I think this will be my final reflection on the holes in the social services sector for a while. I recently met someone who went to a Christian social service agency looking for help. As I heard his painful story of being knocked back by several agencies because he did not quite fit their categories for help and the quite severe situation he now found himself in I couldn't help but think that although now his problems were big enough that he could access help he needed some help at least two years ago. But, there isn’t a free service for people who are "worried about what might likely happen in the future". I find this so frustrating the system is really irritating me and unfortunately I am not one of the movers and shakers who can influence any change either.
By dividing the Kingdom of God into churches for the soul and professional government funded agencies for physical, mental and emotional help we have done damage. I am all too aware of some churches that have inappropriately tried to care for people with various problems that needed professional help. I am not suggesting that we replace mental health professionals with a couple of nice Xn people praying for someone, not at all. Their must be a third way where the people can become integrated into a community whilst getting professional care.
By dividing the Kingdom of God into churches for the soul and professional government funded agencies for physical, mental and emotional help we have done damage. I am all too aware of some churches that have inappropriately tried to care for people with various problems that needed professional help. I am not suggesting that we replace mental health professionals with a couple of nice Xn people praying for someone, not at all. Their must be a third way where the people can become integrated into a community whilst getting professional care.
2 comments:
I believe there is a third way, and it requires a sort of humbling of Christians. The Government agencies can't help everyone - they need to focus on what cases really need help, and fair enough. Those people who are "afraid that something might happen down the road" also need help, important help, and that's where I can see Christians stepping in. As Christians, not only can we offer a loving heart, but also a listening ear and an open mind, offering suggestions to help out in their life, as well as prayer. But as Christians providing that support, we need to realise when it's gone out of our control, and be humble enough to admit that we might not be able to help any more, and get in that professional help. It's not a cop out - that professional help might very well be the miracle that God sent. Just because we can explain it doesn't make it any less miraculous that they got help.
Hey Ben thanks for the comment.
That's pretty much the third way. I should have just got you to write the post. The trick is getting people to see (a) the importance of the pre-proffesional help and (b) valuing the proffessional help enough and being aware of our short comings to know when to let them step in.
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