Mobilizing Church-Based Counseling: Models for Sustainable Church-Based Care

by Brad Hambrick

Mobilizing Church-Based Counseling , the first book in the Church-Based Counseling series, provides a framework for guiding churches through the process of building a volunteer-led counseling ministry. Many churches would like to start a counseling ministry, but they don’t know where to start. Mobilizing Church-Based Counseling offers direction to churches for creating a ministry built around lay-led counseling groups and mentoring. Based on proven models used in his own congregation, Brad Hambrick lays out a clear plan to launch a sustainable soul-care ministry that can be replicated in churches of any size. Hambrick brings clarity to common points of confusion about church-based counseling and provides guidance on how to provide oversight for lay-led counseling groups and mentoring relationships. Your church can minister the hope of the gospel to the struggles of life—both sin and suffering—without incurring unwise liability or going beyond the capacity of your members.

Genres: Counselling

176 pages, Paperback

Published October 15, 2023

Reviews

[Trent Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Any pastor navigating the realms of counseling and lay counseling should read this book. There are several pages, instructions, and frameworks that I plan to use in my current and future ministry.

My one concern of the book, and more broadly the G4/GCM/struggle based groups is what he self identifies on 62: “ a risk of a recovery group ministry is that as it grows, it can sometimes turn into a church within a church. If the level of transparency within the counseling ministry is greater than the level of transparency within the general church culture, those in the counseling ministry can begin to feel like they are the ones really doing church. For this reason, when a church launches a counseling ministry, its discipleship ministry needs to take simultaneous steps to increase the authenticity within the congregation generally.”

What must pastors do to better equip all the Saints within a church to have the skills, biblical knowledge, and character to lean in and help those who are struggling? What existing structures and groups can we enhance/improve instead of starting new ones?