The Balm of Gilead for Chaplains
A faith-shaped companion for personal restoration: rest, release and renewed dignity for chaplains who have poured themselves out for others.
For: Chaplains and spiritual care practitioners
Books by Sharon Mackenzie
The Spirit Led Institute Library
Dignity. Agency. Understanding. Belonging.
These twelve books are the foundation the Institute is built on: different ways into the same human questions — how we live, how we care, what harms us and what we can build together.
Institute students read free in The Arcanum, the Institute’s private digital library. Everyone else needs to purchase a subscription. Amazon purchases are separate. Night Fury remains freely available on its public book page.
01 · Philosophy of the collection
People matter beyond what they provide.
A person’s dignity does not depend on usefulness, productivity, agreement or the ease with which they fit into a group. This collection begins there: people deserve room to be themselves, to belong without disappearing and to make informed choices about their own lives.
Agency and accurate responsibility belong together. We can take responsibility for our own conduct without carrying everything around us. Other people remain responsible for their actions; organisations remain responsible for the structures and conditions they create.
Understanding human behaviour and systems helps us recognise, prevent and address harm, and find ways to heal after it. The books offer stories, reflections, practical tools and constructive possibilities—not diagnoses of other people or claims of clinical validation.
Spiritual life is part of this inquiry, with humility in discernment: room for prayer and creative practice, honest questions and a willingness to reconsider what we think we know. The reader’s conscience, agency and choices remain their own.
02 · The collection
The Twelve Books the Institute Is Built On
Begin with the question closest to you. There is no prescribed reading order.
Caring for the people who care
Who Safeguards the Chaplain?
Looks beyond individual resilience to the organisational structures, accountability and protection needed to safeguard the people providing spiritual care.
For: Chaplaincy providers, governors and institutional leaders
Restoration and room to be yourself
The Way Back to Yourself
A personal restoration playbook for reclaiming identity, dignity and choice after learning to become smaller to survive a relationship or system.
For: Readers finding their footing after difficult experiences
Night Fury
Anger, humour and honest emotional processing. Gives fury a voice without giving it permission to harm, with deliberate strong language.
For: Readers processing anger and the aftermath of hurt
The Art of Being Too Much
Permission to be yourself without disappearing to fit in. Explores self-expression, dignity and the difference between belonging and blending in.
For: Anyone who has been asked to shrink or hide parts of themselves
Trust, discernment and spiritual life
Entrusted
Trust and discernment in spiritual community: recognising healthy belonging, facing broken trust and finding a way forward without surrendering dignity or agency.
For: People navigating spiritual community, church hurt or recovery
The Way Within
A Christian devotional and creative journey through prayer, presence and restoration, following the tabernacle as an unhurried pattern of reflection.
For: Readers seeking Christian contemplative and creative practice
Seeing human systems clearly
The Labyrinth
A narrative map of human systems. Story makes the unwritten rules, quiet power and winding paths of families, communities and institutions easier to see.
For: Readers who find understanding through narrative
I Know This Shape
A reference library of patterns, systems and practical tools for recognising what happens between people and considering informed choices.
For: Readers and practitioners seeking a reference to return to
The Sub-Competent Saviour Loop
Examines how dependency and protection can keep dysfunction alive while invisible, competent rescuers carry the work and its cost.
For: Leaders, teams and people repeatedly carrying others’ responsibilities
Belonging in practice and by design
The Art of Belonging
Everyday community practice: communication, inclusion, fairness, conflict and repair that make space for people to be themselves.
For: Community members, families, groups and everyday leaders
The Architecture of Belonging
Constructive community design and governance: building the structures, culture and shared responsibility that support dignity and genuine participation.
For: Community builders, organisational leaders and governors
03 · Different roles, shared foundations
The Connected Body of Work
These books complement one another. A story can help us see; a reference can help us name; a constructive guide can help us build. One does not replace the others.
- A map, a reference, a way to build
- The Labyrinth offers the narrative human-systems map. I Know This Shape is the reference library of patterns and practical tools to return to as questions arise. The Architecture of Belonging turns towards constructive community design and governance: what to put in place, not only what to recognise.
- Care for the chaplain—and responsibility around them
- The Balm of Gilead for Chaplains attends to the person’s restoration. Who Safeguards the Chaplain? addresses providers, governors and the structures around that person. Personal care cannot substitute for organisational safeguarding.
- Restoration without disappearing
- The Way Back to Yourself supports personal restoration; The Art of Being Too Much makes room for self-expression; Night Fury gives anger and emotional processing an honest, humorous hearing. The Sub-Competent Saviour Loop helps explain why competent people can become trapped carrying a system that depends on their invisible rescue.
- Discernment and spiritual practice
- Entrusted explores trust and discernment in spiritual community, including what happens when trust breaks. The Way Within offers a Christian devotional and creative journey. One considers the relationships and conditions around faith; the other offers a practice of prayer, presence and reflection.
- Belonging, lived and designed
- The Art of Belonging focuses on everyday community practice—how we communicate, include, repair and make room for one another. The Architecture of Belonging focuses on constructive structures, shared responsibility and governance that help those practices endure.
Only Institute students read free in The Arcanum. Everyone else needs a paid subscription. Subscribe to The Arcanum.
