Clergy Recovery Network

Enrichment, the ministry professionl’s journal published by the Asssemblies of God, has recently published one of Dale Wolery’s articles. It is called, Healing for the Broken Ministry Marriage. Rick Knoth, the Managing Editor of Enrichment, came to this web site, saw some articles he liked and asked Dale to write the article. We invite you [...]

When a minister stands to speak as God does on the subject of marriage, most listeners assume he and his wife practice what he preaches in the privacy of their home. Because of the stressful nature of the pastorate, the generational breakdown of family relationships and the driven nature of professional leadership this is seldom [...]

Who do you tell? What should you tell? When should you tell? As a secret life begins to unravel it is difficult to know what to say, when to say it and to whom you should tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

During the ten years of personal recovery and ministry to pastors and their spouses, the director of CRN has encountered lots of pain. There is no shortage of pastors who are hurting deeply. What about their spouses? It is our experience the spouses of clergy are hurting at a deeper level of agony. Their voices [...]

Emotional pain was in her voice but her body hurt too. Her story poured out and she kept saying, “I am so afraid, I am so afraid.” The force of her husband’s angry aggression had sent her hurtling to the floor with her head bouncing off the end of the bed frame. She wondered aloud [...]

After normal niceties our phone conversation transitioned to the soft but urgent noise of tears and moans. The caller from the east coast whispered, “I drink myself to sleep every night.” I could feel the seriousness of his tone and the strength of his agony. The only hope I could sense through the fiber optic [...]

Are you running with all your might in opposite directions at the same time? Are your thoughts constantly competing with each other? Is priority paper work piling up while you minister to parishioners? Does it seem there is no day timer or planning system to which you can stick despite trying many? Are you aware [...]

The first sentence of Scott Peck’s best seller, The Road Less Traveled, is, “Life is difficult.” Any manual for ministers should begin, “Ministry is difficult squared.” In addition to being human beings with the normal struggles, trials and dysfunctions of life a pastor is asked by God to carry, “the weight of the churches” as [...]

You probably know that the word “co-dependence” is used in several different ways. At first, it was used to refer to a specific illness common among the spouses and family members of addicts. The characteristics of codependency, however, fit so many of us and they fit so well that it has provided a helpful way [...]

The following interview is between Paul Hegstrom and the Editor of STEPS, Dale Ryan. Paul and Dale will give you hope and insight if you are on either end of battering. STEPS: Your work with men who batter did not begin as the result of some kind of academic interest. PAUL: Definitely not. Let me [...]