Pastoral Care Group/SLOW Community FAQs
Why do PCGs exist?
Ministry is difficult. Working with people, communities, and team especially those that involve hurting people, takes a toll. Multiple decades of focus on leadership-development, best-practices, and empowerment have failed to stem the tide of burn-out experienced by thousands of pastors every year, many who leave ministry altogether. Pastoral Care Groups are intentionally designed to be spaces of honest and brave conversations around challenges and pain that are experienced by ministers across contexts and geography.
Who should participate?
Many minstry leaders ask the questions, "Is this hard for anyone else?" and "Can I talk about this with anyone?" Our answer to both of those questions is "Yes." If you are a minister who has ever asked either of those questions, then PCGs are right space for you.
Are PCGs just for pastors?
Pastoral Care Groups are not exclusive to ministers with the title of pastor. They are available to anyone serving in ministry leadership positions. Church Well Co currently provides groups specifically for ministers in these leadership spaces: Missionaries, Lead Pastors, WIML, NextGen, Chaplains, Pastor's Spouses, and many other ministry contexts. We intend to make additional groups available in the coming months for missionaries and church planters.
Are PCGs Like Therapy or Coaching?
PCGs are neither therapy nor coaching. Therapy looks to resolve symptoms related to mental health and trauma. Coaching looks to accomplish goals. Pastoral Care Groups are not oriented either toward the explicit resolution of pain nor to goal completion. Pastoral Care Groups are spaces for ministers to find relationship, support, and care in the midst of journeys that are difficult. PCGs exist so that pastors can have a place to be honest without being alone. Many pastors find PCGs helpful in conjunction with therapy and/or coaching.
Ready to join your PCG/SC?
How do I request to join a PCG?
Find the right group for you at: www.churchwell.co/pcg. Once you have found your group, submit a contact form through the link provided for that group. Your Guide will take it from there make sure you are set up for the group that is right for you.
What to expect after you submit my request to join a PCG?
Once you submit your initial inquiry through www.churchwell.co/pcg:
Your Guide will contact you. Each guide engages this process in their own way (phone call, email, virtual meeting). This will give you a chance to interact with them, ask any questions you may have, and make sure you have all the information you need.
Following that initial contact with your Guide, you will be provided a consent form and payment link to complete your registration for the group.
Once that is completed you will receive a confirmation email with the virtual link to your first PCG call.
Getting Started in Your PCG
What does the PCG experience look like?
PCGs are intentionally relationship-centered. The Guide does not orient the experience around content or skills (though each Guide brings in their own experience from their ministry and professional contexts). The Guide supports the development or relationships within the group through conversations and practices that will create opportunity for honest, brave relationship in which each participant can grow into the experience of being seen and known by other ministers, especially in the challenges they face.
While each Guide facilitates the time a little different based on their personality, background, and heart, each Pastoral Care Group orients around the four spiritual disciplines that are the heartbeat of Church Well Co:
Survey: Where am I?
Lament: What am I carrying?
Own: How is what I am carrying impacting my relationships, leadership, and life?
Welcome: toward what is God's invitation beckoning me?
Though not practiced in a linear form, these questions serve as access points into knowing and being known, seeing and being seen. Participants will find the conversations that take place in PCGs to be woven together through these practices of SLOWing down together. Your Guide will welcome you onto the first PCG call and provide more information regarding how these spiritual disciplines are practiced in your PCG.
What do I need to do before my first PCG call?
Complete the informed consent that you will receive from your guide.
Complete payment for the PCG. Payment is made for the full 6-month season up front ($180). If a payment plan is necessary, please discuss this with your Guide.
Receive the virtual link for your PCG from your Guide.
Optional: purchase the SLOW Journal (available on Amazon). This journal was created for the PCG process and many participants find it a helpful way to continue the practices of the PCG between monthly calls.
What can I expect from my PCG?
A time to slow down with others.
A place where there can be honesty and vulnerability regarding the pain and struggle of ministry.
Relationship with others who are in a shared-leadership space.
A community committed to becoming increasingly safe together as you practice bravery and kindness.
What is required of me as I participate in the PCG?
Bring yourself. As you are. There is no homework and no preparation. These spaces are just for you to be able to arrive in as you are.
Be as vulnerable as you are comfortable being. Safety is co-created over time. The act of entering a new space with new people and engaging bravely with vulnerability does not always immediately feel safe. So we give ourselves permission to grow together into the relationships we are forming.
Does my Guide provide other services beyond the PCG?
Each of our guides has training in a helping profession (counseling, spiritual direction, coaching, etc.). Many guides provide additional supportive services through their own ministries outside of Church Well Co. Their information can be found here.