Ministry Personnel Care

 
Ministry Personnel Care was founded in November 2014 by Wilson and Esther Phang.
 
Wilson grew up in Southeast Asia and came over to attend university in the USA.  He attended Biola University, San Francisco State University and Multnomah University.  Initially, he practiced as a Psychiatric Therapist for about 13 years.  Since 1997, he has been in full-time ministry as an educator and care provider to those serving in ministry full-time.
 
Esther was born in Hong Kong and was raised in the USA since she was a little girl.  Her father was the senior pastor of a Chinese Church in California.  She attended Multnomah University, and soon after graduating, married Wilson and supported his ministry.
 
Ministry Personnel Care serves full-time ministry workers who are unable to acquire care due to financial constraints or the lack of availability of adequate confidential care.  Full-time ministry workers are Christian pastors, church planters, evangelists, missionaries, writers, musicians, teachers and their families.
 
Ministry Personnel Care provides confidential, culturally sensitive counseling and pastoral care at no fee.
 
For many Christian full-time ministry workers and their constituents, the importance of being “without reproach” is very high.  However, as a person striving to be Christ-like, shortcomings, setbacks and failures are inevitable.
“I was so preoccupied with the tasks before me that I neglected my family.  But when my family went astray due to my neglect, there was no one I could go to without risking discrediting myself.”
“When I failed morally, my husband confided with his closest peers.  But when he failed morally, I could confide in no one.  To do so would to dishonor him and to jeopardize his position as the team’s leader.”
“Our marriage seems healthy in public.  But in the privacy of our home, we were in crisis.  But we had to keep up the facade.”
 
This generation of full-time ministry workers are different from their predecessors.
With globalization, they come from much more diversified backgrounds.
With technology, they come with wider pluralistic values and beliefs.
With changes in security and family structures, they come with a wider spectrum of troubling traumatic experiences.
With the changing trends of philanthropy and giving, the affordability of professional care is becoming less within reach for many full-time ministry workers.
With the increase in smaller Christian ministry organizations, the resources for accessing care for their staff is limited.
 
Many full-time ministry workers and their sending community invest much to prepare them for full-time service: finances, time, effort in theological, language and cultural study.  However, many sent out do not receive care while in service to maximize resilience and recovery from setbacks.
 
Research is indicating that the attrition of many full-time ministry workers is preventable.  The following some of the top reasons many full-time ministry workers leave the ministry:
1.   Child(ren) 8.1% - needs of their child(ren).
2.   Problem with peers 5.9%
3.   Personal problems 4.9%
4.   Disagreement with agency 4.7%
5.   Marital/family conflict 3.3%
6.   Poor cultural adaptation 3.1%
7.   Problem with local leaders 2.9%
8.   Inappropriate training 2.9%
9.   Lack of work satisfaction 2.6%
10. Political crisis 2.4%
11. Inadequate supervision 2.1%
12. Death while in service 1.6%
13. Dismissal by agency 1.6%
14. Immoral lifestyle 1.4%
(“Too Valuable to Lose: Exploring the Causes and Cures of
Missionary Attrition.” William D. Taylor.  1997)
 
Ministry Personnel Care strives to provide training, counseling and pastoral care to full-time ministry workers and their families to maximize ministry resilience, and to facilitate restoration and recovery from setbacks.
 
Methodology:
Clinical counseling/therapy
Marriage and Family Counseling
Biblical Counseling
Consultation in personnel issues
Seminars/classes
 
Counseling and Pastoral Care include:
Trauma counseling and care
Marital conflict/crisis
Family conflict/crisis
Team conflict/crisis
Mental Health
Post-field/re-entry debriefing
 
Training include:
Missiological purpose and strategy
Basic peer and lay care
Mental health issues
Addressing burn-out
Addressing conflict
Marriage issues
Parenting
Resilience in field
Cross cultural adaptation
Third Culture Kid
 
Response format:
Field response - Ministry Personnel Care providers travel to the full-time ministry worker(s) in need to provide the care
Collaboration - Ministry Personnel Care providers will work in collaboration with other care providers, churches and ministry agencies in responding to ministry worker(s) in need
Intensive care - Ministry Personnel Care providers will provide care in an intensive 5-12 day format
 
Vision Statement:
To provide care to full-time Christian Ministry personnel globally, facilitating ministry resilience, and to facilitate restoration and recovery from setbacks.
 
Mission Statement:
To embrace in love and care for effectiveness and restoration – Ministry Personnel Care
 
Donors:
Donors funds will be used for ministry travel and housing expenses.
Donors partner with Ministry Personnel Care in its effort to facilitate ministry resilience, and to facilitate restoration and recovery from setbacks amongst full-time Christian workers.  In this way, donors contribute to the call to “bear one another’s burden (Galatians 6), loving and caring for “the least” (Matthew 25), being a true neighbor (Luke 10), and “committing to faithful others, who shall be able to teach others also (2 Timothy 2:2).
All donors will receive updates at least quarterly from Ministry Personnel Care, apprising them of its efforts during that period.

What we do:

1. Crisis counseling

2. On-boarding new workers

3. Off-boarding workers

4. Counseling personal, marital, family, team

5. Personal, marital, family, team enrichment