Savage, Listening and Caring Skills for Ministry

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John Savage, Listening and Caring Skills for Ministry. Abingdon, 1996.

Referenced in: Leadership Development Through Communication Competence

LifeandLeadership.com Summary

This is the basis of Dr. Savage’s program, Listening Laboratory I. It describes eleven deep-structure listening skills that have been found very effective in conveying a caring presence and helping others come to terms with their current life issues.

From the Publisher

The secret to leadership and transformation of a group—or of another person—is the quality of the relationship one person has with another. The effective group leader or counselor will be the person who learns how to listen to other people. By studying and employing listening skills, church leaders will engage others more compassionately, allowing them to feel that their needs are being met. These skills can be used with persons who are terminally ill, inactive at church, going through a divorce, in a family with a severely ill person, unemployed, seeking a new church, grieving, traumatized by catastrophe, going through teenage adolescence, in marriage counseling, or leading a ministry team.

John Savage offers eleven specific and teachable listening skills for improving relationships among those who do ministry in small-group settings or when offering counsel to others. The skills are taught through oral exercises and unfailingly helpful examples from actual congregational situations. The skills include paraphrasing, productive questions, perception check, expression of feelings and emotions, fogging, negative inquiry, behavior description, and story listening.

About the Author

Dr. John S. Savage is a United Methodist Minister and served as pastor for 26 years. He became the founder and president of L.E.A.D. Consultants, Inc. for 25 years. He is a lecturer, trainer, consultant, spiritual director, author, coach, designer of training systems in conflict manager and in-depth listening skills. He is a trained psychotherapist. He holds four earned degrees. A BM degree in music and a MA in education from Syracuse University, a MDiv and a DMin from Colgate Rochester Divinity School.


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