"In churches larger than what one pastor can support, small groups are often a tool used to provide pastoral care for people - putting 'love one another' in action. With groups as one option among many, what does pastoral care look like at Granger? Is that something that you expect will happen in existing relationships and leave it at that, are groups an intentional avenue for pastoral care, or is there some kind of counseling ministry or training there?"
Groups at GCC are an intentional avenue to help people develop relationships. Relationships (developed in all of our ministry areas) are an intentional avenue to help people experience care - to experience that they matter to God and they matter to us.
Pastoral care is where it gets 'tricky'. I got together a couple years ago with a group of leaders from other churches with responsibility for the Care Ministries. While there are all kinds of ways to provide care to our guests, these were the common areas we responded to:
While not all of these can be filled inside of groups, some can. At the same time, we know that some groups are much better at it than others. I think the church has tried to frame small group ministries as the solution to pastoral care needs. The reality is that some groups are great at caring for one another and some groups are not so great.
The Care & Support page of our website lists the services that we provide The services performed by our staff are weddings, funerals, requests for financial assistance, and counseling services; the remainder are provided through volunteers. We have great volunteer teams who know that people matter to God and they love the honor to communicate the message! I'm grateful!
Thanks Kathy for addressing this question! I appreciate the honest view that small groups, sometimes framed as a great solution for pastoral care, can be quite hit and miss. It's good to see what is expected from them and what other programs are available to improve care ministries. - Larry
Posted by: Larry | March 07, 2009 at 12:36 AM