Counseling in the local church can be a daunting task, riddled with complexities on numerous issues such as liability, referrals, the place of medicine, and other thorny topics of discussion. In fact, when the leaders of your congregation begin wading through these matters, you will find that many godly men and women have differing opinions about root problems and the “biblical” solutions.

Ultimately, we know one thing: we cannot overlook the pain of people experiencing mental and emotional suffering and say that we have proclaimed the lordship of Christ in a holistic way. We have to do something! As Christ’s body, we must look at people in need of gospel-driven counseling as harassed and helpless, in need of Christ’s peace to replace their anguish. Assuming that we agree on this point, the question then becomes “what do we do?”

Ultimately, we know one thing: we cannot overlook the pain of people experiencing mental and emotional suffering and say that we have proclaimed the lordship of Christ in a holistic way. Share on X

Here are five categories—followed by a brief description and a few resources for each category— to help churches begin answering this question. While the lists of resources under each category are not exhaustive, they will help you begin exploring the specific approach to counseling ministry your church chooses to offer.

NOTE: For a deeper look at these approaches, see this excerpt from a chapter he wrote in Scripture and Counseling, which was published in 2014.

Categories of Counseling Ministry

  1. One Another Ministry
  2. Various Forms of Formal Lay Counseling
  3. Graduate Intern Level Counselors
  4. Formally Trained General Practitioners
  5. Counseling Specialists

1. One Another Ministry

Every church already has a one-another level ministry. This is simply people caring for one another as they “do life together,” including ministries that emphasize accountability relationships.

2. Various Forms of Formal Lay Counseling

The resources below are intended to provide group or mentoring format counseling in which lay people use their personal experience with a given life struggle or transition to facilitate someone else’s journey through a similar experience.

  • Celebrate Recovery represents the most well-known and well-structures of the Christian 12 step models.
  • GriefShare, DivorceCare, and Single & Parenting are short-term group curriculum published by Church Initiative that use a video based format.
  • Thrive Curriculum is a mental health recovery workbook and coaching program developed by Dr. Matthew Stanford for those diagnosed with a mental health disorder or dealing with overwhelming stress affecting your mental health. Similar resources are available for family and friends.
  • Mending the Soul is dedicated to equipping and resourcing community and church leaders around the world in an informed and compassionate response to those impacted by abuse.
  • Family Life Marriage Mentoring is program to develop marriage mentors.
  • GCMarriage Pre-Marital Mentoring is a program to develop pre-marital mentors.
  • Freedom Groups are struggle-specific small groups where individuals commit to investing a season of their life in overcoming a particular life-dominating struggle of sin or suffering.

There are also several organizations that offer certification for lay counselors.

Examples of churches using these certificate level counselors include:

3. Graduate Intern Level Counselors

This layer of counseling would entail a partnership between a local and neighboring seminary or graduate school.

4. Formally Trained General Practitioners

These are counselors serving as part of a church or parachurch ministry staff to offer services to the community. These examples will help you identify comparably trained counselors in your area or to help your church identify ministry models that are the best fit for your context.

5. Counseling Specialists

These are individuals or ministries that have intensive training and programming to deal with the severe expressions of various life dominating struggles.

Hopefully, this blog post enable you to see several categories of counseling ministry that your church can offer to your community. My guess is that most churches have a counseling ministry, such as the one another ministry described above, but several questions remain.

Is your church competent in your current offering—formal or informal—of counseling ministry? How can your church become more competent in the specific approach your people are able to do at this point? Should you cultivate another approach to counseling ministry in your church to enhance your current counseling ministry? Whichever form of counseling your church takes, may your people be known as those who offer mercy and peace to people who are helpless and harassed.

If this post was beneficial for you, then consider reading other blogs from my “Favorite Posts on the Church and Counseling” post which address other facets of this subject.