Nice Guys

Having served churches for thirteen years as pastor and having completed five quarters of a clinical pastoral education (CPE), I was able to use those experiences to relate to inmates in a helpful way. The one big difference is, in many instances, church members have not been caught by the law or put themselves in a position to be of interest to the law as a result of their choices/actions.To former church members, CPE supervisors, CPE peers for helping to mold me for prison ministry, I say thank you! Because of their patience and encouragement, I became a better listener, empathizing more than sympathizing, listening to their pain, frustration, etc., rather than trying to fix them. In listening, by giving my full attention, looking at the person in the eye while one is talking, and giving occasional feedback as to what I perceived the individual is feeling. Sometimes the feeling feedback was accurate, and sometimes it was not. Hopefully the individual felt he had been listened to and heard.