Chapter 9

Practice In a Church

The Spirit of the Church

Our next discussion is starting a practice in a church or within a religious organization. The basic, but most important criterion for establishing your practice in a church is the spirit of the church leadership itself. When you interview with a church board, you need to be very honest with them about the purpose of the practice. Its sole purpose is to bring the lost to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, and the broken to the healing and restoration God provides. Be sure they have a heart for the Gospel, salvation, and sanctification. That needs to be the focus of that Church's ministry. For example, I needed to find a host facility, and I interviewed a number of pastors, church boards and elders. I ran into several different attitudes. One was where they wanted free counseling for their members. The people from the church would have first preference over others. The room that they were offering me was in a busy, heavily trafficked hallway near the church office, so that clients had to walk in the building by the Secretary and other office workers. The room was too small and inadequate. And the second room they showed me needed carpeting, a telephone line, a drop ceiling, and furniture at a cost of several thousand dollars. They also wanted a one-year temporary agreement of being there. At the end of it, if they did not like my being there, I would need to leave everything there so that they could use the room. 

Now, obviously I could get my furniture, but the drop ceiling, the carpet, the telephone line was all going to be at my expense, with no payback whatsoever. At another place, we discussed the client's use, and kids may be there with parents. I need to have full access to the church with my own set of keys, so that I can be in and out at my convenience. The leaders had a problem: the facility might get dirty, that there might be kids involved, and that at times, clients may be emotionally upset and crying.  They did not feel that use was appropriate for their church building. I do not say this critically at all. I am just saying you as the counselor have a responsibility to know who you are, what you are as a professional, what it takes to do your profession. You have to educate the church board, and create the impression that you are not a ministry of their church, but a separate entity from them. In other words, you are a professional in your own right. You have your own practice, and they have to understand what the needs are going to be in order for you to successfully counsel. And they have to give you the right to have your office be the way it should be. They have to choose to make an investment in the ministry by giving you full access to their facility. But most of all, they have to have a heart for Jesus because of their own salvation and their own gratitude to him for what he has done for them. That is the basic criterion for establishing your practice in a church. 

When you interview the board, and pastor, you get specific by telling them all these things that can happen. People may come in, they may be yelling, they may be screaming. Here are my hours. I might be in on Saturday. Sometimes I may be late at night. Sometimes, here is when I come to work and you have to put the question directly to them, “Do you have a heart for the lost? Do you want your church to be part of a ministry that reaches out for the others and sees them saved? Are you willing to let the unwashed, the unclean, the lost, the rough, the mean, the ornery, the hopeless, the depressed, come into your church day after day. Are you willing to let 50 or 60 people a week come up and down your hallways and use your bathroom and go into the kitchen to get a drink and blow their noses and throw away their tissues? Are you willing to let their kids come in when they are upset, frightened, and screaming because of the conflict in their family? Are you willing to let the girlfriend of the man committing adultery come in to talk about her part of the problem? Are you willing to let me ride my Harley and park it in broad daylight in front of the church, and I walk in wearing my leather jacket, chaps, and gloves? Getting all of this talked about up front will make your life so much easier. God will guide you in all those things. You can tell when their heart is right. 

As an example, I remember a lady in one of the host churches I met. She was a German lady with a thick German accent and close to 80 years old named Edna who was there one Wednesday afternoon. This church eats together on Wednesday evenings along with Bible classes. Most of the families come and it is a big deal with everyone laughing and talking. Edna comes in the afternoon to cook meals to get the thing started. One of my clients was a mother who was separated from her husband. The oldest of her two kids, who was about nine, was asked to babysit the youngest while she was in the counseling session. The youngest, who was around two, started to cry, and the mother started to get upset. All of a sudden, the crying stopped, and we did not think much of it, just glad it stopped. After the session we found Edna singing a German lullaby in a rocking chair in the church nursery cradled in her arms with the nine-year old nearby playing with toys. Edna had just the littlest tear in the corner of her eye. You cannot put a price tag on that. Because she heard a small baby crying, she did that out of her love of Jesus, who prompted her to go in there, hold that child, and provide love and comfort. When she handed the child to the mom, she told her how beautiful her baby was, and what a proud mother she must be. All of that was possible because the church agreed that the client’s children could use the children’s rooms to play with toys and use the nursery if it were needed. 

Later on, I sought her out, and I thanked her, and she just said, “Thank you, because I want to be part of what you do. We want to be part of what you do, because we are a better church, when we give of ourselves, so all these people can be helped.” You have to have that spirit, or the people won't be willing to give, and being in that type of church will be a burden. Instead of it being a ministry, it will be an aggravation to the church. This will directly affect the freedom of your own spirit to relate to the clients, and the freedom of the Holy Spirit to minister through you and in that place. So do not compromise that spirit. No matter what you do, no matter how long it takes to get the host church. After you give them your specific needs, give them time to think and pray about if they want you there. God has places where people want to support Biblical counseling because they love the Lord and they want to serve Him. That is the place you want to go. 

Beyond basic space and spiritual requirements, there are requirements for client session time. You may need to use the church part time when you first start your practice. But if it grows to full-time, will the church be able to accommodate your schedule? In my full-time practice, I go in around noon, and counsel until eight or nine o'clock, Monday through Thursday and until 5 pm on Friday. You need to have access to your office 24 hours per day in case you need it, much like the pastor would have, so that when you need to go, there is no question. And people get used to you being there and are not shocked to see you. Everyone knows that's just Dan, and he has his office here. We trust Him. You will need minimum office hours, and maximum freedom to come and go as you please, even if it's a weekend. It is best if you negotiate access to other parts of the facility like the nursery to use a changing table or an area for quiet play, and the use of the church copier. Many different accesses will need to be discussed.

The office space and building and physical location has basic requirements to promote quality counseling. Privacy of your office and phone line if you have one is also required. All of this needs to be negotiated. Privacy also requires separate entrances and exits for clients not to see each other in passing, and church employees do not see who is counseling. In my situation, there is an exit from the side of the church building at the end of the hall near my office door. The clients wait for their session in a large lobby at the front of the building. Clients leaving never see those who are waiting. Privacy provides safety for those in counseling.