| “How can I help members of my church who approach my pastoral staff about SSA? I want to provide healing to those in my congregation who are hurting.”
Dear Friend,
At the International Healing Foundation, we hear this from pastors and church leaders all around the world. People who attend churches are not immune to same-sex attraction (SSA). In fact, sometimes it’s harder for SSA individuals who attend churches because many of the leaders do not know how to help those in their congregation who struggle with this issue.
So when a church member is struggling, it’s easy to provide a referral for a counselor. But the International Healing Foundation (IHF) believes that if you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish,you feed him for a lifetime. IHF believes we can reach more people who need healing by to walking alongside a church. We do this by teaching pastors and lay leaders how to help those with SSA as they work to transform their pews from one of judgment and condemnation to understanding and compassion.
Our Counselor Training Program is the first of its kind in the world, detailing a comprehensive approach for helping men and women who experience unwanted SSA or question their sexuality, and assisting family and friends of gay-identified loved ones. After three intensive days of training, ministers and lay leaders leave with a detailed treatment protocol to help facilitate healing for individuals, families, and church communities.
They leave the training seminar with answers to their common questions on homosexuality, enlightened with new ways of understanding complex situations, and armed with an action plan on how to bring about healing to their church body and community. Look at the impact this training had on one of the pastors who went through our training:
with SSA has revolutionized and empowered my ministry tremendously." ~ Pastor Anthony Moore Carolina Missionary Baptist Church |
| IHF has had the privilege of training Pastors and counselors not just in the USA, but around the world. In 2014, IHF Founder Richard Cohen spent five months in Mexico presenting IHF’s Counselor Training Program to over 600 therapists and ministry leaders. Additionally he made public presentations in Monterrey, Guadalajara, Mexico City, Puebla, Morelia, Vera Cruz, and Queretaro to over 6,000 people, teaching how to understand and love those with SSA and their family members. After one training, a participant said the following:
“This training changed my life and my therapeutic practice. Now I have a much deeper understanding what really motivates SSA and how to help these sensitive men and women.” |
| During this time of year the struggles of people with unwanted SSA are amplified as they see those around them celebrating the season while they are in despair.
Pastors and counselors are overwhelmed with the desire to help everyone who comes to them but they need to be trained so that they can provide healing to those who look to them for help.
Our desire is to help these counselors, pastors, and church leaders bring hope where there seems to be hopelessness. Your gift will allow us to do more training so that the message of hope and healing can come to our places of worship. On behalf of those who will be impacted by your gift, thank you!
Blessings, |
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