Western cultural habitus has shaped us to see divisions as normal, to place value judgments on people and see them as other, and to prioritize success and efficiency over the slow growth of humans and relationships. The church has largely accepted this habitus, which has resulted in Christians who are unable to imagine and live into the realized reconciliation, communion, that is the hallmark of the new creation in Christ.Multiethnic churches and their people need a new habitus to enable them to reimagine their gathered life together. Drawing upon Paul’s discussion of the Lord’s Supper and the body of Christ in 1 Corinthians, we find that Spirit-led communion with Christ allows us to reimagine communion with others. Herein, four elements emerge as helpful in forming the new habitus: finding identity and belonging in communion with Christ; discerning the body of Christ; waiting for and receiving one another; and becoming a witness to the crucified and risen Christ, for the sake of the world. These suggest slow, embodied practices that, when led by the Holy Spirit, reshape our vision of the world and our ways of gathering. Ways of engaging a number of such practices toward the formation of a new habitus, and thus a new communion, will be suggested. Slow communion becomes a way of describing both the long journey of reconciliation, and those practices that reshape us for communion on this journey. Our communion is slow because it takes time to form a new habitus, and be formed by it. It is slow because the new vision of life together requires us to engage the brokenness we wrought in our old habitus of division and speed, a reckoning which cannot be skipped over or rushed. And it is slow because it leads toward a realized reconciliation, a communion for lifetimes together, never ending, always seeking to follow close to the leading of the Holy Spirit. By learning to see the life together as a Spirit-shaped, slow communion, multiethnic churches may be able to become bodies of true communion, living and proclaiming the reconciliation of Christ, for the sake of a weary and hopeless world.

Pastoral leaders in African American contexts often play a critical role in conveying messages about what is vital to black and brown people. Pastoral leadership has always been the driving force behind change within the Black Church, especially in times of community suffering. Health disparities such as the HIV epidemic in the Black community have created a crisis just as alarming as the COVID pandemic, and the key to addressing this issue will require pastoral leadership. This research aims to examine the framework of pastoral leadership through the theological model of the Munus Triplex and how it can be utilized and maximized within the congregational context to transform its culture into one in that is HIV competent and inculcated into the cultural fabric of the church.My thesis will focus on the significance of pastoral leadership in the areas of proactive and preventative HIV education, and how the pastor’s influence within the congregation can be best used to positively influence and generate outcomes leading to inclusive practices among members of the congregation in response to HIV stigmas. By examining the work of Christ through the lens of the Munus Triplex, we can ascertain some of the leadership competencies that constitute his roles as priest, prophet, and king. In turn, this can serve as a foundational model for pastoral leadership today. I will explore how each distinctive role of the Munus Triplex informs the pastor’s work towards affecting change within the congregational context. Based upon this work, I will propose a leadership paradigm approach for African American religious leaders to help them embrace their vocational responsibility to care for the whole person free of stigma and harmful theological rhetoric in response to the HIV epidemic.