EMERGING CLERGY

BELOVED Compassion Network (BCN) has been teaching and facilitating the Compassion Practice since 2016. Its healing and transforming power has been especially impactful in the lives and ministries of Emerging Clergy and seminarians already serving in ministry.

The best witness comes from BCN’s students and practitioners. In the videos and written testimonies below, we hope you will hear their passion for the Compassion Practice and how they have learned to savor their own belovedness and to celebrate the belovedness of others all in the presence of God.

“Everybody believes in compassion, but nobody tells you how to practice it. Until now.”

Brian McLaren, Public Theologian

The Compassion Practice is a practical guide for how to love God, love the people in our lives, and love ourselves in healing and generative ways, especially in times of crisis.

In justice work and ministry alike, the Compassion Practice provides a healing space and a source of energy from which we can care for ourselves and extend care to others.

Through the Compassion Practice, we can truly "walk the talk" as followers of Jesus — seeing the Divine in our neighbors, in all their messy humanity, and when we look in the mirror, when it's hard to see it in ourselves.

Why the Compassion Practice?

The Compassion Practice is unique and uniquely suited for healing and transforming, especially for Emerging Clergy and serving seminarians, strengthening their faith and enriching their ministries. Here’s why:

1.

The Compassion Practice affirms the belovedness of all of God’s children.

2.

The Compassion Practice incorporates a “you-turn” to address personal fears, longings, woundedness and obstructed gifts.

3.

The Compassion Practice invites God’s presence into the healing and growing process.

4.

The Compassion Practice teaches that compassion is not complete unless it is expressed in concrete actions that ease the suffering and promote the flourishing of oneself, others, or, most often, both!

Testimonials

Clergy, especially emerging clergy, lean into compassion because they want to be healers. It is not easy for me to discern when my service to others is coming at the expense of my dignity. As I walked through my first pastorate, I had to set boundaries with difficult others, and each time, because of my grounding in the Compassion Practice, I was able to recall that “turn the other cheek” does not mean, “Walk all over me.” It means “treat me as an equal.”

"As compassion within me has grown, my capacity to extend compassion toward others has grown in kind. I have more interior freedom to see others through the lens of compassion and understand that they are people with interior wounds and trauma. It helps me to understand that their behavior in this moment, however difficult or even deplorable it may be, makes sense to them given their life experiences."

I discovered the Compassion Practice during a time of transition in my ministry and life. The uncertainty of what would follow seminary graduation and ordination alongside an extremely challenging season in my family left me spiritually dry and stuck in depression and anxiety. The Compassion Practice thus brought me into deeper relationship with myself and with God. When I invited Jesus to tend to my garden with me, I was able to bear fruit again for my family, friends, and ultimately the youth and hospital patients I now serve.