Beyond the Book with Dr. Hambrick: “Mobilizing Church-Based Counseling”

In the following Q&A, Hambrick takes time to answer a few questions about this new book:

What is the book about?

“Mobilizing Church-Based Counseling,” equips churches to start lay-based counseling ministries that are relationally sustainable, church-compatible, and liability wise. Mobilizing re-envisions church-based counseling from trying to prepare lay leaders to serve as pseudo-professionals to a groups- and mentoring-based model of counseling.

Who is the target audience?

I wrote this book for two primary audiences. First, the pastoral leadership of a church that is preparing to launch a counseling ministry. Second, the lay person who will serve as a catalyst to oversee this ministry.

What motivated you to write the book?

In my role as the pastor of counseling at The Summit Church (Durham, NC), I’ve been part of developing G4 — a group-based counseling model — and GCM — a premarital mentoring model for over 10 years. As we’ve refined these ministries over that time, we felt like they were ready for implementation at other churches. This book is the fruit of that labor.

Why do so few churches have established counseling ministries?

When churches think “counseling,” they often envision a pseudo-professional model with lay people serving as general practitioners using intake forms and case notes while developing an individualized treatment plan for each counselee. That feels overwhelming — for the church and the potential lay leaders — and feels like a liability minefield.

Why is it important to create a counseling ministry that is relationally sustainable when involving lay leaders?

Lay counselors counsel in their “hobby time.” At most, they devote 2-3 hours per week to this ministry. If this ministry becomes too emotionally or relationally taxing a church will burn out its volunteers and — worse still — those receiving care will have their source of care removed when the volunteer steps back from the role. This is why its vital to create lay-counseling ministries that are relationally sustainable for its lay volunteers.

How does this book help readers to better serve the Church and fulfill the Great Commission?

The kind of ministries that this book equips a church to launch encourages lay leaders to view their ministry as an outreach to a specific people group. In this case, “people group” does not mean a cultural or linguistic group, but rather people of a shared struggle. The people each lay person is focusing on struggle with a particular area of need, and the lay person becomes a missionary to those struggling with addiction, depression, the aftermath of a divorce, grief, trauma, etc.

How has writing this book shaped you spiritually?

Like I said, this book has been a 10-year project; at least, the development of the ministry models this book equips churches to launch has been refined over that length of time. Seeing lay people get to use their hardships to encourage others is immensely satisfying and enriching.