Counselors

Pastor burnout is a thing. We’ve talked about it quite a few times here. But it’s a topic that will need to be talked about routinely for a long while. Want evidence of the need? Check out the newest data collected by Barna Group in the State of Pastors, Volume 2, which has seen some stark negative and positive changes in recent years concerning work satisfaction and personal stability for pastors. Here are some of the highlights to coincide with our point:

As Christian leaders, pastors hold a profound responsibility to nurture and care for the spiritual well-being of their congregations. I do not think it is a large leap that many churches then take partial responsibility for the emotional and cognitive well-being of the congregation as well, though we know there is a difference in the role of the pastor and a counselor.

In today’s world, where many individuals carry the invisible scars of trauma, churches must become places of healing and restoration. We see that Christ Himself is our high tower (Psalms 144:2), this fortress (Samuel 2 22:2), and a source of strength (2 Timothy 4:17-18) Adopting a trauma-informed approach is not just a trend; it’s a reflection of Christ’s compassionate ministry to the brokenhearted.

As a Christian counselor, I have found myself in many stories with clients that included the loss of a spouse or child, a victim of domestic violence, the agony of a dream or future that would never come to be, and the tears of redemption, hope, grace, and peace. I have had my fair share of tears in counseling and so this verse, John 11:35, interests me a lot. It starts with who Jesus is, fully God and fully man.

The topic of Jesus being fully God and fully man is a theological concept that is easy to say, hard to understand, and a nearly endless deepness to learn from. The concept is that Jesus who is part of the trinity of God as the Son, came to Earth as a living sacrifice for our sins. But Jesus’ death without a life in this world that is blameless would not do and so we can find comfort in understanding Jesus has been where we currently are.

Back in June, my church started up an intentional prayer team ministry that happens after the sermon while worship is still going on. The thought was we have many prayer needs and a place in the lobby called Next Steps for people to pray, but in the hustle of getting kids from nursery, saying goodbye to church friends, and off to the local diner for Sunday lunch, we were missing a lot of time to pray with people. So we kicked off the initiative with a training and recently launched.

But the pastors were very mindful of what we were offering. They asked me to talk about mandatory reporting for our volunteers that joined the prayer ministry. I wanted to come prepared and attempted to research some good curriculum and resources. What I found for churches was very, very little. What I did find cost a lot of money or was a decade old.

Mental health has always been a stigmatized thing within the Church, but the last decade has started to see some significant changes. One question I get asked a lot is how to educate people and that led to my sharing what my church has been doing to break the stigma of mental illness, with a new post every year on how we are further developing it. I also did a short video on this talking about several strategies your church could do right away and a separate list of 10 free ways to stop stigma.

But having an on-demand option is nice. Imagine you have a new hire at your church or volunteer that signed up and you want them to get some training? Maybe you need to do a quick refresher after a critical incident happened and noticed some flaws in the response. In my opinion, this is where Spiritual First Aid comes in.

This site is a 6-session certificate course that teaches peer-to-peer spiritual and emotional care and trauma-informed best practices. It is not my first or second option, but should absolutely be used at some capacity in your church process with training.

Having gone through the first course and seen the overview of the curriculum, I highly endorse it. If you go visit the website linked above, they currently are offering for free Session 1 and download practical tools for responding to spiritual and emotional needs that include a BLESS CPR quick-reference, basic overview of trauma, 12 self-aid resilience practices, and 20 encouraging verses.

What Is BLESS CPR?

Here’s the website’s description:

Similar to medical first aid which provides temporary help, Spiritual First Aid’s BLESS CPR step-by-step helping framework will help you master small actions that make a big difference. Learn how to holistically respond to struggles such as anxiety, depression, substance abuse, work problems, and relationship issues. Be equipped to walk alongside others through trauma caused by grief, abuse, violence, and disasters.

If that’s not enough, if you sign up for their newsletter, every week I feel like I’m getting a high grade eBook for free to download that every church should have. So go check out the website now, at least view the free video and download the freebies, and see if this is a resource you could use.

(Note: All outside links on this article are affiliate and so any of your purchases, we do receive some compensation.)