Lay_Counseling_1.pdfHere you will find the summary of Dr. Siang-Yang Tan’s bookLay counseling: Equipping Christians for helping ministry (1991).Please read and refer to it when working on your project paper although do not clone your projects by this. The book is listed in the optional resources.
The last week should be dedicated to finalizing the work on your project; follow the syllabus instructions (see below as well). Note that you are to focus on aMentoringorMediationministry (NOT Counseling ministry per se). The project is aministryproject not a teaching project. So the process must incorporatedoingmentoring ordoingmediation as a service not teaching mentoring or mediation.
There are no other assignments for you to complete this week. If you have any questions regarding this project please contact me no later than 10 days prior to the due date. That will give us enough time to preview and make necessary edits.
As a reminder I donotwant to see titles that have anything to do with …..CounselingProgram as I specifically want them to focus only on either of the two topics we’ve studied in this course.
Anexperiential exercise/projectwill provide an opportunity to put into practice the principles and concepts studied in the Course. Imagine that your church leaders have asked you to develop a Lay Ministry with the focus on either: 1)Mentoring or 2)Mediationservices and present your proposal to the pastoral leadership team for review. In order to accomplish this you have been assigned the following tasks:
a.Outline your ministry proposalin a systematic way through a detailed position paper and formal proposal. Thepaper must includethe following elements underseparate appropriately-titled headings(in approximately8 pages):
1)name of your ministry[keep this short in one strong complete sentence]
2)purpose of your ministry[why have this ministry? What was the need that precipitated it?]
3)the counseling philosophy of your ministry[this must agree with the church philosophy and vision to have buy-in]
4)the use of supporting scriptures regarding your vision and purpose

5)the scope of the ministry (including any limitations) -[what is the target population? specific gender or ages? who would you exclude and why? how wide a catchment area?]
6)the hours and location/s of services[address phone website to where the people will come or where the main offices are]
7)how the ministry is accessed describe the process[how do you get the word out? how do the people reach you? what do they have to do to get services?]
8)the duration and process of care[what’s the procedure for the service? how long do they partake of services? how do you care for them?]
9)the potential benefits of the ministry[Use Acts 1:8 as the model: start with a center and go out in widening circles thinking of all who would benefit from this ministry e.g. pastors congregation community etc.]
10)any costs or fees associated with the ministry[what are both the tangibleand intangiblecosts (borne by whom?) even if the church is already bearing some of those costs; if church policy now is not to have fees is that wise for your program?]
11)how staff (mentors or mediators) will be selected trained and supervised[start with who will select the staff how will they be trained who will supervise them]
12)how confidentiality and consent issues will be addressed[include any appendices with forms that you may use]
13)how the ministry will be connected with other community and Christian resources
b.List potentialreferencesand localcontact pointsthat would provide additional resources for the particularministry focus(in approximately1-2 pages). [are there other ministries in your community that offer similar services? The ministries should be connected with the type of services you offer]
c.Organize your proposalunder the different headings or key elements listed in Sections a and b.
d.Type the whole proposal double-spaced and approximately12-15 pagesin total length (including the Title page Table of Content and Appendices). Write the paper in APA style format and organize it inan appropriate presentation format[this is not PowerPoint but properly titled for respective ministry/church] similar to what could be distributed for a leadership review.
*** Submit all files (for all assignments) as MS Word documents only and name them according to the following format: first use the course number; then underscore; then your first name and first letter of your last name; then underscore; and finally the name of the assignment itself e.g.HSC560_JohnD_proposal. Also use the same file name in the subject line of the email.
Additional Notes and Tips:
Counseling Philosophy Since you’re not to use the term counseling it will be thephilosophyof yourmentoringor your mediation ministry. So what is philosophy? You have to go along with what your church’s ororganization’sphilosophy is (their vision their main objective) as you are proposing to be an arm of that church or organization. You can’t appear out of left field with something new that takes the focus away from the aim of yourministry which should either be mentoring ormediation for this assignment. That section should not be long just prove that your ministry will be fulfilling the philosophy of the church (are they a relational? community-minded? bible knowledge-based? family oriented? seeker friendly?).
Scriptures you use should support this but not be preachy or long-winded.
Scope means who exactly are you serving?
Cost: there are also intangible costs that must be considered.
Process: how is the (mentoring; mediation) going to happen? Please don’t write out a whole program or a training here just go through the steps of how do they come for it then what do they/you do? for how long? how do you know they are finished? This should be aprocess not a canned training; so you don’t use someone else’s package. You’ve studied both in this course so use the phrases and concepts you now know.
Staff – you will not have counselors you’ll have mentors or mediators
Community connections means from who/where will you get support and who/what will your ministry support?
Resources: should be along the lines of what you’re trying to do. If it’s women mentoring then find resources for just that for women’s services and/or formentoring. It shouldn’t be for counseling family therapy marriage therapy finances poverty support etc. When pulling resources keep Acts 1:8 as your pattern. Who’s the closest (Jerusalem)? county (Judea)? state (Samaria)? uttermost (national and world)?
Be sure to give me the reference page if you use ideas from anyone – references is not the same as resources.
No you don’t need to write an abstract. This is a proposal paper.
Costs/Benefits: there are intangible costs and benefits to any project aside from financial. Consider energy time spent effort being away from family other investments etc. You want to make sure you consider these as the board may ask when you give the proposal.