Resources for Ministry with Veterans and Military Families

A recent posting by the Congregational Resource Guide surveyed a number of resources for clergy and congregations ministering to returning veterans and their families. CRG’s article, An Honorable Homecoming, highlighted these and other resources:

• How to Help Military Families as a Faith-Based Community, a brochure published by the Purdue University Military Family Research Institute
• Welcome Them Home — Help Them Heal: Pastoral Care and Ministry with Service Members Returning from War, co-authored by John Sippola, Amy Blumenshine, Donald A. Tubesing, and Valerie Yancey
• The Lost Art of Listening, Second Edition: How Learning to Listen Can Improve Relationships (Guilford Family Therapy) by Michael P. Nichols
• Point Man International Ministries.Since 1984, this group has connected veterans with one another in local community support groups known as “outposts” – described as places for veterans to talk, share, and listen to others who have walked in their shoes.
• Podcast with Amy Blumenshine, co-author of Welcome Them Home – Help Them Heal. CR Radio makes available this interview regarding the important role congregations play in helping veterans adjust to life back in the states, and the distinctive challenges that veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars face following discharge. CR Radio is produced by the Congregational Resource Guide and the Alban Institute.

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