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1983-02-03: ​tour stops---images---audio---~TRANSCRIPT~---notes---links---site navigation
Caring Ministry teaches what not to do

By LAURA MISCH
Herald Staff Writer

The early apostles in the New Testament lived their faith by going out among the people and helping them in a one-to-one, personal way.  They believed that only by doing this could the Christian church thrive and grow.

At the Miami Beach Community Church, an experiment based on the apostles' ideas is in full bloom.  What it will reap is anyone's guess, but church officials are optimistic.

Called the Caring Ministry, the program has trained about 35 lay members of the church to go out in the world and help others by counselling, consoling, or just listening to problems.

"We wanted to find a means of helping people in the church become more like the original disciples," said Community Church minister Dr. Garth Thompson, who devised the program with associate minister Dr. Ann Cordray.  "We needed to develop a more caring ministry within the church, and face to face is always better in dealing with crisis situations," Thompson said.

Cordray is also the executive director of the Mental Health Association of Dade County.  She believes the training sessions were as beneficial to the mental health of the participants as they will be to the people the program is designed to help.

"I've long been interested in the relationship between religion and mental health," she said.  "People need something beyond themselves to believe in."

Sixteen 2-1/2 hour training sessions were held on Sunday evenings, starting in early October.  On Feb. 20, the group will be "commissioned" as lay ministers in a church ceremony.  The program will then be implemented immediately.  Session topics included learning how to minister to people who are:

  • In the hospital.
  • Going through a divorce.
  • Experiencing family or marital difficulties.
  • Experiencing grief over the death of a relative or friend.
  • Despondent over poor health.
  • Lonely.

"We learned a lot about what not to do," said Gladys Green, a member of the Community Church since 1938.  "You're not to be too sympathetic, because that would make someone dwell on their problems.  The main thing is to let people know you care."

"They are there to listen and to be there," Thompson explained.  "They aren't there to give advice or solve problems."

He stressed that the novices will augment, not replace, the ministry work he and Cordray do.

Many sessions were conducted by social workers recruited for free by Thompson and Cordray; the ministers conducted other classes themselves.  Robert Brummel, chaplain and supervisor of clinical pastoral education at Jackson Memorial Hospital, taught the class members how to call on the sick.

"I told them about the loneliness of illness and disease, and how that invites people to give in to despair," Brummel said.  "When people experience hope, we know that it favorably affects their immunological system."

"Some of the sessions really went deep, delving into the psychology of religion," Cordray said.  "The grief session was most interesting.  [We asked] "Is death God's will?" and that led to the question, "But what is God's will?"

Thompson said the church will direct the newly commissioned lay ministers toward parish members who need help.

"This won't be the easiest thing in the world," Thompson said.  "It's difficult to ring a doorbell when you know the person behind the door is depressed."
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1983-02-03: ​​​tour stops---images---audio---transcript---~NOTES~---links---site navigation
"We learned a lot about what not to do," said Gladys Green, a member of the Community Church since 1938.  "You're not to be too sympathetic, because that would make someone dwell on their problems.  The main thing is to let people know you care."
This is the only part of the article that mentions Glady, but the big photograph is of her, rather than of the minister or of the associate minister.  Nobody else in the group is mentioned.  From this I gather that Glady was one of the people who really worked towards getting this Caring Ministry up and running.
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