The Duke Clergy Health Initiative (CHI), a multi-year wellness and behavioral intervention program for clergy, has announced the launch of Spirited Life: Selah, a program designed for United Methodist pastors in North Carolina to equip them with tools to manage and respond to the stresses of ministry. Pastors can sign up for the program through the end of January.

Spirited Life: Selah builds on the success of CHI’s multi-year holistic health program, Spirited Life. “Spirited Life was an intensive, two-year program designed to improve whichever aspect of health and well-being clergy wanted to target. And in great news, participants experienced impressive physical health outcomes,” said Rae Jean Proeschold-Bell, Ph.D., CHI research director. “What Spirited Life was not able to achieve, however, was a reduction in overall depression and stress. Reducing stress symptoms in clergy is now our focus with Selah,” she said.

Stress among clergy is of continued concern to the two North Carolina United Methodist Conferences as well as to Spirited Life’s and Spirited Life: Selah's funder, The Duke Endowment. CHI has spent the last five years gaining understanding of clergy flourishing and clergy burnout.

Pastors who participate in Spirited Life: Selah will join with fellow clergy in retreat and conference centers around the state in 2020 and 2021 to be trained in one of three practices that form the foundation of the Selah program.

Eligible pastors should have received a printed invitation in early January 2020, and a registration link emailed to the address on file with their conference office on Jan. 6. Visit Spiritedlife.org to find out more information and to sign up by Jan. 31, 2020. For questions, email CHI at selah@duke.edu.