No pastor should carry a congregation’s mental health needs alone.
Counseling requests can outgrow a pastor’s time and training.
Trained, compassionate helpers are in short supply.
Affordable therapy is hard to find.
Together, we can bridge the gap between pastoral care and professional help.
We are exploring a faith-based peer mental health support service, and your input will shape what we build.
People in our communities are suffering, and local churches are on the front lines.
About one in four people who seek help for a mental health concern turn to a pastor first.
Yet the average person waits between the first symptoms and a visit with a mental health professional is eleven years.
That places enormous pressure on pastors to care for needs they were never trained to meet.
But there is a model of care that can help.
Research on counseling outcomes shows that a warm, empathetic relationship is one of the strongest predictors of healing.
While professional therapy is essential for serious clinical needs, trained peer mental health coaches can offer structured emotional and spiritual encouragement to people facing everyday stress, worry, and discouragement.
Coaches don’t replace pastors or therapists. They walk alongside both, so each person receives the right level of care.
And there is precedent for this model.
In 2018, a church-based peer mental health coaching initiative launched in Texas to support people with mild-to-moderate emotional struggles.
In September 2022, one of its leaders reported at the American Association of Christian Counselors (AACC) conference that more than 18,000 people had been helped through peer-led care.
Imagine that happening here.
In Dover….. In Smyrna….
In Camden….
Across Kent County.
What would change?
"When Jesus saw the crowds, He had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
Then He said to His disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few…'"
Pastors and ministry leaders shouldn’t carry this alone.
Professional counselors can have long waitlists. But there is another way.
By equipping mature, empathetic believers with structured coaching tools, we hope to build a compassionate safety net within the local church.
What Peer Mental Health Coaches Do
Walk alongside: Offer non-judgmental, structured emotional and, if the client wishes, spiritual support through difficult seasons.
Teach coping strategies: Help people build healthy emotional, relational, and spiritual habits.
Bridge to professional care: Help people find and connect with licensed therapists when clinical care is needed, and keep supporting them throughout the process.
Peer coaches offer support, not clinical care: no diagnosis, psychiatric treatment, or therapy. Clients choose whether faith is part of their sessions, and every person is treated with dignity and without judgment.