Souls in the Hands of a Tender God: Stories of the Search for Home and Healing on the Streets

by Craig Rennebohm

Book Overview

A compassionate chronicle of a Protestant pastor who for decades has ministered to Seattle's homeless and most vulnerable communities

Craig Rennebohm shares the evocative stories of those he has encountered on the street who desperately need psychiatric, psychological, and spiritual support. We meet people who, abandoned and marginalized by their community, need care and treatment to find their way back to a life of stability and meaning. 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.

Rennebohm's powerful experiences, drawn from his own life and the lives of those he has aided in their struggles, show us a God of kindness and compassion. He 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 welcome and include "the least among us"--our most fragile and troubled neighbors.

With gentleness and grace, solid knowledge and wisdom, Rennebohm helps those who are seeking a path of healing and the way of companionship so they may build healing communities of caring that in which all may have a home, safely rest, and be well.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0807000434
• ISBN13: 9780807000434
• Release Date: June 2009
• Publisher: Beacon Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

Touching Stories about the Homeless

Terrific book for deepening your understanding of the plight of the homeless. Breathes humanity and soul into any preconceived notions you have about why people are homeless and the struggles they face.

the real deal

I know Craig Rennebohm--this book is like sitting down and hearing him speak. He was my internship supervisor for grad school, and when I went to interview with him at the beginning, I was in an emotionally fragile place myself. I asked him how he has maintained hope over the years of working with ill, wounded people, and he spoke about how the Spirit had intervened in his own life at a critical point (a story he expands on in the book), and that his work was about watching & waiting for the Spirit to show up at any moment--thus his hope. I told him I could believe at least that this had happened for him, and thus began my internship with homeless mentally ill women. It's more than 3 years later, and now I work with that same population. I need this reminder of who God is just as much now. If you ever struggle with believing you are loved just where you are, read this.

This book is for anyone who sometimes longs for a tender God

If you have ever searched for a tender God in the teeth of an angry God, you will find the tender God in this book by Congregational minister Craig Rennebaum who often walks the streets of Seattle searching for anyone who seems to be lost. The rest of us fuss over homelessness as a civic or sociological or psychological or moral problem that is inconvenient and should be swept away for our sake. But Craig Rennebaum sees the homeless person as someone he may be able to help if he plays his cards right. Each homeless person is a story he wants to read. His stories of reaching the unreachable are my favorite parts of this book which also serves as a factual answer to the whys of homelessness today.

Wonderful Book

This is an excellent book that is both inspiring and insightful about people with mental illness. The author does a great job of weaving information about people with mental illness with personal stories. A must read for people in the mental health field and everyone involved in ministry. Deacon Tom Lambert Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago Commission on Mental Illness

Stories which give hope to our own vulnerability

Chapllain Rennebohm is first of all a great story teller. Through these stories and his reflections we come to know and care for persons who experience a mental illness. In Craig's patience with those whom he meets on the street, we learn the value of patience in our lives also. As he reports the working of the Spirit, we can find the Spirit at work in our lives as well. An engaging and inspiring account. Rev. Bob Dell Pathways to Promise - Ministry & Mental Illness