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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My church's policy is that the pastoral care team will meet you a maximum of twice in one calendar year for counseling. More than that, we can only assist in finding outside assistance.[/quote]

This is really interesting. How does the church support people going through a hard time then? Expect other parishoners to be there? I mean...really hard things don't neatly fit into this calendar and the church is called to [b]be the church[/b].[/quote]

Being the church doesn't mean doing everything that parishioners need even though you're not qualified.  You wouldn't expect them to do surgery, would you?  Some mental health issues require mental health professionals.[/quote]

Absolutely you're correct. But let's look at a few examples:

- someone struggling with addiction comes to the church. The church refers them to IOP. But they need some help with accountability. Who does that? They need to feel cared for - whose dropping off meals or giving rides? Church is plenty qualified to do that, and deacons should be coordinating it or leading ministries that coordinate it.

- a domestically abused woman opens up to the pastor about her abuse. Absolutely she needs counseling. But does the church follow up and check up on her? Do they offer her resources from her benevolence fund if she needs to leave home? Let's say her husband is an upstanding church member from the outside. Does the church discipline him?

Not everything can be done by saying "Go see a counselor." Counselor's aren't magic and some problems aren't fixed in one fifty minute phone call a week.[/quote]

The poster said they will meet twice “for counseling” not that “we’ll cut you off and can’t even deliver a meal because we already had two counseling sessions.”[/quote]

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