ABSTRACT
This chapter identifies key sociological and psychological underpinnings of collective trauma and collective healing to consider ways Christian congregations, in particular, can generate and enhance community-wide restoration following catastrophic events within their organizations or in their local regions. Kai Erikson’s observation of ‘spiritual kinship’ among groups with shared trauma experience and Jack Saul’s recognition that human spirits prevail and perpetuate across generations when they have access to biological, psychological, social, and spiritual resources to cope and heal provide helpful scaffolding for considering the role that spiritual formation agencies can play in fostering healing. Furthermore, this chapter reviews key practices conducted by communities that prevail beyond tragedy, including networks of collaborative response in the United States established through Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster. It concludes with recommendations for clergy and ministry leaders to practically expand care and, in turn, foster the rebuilding of trust among individuals, families, and within their communities in ways that can become contagious.
