It's important to us that Pastoral Care support be available to our Gateway family. Please have a look at the options available to you below:
GENERAL PASTORAL CARE
This is a very important part of church life, and our heart’s desire is to be there for our church family. If there is something you would like to talk to someone about, if you are or a church family member you know of could use some support during a difficult circumstance; Please speak to someone at the pastoral care point in the Hospitality room (room behind the stage), or a member of the team in the auditorium (wearing yellow or green lanyards around their necks).
Alternatively, you can email pastoral-care@igateway.org.uk or contact the church office on 0121-439-3390.
Emergency Phone: We have recently introduced a phone for weekend and ‘out of hours’ emergencies. Please call us on 07544-126874 – but please note; this is an emergency line only.
CRISIS CARE
This is our church safety net for members who are dealing with temporary critical situations. It includes hospital/home visits, the Crisis Food Bank, and meal provision by the Food Patrol team for those who are very ill (or added a new addition to their family).
SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE
For those needing that extra bit of help, we provide an opportunity for one-on-one guidance with one of our team.
PASTORAL CARE AREAS
ENGAGE TEAM
A few minutes with the right person can make a big difference.
Sunday mornings before and after church you will see people with yellow lanyards around the building, they are there to help you with a pastoral care response.
The Engage Team can:
- Help give some encouragement
- provide some wisdom into situations you have
- Prayer support
- Be a friendly ear if you want to talk or ask questions
- Give a prophetic/word from the Lord
- Fellowship
The team are there to help and support you, they will extend the love of God.
You can also ask the team about any of the pastoral care options available like small groups, discipleship, and how to access these.
Look out for those wearing a yellow lanyard on a Sunday morning before and after service.
FOCUS GROUPS
Having carefully observed the requests for help and prayer over the years; we have discovered that many of us face common battles.
Our Focus Groups include ‘Breaking Free’, for emotional well being, ‘Whole’ for those facing health issues and ‘New Believers’ for those who are new to the faith or would like to find out more about the Christian life.
Our Focus Groups give those facing similar situations a support network in each other, as well as an opportunity to meet regularly to study the word and pray about these issues.
Keep an eye on our notices for the next available group, or speak to one of our team to request one. (add this line to the end of every group).
Help couples to understand Gods biblical design for marriage.
Gods’ way of becoming spiritual soul mates, best friends, and passionate lovers
A Marriage that works is based on a book by Chip Ingram and will help couples to understand Gods biblical design for marriage.
The course will explore a mans and women’s unique roles in marriage and help couples to build a bright future together.
- God’s design for Marriage
- Stepping up as a man
- Stepping in as a woman
- How to make it through hard times
- Building a bright future together
Befrienders are an amazing team who can come alongside you in a season of difficulty or discouragement.
The befriender team is all about being a brother or sister in Christ who supports through hope and faith through conversation and prayer.
Befrienders are trained in a range of pastoral care topics to enable them to provide brief interventions, sign post to places of expert support, encourage and pray for individuals who may be experiencing a season of difficulty or discouragement.
Sessions are usually for a short period of time (usually around six weeks) and are an opportunity to build relationships, provide support to build faith, confidence and prayer.
Befrienders can:
- Help you to explore a specific life issue or need using biblical wisdom;
- Help you to find direction and guidance in an area;
- Pray with you into certain situations;
- Provide short term support in an area;
- Help you with those big choices in life;
- Support through short term health problems like a recent operation;
Shepherding is about one person helping another to achieve something that is important to them.
For those individuals who are taking part in our discipleship programmes, or on a journey of discipleship.
Shepherd can:
- Help you to make decisions to enhance your progress towards specific goals/purpose;
- Help you to make your own choices by suggesting options to you;
- Help you to understand and apply Gods word to your every day life;
- Help you to understand who you are in Christ and his plans for you;
Shepherds are part of your discipleship journey, sometimes life as a christian can be difficult to navigate and understand. Our Journey courses are aimed at helping you to increase your knowledge of who Jesus is, who you are as a follower of Christ and to get to know him more through His word, prayer, daily devotion, and fellowship. Shepherds can help you with this process.
The deeper life team come alongside those dealing with more serious pastoral care needs.
Sometimes in life we can face difficult situations and circumstances and sometimes we need someone to come along side us.
The deeper life team are more experienced members of the Pastoral Care Team and can support in areas such as Domestic abuse, mental health, anxiety, depression, Demonic activity, alcohol and drug misuse.
The deeper life team can:
- Stand with you in spiritual battles;
- Pray for you and help listen to God for direction;
- Help you to understand how you can use your own authority in Christ;
- Help you navigate biblical truth to help with the issues you are facing;
- Utilise tools such as Keys to Freedom to help you address root causes of your problem or concerns;
- Sign post you to access external support and services
- Deliverance ministry;
ALTAR SUPPORT
Dont leave with unmet needs.
Every Sunday as part of the main service there is an altar ministry team ready to minister to you and stand with you in prayer.
This team is trained and anointed to help release God’s kingdom into your situation. They are mature Christians and understand how to use their authority in Christ to bring healing, breakthrough, break the chains of the enemy over your life, lead people in salvation prayers and stand with you in agreement in situations of faith.
You can also access further pastoral care support via this team, just provide them your details and a brief overview of the situation and one of our team will contact you to arrange further support.
In addition, Gateway has a network of prayer warriors available via our Prayer Blog. Prayer requests can be passed to them via any of our pastoral care team or through our email. Prayer is a powerful weapon which we use to bring heaven to earth.
