Mobilizing Church-Based Counseling: Models for Sustainable Church-Based Care (Church-Based Counseling)

by Brad Hambrick

Publisher:

New Growth Press

, 2023

Overview

Mobilizing Church-Based Counseling, the first book in the Church-Based Counseling series, provides a framework for guiding churches through the process of building a volunteer-led counseling ministry.

Many churches would like to start a counseling ministry, but they don’t know where to start. Mobilizing Church-Based Counseling offers direction to churches for creating a ministry built around lay-led counseling groups and mentoring. Based on proven models used in his own congregation, Brad Hambrick lays out a clear plan to launch a sustainable soul-care ministry that can be replicated in churches of any size.

Hambrick brings clarity to common points of confusion about church-based counseling and provides guidance on how to provide oversight for lay-led counseling groups and mentoring relationships. Your church can minister the hope of the gospel to the struggles of life—both sin and suffering—without incurring unwise liability or going beyond the capacity of your members.

The first book in the Church-Based Counseling series is designed to help churches mobilize and utilize levels of care from friendship to mentoring to counseling groups.

Discover two flexible models of church-based counseling ministry. One addresses common life struggles (the G4 model) and the other focuses on premarital and marital.

Designed to fit within a local church and to be implemented by volunteers.

Acknowledges and addresses questions and concerns of liability and ethics of lay counseling as well as the care and well-being of the mentors and leaders.

Includes foreword by J. D. Greear.

Key Features

• Provides a framework for guiding churches in building a volunteer-led counseling ministry
• Offers a clear plan to launch a sustainable soul-care ministry applicable to churches of any size
• Discusses common points of confusion, liability, and ethical considerations in church-based counseling

Contents

• Foreword
• Preface: How to Read and Implement Mobilizing
• An Introduction to Church-Based Counseling
• 1. You Want to Do a Good Thing: Let’s Do It Well!
• 2. Who Are You: Who Was Mobilizing Written to Equip?
• 3. What Is G4?
• 4. A Grassroots Launch Story for G4
• 5. What Is GCM?
• 6. A Grassroots Launch Story for GCM
• Section One: Navigating Common Points of Confusion
• 7. Parable of the Dark Room: The Fear of Liability
• 8. The Challenge of Sustainability: HR Stewardship and Burnout
• 9. Staying in Our Chosen Lane: What Is Counseling?
• 10. Where Is the Pastor in This Model?
• 11. Ten Challenges: Why Wouldn’t We Want a Counseling Ministry?
• 12. Problems in Living, Meaning of Life, and Mental Health
• Section Two: Three Spectrums of Counseling Ethics in Church-Based Care
• 13. Introducing the Spectrum of Formality
• 14. Introducing the Spectrum of Expertise
• 15. Introducing the Spectrum of Jurisdiction
• Section Three: How Would We Start a Counseling Ministry?
• 16. An Intentional Six-Phase Approach to Launching G4 or GCM
• 17. From Referral List to Counseling Consultant
• 18. When Do We Put a “Counseling” Tab on the Church Website?
• 19. Five Conversations with Your Senior Pastor
• Appendix A. Triage: Where to Begin in Complex Situations
• Appendix B. G4 Series Nine-Step Curriculums

Praise for Mobilizing Church-Based Counseling

Many churches recognize the need to provide a faithful counseling ministry but simply do not know how to start or what to do. Mobilizing Church-Based Counseling addresses these challenges with wisdom, guidance, and practical plans for implementation. Thankfully, this book does not advocate a one-size-fits-all approach but provides adaptable models to choose from. Brad Hambrick is both a seminary professor and a local church counselor and is the perfect person to author this much-needed book.

—Daniel L. Akin, President, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

Mobilizing Church-Based Counseling is the most practical thing I have ever read. Brad’s years of experience navigating the problems churches face creating structures is pervasively evident. If you want a sustainable plan for the most common counseling challenges churches encounter, you couldn’t do better than this book (and you might want to get a dozen copies to share).

—Alasdair Groves, Executive Director, CCEF (Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation); coauthor of Untangling Emotions

In Mobilizing Church-Based Counseling, Brad comes alongside you and explains exactly what you need to know to start a church-based counseling ministry. He’s anticipated your questions and highlights the information that’s most important for you, given your church’s goals and resources. Reading the book is almost like talking with Brad. Mobilizing is an easy-to-understand guide that you’ll refer to often.

—Sam Hodges IV, President, Church Initiative (GriefShare and DivorceCare)

Product Details

• Title: Mobilizing Church-Based Counseling: Models for Sustainable Church-Based Care
• Author: Brad Hambrick
• Series: Church-Based Counseling
• Publisher: New Growth Press
• Print Publication Date: 2023
• Logos Release Date: 2025
• Pages: 176
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
• Subjects: Pastoral counseling; Church work; Christian leadership
• ISBNs: 9781645073291, 1645073297, 9798891532892
• Resource ID: LLS:MBLZNGCHRCNSLNG
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2025-10-13T19:28:51Z

About Brad Hambrick

Brad Hambrick, ThM, EdD, serves as the Pastor of Counseling at The Summit Church in Durham, NC. He also serves as Assistant Professor of Biblical Counseling at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, a council member of the Biblical Counseling Coalition, and has authored several books including God's Attributes: Rest for Life Struggles, Making Sense of Forgiveness, and Angry with God, and served as general editor for the Becoming a Church that Cares Well for the Abused curriculum.