Building Your Church Through Counsel and Care

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Church members form the core of a congregational care system.
—Dale S. Ryan

We hate to leave," wrote Nancy the day before the moving van arrived. "You have been such a caring church family, and we thank God for you!" I sat in my office and read and reread that letter. It felt good to be a church that cares.

In the middle of the tenth reading, the telephone rang. It was Fred. He, too, was leaving. "We haven't been to church in six weeks," he said, "and no one called us. No one seems to care. We won't be back."

I felt sad and angry and guilty all at once. I knew there was some truth to Fred's complaint. Our church seemed unable to care for him in the ways he needed. I felt the failure, and it didn't feel good.

Why did our congregation care so effectively for Nancy's family yet lose Fred through the cracks?

Primarily, I realized, because we had developed care strategies to respond to Nancy's kinds of needs, but none of our caring structures fit Fred's situation.

Every church wants to be known as "a church that cares." Most congregations realize this won't happen merely by employing a caring pastor. The "that's what we pay the pastor to do" strategy is doomed to failure. Church members form the core of a congregational care system, so the key to effectiveness is having lay-people respond to a wide variety of needs. But how? Which structures work best?

Below, I've grouped lay-care strategies into six general categories. Some you'll recognize as your own, but if you feel as frustrated about your "Freds" as I feel about mine, you may find the other strategies worth considering. I've found that a mix of care strategies best meets the diverse needs we confront.

When Nancy and her family moved here, her husband, John, wasn't a Christian. ...

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