Laypeople are recovering their ministry of caring for those facing health and wellness challenges, thanks to The Caring Congregation training held at Kingswood United Methodist Church in Buffalo Grove, May 8-9.

Clergy are often not able to provide regular pastoral care to people who are hospitalized, in long-term health care, homebound, or facing addiction.

“People have discerned their call to this ministry,” says Rev. James Preston, lead pastor of Kingswood and Buffalo Grove campus pastor. “Lay people are gifted for this.”

The Caring Congregation’s ministry began at Resurrection, a United Methodist Church, in Leawood, Kan. Their training at Buffalo Grove drew participants from other United Methodist churches as well as United Church of Christ and Episcopal congregations.

One impetus for Rev. Preston’s pursuit of the Caring Congregations training for his church is that the congregation is growing older. He wanted the church to provide more consistent and frequent contact. “Even a weekly call from someone in the church will make a difference,” he said.

The training covered listening skills, appropriate boundaries, and the biblical concepts of healing, visiting, and care. Participants also learned how to make visits, how to use prayer and scripture in a visit, and when to report or not report special circumstances.

The next steps include a virtual meeting with Caring Congregation National Team Leaders Rev. Claire Clough and Rev. Debbie Dellinger for the 80 who underwent training. The Caring Congregation will resource the participating churches for a year, and then the churches will support each other.

Kingswood and First United Methodist Church of Arlington Heights have already built their teams and are starting the process of assigning and training. Eventually, they will train more people.

Kingwood has assigned a dispatcher and has begun sending out a few people to visit.

The training closed with an anointing of the volunteers, each of whom received a vial of oil to use on their visits.

“Laypeople mentioned what it meant to them,” Rev. Preston said. One person noted that she found it powerful to be anointed for her own healing and that her own calling to offer healing was clarified.

“It empowers lay people—that is the important thing,” Rev. Preston added. “It is a gift in that we can make more contacts with people more frequently."

Photos by Aquilino Javier