The following appeared as a Guest
Editorial in the Rome-News Tribune, Rome, GA on Friday, April 15, 2011
written by the Senior Minister of First Christian Church (Disciples of
Christ) of Downtown Rome, GA, Rev. Dr. J. LeBron McBride.
What Easter Means For Me
Many have been financially and emotionally bruised or even devastated in
recent times and we need a little good news and hope. The major
religions can provide this profound hope for us and certainly Easter
provides an avenue of hope in the Christian context. I write this to
give us hope on the journey of life. May you be blessed this Easter with
seeing God and life in a new and positive way!
It is written in nature, the cycle of death and rebirth. And this is the
season of rebirth and new life. For me this is a grand old truth of the
world and of Christianity that we celebrate on Easter. It gives me great
hope in many ways. When I blow it and kill a great opportunity, I can
still begin anew. When I fail to love as Christ loved, I can ask
forgiveness and seek to love more deeply. When I lose hope, I can see
hope resurrected around me and I begin to believe again. When I think
this old world has lost its bearings, I can have hope of a new earth
where good things endure. The world cycles on, life cycles on and things
are not as they appear each new daffodil that pokes it head up shouts of
new possibilities and new beauties that are yet to come. Life and death
occur, but then there is rebirth and resurrection!
The Christian approach to religion puts a lot into this belief of a
cycle in life and it is part of my attraction to Christianity.
Christianity at it best is fantastically and intentionally hopeful and
positive. And when we have our down times we can learn whatever they
have to teach us in the context of great hope that there are tremendous
possibilities yet to come. Do you really believe in that kind of faith
or do you simply get squeezed into a pessimistic and gloom and doom
focus?
The cross teaches us that bad things happen to good people, even to
Christ. The cross teaches us that sometimes in life, others abandon us
at the time of our greatest need. The cross teaches us that darkness can
come into our lives with a vengeance. If that was all there was and if
our only focus was upon suffering and pain and the evil way humans can
be, then we would be to use the Apostle Paul’s words “of all people most
miserable.” However, our faith moves us to not stop at these end points
or even the end point of death itself, but to look with hope for a new
birth, a resurrection, and promise of a new earth.
Will you not pause for a moment with me this Easter season and
contemplate how positive and hopeful faith is or should be? We do not
have to focus on the negative, the pessimistic, the troubling. We should
of all people be realistic, and we do not bury our heads in the sand.
However, we can also look beyond the hazy gloom of winter to the
beauties of spring. We can look beyond suffering to healing. We can look
beyond death to resurrection. We can look beyond bad times to good days
ahead.
Therefore, whatever your situation in life or whatever is troubling you,
by faith in God look to a future where God is sustaining you and
ministering to you no matter what you face. The cycle continues and new
life will come out of the troubling winters and storms of our lives.
Look closely and you will witness the daffodil. Look closely and you
will see God.
Happy Easter,
J. LeBron McBride, PhD
Senior Minister, First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Downtown Rome, GA
Dr. J. LeBron McBride, Senior Minister of First
Christian Church of Rome has two books out and available through the
regional Amazon bookstore.
"Family Behavioral Issues"
in Health and Illness
by J. LeBron McBride, PhD, Senior Minister, First Christian Church
of Rome and Director of Behavioral Medicine, Floyd Family Practice
Residency Program, Rome, Georgia
About The Book:
A closer look at your patient’s family situation can help you
develop a more effective treatment plan
Family Behavioral Issues in Health and Illness is a basic but
thorough introduction to the impact family dynamics can have on a
person’s health. Ideal as a supplemental training text for healthcare
professionals, this unique book examines the connections between family
and health, presenting a concise summary of family systems theory, basic
family assessment, and the family life cycle. The book provides an
understanding of how the patterns and systems found in a diverse range
of family styles can create special health issues, and how the ability
to assess and anticipate those issues can ensure the most comprehensive
patient care and cost-effective management of time and resources.
As long as families continue to be the primary environment where
patients learn and develop their beliefs and overall attitudes about
life, it remains essential that any primary healthcare model includes a
strong background in family dynamics and the critical, pivotal points of
family life. Family Behavioral Issues in Health and Illness addresses
the most important aspects of family to consider when providing care,
presenting practical, real-life case studies that examine the
resilience, strengths, and possibilities of families, as well as the
problems and dysfunctions. The book looks at how significant events,
such as marriage, divorce, birth, and death affect families, and how a
knowledge of special family issues, including parenting, abuse,
disability, and chronic illness prepares the healthcare professional to
provide effective care for traditional, single-parent, multiracial,
blended, adoptive, and same-gender families.
Family Behavioral Issues in Health and Illness examines:
- boundaries, roles, and rules
- triangulation
- subsystems
- scapegoating
- parentification
- healthy families
- the family genogram
- spiritual crises of family members
- infertility
- families without children
- intergenerational families
- the family in later life
- coping with alcoholism, dementia,
bereavement, and/or mental illness
- and much more
Family Behavioral Issues in Health and Illness is an essential
reference for healthcare professionals, educators, parents, and family
members. The book provides a practical understanding of family
relationships that helps healthcare providers guide patients toward a
more complete well-being.
Reviews:
“AN EXCELLENT RESOURCE. . . . Written in a concise and
well-organized manner for the busy professional. . . . PARTICULARLY
HELPFUL FOR STUDENTS IN THE HEALTH CARE FIELDS. The author, through his
selection of practical and focused content, creates a successful
dialogue between the fields of family therapy and family medicine.”
Craig A. Everett, PhD, Director, Arizona Institute for Family
Therapy; Editor, Journal of Divorce & Remarriage; Past-President,
American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy
“ESSENTIAL READING FOR HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS who want to build trust
by communicating an understanding of the patient's health care
challenges and by marshalling resources to assist patients in keeping or
getting well. This is a handy, easy-to-read guide, authored by a
practitioner with extensive experience working alongside health care
providers of many types. The author presents cases of common health care
issues that involve family issues and incorporates tables and charts
that suggest means of assessment and intervention regarding particular
family issues, such as parenting or dementia.”
Sylvia Shellenberger, PhD, Psychologist and Professor of Family
Medicine, Mercer University School of Medicine
“COMPREHENSIVE. . . . A useful guide for family physicians. As we
frame the future of family medicine we must also frame the future of
families. Here are EFFECTIVE, QUICKLY READ, PRACTICAL STRATEGIES for all
family structures and problems. The sections on violence and divorce are
particularly helpful.”
Peggy Wagner, PhD, Professor, Department of Family Medicine, Medical
College of Georgia |
“Living Faithfully with Disappointment with the Church”
by J. LeBron McBride, PhD, Senior Minister, First Christian Church
of Rome
LeBron writes:
The
book is a new packaging with a new title, new publisher, new
editing, and some new material. It just came out in the last
couple of weeks and I am very pleased with the new publisher and the
improvements.
About The Book:
A practical approach to address spiritually crippling
disappointment with the church!
Feeling disappointment with your church can be spiritually devastating. Living Faithfully
with Disappointment in the Church gives you a theological and family therapy approach to
disillusionment in the church that is practical and realistic. The author, an ordained minister and a
licensed family therapist, discusses with sensitivity and hope the problems and the ways to resolve issues of
spiritual disappointment.
Living Faithfully with Disappointment in the Church uses a theological basis to
lay a foundation of understanding, and then provides
real strategies from a family therapy perspective to
deal with personal disappointments in the church. The
book sensitively discusses real problems using real
examples of how church dynamics can unwittingly cause
spiritual disillusionment within even the most faithful,
even in diligent attempts to serve God. Honest,
reverent, and written from the perspective that each of
us needs the church to cultivate our faith, this book
provides non-simplistic yet hopeful answers to the most
difficult of problems. Find comfort in these pages.
Living Faithfully with Disappointment in the Church discusses:
-
idealism about the church
-
how churches function according to the dynamics of
family systems
-
how a controlling family affects church dynamics
-
people who become codependent to the church
-
adjustment to belief structures within the church
-
addictive processes in organizations
-
the psychological danger zone of failed beliefs
-
how to recognize when to stay and when to move on to
another church
-
considerations for someone in a denominational
crisis
-
the uses of spirituality and religion in
psychologically healthy ways
-
a theoretical model that gives priority to building
a relational church
Living Faithfully with Disappointment in the Church is
for ministers, chaplains, seminary students, pastoral
counselors, Sunday school teachers, or anyone that is
facing a spiritual crisis in their church. Each chapter
includes questions for reflection and discussion.
Reviews:
“POWERFUL AND HONEST . . . offers a number of solutions
for overcoming disappointment and finding renewed hope
within the church itself. Clergy and laity alike should
be grateful to J. LeBron McBride for penning this
encouraging book in an age when disappointment with the
church seems to be the order of the day. Church leaders
will find this book to be a great resource that can move
congregations toward serious introspection and that can
serve as a foundation for re-energizing the faithful.”
Robert N. Nash, Jr.,
PhD, Dean,
School of Religion and International Studies, Shorter
College, Rome, Georgia |
