Current CAP Churches

I think people would hesitate to volunteer for any counselling if there were strings attached somewhere. Through CAP, it is easier to talk about this program, so it becomes user friendly and individuals use it because it’s easy. It’s easy to use. You don’t have to go through your pastor. You don’t have to go through your elder or your deacon. You just call it up.

CAP has been a great support with the church offering this help. If I have to pay for this, it is a strain, on top of all the other losses, and health. If having to pay, it would feel like a bought service, rather than a gift from the church, to help through very trying times.

When it started, I thought, “Ah, big deal. Who would use this?” And after a year or two, all of a sudden, I find that it’s fully used, and it was a shock for me. We are in the deacons to help and heal, and to me, that is a prime example of our duty.

For me it also means that I don’t have to research and interview all the counsellors in this area so that I have an idea of who I could refer someone to. Or I’m not scrambling to talk to my colleagues and say “Someone made this request. Who would you recommend?” Because honestly I don’t have the expertise even in some ways to be able to carry some of that out.

You know, the redemption that God brings to us in Christ is body, soul, spirit. CAP allows us, as a church, to sort of highlight that element of God’s redemption that includes psychological and social aspects that people sometimes struggle with, and to find healing in those areas. We can do a lot of physical help, you know, hands-on help with people. We can do a lot of spiritual counselling. I can do that. But as soon as it gets into psychological then it’s out of our field.