A Ministry of Presence: Organizing, Training, and Supervising Lay Pastoral Care Providers in Liberal Religious Faith Communities. Denis Meacham

we ourselves develop our capacity to serve one another through an active lay pastoral care program. The promise we make in embracing such a program is as meaningful a commitment as a human being can make: We accept responsibility for the well-being of every person in our church. No one who seeks it will go without our compassionate concern and support. If we truly believe in the worth and dignity of every person, we are obliged to consider the needs, the very local needs, of our fellow congregants.

      Finally, there is one more WHY. Life offers us no greater gift than the opportunity to care for another. I had a psychotherapy professor who used to say that we do not become adults until we take responsibility for the well-being of another. The ministry of lay pastoral care is a path to an ever-deepening personal spiritual growth, growth that is just an illusion without a cultivation of the habit of reaching out to others.