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David Middlebrook -- Dangers of Church Counseling

Posted on Thursday, October 06, 2005 at 7:35 PM by Ian McKenzie

In the background of church development in this country, counseling by members of the clergy as an outreach to the congregation has always been present in some form. However, in the foreground of legal development, we have seen the adoption, on a state-by-state basis, of various statutes and causes of action that appear to be directed toward limiting the public's access to providers of counseling services and providing avenues of relief for those harmed by the fault of their counselors.

As time passes, it appears that the traditional deference that our states have afforded to counseling efforts by members of the clergy will be further eroded. Specifically, states have taken three steps in the area of regulating counseling activities that clergy members must be aware of if their communications with individuals of their congregations reach any depth beyond casual conversation.

1. States have defined by statute what they consider to be the provision of mental-health services and, similarly, who is to be considered a mental-health-services provider.

2. States have implemented strict regulations for the provision of mental-health services.

3. States have recognized and fostered numerous remedies, through statute or common law, addressing malpractice issues arising in the context of the counseling services. [read more]

Posted in Church, Relationships

Barna's Beefs

Posted on Thursday, October 06, 2005 at 7:07 PM by Ian McKenzie
George Barna's nine challenges for American Christianity --prophectic words, or sweeping generalizations? [read more]

Posted in Church

Out of Ur

Posted on Wednesday, October 05, 2005 at 9:42 PM by Ian McKenzie

A new blog from the editors of Leadership magazine.

link from B.D.

Posted in Blogging, Church

Shift Church

Posted on Friday, September 02, 2005 at 3:50 PM by Ian McKenzie
Jordon was out very early this morning trying to walk off some pain-induced sleeplessness. Later in the day —hopefully he got some sleep— he posts a few thoughts on the disconnect between church's schedule, built around 9-5 white-collar workers and the schedules of shift workers.

Back in 2002 Statistics Canada reported that 3 out of 10 employed Canadians worked some type of shift. and that "Many shift workers reported problems that ranged from sleep disruption to difficulties with relationships. For most of them, working shift was not a choice, but a requirement of employment." Not only do a third of working Canadians find it difficult to attend church, because of scheduling, but they face increased personal problems because of the demands of their shift work. These are people who could benefit from the prayerful support and loving fellowship that can come from a body of believers.

What are we doing about it?

Posted in Church, Community

Gen-Xer's and Church Web-Sites - Frank McPherson

Posted on Sunday, July 21, 2002 at 7:29 PM by Ian McKenzie
Today I had a good conversation with Matt and his wife, Kim, about the unique perspective that Gen-Xers have on church. In particular, Gen-Xers expect far more use of computers and electronic communications such as e-mail, instant messaging, and yes, even PowerPoint.

One of the things that Matt said that really stood out is that he and his wife checked to see whether our church had a web site, and if it didn't that would have told them a lot about our church. The lack of a web site might have caused them to not come to our church.

I think that for anyone associated with Christian churches today, Matt's comment has got to make you think about how you are reaching out and communicating with today's generation.

The conversation inspired many thoughts. One would be, wouldn't it be cool if churches provided mail servers, message forums, online chats, and web server space for weblogs tools to extend their community into cyberspace? When a person joined the church they would be given an email address. They would be provided the webloging tools to contribute to the community by providing their own content. Not many churches have the ability to provide all this themselves, but it wouldn't take much for technology providers to provide this type of service. Take for example Yahoo, which provides mail, forums, and web server space. [more] [Notes From the Cave]

Posted in Blogging, Church, Technology, Web

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