What I’d Like to Tell The Pastor About Living with Illness

tell-pastor-about-illness

If you had the opportunity to sit down and really share about your pain, what would you tell the pastor of your church about your chronic illness and daily pain? Lisa Copen Living with chronic illness is lonely. Everyone around us seems to be enjoying health, happiness, and the ability to at least pursue their dreams. But many of us feel lonely, scared, and disappointed. We are faced with so many insecurities and we are living with an illness that we have not been able to pray away, cry away, or confess away. So we turn to our church for guidance, for acceptance, for unconditional support during the most difficult time in our life. But churches are made up of people—all of us imperfect. And our church does not always give us … [Read more...]

We’re Giving Away 3 Copies of Our New Small Groups Book!

We're giving away 3 copies of this new book by Lisa Copen! If you are even thinking about starting an illness support group, you won't want to miss this book. It's packed full of 320-pages of all the answers RM Director Lisa has given group leaders in emails for over 10 years. It also includes a chapters on Suffering, Healing, & How Churches Can Make a Difference. Here are some of the other things you will find in this new book! What a chronic illness is & does it matter if it's invisible A brief history of illness ministry in the medical community Benefits of small group ministry for the individual & the church How to lead when you are ill Steps to formulate the purpose of your small group, the logistics, … [Read more...]

A 2nd Vision Statement Example to My Church for HopeKeepers

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Presenting to the Church of _____ committee concerning: Rest Ministries and HopeKeepers Chronic Illness/Pain Support Group Background of Rest Ministries Rest Ministries, Inc. is a non-profit Christian organization that serves people who live with chronic illness or pain by providing spiritual, emotional and practical support. They are based in San Diego, CA, founded in 1997, by Lisa Copen, who lives with rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia. Lisa has been active in illness outreach since she began this ministry at the age of 27 in a variety of ways including serving on the Board of Directors of the Christian Council on Persons with Disabilities. Rest Ministries is an affiliate of Joni and Friends, the international disability outreach … [Read more...]

Podcast: Starting a HopeKeepers Group

Have you ever been to a support group? If you have, you likely found some parts of it helpful and encouraging. But perhaps you also found some of it depressing, of little benefit, even too much to hear. Although they may be helpful at first, they can have the tendency to become a place where people get together and vent their frustrations and then everyone goes home. One woman says, "I began to feel like I should have just stayed home and taken a nap!" Although secular support groups have benefits, they are rarely a place where you can talk freely about your faith and your spiritual walk. For the Christian, support groups can be frustrating because they rarely encourage a person to share their spiritual struggles, growth or … [Read more...]