Advisory Council
Dr. Francine Hernandez
Member, Advisory Council
Dr. Francine Hernandez serves as a member of the Advisory Council.
Formation and career
Dr. Francine Hernandez holds a Doctor of Ministry in Pastoral Care and Counseling from New York Theological Seminary and a Master of Divinity in the Psychology of Religion and Pastoral Care from Morehouse School of Religion. She is a Board Certified Chaplain and pastoral counselor and a Certified Clinical Pastoral Educator with the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy. She has supervised Clinical Pastoral Education units at Episcopal Health Services since 2007, and before that at New York Presbyterian Hospital, where she served as Interim Director of Clinical Pastoral Education. She serves as Associate Pastor and pastoral counselor at Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church in Melbourne, Florida.
Writing and teaching
She has written several works on pastoral care, among them Cave Walker: A Psychodynamic Approach to Pastoral Care. On January 26, 2025, she presented a Conversation Series workshop for NSBT, Utilizing a Psycho-Dynamic Approach to Pastoral Care. In her own summary of the talk she wrote that addressing the depth of people’s pain, particularly within church institutions, calls for an alternate approach, and that relying on spiritual bypassing or spiritual jargon to mask real pain often prevents us from entering the “caves” of people’s struggles. Pastors are burning out, she wrote, and some are leaving ministry because of the draining nature of the “Messiah Complex.” She invites ministers and caregivers to explore an approach that empowers people to take an active part in their own journey toward healing and recovery.