EPISODE 118 | Healing from Burnout for Clergywomen and Helpers with Nashville Minister and Coach, Stephanie Dunn

Human Amplified

Today, we’re talking to Stephanie Dunn. She’s a United Methodist minister who served for about 15 years before transitioning careers to become a certified life coach. She opened her private coaching practice, Stephanie B. Dunn Coaching, a little over a year ago.

Now, before we go further in this introduction, here’s some context for our discussion that you’ll hear today.

We recorded this conversation in April of 2024, so it happened right as the United Methodist church opened it’s general conference to cover topics, yet again, like same-sex marriage and LGBTQIA+ clergy.

The Methodist church has had well-known internal fissures around these issues and NPR reports that up to 7600 congregations disaffiliated because they disliked that many of the churches didn’t enforce the ban on LGBTQIA+ marriage and clergy.

In a landslide vote at the end of April/beginning of May 2024, the Methodist church reversed it’s ban.

That's a sure win for recognizing the humanity of others.

All this is to say, that what you’ll hear Stephanie and I talk about today - primarily burnt out clergy - is another symptom of a larger problem that’s been going on for a while now.

That is, institutionally, things are changing for the church. Not only are congregations leaving, but attendance numbers have been down for ages (in many churches, not just the methodist church), and clergy women are leaving too.

That’s where Stephanie comes in. Once clergy herself, she now coaches clergy women and other helpers who are burnt out and looking for support, rest, self esteem, and ways to fit into an institution that wasn’t designed with them in mind.

Stephanie has a unique perspective as an insider who left her traditional role but took on an adjacent support role that’s very much needed. So, whether you’re clergy, a church goer, or are simply interested in how society is changing in all the various ways with human will behind the change, this is an honest inside look at where clergy is going, what they’re doing, and what’s next for the church as an institution and fabric of communities, plus, how you can heal from burnout.

Let’s dive in.

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Visit the complete show notes at https://humanamplified.com/episodes/118

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