Spiritual Directors and Pastoral Counselors

September 29, 2020

Dear Fellow Mountain States family,

As you will recall, the July 2020 Delegate Assembly approved a proposal to list Spiritual Directors and Pastoral Counselors within the MSMC on our conference website for Zoom access.  Please note the accountability standards in the proposal.

This proposal was approved by the delegates with the condition that the Conference Moderator, Ministerial Council and the Leadership Board would explore how our current liability coverage would cover these people and the legal ramifications for the conference if one of these persons violated Healthy Boundaries, etc.

As a result, Ryan Koch and Katie Cunningham consulted with our MSMC attorney and discussed several options:

  • Option 1:  requiring each of these persons to be licensed by the conference for this specific ministry so they would be covered by our current liability policy.
  • Option 2:  Increase our liability insurance to cover those persons listed on the website who are not already credentialed.

For now, the Ministerial Council and Leadership Board have decided not to burden the Ministerial Council (volunteers) with a new list of persons to interview, etc. and feel that our new Conference Minister needs to weigh in on this.  So we have come up with option 3:

  • Option 3:   We approved moving ahead by ONLY listing Spiritual Directors and Pastoral Counselors who are already credentialed in MSMC on the website.  These persons will complete the application which requires accountability standards.  Then the Ministerial Council will vet those who apply until the new Conference Minister begins.  Eventually the Ministerial Council chair and Conference Minister will vet these persons together.

The application is available to church members/attenders of all MSMC churches, regardless of geographic location, in order to offer Spiritual Direction and Pastoral Counseling on ZOOM in a confidential setting.  Once vetted, your name will be listed with a brief biography on the Mountain States Conference website, like the Dialog Resource Team.

Proposal for a Spiritual Directors and Pastoral Counselors Listing

You can contact Katie Cunningham, Ministerial Council chair with questions.
Email:  Cunningham.katie.barber@gmail.com or Phone:  (505) 697.0929

Submit an Application