Pastoral Care

Pastoral Care is a core ministry of any Christian Church.  In pastoral care we manifest the steadfast love of God and God’s continuing presence and blessing.  Pastoral care is a primary responsibility of the pastor.  The pastor visits everyone who is hospitalized, regularly visits the homebound and provides Communion for them, and visits people at work and home, especially when there is need for prayer, a listening ear, and reassurance in times of grief, stress or family problems.

Pastor Crall has extensive training and experience in pastoral counseling.  He completed Clinical Pastoral Education when he attended Princeton Theological Seminary.  He served a congregation in Pennsylvania that suffered many deaths.  During his twenty-four years as a Navy chaplain he listened to and counseled many thousands of sailors and Marines and families.  Pastoral care is a priority for him and for the Kirk.  It reaffirms the value of the individual and each person’s God given dignity.

Nelleke Dubois is our Lay Pastoral Care visitor.  Nelleke completed a rigorous training program at Doylestown Hospital in Pennsylvania.  Modeled on the Clinical Pastoral Education that pastors receive, she spent eighty hours in intense supervised pastoral care situations involving such things as ministry to families in the Emergency Room, death and dying and bereavement, dementia and other issues of aging.

Our Board of Deacons also assists in pastoral care, by providing caring presence.  They “look in” on people with special situations and needs and provide meals, flowers, cards, and prayer.  Both elders and deacons may accompany the pastor in administering the Lord’s Supper to the homebound.