What is Pastoral Supervision?
It is not coaching, mentoring, counselling, pastoral care or spiritual direction. At times a session may lean in one of those directions,
but that isn’t a place where the session would stay for any period of time. Referrals can be made if one of those disciplines is required.
Some may feel concerned about the word “supervision”. In this situation though the word is used as looking at the bigger picture. Supervision in this context is not about reporting back to a line manager or an organisation but it is about looking at the bigger perspective. If any documentation is required by an employer this would be done in consultation with you. We would discuss it in our initial meeting to make sure any reporting can be discussed and agreed upon at the outset. Generally, certification of attendance is all that is required.
Pastoral Supervision is a safe, boundried and hospitable space in which people with a duty of care reflect on their use of time, talents and roles in their work with others. It pays attention to the worker as well as the work is truthful about the past, attentive to the present and directed towards a transformative future.
Michael Paterson.
Why have Pastoral Supervision?
Pastoral Supervision is a place for you to come and to talk, to reflect, to think, to grow, to develop, for your benefit, the benefit of your family and for the benefit of those to whom you minister. It is intended to help sustain you in the self-giving vocation in which you work.
Being in the Gospel Ministry can be draining and having someone who is able to sit with you in a safe space to talk about how you are going, how well you are performing your role and how you operate within your organisation is vital, for the long haul..
What others have said about Pastoral Supervision
“life-giving”
“transformative”
“revolutionised my ministry, wellbeing and resilience”
As I was thinking about the name for this service I was reminded of the passage of scripture in Matthew 10:29 where Jesus talks about two sparrows being worth only a penny yet not one sparrow will fall to the ground without the Father’s consent. It reminds us that we too are valuable not just those who we serve. In Matthew 10 Jesus sends out the twelve disciples with encouragement for gospel workers that even though the role can be incredibly hard, God knows what is happening and if He concerns Himself with a sparrow how much more will He concern Himself with what is happening to His Children. Hence the name Two Sparrows. We all need to reflect on the role we are in and it is often helpful to do that with someone who is not a peer, not your friend, someone who has trained to do so, someone who has a duty of care to you and someone completely outside of your ‘picture’.
