Souls in the Hands of a Tender God: Stories of the Search for Home and Healing on the Streets
Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments:
Since 1987, Craig Rennebohm has ministered to people on the streets of Seattle who are homeless and struggling with mental illness. In Souls in the Hands of a Tender God, he tells the evocative stories of persons who desperately need psychiatric, psychological, and spiritual support–like Mary, who surrounds herself with huge trash bags for protection from a threatening world; Jerry, whose fits of rage get him barred from every shelter and meal program in Seattle; and others, abandoned and marginalized by their community, who need care and treatment to find their way back to a life of stability and meaning. As Rennebohm reaches out to each one, their stories become parables that explore mental illness and the spiritual heart of care and recovery, helping us understand what it means to be human, on a pilgrimage together toward wholeness.
As these stories unfold, we encounter Rennebohm’s powerful experiences with a God of kindness and compassion, drawn from his own life and the lives of those he has aided in their struggles with homelessness and with mental illness. Souls in the Hands of a Tender God offers a clear understanding of Spirit, faith, soul, and religion that will prove invaluable to individual conversations and to dialogue among congregations about how we can best serve the least among us.
Souls in the Hands of a Tender God follows the path of healing and the way of companionship to build communities of caring that welcome and include our most fragile and troubled neighbors. With gentleness and grace, solid knowledge and wisdom, Rennebohm lays down the foundations of healing communities in which all may have a home, safely rest, and be well.
Rarely has the lived experience of mental illness been expressed with such clarity and compassion. In deft, concise accounts of his relationships with people who endure mental illnesses and homelessness, Craig Rennebohm shares striking insights into their perceptions and realities. His outreach embodies a spirituality that complements and honors other approaches to homelessness and mental illness, but stands on its own as a great testament of faith. Souls in the Hands of a Tender God is an engrossing read for anyone who seeks to comprehend the needs of our brothers and sisters on the streets.
–John N. Lozier, executive director, National Health Care for the Homeless Council
Here is a powerful testimonial to the work of community in healing the broken fragments of our lives. Rennebohm is focused, clear, mindful and exceedingly human in relating the medical to the religious in the care of souls.
–Bishop Cabell Tennis
A deeply affecting mosaic of stories, Souls in the Hands of a Tender God unveils the tragedy of homelessness, mental illness, and estrangement, and reveals the power of hospitality and accompaniment in the daunting journey toward home, healing, and belonging. You’re unlikely to find a better portrayal of what it means to truly love your neighbor as yourself. –Ken Kraybill, training specialist, National Health Care for the Homeless Council
Like Jesus, Rennebohm uses the stories of ‘the least of these’ to break the silence about mental illness. He models a ministry of presence through companionship and embraces relationship to heal the soul and reveal God’s presence in the midst of our personal darkness.
–Rev. Susan Gregg-Schroeder, United Methodist Minister andCoordinator of Mental Health Ministries
Rev. Rennebohm shows us and celebrates the personhood of those with mental illness as he ministers with them on the streets of Seattle. By sharing in his national and international experience, we gain insight into the possibilities of providing hope and help to those with a mental illness throughout our world. This beautifully written book is a must read for those personally affected by mental illness. It is of even greater value for those who are not.
–Gunnar Christiansen, M.D., founder, FaithNet NAMI
This book was lived before it was written. Craig Rennebohm has gone to people and places that many Americans would prefer not to notice. In doing so, he has discovered that the light does yet shine in the darkness. Now he brings back stories of the light to show us all the way.
–Anthony B. Robinson, author of Transforming Congregational Culture and Common Grace and United Church of Christ Pastor
This moving and personal story will be of great value to anyone working with people who struggle with mental illness. Rennebohm brings to life the compassion, grace, and justice of this spiritual approach, but also emphasizes the need to recognize the whole person–their social, psychological, and biological facets–as well as the stark reality of mental illness.
–David H. Avery, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine
A masterpiece of storytelling, which has tremendous potential to continue the transformation of our Churches and society into a safety net of unbroken relationships.
–Reverend Patrick Howell, S.J., author of Reducing the Storm to a Whisper: The Story of a Breakdown
Review:
“For decades Rennebohm, a Protestant pastor, has walked the streets of Seattle, making contact with mentally ill homeless people and slowly drawing them into ‘circles of care’ so they can find safe housing, receive medical and psychological help and rejoin the human community.In this collaboration with Paul, Rennebohm interweaves themes of the Spirit working in desperate lives, the unshakable dignity of human souls and the necessity of companionship for healing as he vividly portrays the lost people he encounters.Always recognizing that medical treatment of mental illness is an essential part of the movement toward spiritual wholeness, Rennebohm is also sensitive to the vulnerability of the mentally ill to disordered religious ideas.The book’s title, a response to Jonathan Edwards’s famous sermon ‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,’ reflects Rennebohm’s approach of gentle compassion toward people others reject.His call to find a better path leads him to Europe to study community-based approaches to treating mental illness and to initiate these in Seattle.As well as a guide to how others can help be healing presences to the mentally ill, this hopeful book is a meditation on faith in a broken world.” Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
Synopsis:
A minister’s stories about his work with homeless people who are suffering from mental illness and a discussion of our need for healing communities
Since 1987, Craig Rennebohm has ministered to people on the streets of Seattle who are homeless and struggling with mental illness. In Souls in the Hands of a Tender God he tells the evocative stories of persons who desperately need psychiatric, psychological, and spiritual support, like Mary, who surrounds herself with huge trash bags, and Jerry, barred from every shelter and meal program in Seattle. As Rennebohm reaches out to each of them, their stories become parables that explore mental illness and the spiritual heart of care and recovery–helping us to understand what it means to be human, on a pilgrimage together toward wholeness.
Souls in the Hands of a Tender God follows the path of healing and the way of companionship to build communities of caring that welcome and include our most fragile and troubled neighbors. With gentleness and grace, solid knowledge and wisdom, Rennebohm lays down the foundations of healing communities in which all may have a home, safely rest, and be well.
Having come from a long career in both religion and the mental health field, I was surprised and delighted to discover a perspective new to me that melds the two in an inspiring and instructive way. While this perspective is new to me, Rennebohm makes clear that there is a long history to the beliefs and methods he presents in this important book. His approach of using stories of the people he meets in his work is very effective, leading the reader to look forward to the next and then the next story. While each person's story is unique, there is a common thread throughout; that being the great gentleness and patience required to touch these persons lives and move with compassion past their fearful defenses. I was awed by his ability to takes days, weeks, and even months of brief contacts, each time demonstrating a non-threatening compassion that eventually leads to their trust in him and willingness to be led to further help.Basic to his approach is his belief in the value of the mentally ill being accepted by the community and being taken in to live with "normal" families. He tells the remarkable story of Geel, in Belgium, which has a 700 year history of taking in the mentally ill to live with families in the area. This unique community began their mission in response to the murder of a young woman who had fled to their town when her deranged father tried to force her to be his new bride, replacing her mother who had died. The people there understand that the mentally ill need to be included in communities and families, not isolated in large hospital dormitories. Rennebohm is clear that mental illness is a medical condition that must be treated by medical means, but he includes a circle of care, including the medical professionals and the community. For him, all these caregivers are God at work in our world.He brings the unusual perspective of having survived a period of severe depression in his youth during which he almost committed suicide. His personal experience gives him a very special understanding and empathy that no amount of professional training could provide. His slow and prolonged recovery have helped him have the essential patience for his work.Though he is seminary trained and serves as a protestant chaplain, his spirituality has grown far beyond concern for the "right" religious belief of those he serves. Those of other or no faith are compassionately cared for in his ministry. When the reader comes to appreciate the value of the approach Rennebohm presents, it is discouraging to acknowledge how far we are from practicing it in our present day culture. While some steps were taken decades ago to shut down the big state mental hospitals and replace them with more local care, only one half of the program occurred . . .the shutting down, but not the replacing. In one of his stories he spells out the long, complex process required for the mentally ill to get help, making clear how difficult it would be even for a mentally healthy person to navigate the route, and how impossible it is for the mentally ill.I recommend this book particularly to professionals in the mental health field, to those who have struggled with mental/emotional problems, and to those who have mentally disturbed family members or friends. Your understanding and patience will be rewarded.