Our Certificate Program, Listening Laboratory 1 for Chaplaincy. It describes eleven deep-structure listening skills that have been found very effective in conveying a caring presence and helping others come to terms with their current life issues.

The secret to leadership and transformation of a group—or of another person—is the quality of the relationship one person has with another. The effective group leader or counselor will be the person who learns how to listen to other people. By studying and employing listening skills, chaplains will engage others more compassionately, allowing them to feel that their needs are being met. These skills can be used with persons who are terminally ill, inactive at church, going through a divorce, in a family with a severely ill person, unemployed, seeking a new church, grieving, traumatized by catastrophe, going through teenage adolescence, in marriage counseling, or leading a ministry team.

Grace School of Ministry implementation of Dr. John Salvage studies offers eleven specific and teachable listening skills for improving relationships among those who want to become chaplains, ministry in small-group settings or when offering counsel to others. The skills are taught through oral exercises and unfailingly helpful examples from actual congregational situations. The skills include paraphrasing, productive questions, perception check, expression of feelings and emotions, fogging, negative inquiry, behavior description, and story listening.
-Dr. Matthew Taylor