Mid Term

Question 1

Explain what was meant by the statement, “We [church leaders] don’t usually make ethical mistakes in counseling because we ask the right questions and get the wrong answers. We make ethical mistakes because we don’t know the right questions until later in the process.”

Answer 1

We often miss when the nature of a relationship changes and don’t recognize when the rules for care change. It is important, especially at a church counseling level, to understand when an organic friendship moves to a counseling relationship and how to change the types of questions, check-in’s, and meetings that you have. We must know how to guide a relationship, friendship or counseling, accordingly.

Too often we start out counseling without knowing the proper way to handle different situations. We hear a dilemma and try to fix it without having the full story and knowing the entire context.

Question 2

List the 5 levels of care that can exist within or alongside a local church.

Answer 2

One-Another ministry, Support groups and mentoring, Educated counselors, experienced counselors, counseling specialists.

Question 3

Describe One-Another care

Answer 3

• Friends Family, co-workers, etc.
• Scope: Whoever you interact with
• Training: preaching and teaching of the local church.
• Experience: whatever people happen to have/know (low)
• Advantages and opportunities: These people/relationships are everywhere in the church.
• Weaknesses and limitations: not everyone has signed up to be a helper.

Question 4

Describe Support Groups and Mentoring

Answer 4

• Group Leaders, artificially paired mentors
• Scope: specific people met through artificial pairing, care groups.
• Training: Training through curriculum like dr. Hambrick’s books (I swear this man never misses an opportunity to self plug).
• Experience: Curriculum and training, personal life experience.
• Advantages and opportunities: Church members loving other church members well, they’re free of charge, they can be an effective form of outreach to under resources communities.
• Limitations and weaknesses: dependent on the experiences of members and group leaders.

Question 5

Describe Educated counselors

Answer 5

-Meeting by appointment.
-Scope: Complex and multilayered life struggles.
-Training: certification program.
-Experience: 50 supervised hours
-Advantages and opportunities: increases the amount of individualized care available for members.
-Limitations and weaknesses: it is not easily accessible because of time and limitation restrictions.

Question 6

Describe Experienced Counselors

Answer 6

-Meeting by appointment as a general practitioner.
-Scope: multileveled complex struggles. able to refer clients if they do not feel equipped to deal with specific struggles.
-Training: At least a masters degree and 3000-1000 hours of experience.
-Experience: start to track hours dealing with specific issues and developing experience and competence în specific life struggles.
-Advantages and Opportunities: Understand complexity of primary troubles, determines which approaches are likely to be effective.
-Limitations and Weaknesses: It is costly for a church to staff this level of counselor–comes with sustainability challenges. there will be a long waiting list that maks disgruntled church members unable to get an appointment in a timely manner.

Question 7

Describe Counseling Specialists

Answer 7

• Meeting by appointment with those struggling with a specific issue
  -Scope: inside of a church, they can supervise or teach churches how to minister effectively.
  -Training: expertease in the field, critical feedback from peers that helps to refine their materials and practices.
  -Experience: Impossible to quantify, but a minimum of 10,000 hours in that specialty or focus.
  -Advantages and Opportunities: excellent quality of care for those who need in depth counseling. help to advance the ability of the Church to minister well.

Question 8

Define and explain the implications of an “artificial pairing” when leading a church-based counseling ministry.

Answer 8

Artificial paring is what happens when the relationship goes from being informal to formal. This typically means that if a more mature believer was supporting, loving and caring for a younger, struggling member and realized greater experience was needed to help support this individual, then they back away from the one another ministry and allow someone else to help. What this means is now the helpee/client now comes to a different individual with the expectation that they should be able to help.

Question 9

Define Ministry as a program

Answer 9

Something that a church launches

Requires continual recruiting and awareness raising of it fizzles. If you are not constantly making this event known, then it will not last.

Tends to formalize what “it” is, in this case, the “it” is friendship

Sometimes a contract is not the best life decision when trying to formalize a program.

Usually require a pastoral staff person to oversee the program
A church can only have so many programs in the life of the church

Question 10

Define Ministry as culture/habits

Answer 10

Something that permeates most ministries in the church

Much simpler set of behaviors

Enriches other ministries rather than becoming its own ministry

Once it starts, it just happens and doesn’t require recruiting or raising awareness.

Question 11

Big question: when it comes to one-another ministry, which fit better: a program or culture/rhythm? In this case, how do you make friendship a program?

Answer 11

At the end of the day cultivating a heart and a culture of friendship is much more effective when it comes to caring for people well. We begin to develop in our church a desire for intentionality in order to really invest in the people around us. it also recognizes that we are not an island, Christians are not designed to do life alone and to create a culture where we are take care of and support each other.

Question 12

List each of the seven questions provided for cultivating a meaningful friendship.

Answer 12

1) What’s your story?
2) What’s good?
3) What’s Hard?
4) What’s Bad?
5) What’s Fun?
6) What’s Stuck?
7) What’s Next?

Question 13

Briefly describe how “What’s your story” contributes to a friendship that can shape your life to become more like Christ.

Answer 13

We want people to be/feel known.

Question 14

Briefly describe how “What’s good” contributes to a friendship that can shape your life to become more like Christ.

Answer 14

This is the image of God’s goodness in a persons life. We are building towards God’s design, not just away from sin. (don’t get caught on what you’re running from, focus on what you’re running to).

Question 15

Briefly describe how “What’s Hard” contributes to a friendship that can shape your life to become more like Christ.

Answer 15

Counselors need to provide a theological understanding of suffering and pain. we talk about the heavenly outcome în the midst of struggle.

Question 16

Briefly describe how “What’s bad” contributes to a friendship that can shape your life to become more like Christ.

Answer 16

By addressing what is bad, your friends can look for those life struggles as help you back to the right path. They can act as accountability partners, encouraging you to push through in faith.

Question 17

Briefly describe how “What’s fun” contributes to a friendship that can shape your life to become more like Christ.

Answer 17

This adds longevity to friendships and is the natural ground for growth. Friendships are not based on common interest, but they can help friendships develop into deeper, godly relationships by developing fellowship and community within the body of Christ.

Question 18

Briefly describe how “What’s Stuck” contributes to a friendship that can shape your life to become more like Christ.

Answer 18

These are the things that have gone stale in life. Through a friendship, this can look like grieving a previous stage of life which may cause us to get stuck. But good friendships can help us push through these times.

Question 19

Briefly describe how “What’s Next” contributes to a friendship that can shape your life to become more like Christ.

Answer 19

This question asks what is next în life? what friendships help you develop as a person and as a Chrisitan? How should we continue to develop specific relationships and friendships to better exemplify Christ and His work in us?

Question 20

Define Pastoral Ministry

Answer 20

is what pastors do for the congregation as a whole or with subgroups of the congregation.

Question 21

Define Pastoral care

Answer 21

is ministry at the pastor’s initiative with individuals or families.

Question 22

Define Pastoral counseling

Answer 22

is ministry done in response to a member’s request that is focused on giving guidance to a particular life struggle. (what we are focusing on is what to do when there is too much in this category or when the pastor is not equipped to handle these kinds of issues.)

When is the pastor in over their head – do you know the next question to ask and why? Supportive role not a directive role.

Question 23

What access should a pastor have to information disclosed in this type of counseling?

Answer 23

When you share information to me you aren’t sharing information through me. The more formal the relationship the better documented the permission to share needs to be.

Question 24

Use the example of the different ways money can be given to a church as a parallel for how a church should handle information disclosed in counseling differently than information disclosed in other ministry settings

Answer 24

Money is given to the church–it is a designated gift to the building fund and has certain legal restriction, General Tithes need to be documented for tax deduction purposes, but buying something random for a ministry doesn’t provide the same tax deduction because something of value was received în return.

The same commodity (money) given by the same person may be treated differently by the same church based on the conditions of its receival (how, when, whom, and why)

As a church develops a counseling ministry, it is designated information based on an artificial pairing and has certain restrictions for who receives that information and by whose permission. In a formal and artificial setting, there need to be clear releases of information that includes the patients permission.

Question 25

What are give challenges that frequently accompany a church-based counseling ministry?

Answer 25

1) A counseling ministry will not do everything, so you will still need to make referrals.
2) A counseling ministry becomes a lightning rod for hard cases and interpersonal conflicts.
3) A counseling ministry will be a misrepresented caricature by those who dislike the counsel they receive.
4) A counseling ministry will attract situations where your pastors are not experts.
5) A counseling ministry deals with challenges on which your church does not have an official stance

Question 26

Describe the advantages to when a counseling ministry will attract situations where your pastors are not experts.

Answer 26

these situations require pastors and other church leaders to express healthy humility and learn from experts in other disciplines. It also provides an opportunity for pastors to shepherd the congregation in how to honor personal autonomy of others even when they disagree with a wisdom decision they are making. Learning from experts in other fields is an excellent way to bring nuance and a tender humble tone to the way difficult subjects like mental health, addiction, and abuse are addressed in a church’s preaching and teaching ministries.

Question 27

Describe the advantages to when a counseling ministry will not do everything, so you will still need to make referrals.

Answer 27

if managed and networked well, a counseling ministry can serve as a connection point to both community resources that provide need specific counseling and discipleship ministries of the church for one another care.

Question 28

Describe the advantages to when a counseling ministry becomes a lightning rod for hard cases and interpersonal conflicts.

Answer 28

the situations already exist. Having a counseling ministry does not create them. but an advantage of an effective counseling ministry is that it allows these situations to be handled in stages. When someone is in the early stages of processing their pain, it is often hard for them to have the emotional bandwidth of address the interpersonal fallout.

Question 29

Describe the advantages to when a counseling ministry will be a misrepresented caricature by those who dislike the counsel they receive.

Answer 29

because both G4 and GCM are curriculum based, it allows your church to be transparent about the content of what is counseled without disclosing specifics of an individual’s story. This is an advantage that does not exist when lay counselors are operating as general practitioners and developing a care plan for each counseling relationship.

Question 30

Describe the advantages to when a counseling ministry deals with challenges on which your church does not have an official stance.

Answer 30

these new skills of care and influences are vital for holistic pastoral care. Too often, hard decisions are oversimplified with the belief that the experts our there don’t agree with our theology. Sometimes external experts don’t have views that conflict with fundamental beliefs of the church. But often they are just approaching the same subject with different questions. Having a ministry that grapples with these things in theologically responsible ways helps prevent a church from artificially simplifying multidimensional questions. Pastors become better shepherds as they become less teacher only, as this happens.

Question 31

Define Problems in living

Answer 31

Problems in living: examples include time management, self control, anger management, ect. Here we are saying a struggle or hardship emerges from our choices, beliefs or values. This involves personal responsibility and the doctrine of sin.

Question 32

Define Meaning of life struggles

Answer 32

Examples include grief, midlife crises, retirement, suffering, Ect. The way a person has made sense of life can no longer account for the challenge they’re facing or the demands of the next season of life. This segues into questions of eternal significance.

Question 33

Describe Mental health issues

Answer 33

Examples include BPD, PTSD, ASD, OCD, etc. When the body, and often the brain, isn’t operating as God Intended. Christians sometimes fear that mental illness offers an excuse for actions someone should take responsibility for. We say two things when we call something mental illness at the lay level: The passing of time will not resolve the struggle and it would be helpful to get assistance from a professional with expertise in the area.

Question 34

Define what is meant by “the spectrum of formality,”

Answer 34

The Spectrum of Formality is describing what type of relationship a person has (is it a friendship, a formal counseling situation, or somewhere inbetween. This spectrum directly ties into the five levels of care talked about earlier.

Question 35

What is marker 1 on the spectrum of formality?

Answer 35

Artificial pairing (where counseling begins, going into a group and moving away from an informal friendship)

Question 36

What is marker 2 on the spectrum of formality?

Answer 36

Meeting by appointment (moving away from GCM mentorship type ministries and moving too G4)

Question 37

What is marker 3 on the spectrum of formality?

Answer 37

Using Case notes, shared information, and personal history (Going from group to individual specific settings)

Question 38

What is marker 4 on the spectrum of formality?

Answer 38

There is an exchange of money for services. (seeing a licensed or professional counselor with training and experience. either level 4 or 5).

Question 39

Define what is meant by “the spectrum of expertise,”

Answer 39

You look for a counselor whose character you respect and whose godly choices prove their integrity. Their performance tells that they are excellent at what they do and a counselee can respect their opinions and trust their counsel.

Question 40

What is marker 1 on the spectrum of expertise?

Answer 40

Personal experience gives hope and removes stigma.
moves from a informal conversation to groups that share and counsel from personal experience (GCM and G4)

Question 41

What is marker 2 on the spectrum of expertise?

Answer 41

Formal Training (certification) but a muddy middle
Goes from experience based groups to one on one counseling that only has a small amount of training and connont handle cases that are too complex.

Question 42

What is marker 3 on the spectrum of expertise?

Answer 42

Advanced education (licensed) professional standing and representation
This is a trained, licensed, and sometimes expert counselor. The most a church should do is Zone c, but it is wiser to stay în zone B (before marker 2)

Question 43

Define what is meant by the spectrum of jurisdiction

Answer 43

Counseling is a place of voluntary change and voluntary participation. A Church is a membership organization but a counseling center is not. Certain spaced within counseling at the church, and what specifically a person is struggling with, is what determines the levels of a churches/pastors counseling jurisdiction.

Question 44

What is marker 1 on the spectrum of jurisdiction?

Answer 44

Leadership w/ no authority
it is role influence as a peer-ish relationship

Question 45

What is marker 2 on the spectrum of jurisdiction?

Answer 45

in or out authority
Where a person/counselee must choose if they are in or out in a membership or GCM, G4 type ministry.

Question 46

What is marker 3 on the spectrum of jurisdiction?

Answer 46

Punitive influence ability to impose consequences
This is where the authorities must be called for severe medical issue, abuse issue, ect.

Question 47

List and describe the three stages of church discipline from Matthew 18.

Answer 47

The three stages are individual confrontation, collective confrontation, and church-wide confrontation.

Question 48

What is the pre-stage-one emphasis from the material presented in class?

Answer 48

The emphasis on the pre-stage (confession) is important because if the person does not want to confess sin or change from it, they will not change and therefore it will be a lot harder for the church to enact discipline in the person.

Question 49

Describe the individual confrontation stage.

Answer 49

Individual confrontation is when another believer sees the person in sin and raises the concern to the person who is in sin.

Question 50

Describe the collective confrontation stage

Answer 50

If they are not willing to confess or change it, it goes to stage two which is collective confrontation and dictates that a person realizes the fact of church discipline and the leaders and the consequences of not confessing sin.

Question 51

Describe the Church-wide confrontation stage.

Answer 51

If they still do not follow the church discipline, then it moves to stage three which is church-wide confrontation and states that the church gets involved and asks the person to stop or they will have to take action.

Question 52

When the person under church discipline is in formal counseling, list and explain the four points made in class regarding how to ensure that this care is incorporated well into the restorative process.

Answer 52

The four points regarding care is incorporated into the restorative plan: Accurately defining the problem, its development, and its impact. If the person does not understand all about the problem, then change will never happen because they will be not enough information to be able to either side to effectively help the other and the person will relapse if the triggers are not accounted for. Part two is involving the right people in a wise process. If you incorporate the wrong people at the wrong time, it could destroy all the progress that was made and it would even worsen the problem. Part three is tracking follow through and tangible markers of progress. If there is no tangible marker or progress, then there will be not effective progress and they will not be any change.

(note: I don’t think there is a part 4 because his slides and my notes only go up to 3)