Pastors tend to be people pleasers. They want to help out as many people as they possibly can. Often pastors end up saying yes to things they just do not have time for. Or pastors believe that they need to handle every counseling case that comes their way from "his flock". A reality pastors need to realize is that they are not alone. They can not be everything to everyone. If pastors try to this, they will burn out. Even the lone ranger was not alone. Statistics say that a pastor can only effectively minister to 40 people. What if his church has over 300 people; does he simply neglect the rest? How

A pastor might have the desire to have others in the church help counseling yet most pastors do not have any idea of how to train others how to counsel. Rather than reinventing the wheel or send the potential people to school, a pastor should find out if a training program already exists (to learn the basics of counseling). There are several programs that do exactly that. One training program in particular is called Stephen Ministries. It all started in 1975 when Rev. Kenneth C. Haugk, Ph.D., a pastor and clinical psychologist, saw that people's needs for care in his St. Louis congregation and community by far exceeded what he alone could provide. He developed materials to train nine of his congregation members to provide quality, one-on-one Christian care to individuals experiencing a life crisis. Upon completion of their training, he commissioned them as "Stephen Ministers" and linked them to people with a variety of needs for care. "Stephen Ministry" was so successful in his church that other congregations wanted to become involved. Today, any church can learn how to train the right people in Stephen Ministries. (Haugk, pp. 23-30)

How do we turn the church into a community? Crabb and Allender in their book, Encouragement: The Key to Caring, suggest that we focus in four areas. They are:

The Bible teaches explicitly that Jesus came not only to save sinners but also to call Christians to a radically different lifestyle characterized by agape love. One way to show Christ-like love to one another and to fulfill the law of Christ is to bear or carry each other's burdens. Where are some places we can show care and concern, to help Christians with their day to day problems? The best place would be in a para-church or a church environment.

We live in a world of quick fixes, fast foods and instant replays. We aren't content with waiting for answers of healing until tomorrow; we want answers today - right now. When it comes to unraveling difficulties, most people want immediate, painless solutions. Solutions do not exist because we've settled for pleasant relationships when we could be enjoying powerful relationships. What if I told you that as the pastor you could counsel your entire congregation without getting burned out? Just the idea of being able to counsel everyone in the congregation would excite most pastors. In one sense this might also excite the congregation who might say, "Why not talk to our pastor. That's what we pay him to do." The way this could be done is by adopting a Dr. Laura style of counseling. She gets right to the heart of issues and has an answer in 30 seconds or less then is onto the next person. Thinking about having a counseling ministry like hers sounds like a bad joke to most people yet her counseling approach is appealing at the same time. In our quest for "helping" as many people as we can, a quick answer is a tempting solution. As scary as this idea sounds, this type of counseling happens in many legalistic settings. Some things pastors might have said are: "Your problem Mr. Smith is that you are a sinner. Give up your drinking and running around, and God will resolve all of your conflicts." (Adams, pg. 38) "Mr. Jones, the reason you feel guilty is because you've cut up your wife into 1000 pieces. I'm afraid that five Hail Marys are not going to be sufficient enough for this action. You need to repent of your sins!" This reminds me of the two tongue in cheek rules of engineering: (1) if it doesn't work, use a hammer; (2) if it still doesn't work, use a bigger hammer. Wh

Some common words found in the essay are:
Lay Counseling, God's Whenever, Community Developing, Stephen Ministries, Hannah Sisters, Dr Laura, Hans Eysenck, Key Caring, Screwtape Letters, Brief Therapy, lay counseling, professional counselor, stephen ministries, professional counselors, entire congregation, doing people, highly trained people, people practice, trained people, highly trained, people god, trained people practice,
Approximate Word count = 2416
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)