Our Heart

"Care for the flock that God has entrusted to you. Watch over it willingly, not grudgingly - not for what you will get out of it, but because you are eager to serve God. Don't lord it over the people assigned to your care, lead them by your own good example. And when the Great Shepherd appears, you will receive a crown of never ending glory and honor". (1 Peter 5:2-4)

Our love and devotion to Christ is reflected in the way that we care for His greatest treasure, the Church. By employing systems and structure we strive to ensure that no matter what campus of Bethany Church is attended, the same level of pastoral care is received. 

Our Structure

• Lead Pastor
• Executive Pastor
• Campus Pastor
• Associate Pastors
• Hub Directors
• Hub Leaders
• B-Group Leaders

Our Systems

All Bethany Pastoral team members are invited to a shared internal Google folder entitled "pastoral info". That folder contains procedures and standards for various pastoral functions at Bethany. 

Weddings and Funerals: 

Two of the greatest opportunities that we have to host the unchurched/unsaved are weddings and funerals. Having our policies and procedures communicated clearly and consistently will help us not only serve our church members well but also open the door to be an example of excellence to our communities. 

Weddings:

• Premarital Counseling is required for a wedding to be officiated by a Bethany Pastor 
• A Premarital request is submitted by prospective couples and an interview is required before counseling can begin. After approval from the interviewing pastor a SYMBIS assessment is completed to serve as a roadmap for counseling.
• All wedding requirements and pastoral responsibilities templates are outlined and provided in the Bethany information of weddings doc. 

Funerals:

• The requirements, guidelines and responsibilities for Bethany pastoral team members is located in the Bethany information on funerals doc.  

Individual care and follow up:

All of our pastoral team as well as selected leaders have access to an email address pc@bethany.com This address is vital to effective  pastoral care at Bethany. When a pc@bethany email is sent, depending on the need, a number of care resources are initiated:

• Sickness
• Death of a member or family member
• Hospitalization
• Accident/injury
• etc. 

A pc@bethany informs campus pastors of situations involving people at their campus and notifies executive leadership of situations that may require their attention. It also triggers internal actions such as Funeral docs, event initiations and makes others aware of potential responses that may be needed. 

A shared doc is also maintained that shows ongoing pastoral care to our members. Each situation has the date pastoral care began, the campus attended and each pastoral care visit is logged to ensure that, if we know, we follow up. 

Counseling:

Our pastoral team is trained routinely in caring for our members through counseling. The basis for counseling is the Biblical Counseling method. An instructional series is available to our leaders at Bethany.Life. 

If at any time assistance is needed in counseling, all of our team has the availability of refer up. 

Contained within our pastoral info folder are forms for counseling types (individual and marital). 

A document that explains the appointment process is also included in the folder.  

Benevolence:

At Bethany Church we have established a benevolence account for the purpose of helping our active members survive a tough financial situation. The monies we have designated come from the generous giving of Bethany Church members and is viewed as God's money, not ours. Therefore, we take great care to make sure it is not given away unwisely, but with loving discernment.  

When requesting benevolence there are some important principles that are essential to understand. These policies are intended to be a responsible way for us to discern needs and use God's money wisely. Therefore policies will be followed when a request is received.

Special Services:

Water Baptism - Included in our pastoral info folder are procedures and itching for Water Baptism along with our slide deck presentation to ensure continuity across all campuses.