The Pastor's Personal Friendships: Conflicts, Boundaries, and Benefits

Download or read book The Pastor's Personal Friendships: Conflicts, Boundaries, and Benefits written by David Simmons and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2014-04-28 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the pastor's friendships as they impact a pastor's effectiveness in ministry and his or her personal well-being. Because friendships require high levels of self-disclosure, friendships introduce potential conflict for the pastor as personal self-disclosure may conflict with the pastor's expected role. Taking a qualitative approach, this study looks at how pastors navigate the areas of friendship both inside and outside their congregations. The research involved interviews with ten congregational pastors and reports themes that emerged from the interviews. The researcher developed four friendship types that assist the pastor in balancing pastoral role expectation with expression of vulnerability.