Online Workshop #2

This Life: Seeing Challenges as Opportunities

​

If congregations act like families - and If now supported by empirical evidence - what difference does it make? How can congregational leaders understand their challenges differently?  In the workshop, examples from scripture will be used to explore a more hopeful and perhaps more humorous perspective on this life, families and all. 

Barbara Laymon, Workshop Presenter

Bio: Barbara is a writer, licensed professional counselor, researcher, and faculty member at the Bowen Center for the Study of the Family who likes to think about scripture, science, and family systems processes. Before turning to counseling, she was a public health professional, focusing on community healthy planning at local, state, and national levels. Her most important learning, though, probably came from the two years she worked in a local health department’s Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) clinic. She also did stints, years ago, as a community college professor and as a religious education director. Now, with a PhD from the Pastoral Counseling Department of Loyola University, Maryland, she aims to be a thoughtful presence, offering new perspectives with a wry sense of humor. Barbara is the author of The Devil’s Inbox and All the Families of the Earth: Therapists in Bible Times. She and her husband live in Washington, DC, where they are avid Nationals baseball fans, hoping for a miracle.