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Who Are We? The Spiritual
Care Network is a community of individuals who are
dedicated to serving the spiritual needs of others. We
are dedicated to the art of spiritual care, passionate
about service, compassionate towards individuals, and
committed to continuing to learn and grow in our own
spiritual lives.
Why was the Network Formed?
Behind the forming of the Spiritual Care Network, was
the ideas of Jeremiah Blackburn. While serving as a
hospice chaplain, he made several observations. The
first observation was that many chaplains, pastors, and
other spiritual care providers operate alone, usually in
one-deep positions. While Jeremiah had made an informal
network of chaplains, pastors, and counselors that he
had befriended while serving in the hospital and in the
Air Force, there seemed to be no real association for
training and for networking. He only had found
organizations that leaned heavily in one theological
direction or another or organizations that required
specific training and board meetings or that they would
specialize on a particular thought of spiritual care. But nothing that
encapsulated the community as a whole of spiritual care.
The second observation was that there were many
different types of spiritual care providers with many
different types of theology, practices, and training.
And yet with all this diversity, there were plenty of
uncertainties and questions at least in the practice of
spiritual care. For example, Jeremiah knew several
ministers who felt uncomfortable to minister to an
Alzheimer's patient. Yet if a community existed in which
we can help one another grow in our spiritual care,
those who have weaknesses (yes we all have them) would
be able to grow and learn from one another.
The final observation, was the thought that if an
individual was seeking spiritual care, whether
professional or otherwise, there was no database for an
individual to look at online. One would have to rely on
word of mouth to find a provider and hope that they
would be able to meet their needs. And if the provider
was unable to meet the needs, the individual seeking
would start a new search. Yet if we already had a
database in which spiritual care providers were listed
and the qualifications seen, the search could be
shortened by quite a bit.
As he presented this concept to his network, there
seemed to be a consensus that this was something that
could and should happen. As a result, we have the birth
of the Spiritual Care Network. The Spiritual Care
Network is part of Fulfilled Life LLC. |
