LOVE LINES CRISIS CENTER
DIRECTOR’S TRAINING MANUAL
2535 Central Avenue North East
Minneapolis, MN 55418
(612) 379-1199
E-mail counselor@lovelines.org
I want to talk about a history and how the 24-hour Crisis line began. In your community it may be entirely different but the same Scriptural principles will apply to you in your community as it has to us here in the Twin Cities, Minneapolis-St.Paul in Minnesota.
Love Lines actually began in 1960 as a concept of using rock music to reach the youth of America. Pat Robertson got that concept when he was in South America. And in 1969 he gave that idea to a young man by the name of Scott Ross who was responsible for helping introduce the Beetles into the United States. He was major disk-jockey in New-York. After coming to know Lord I was introduced to Scott right at Pat Robertson’s house in 1969. Scott has shared with me his desire to do top 40 rock-in-roll show to present Jesus to the youth. In 1972 Scott started this going in New-York and sent it to us in Twin Cities.
My wife, Diane, and I had been married for about a year and we were praying about what kind of ministry God wanted us to do. Just that day that we were praying the letter came from Scott Ross telling us that he was on the air on major rock station called WDGY in Minneapolis, and what could we do about it. Now, as we prayed about it God said to us, “Give out a phone number and have them call you.” Well, just to let you know, when even God said to me to do it, I didn’t agree with it, and I said, “I don’t think this is a good idea. So, what other ideas did You have?” And God quit talking to me. After about three or four days of total silence, God’s not speaking to me, I could not stand it. And I asked Him, “What do I need to do to get You to talk to me?” And He said, “I already told you.” So I said, “I’m really disagree with this but I’m going to do it because I want You to talk to me. I need Your fellowship.” He said, “Go and give out a phone number on a rock station.”
So we went to KTIS radio in March of 1972 and give out KTIS’ phone number on WDGY local rock station. We never suspected that anybody was going to call us but all the phones lit up and these young people called in and said, “Would you tell me more about Jesus?” So Diane, my wife, and I, and other couple would go there every single evening after church and answer the phones because these shows ran every Sunday night on WDGY.
We decided we’re not going to tell anybody about this ministry. If anything is going to come out of it God was going to have to do it. So we told nobody about it. After a year of taking calls our lines were jammed. Diane and put a fourth line that we could take more calls but from the time we came in to the time we left it was jammed. And one young man by the name of Mike Bonema came to visit us. And he went to Bethel College that was just about a couple miles down the road from KTIS and Northwestern College where we were located. And we have three radio stations all giving out Bethel College’s number on Sunday night, and all pouring in. And we had 15 professor’s offices and our lines were lit up and kids were calling in and lives were getting changed. We did this from 1973 through April of 1977 but we did not know that people kept this number and call that phone line all day long and got professors. We did not know what to do.
So Bethel administration asked us to put a phone in our house 2201 Inca Lane in New Brighton and that became our first office. We had the answering machine that said, “If you have problems will get to you when we can.” We had no idea how to handle this but God had dealt with me to start go a full time a 24-hour line and I was nor ready to do that.
I really didn’t feel I could handle it but in January 1976 God spoke to me and said that I’m going to be a full time in one year. And that happened. I left my job. I was a manager at Sears . On December 31 my boss at Sears told me that he didn’t feel that I have a heart for Sears and he thought what I should do and he exactly described what I’m doing right now running a ministry. He said, “If you don’t resign I will fire you.” I resign that day, and Diane and I stepped out in faith knowing that God’s peace came over us and we knew that we’re in God’s perfect will. And my salary at Sears began to show up in our mailing box. I never took a cutting pay because the money just kept coming. Nobody knew that we’re full-time but the money just kept pouring in.
After three months of 1977 we can not handle it in our office any longer. And we were praying asking God what plan does He have form us. And when the lady by the name of Helen Volonis was praying for me she got a vision and she said to me, “The baby was born and the key is in your hand.” I had no idea and asked her if she can describe the key. She said that’s all she got.
Next day a man called and invited one of our Board members and me for lunch at Garden Court. This particular restaurant was about 5 miles from our house and as we met there this man said, “I want to give you money to open up this center.” And they asked me if I have any idea where we would have this center. A block from that place was a building of former First National Bank of Minneapolis with a sign “For rent”. And I said, “Lets go look at that building.” We stood in front of this building and look at it. And man who invited me said, “This is where you to be.” It was a big lobby there. I looked at it and said, “Wow, we can not go there.” This was way beyond what I thought could happened. I said that may be we can go on a second level up there. But man said, “No, God wants you right here in the main lobby. I went and ask about renting the second level. But the owner said that if we will go to the main lobby he’ll give us the same price. When we moved in there and one of my friend Rodney started building it he remembered a prophetic word given by our secretary back in 1973 when we were working out of my house, and she saw this building. I’ve forgotten all about this but Rodney remembered. So we knew this is the place where God wants us to be. And in April, 1977 we became a 24-hour line. And we had this gorgeous place. We remain in that location probably ten years or longer. While we were there we backed up a television show. The 700 Club was one of them. We had the Scott Ross show which was the rock show that was going on, we put our number out, and the newspaper. A lot of people called. We had two or three phones that people can answer. We never planned on moving but as the time went along. When the landlord came and asked us if we can move to other area that trigger something in my heart that we were to move but not to another office in that building but to another location. So 1988 we moved to another location by the University of Minnesota on 4th and E. Hennepin. It was an office warehouse building. Not as fancy but real practical for us. And we stayed in that building till 1994. Then the lady by the name of Helen Volonis the one that prophesied to us that baby was born and we have the key had been telling us for 6 years the whole time that we’ve been there that we’re going to another building. And she saw a lobby of a building with a tree in it. I pictured a huge office building with a tree in a lobby. And finally in 1994 she said, “The time is now. This is the time that God has for you to move.” So we went out looking asking God where this building is. And I remember that we would pray and you’ll be meeting some of our prayer intercessors. Mable, Diane and I, and others would pray asking God where is this. There seemed like it was nothing. Mable lived Northeast Minneapolis. One day when I took her home I saw a For sale sing in the building. At that point I was so exasperate because it seemed like God didn’t say anything. I said may be that’s the building and I dial the number and I talked to the man by the name of Tedd. I talked to him and realize that building was too small. And man said I’ve got a building for you. It’s 10,000 square feet. It’s located on Central Avenue, Northeast Minneapolis. Well, I said, “I don’t want a building with 10,000 square feet and I don’t want to see it.” But he kept on after me. So finally to get him out of my hair after dropping Mable off one morning I drove by this building only to realize it was 5 blocks from where I grew up and it was building that my friend’s parents owned when I was in high school and college. It was a funeral home at that time. And I said, “This could not be the building.” We went into this building and there it was the tree right in the middle of the lobby. And we had no idea how to buy this building but God had somebody called us. That was a Realtor that said that he would help us to deal with it. And we decided that we are to pay cash for this building. It’s insured for 450,000. We had no money. So we just made up a sigh that said “We’re going to move in there in three months”. We took some pictures of it. I asked my Board to pray over me and they said, that God is going to supply all my needs and I never saw them again. So I met with my prayer group Mable, and Diane, and Ellen, and we said, “God, how we’re going to buy this building.” And the Lord gave us the names of the people that we needed to call. The building was $120,000. And He said that we should find 120 people who put a thousand dollars to a piece. And God gave us the building. It was a miracle. Just a tremendous miracle that God did.
PRAYER (2)
MABEL: I have tried to come every morning and pray with him ever since I became part of the ministry, and it’s been a very, very wonderful time in so many ways. God has blessed us beyond our wildest dreams. He has answered so many of our prayers. The building that we are in, and supplies and everything that we needed, but most of all that we could be a real blessing to those we contact and we speak to on a day to day basis. And so we’re so grateful for the privilege. I have never been sorry for following Him and obeying Him.
DAN MORSTAD: Well, I want to go on and follow up on what Mabel had to say.
The first thing that is important is knowing how to pray, how to use God’s Word when you are praying, and one of the prayers that we have posted right up in our prayer room right on the wall is Matthew 9:38. Matthew 9:38 says: The Harvest is indeed plentiful, but pray to the Lord of the Harvest to force and thrust out laborers into the Harvest field: You know, having the key laborers, the key people that God has called is the essence of the ministry — prayer warriors, prayer people, and finances. So we as prayer warriors, Mabel and others, we pray every single day. We’re praying Matthew 9:38 for God to force, thrust out the laborers, and it’s been very exciting to watch Him do that. And there will be other verses.
Also we continue to use Psalms 91 that says that He has given his angels special charge over us to protect us in all our ways of obedience and service and we will not stumble or fall. So we are continually claiming and standing on God’s Word, that we will have wisdom, that we will not make mistakes, that we will go and walk in the perfect path that He has laid out for us, and He has done that. He is continued to lay out the path. There seems to be one, there is always one step after another that God continues to lay out for us. So I want to encourage you to become men and women of prayer, to make that your highest priority. Pray. Because nothing — prayer is what moves God’s hand, and prayer is what is going to help everything that occurs within your ministry. If you are prayerless you will probably not see a lot happen. You need to spend time in God’s Word. That is really important. You need to pray. You need to listen to what He has to say to you. Very often we just sit and listen and say, God, speak to us, and we take notes on what He is saying. Sometimes He gives us very specific instructions on what to do and they are right on. He tells us specific places to go, specific things to do, and that comes through prayer. So that is why we start our day in prayer. That is the most important thing is to start our day in prayer. I want to encourage you to do that. If you need us to pray with you and you don’t have people around you to support you in prayer, you can call us at Love Lines. Our number is still (612) 379-1199, and wherever you are calling from in the world we’ll pray with you and stand with you to work through and to break through whatever area, if you need a breakthrough in your life, in the ministry that you are starting. Is there anything else that you’d like to add?
MABEL: No, I don’t think so. But I was just thinking that I know so definitely that God called me to pray, because many times at night I’ll wake up, and I can not go back to sleep. The only thing the Lord seems to lay on my heart is to pray, so I will lay and pray for a couple hours, then go back to sleep, and I have seen so many wonderful things happen through the years. Healing of all kinds, and definite leading and definite guidance and definite blessings and souls being saved, that I know that there are people in heaven because we prayed for them. So I praise God for the privilege.
DAN MORSTAD: We’re seeing over 1,800 salvations a year, first time salvations, as well as people rededicating their life, and God allows us to work with many organizations. This month, and this is being taped in 1998 in June, we’re working with the Southern Baptist Convention targeting the Mormon church, the Mormons, and offering them the Jesus video, and we have calls coming in from Utah constantly, people asking for the Jesus video. We trained our staff on how to be open to ministering to Mormons if they are open to talk to us. There are so many opportunities that God gives us.
We pray that we could reach the lost. In a prayer group, in a major television station in the Twin Cities, we were praying about what God’s plan was for this station, and in this prayer time God spoke to the president to take the darkest show and put light on it, and said here’s the message: NEED A FRIEND? CALL 379-1199 — that is our number. And so this show which is just a tabloid show, it’s a terrible show, has become so bad, it’s the No. 1 rated show in the Twin City area and even the United States. And locally in the Twin Cities our number is up on there, and we get 500 to a thousand calls an hour from young people calling in, and we’re having a chance to lead about 10 percent of them to the Lord. Now that came through prayer, right Mabel?
MABEL: That’s right.
DAN MORSTAD: So thanks for joining us for this segment on prayer, and we will be back with more in just a moment.
DIANE MORSTAD: Welcome to the Love Lines Community Division Training. In this segment we’re going to be talking about personal prayer for the staff.
My name is Diane Morstad, Associate Director of Love Lines in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This is for your benefit and when you start up a center you will need to know how best to get help for your own staff. Doing personal warfare over the telephone is a very grueling experience sometimes and you don’t want your staff to get overloaded, so personal prayer is what we’re going to be focusing on now.
Love Lines believes that your resources are based in three areas: You have people, and you have prayer, and you have finances. The personal prayer for the staff combines the people and the prayer. This is where you are going to get support for your people.
The staff get together on a regular basis and pray for the ministry in our prayer room, and in our previous segment we talked about the prayer room and the early morning prayer, 5:00 a.m. At 5:00 in the morning we get together for prayer and we pray about Love Lines, but we also use that time, that early morning prayer, to minister to the needs of our own staff. I typically go Wednesday morning at 5:00 a.m. The staff morning prayer is available Monday through Saturday, but I only commit myself to go once a week, so I have developed something on that Wednesday morning staff time I go. We pray about family relationships, about marriage, about jobs, about finances, health, all kinds of things we lift up together to God, and then we ask how things happened the next week. We ask about answered prayer, how did that interview go, how was your ‑‑ we develop the relationship. The prayer time that I go to there are seven people normally that show up live, and there is one lady that comes in by telephone so there are eight of us, and the eight of us chat back and forth and then pray, we lift it up to God. The other staff people come in by telephone. As they have needs they know where we are praying. They get up early in the morning and they call us and list their needs to us and we pray over those also on the telephone. So that morning prayer is a valuable, valuable time for people to pray.
Then we have other opportunities and that is at the staff meetings. We have staff meetings. We have a weekly staff meeting and the purpose of the staff meeting is twofold. Most often it’s to teach them something they need to know about counseling, prayer counseling, over the telephone, and it’s a time that we share business needs. We have one staff meeting out of the month ‑‑ we’re going to be talking about this in the ongoing training segments, but I’ll highlight it right now: One staff meeting a month is a big, large meeting where people can get together, and usually we combine that with a guest the speaker that ministers to the counselors ‑‑ not to the needs of the callers, it ministers to the needs of the counselors. And so during that time people get prayed over by the guest speaker, and that is often part of their presentation. When the guest speaker is not one who does ministry the group is encouraged to break up into small groups and pray one for another. They are often encouraged to come forward for prayer. Different ones are are in the front of the service, the directors, in‑person counselors, captain servant are all in front. These people are there to help and they pray over the needs have our people.
Then we’re going to go on to praying in and out with the phone shift. Each of our phone shifts are, the majority of them are four‑hour shifts. Our staff go from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m., and then 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. in four‑hour groups throughout the 24 hour period, and each shift is encouraged to come early and pray in, we call it praying in at the end of the shift and they pray out. They release the burdens and they give them back to the Lord. And so what we use that time for is a time for a relationship to build between the different team members among that shift. I have been blessed as I have been invited to parties and weddings for different reasons to find out that former staff members still have strong friendships with other former staff members. Those friendships have lasted even beyond their time of service with our ministry and that is a very good thing because that bonding is important. They pray one for another. They ask questions, they support one another in times of need. They are there for weddings and funerals and all kinds of events. They are there on a personal basis, not just that they minister together, but now they are friends for life. It’s a delightful thing to see as these relationships develop. Then we go on to prayer partners.
Prayer Partners are a valuable thing within the ministry and Prayer Partner is designed to be one on one, and the ideal is that you get one counselor together with another counselor and they would support each other. We encourage them to get together for one hour of prayer a week, either in person or by telephone. They get together and they pray just for their needs. They don’t pray for Love Lines. They don’t pray for national issues, or other groups or even other family members, they pray just for the needs of one another. I have had various prayer partners through the years because people have come and gone. God has given me some Godly prayer partners, some ladies that have been such a support for me who have been there to meet my needs, who have been there when days go bad. Some of our prayer partner groups are delightful in that we have the prayer partners praying while the counselor is on the telephone and the prayer partner is there, and that just increases the amount of ministry. In fact, we at one point in time even lined up people people who were not Love Lines trained counselors to do prayer partners with people who were doing counseling, and that is delightful, a wonderful way to support somebody. The prayer partners are encouraged to be within Love Lines but they don’t need to be. If somebody has a good friend that wants to pray for them and help them with their needs we let that go as a prayer partner. We do insist that it’s the same sex prayer partner. A girl has a girl partner and a man has a man partner, and even though we have many husband and wife teams doing counseling, we need to ask them not to commit themselves to be prayer partners, Love Lines prayer partners. We want them to find prayer partners of the same sex so that they can identify with each other’s needs. So prayer partners, again, are a very valuable part of the Love Lines ministry and, again, you have a delightful opportunity to have a prayer partner through the years. The people bond together during that prayer relationship.
Another way staff members get prayer is through in‑person counseling. In a later segment you will be finding out what the in‑person counseling is like, and the part that I want to point out is that in‑person counseling is typically for a caller who needs ongoing ministry. Its a one‑hour session where there is two counselors for one caller. The thing that our staff members like to know is that they are welcome to take advantage of this in‑person session. They can go in, make an appointment for in‑person counseling and they can get ministry. It’s a delightful time. It’s a time they can share, they can be honest with what is going on in their life. They can get direction and they can get a hug. Most of our prayer counselors are delightful, loving people who will gladly hug the person and hold them and help them through the rough times in their lives. In‑person counseling is another valuable way that our people get prayer.
Prayer is such a valuable part of a person’s life and it is extremely valuable in a ministry such as Love Lines. If you are starting a ministry as Love Lines you will want to make sure that your staff get plenty of support. You do not want to leave them hanging. You don’t want to leave them working on their own in a sense that they feel neglected or disjointed from the rest. Getting prayer partners, getting them interested in counseling, letting them come together in prayer at 5:00 a.m. in the morning. You can select your time, any time. Maybe there will be some evening a week, maybe some afternoon. You might have partner who just comes in and that is all they do is pray, they don’t do any counseling.
LOVE LINE’S BUILDING (3)
DAN MORSTAD:
God gave us this gorgeous building that not only is where Love Lines is, but many other ministries. We rent it out to other people. And with a parking lot and everything we need for our people to park in, in a gorgeous part of town, five blocks from where I grew up. That is the interesting part, five blocks from where I grew up. My mother prayed I’d be in full time ministry, and I am there just five blocks from where I grew up.
This is a picture of our main door that everybody comes in, and the other door is farther behind it.
Here are the parts of the building that we rent out to other businesses.
As you come into the building you walk up to some to some booths that were originally for Realtors and we haven’t changed a thing. These are our counselors, as soon as you walk into the building. They are all on computer and it’s all networked to each other and they counsel with the computers right at their fingertips. They are able to gain any information they need that will help the person.
On the second level we were able to put the fund‑raising department. That is a picture of one of our computers. That is the fund‑raising department, and our printing department and our accounting department is all up on the second level. It’s a gorgeous building, a lot of windows. God has given us an easy place to work in.
Our counselors work four‑hour shifts and they are who is on this picture we’re showing you. Here a counselor is talking to somebody on the phones, and you can see she has information at her computer that she needs and is really ministering the love of Jesus. Besides taking calls like this ‑‑ and we have taken over a million calls ‑‑ we took 85,000 last year ‑‑ we also take calls on the Worldwide Internet. This is a picture of one of our counselors on the Worldwide Internet talking and typing, using e‑mail. She is talking right now, the next picture we’re showing you, and typing to people around the world and answering the questions that they have. We get calls from as far away as Singapore coming in. One of the other things that we use for bringing in calls is a nationwide Watts line calls 1‑888 KNOW HIM. And this is a separate phone we have where we take salvation calls in from all over the United States. We probably get, right now, a thousand calls a month coming in on this, and 25 percent of these people make a decision for the Lord and come to know Him. So we use a variety of kinds of phone lines for people to call in. We had 7300 calls this last month alone and we’re going up all the time.
One of the other things that we do for ministry is we do Christian counseling, and this is with two people. Here’s a picture of two of our people, Marilyn and Darlene. They pray with people who have called in and made appointments to come in. The Holy Spirit shows them things that are going on in their lives and breaks through in their lives, and we have seen tremendous breakthroughs in the lives of people.
But even more than that what we find that really works is prayer. There are three things in a ministry: There are people, there is prayer, and there is finances.
Now we talked about people and we talked a little bit about finances, but prayer is the key foundation for a ministry to go. The next picture I am showing you is some of us, we meet at 5:00 a.m. 6 days a week down at Love Lines at 5:00, and we pray. We pray and ask God to break through in our lives. Now Mabel, you will be hearing from later, and Diane you will be hearing from later. One of the people, the taller man there happens happened to be my third grade gym teacher and he is coming on the shift. He is praying into the next shift. He is on the 6:00 to 10:00 a.m. shift so he has come in towards the end of our prayer time, so he just joins us to pray. We see marvelous breakthroughs when we do that. The prayer room is one of the key things that our counselors use at Love Lines and that is how this ministry has grown and prospered, it’s through prayer. We believe that this is so important.
Here’s or staff room where we get together and pray. Also our staff meetings we get together and pray. Every Tuesday we have a staff meeting where we have ongoing training on various topics, and then afterwards we break up into groups and pray, and so that is real exciting to see that happen. Here are some of the groups that are gathering and praying at the staff meetings.
The other thing we do is we pray with pastors in our local community. Every Tuesday at 9:00 a.m. I get together with pastors in the local community and we pray over the local community where we’re at. We will be taking calls from throughout the United States but we’re interested in the local community. In this particular case we meet at the New Commandment Church and this is just some of the pastors that are there. This black man is from Northeast Assembly of God, and that man with the beard is with New Commandment Church. We meet at either that church or Love Lines or one of the other churches. We rotate each week to meet in a different location. We’re praying for the people in the community, how we can minister to them. But the real thing is for us all to come together, that really helps.
At our staff meetings one of the things that we like to do is to pray to the Lord and come before Him with praise and thanksgiving, so that has been really neat to be able to come before Him with praise and thanksgiving. This is just some of the pictures, some of the staff, and we are meeting at one of the local churches just prior to our training that night, where we come before the Lord with praise and thanksgiving. Not all of the staff have to go to the staff meeting. They can participate through videotape of these staff meetings. One of the main things we do is to train people and we will be telling you more about our training department, but we have probably a training course every other month ‑‑ or six times a year I should say. That is about every other month that we train people to go on the phone. So we have a training room at Love Lines where we do some of the training, and we also do training at one of the local churches.
We also do follow‑up with our churches at North Heights Lutheran Church, which has become quite a large church, and we do training at this church also. We have real favor with churches in doing training, plus of course the key to it is the staff.
Here’s my daughter Debbie working in the office along with her and Diane. Here’s another picture of Diane working in the office. We work together. Here’s Diane. We work together and Diane handles the finances in the ministry and the accounting and the computers, and I work in the other areas, and Debbie is our secretary. We also have other secretaries that work with us, and it’s been real exciting and fun to watch God moving in our midst.
So I guess all I can share with you is trusting God and allowing Him to move in your life and trusting Him to do with you what He has done with us. Start with a small beginning but believe God for a real breakthrough in your community and your ministry.
CONTACTING CHURCHES (4)
ATHENA: The recruitment speech itself is normally three to six minutes, normally sometime around the offering or the first part of the service. There is certain information that you need on every single church. (See Figure A). Once you get in contact with the church the type of things you will need is the name, the address, you will need to have the telephone number and you will need to have the location. A lot of times churches will have a mailing address and then they will have an actual location. You could have two different addresses there. Always keep your Address 1 as your mailing address, and your location, if it’s different, if they are actually located in a different spot. Pastor’s name 2, Location name 2, Pastor’s name 1. A lot of pastors will have a pastor and then they will have an associate pastor. The head pastor may make all decisions or it may have to go to a board, but when speaking you normally want to speak to one of the two pastors. They may have a pastor that specifically deals with outreaches, community outreaches. Those are the pastors that you will need to speak to since this is a community outreach ministry.
One of the things that you will also need to know is the congregational size. You need that for two reasons. No. 1 you need that to find out how many bulletin inserts you will need, and I will go into that at another time.
Another thing you need to know is their service times. Some churches have more than one service time. They may have an early morning and later service, 8:30, 10:00. Then sometimes they meet for prayer earlier. It is always wise if at all possible, when you are going to send a speaker out, have them there for the prayer time so that they can pray for the harvest. Will they have a table available? We’ll set up a display at the table along with additional information, so you will need to have the table set up towards the back of the sanctuary.
If there is a first service or a second service, can brochures be put into the bulletin? These are called bulletin inserts. The due date. Those are the due date for the actual bulletin inserts. Like I said, I will go into that at a different time.
Then you have contact date, you have speaker one or speaker two. If you contact speaker two, if you contact them on a certain date and then you book the time, you put that in date one.
And then the speaker that you are sending out, the speaker is normally trained in a — we have a printed out three to six minute recruitment speech that we train them in. We have all our speakers go out for an initial training. They are given the recruitment speech then they go out with a speaker and actually see how they set up the bulletin, how they set up the table, how they meet the pastors, how they go to prayer. Everything that is necessary they see firsthand with an experienced speaker. Then from that point they are sent out on their own, and they are given the information and they are sent to the churches.
At the bottom of the sheet you will see that we have a place called the last comment. Basically we use that for two reasons. Let’s say somebody has called and just left a message. Then they need to put that down. They normally put it with an initial that they have called and they have left a message.
The other thing that you will need is on the next page over you will see a lot of churches have a call back form. Basically a church may be in transition and they say call me back in six months, call me back in a month. Pin down your churches and ask them when they want you to call them back so you are not calling every other month. It frees you up to call other churches. It gives you the ability to call certain churches when they have requested that you call them, and you can always call them back and say, yes, the pastor asked us to call them back in June to set up an arrangement for a speaking engagement. May I speak to the pastor? You sound more professional and you don’t have a bunch of people wondering when you are supposed to be calling the pastors back.
Once you have booked your time or your date you write that on your sheet and you move to what is called the presentation sheet. (See Figure B) On the presentation sheet the information, the date of the presentation is the first thing. The next thing that you have is the church name and the church address. This is given to the speaker, himself, so you need to have on there the only address that the speaker will be going out to, where the church is located, not the mailing address if it’s different.
Contact person. If they need to contact the pastor or like we talked before, there might be a pastor of outreaches, local outreaches, they want that pastor’s name in there, the pastor’s telephone number and the church’s telephone number, a FAX number if necessary.
Directions to the church. It is really handy if you get the people from the church to give directions so that the people won’t get lost. Write them neatly, write them clearly and write them as precise as possible, left, right, north, south, whatever that speaker is best able to follow.
Worship time. This is the time in which they are expected to be there.
Congregational size and number of bulletin inserts, again the date the inserts are needed by. That is the date that they are needed by and when they are actually mailed. Call your church the week before. Always try to mail your inserts out at least a week and a half to two weeks before your booking engagement. Then make sure that you call a few days after you have mailed them to make sure they have gotten there if you have not hand delivered them. A lot of times things will get messed up, things will be misplaced and your bulletin inserts won’t get in your bulletin, so you need to double check it.
You call a week before, like the Monday before the service to confirm that you are bringing a speaker out. You tell the church who the speaker is, their name, when they are going to be there, and if the church, itself, has any questions that you can help them with. Can the church supply a table? Yes.
The assigned speaker. Who are you going to be sending out to do the speaking at that church? And write down the speaker’s telephone number. It’s very handy so that you can call them a few days before. You make this sheet out the minute you have booked your speaker and you have booked your church, and then you look back the week before and you call. You can always send out a confirmation letter to the church in which they can have a letter confirming that you are supposed to be out on a certain date to have a speaking engagement.
After you have gone and you have done all this work and you have gotten all this information down and you have gotten a speaker out to the churches, then you are going to be gathering names out. Once you are getting ready to go out, you sign the speaker, you send them out with a pamphlet, and in the pamphlet is information on the kind of classes we offer. (See Figure C). When you are speaking to your churches you need to let them know, a lot of times they will ask questions about what is your ministry about? What are you doing? What kind of training is involved?
We offer a 36, 37 hour training for our counselors. We train them in handling everything from abuse to suicides to sexual immorality. I mean you name it, they are going to be hit with it. A lot of places need extra training on dealing with witchcraft and voodoo. If these particular problems are in your community, take the time to train your counselors on how to handle those subjects. We ministered to the Mormon community awhile ago and we did a special training session on just ministering to Mormons because we knew we were going to be overwhelmed with calls from the Mormon community. We did an outreach into the homosexual community, and we did several training sessions on ministering to the homosexual community.
But you need to let your churches know that this training is available for the counselors and when people sign up, what is the benefit to that person? Not only will that person be able to have the ability to counsel, but they will find that that particular information is of value not just to their counseling but also to their every day life. A lot of the information that they are receiving in the training program they use not only while they are on the phones, but in their every day life.
What are the churches getting from this? We have found that a lot of the people that start as counselors become highly involved in their churches, they grow spiritually mature, and then they end up moving into places of leadership, not just at Love Lines but in their local churches. They become strong in the Lord, they witness in the Lord. This may be a stepping stone for a lot of people to be able to understand as they go forth in doing God’s work, as they feel God use them on the phones they become bold, they become honest. So it’s not just of benefit to us as far as being the Crisis Center, but it’s of benefit to the church because they are patrons in the church and the people in their congregation become strong, they become spiritually mature, so it’s of benefit to them too. What also happens is you find that they become willing to work in places of leadership at their church, they become wanting to counsel those in the congregation, and they become very strong in using the Word of the Lord. We stress the Word of the Lord as being our way of faith, our way of hope, and the only way we have to make it through this world. If you can portray this to your counselors, your counselors will then portray it to the church and to the community. You have to take the time to let the churches know that this is not just a benefit for you. It’s a benefit for God’s calling in their lives, and when they are called into working at Love Lines and when they are called into working in your center, the benefits are personal as well as in the community, as well as in your ministry and the churches’ ministry.
It’s important then to understand that if they don’t feel like they want to be on the phones there is an opportunity for office work. Your ministry can’t run on just counselors. You are going to need people that can work in the office, people that are not necessarily called to the front lines. There is a lot of people gifted, very gifted in working behind the scenes. Without those people your ministry will not run. You need to let them feel just as welcome as your counselors and the receptionist. Every single training they go through, they need to be well equipped, they need to feel like they are adequate. In order to do that you need to build up your staff. But they need to understand that if they don’t feel comfortable on the front lines and they want to move to something else, give them that opportunity, give them that ability. Nothing can be accomplished in the work of God unless we all work together. And that is the whole idea behind each other, forming a family and forming a community within the Crisis Center, working together to accomplish the goal of spreading God’s love, witness, and God’s grace, mercy and forgiveness.
With those things in mind I wish you luck and I hope that you can get the things done, and I pray that God will show favor with you with the churches and that you should get your staff, in Jesus’ name.
RECRUITING VOLUNTEERS (5)
ATHENA: The volunteers will get training about the Counselor’s Overview, Salvation, the Filling of the Holy Spirit, Marriage, Family and Divorce, Depression and Suicide, Finances, Inner Healing, Group Problems, Homosexuality, the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Lectures, TBN manual or the Billy Graham manual and referrals, Divine Healing and Health, Occult, Faith, Active Listening, Chemical Dependency, Disruptive Calls, Pregnancy, Abortions, Prayer, Abuse, Kingdom Principles, and Ministering in the Spirit. These are subject matters that people will be coming across on the phones. These are things people are going to be calling on. These are subject matters in which people are going to be confronting them with. We give them basic information on how to handle those calls and where they can find the information in the Bible, and if they don’t know, how to use local reference materials that we have available, and help manuals at each counselor’s booth. We’ll go over that at another time in the counseling sessions.
They are going to have some training, and in that training they are going to be shown how to handle the calls which they are given. They are not going to be just thrown on the calls and say, you know, fake it, do your best. They are going to be given training on it.
The next thing you will see is the recruitment speech. (See Figure B). We ask that the speaker go over this several times before they actually go up, and they have actually seen it done at least once or twice by a trained speaker. Everything on here is just basic information on what Love Lines is about and how to pull in your people. It tells a little bit about how many salvations we have had, how many calls we have had. It tells a little bit about — it says in 1997 we ministered to a total of 87,000 callers, and saw around 1400 salvations. And then it goes on to say: This is due largely in part by a number appearing across the late night tabloid TV show, and about the 888 NEED HIM line. Basically this whole recruitment speech lasts about three to six minutes. It gives your speakers a chance to have an idea of what information needs to be presented to the congregation.
The next thing you are going to see is a half-sheet. (See Figure C). This tells the upcoming training program. This tells where it’s located, the times, the dates, it tells what is required, it tells who is to be contacted, all the information about the training program is given on this half-sheet.
The next thing you will see is a sample weekend schedule. (See Figure D). This gives them just a basic idea of what is going to be covered in let’s say the weekend schedule. On the first day, it’s 36 hours so they go eight hours the first day, they go from 8:00 o’clock to 5:30, and then they go on the first Sunday they will go from 3:00 to 9:30. On the second Sunday — or Saturday, they will go from 8:00 to 5:00, and on the last Sunday they will go from 3:00 to 9:00. This gives them just a basic outline of what they are going to be coming up across when they are ready to take the training.
The next thing that will be on your table is called the Tuesday Training Schedule. (See Figure E). This shows our ongoing training. This particular program happens every Tuesday night. We believe in continuous training. You can not feed the flock if you are not fed yourself. You can not feed the sheep unless you are fed. Therefore, we believe in this training very strongly, that it is necessary for people to understand some of the things that they are going to be coming across. And as new information becomes available to us, we like to get it to the counselors.
The next thing you are going to see is a sign-up sheet. (See Figure F). At the end of the recruitment speech, and you have set these things out on the table, people are going to be coming back to the table to pick up different pieces of this information. They are going to be wanting basic information. If they are interested they just put their name and their address on the sign up sheet and then you take that back to the office and you can have them call or have somebody call them and set up an interview and a time.
The next thing is very important, is the Statement of Faith. (See Figure G). Without that they don’t know where we stand. It’s important for people to understand that our beliefs are the same, that we understand and believe the same thing they do. We believe that the Bible is inspired, and the only infallible authoritative Word of God. We believe there is only one God, eternally existing in three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Goes on to say the rest of our Statement of Faith. This is important for people to understand where you stand, and understand that you have the same faith.
The next thing you are going to see is the Summary Call Sheet. (See Figure H). This is important for people to understand what kind of calls they are going to be taking. It’s also a great way for people to be interested in salvations or suicides, or what kind of calls. If you look down towards the bottom you are going to see “ytd”, or years total. The total calls transferred to Love Lines was 4,264 calls, and out of those we had a total of 1,172 salvations. Now that can really get somebody — everybody wants to lead somebody to the Lord, everybody wants the experience — or most everybody wants the experience of God’s great commandment to go out and spread the gospel and make disciples of all the world, leading people to know the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is one way to show them that they can do that at your organization. It gives them a sense of pride on what they are doing.
The next thing that you will see is called the bulletin inserts (see Figure I), and I have talked a little bit about this before, and basically what this is, is this tells — it’s put into each bulletin. It’s a little half-sheet just like this, and it basically tells, gives the people the ability to sign on the back part of it with how they want to be involved in the ministry. Do they want to be a phone counselor? Do they want to do the Need Him line, or Need a Friend line? Do they want to do office work? Do they want to become a Love Lines prayer counselor? Do they want to become a prayer partner? Do they simply want to pray? If they are just willing to pray for your ministry, your ministry will grow. If you can get people just to spend five minutes a day or 15 minutes a week praying for you and your ministry your ministry will grow. It also gives you the ability to send out newsletters and by getting their names and addresses you can get them, and send them out, let them realize that they are part of this ministry, and some of the testimonies that are happening on your phone.
The last thing you will see on the sheet is a map (see Figure J), and basically this helps tell them where you are located. We keep our map because we live in a fairly big city. It’s nice to give them an idea of where you are located. Then they will know how to get to your facility.
All the information that you have had becomes completely irrelevant if you don’t have the heart for the ministry. Don’t send your speakers that don’t have the same love of this ministry. They have to be willing to go out and really show the congregation the love that they have in doing God’s work. If your speaker is not happy at Love Lines or is not happy at your center, don’t send them out. If they don’t see eye to eye and they are not on fire for your ministry, send somebody else. The congregation needs to see the glorious work of God in your center. With that kind of ability and with that kind of strength you will be able to pull your staff from the local churches and you won’t be hungry for people.
1998-1999 Recruiting Speech
I am glad to be here with you today representing Love Lines. How many have heard of Love Lines? Could you raise your hands? Love Lines is, a high tech street ministry, and a 24-hour Christian Crisis Line that has been ministering in the Twin Cities Area for over 25 years and now the United States. In fact, we celebrated 25 years of ministry in March of 1997! Our MAIN OFFICE is in NORTHEAST MINNEAPOLIS. We have additional satellites in THE CAMBRIDGE/ISANTI area; ROSEVILLE and SPRING LAKE PARK. We also have three OVERSEAS CENTERS.
In 1997 we ministered to a total of almost 87,000 callers and saw around 1400 Salvation. The National “Need Him” Salvation (888-Need Him) Line, airing an average of once every 4 hours on radio stations throughout the country, and on programs like the Billy Graham Hour of Decision all day Sunday across the country. Also, on Christian Movies aired on National Cable networks every Saturday Nights. In your bulletins, you have this (hold up insert). Would you take a few minutes to take a look at this insert?
I am here today, because we need people to pray for us. How many would pray for us? THERE IS POWER IN PRAYER! How many would be willing to pray, would you raise your hands? If you just raised your hand to pray for us, we would like to send you a monthly prayer letter, so please write in your address. We will be collecting these forms in a couple of minutes. (Note: these can be passed to the aisle or put in the offering plate.)
Depending on how the Pastor wants them collected.
I am also here today because we are in need of more prayer counselors. We Offer 1 hour, and the 37 hours of training We are losing over 1500 calls a week. First, we provide 37 hours of training covering 22 subjects you can take weekend or evening training. We train in the areas of ABUSE, SUICIDE, ACTIVE LISTENING, PREGNANCY AND ABORTION, SALVATION, CULTS AND THE OCCULT, DELIVERANCE, FAMILY AND MARRIAGE, INNER HEALING, CHEMICAL DEPENDENCY, AND MANY MORE. We have top teachers from the Twin Cities, who are experts in their field.
Second, 1 hour of training for the NEED HIM LINE. This is a National Salvation Line to provide an opportunity for people to make a first-time commitment to enter a relationship with Jesus Christ. People are responding to radio spots aired Nationwide on dozens of radio stations, and TV stations. You can minister at one of our centers. We also have volunteer opportunities to be a receptionist, office worker, or work in television ministry (our program is aired on Sunday evening at 6:00 PM on public access cable Meredith is channel 6)
These are listed on the insert your have and you can check off areas you are interested in.
*** Note Give a Testimony of a call taken.
If you know the Lord Jesus and have weekly free time, please consider The Love Lines Ministry. We have a table in the lobby with more information available.
I would like the ushers to come forward to collect the response sheets. (Note to speaker, say that only if that is the way you have arranged to have the response sheets handled.) Thank you!
1. We believe the Bible to be the inspired, the only infallible authoritative Word of God. (2 Tim, 3:16, 2 Peter 1: 20-21)
2. We believe that there is one God, eternally existent in these three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. (Matt. 3: 16-17)
3. We believe in the deity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, His virgin birth, His sinless life, His miracles, His substitutionary atoning death through His shed blood, His bodily resurrection, His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and His personal return in power and glory. (Matt. 1:21-23, 3:17, John 12:37, Acts 1:9-11, Heb. 4: 15)
4. We believe that for the salvation of lost and sinful man, regeneration by the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential. (Tit. 3:5)
5. We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian is able to live a godly life, empowered to go witness, and given spiritual gifts for the common good of all those we serve. (John 7:37-39, Acts 1:8, Gal. 5:22-23, 1Cor. 12:4-7, 11, I Peter 4:10)
6. We believe in the bodily resurrection of both the saved and the lost, those that are saved to the resurrection of eternal life, and those that are lost to the resurrection of eternal separation from God. (1 Thess. 4:16-18, Rev. 20:11-15)
PROCESSING POTENTIAL TRAINEES (7)
ATHENA: Today we’re going to be going over what do you do after you have gotten your names, you have finished your recruitment at the church, and you have come back to the office with names. I showed you the sign-up sheet and the half-sheet. You may be coming back with a sign-up sheet and maybe half a dozen half-sheets or bullet inserts. Once you compile all these, we do what is called the recruiting notebook, and inside the notebook is where we keep all of our names of people that have at any time shown an interest in becoming a volunteer at Love Lines.
The first thing we do is we take a full sheet, and it’s a clear sheet (see Figure A), and it’s a white sheet, in which we write down everybody’s name. On this sheet you are going to be using every other line. Basically it’s going to have their name, their address, their phone number, and interview date and the interview time. You write down — the only thing you are going to have on these people is maybe, when you first come back to the office, maybe a telephone number and a name. You get to the office, you call them up and you schedule an interview time and date. Remember to mark every other line. As I show you here you are going to have every other line because you are going to be writing in different information on these people.
Down at the bottom you are going to see there is a code that says they are taking the counselors classes, which is a No. 1. A No. 2 is they want to do it at another time — they are interested but they can’t do it right now. No. 3 is they have changed their mind and they are not interested at all. And No. 4 is they are not acceptable to us. No. 5 means that they are going to be a receptionist. No. 7 means they are going to work in television, and No. 8 means that they are going to be office support. You are going to find that over 50 percent of the names that you bring back are going to end up being a No. 3 or they are not really interested. A lot of people write it down because they think they are supposed to, or they feel like they should. Or maybe the Lord is really tugging at their heart but they are having too many spiritual battles at this time to be able to be a counselor. Maybe at the time they were very interested and then things came up in their lives and in a day or so — don’t ever let it go past a week. Once you get those names you want to get them called and scheduled for an interview within the first week of time. You don’t really want it to go past that, because the longer you wait the less interested they are going to be. I hate to use this analogy but it’s sort of like fishing. If you leave that fish out on the end of the line and you don’t start to reel it in, you are going to end up losing the fish. You have got to try to maintain their interest in Love Lines and maintain their interest in working for the Lord. One of the things is by doing that, by getting them into the office, showing them where they are going to be working and having them fill out an application and an interview.
Let’s say they come in and they fill out the application and they see the requirements that we went over and they say, well, I really can do this. We have had people that say, well, I am not under the spiritual authority of a church and don’t feel that I need to be. I am not a member of a church and I don’t go to church. You get a lot of different questions that would be — or somebody has just recently been born-again within the last few months. Now they can work in the office or they can work as a receptionist but they are not qualified at that point, they are not spiritually mature enough to be a counselor. There is a lot of stress when they pick up that phone and they find out that on the other side of that phone is somebody that wants to commit suicide. They have to learn how to be able to handle that stress, and that is something that the counselors are trained in but they have to be spiritually mature in certain areas in order to be able to understand how God works through somebody.
Once they have filled out the application and they have qualified, and both the applicant and you feel they should work at Love Lines, then put their name on the next sheet. (See Fig. A). Use every line on this form. You put in their name and their addresses and the training month, is basically what you use on this one, because you have already gotten all the other information.
Now one thing I had forgotten to tell you is back on the first form. Number them according to the month that you are working, the training month, which would be — let’s say we’re working in January, you would be January, and then the number that they are, that they fall on the list. So 1/1 would be the same as January 1st. Or in April, May, it would be 5/1, or 5/2, or 5/3. What this does is when you are working with this person in scheduling their interview, you can just put the number by their name and you can refer back to this book and it will give you all the additional information that you need.
You are going to have all their information here and you are going to have their names and their address, anything that they have said on the phone that — for example I am looking at one of the people here whose number is 1/73. She was the 73rd person that we had gathered in January for the January class, and I got her address and her telephone number, and down here I called her on 12-29 and she said she was going to call us back when her husband knew his schedule. We got back with them and she finally went through the training I think in February. So we got her in January, she took the training in February.
So after you get the names and the numbers and you go back to the next sheet, which is the orange sheet, the orange sheets are used for people that have actually passed the application, they have passed the interview. Remember, that is only going to be approximately 50 percent of the names that you get in are going to make this section, and only about 40 percent of the people from this section will actually make your classes, so you are weeding out the people that won’t make it.
After they get on to here then they start the Tuesday staff meetings. They start training a little bit at a time, and we set them up with their class time. We call them back and make sure — and they can still drop out at this point, because they go through a month of being able to back out.
Once you have got them off of this list then the next list that you see up on the screen now is called the Phase One Training Attendance Sheet. (See Fig. B). This is the actual class roster. These are the people that are actually going to attend the class and have attended the class. This is the days that they need to be there, when they have made it up in attendance or by video or what, their name, their telephone number, and exactly what is involved, and when they paid the $30. This is your actual class roster, and you will find that still people that actually make the class roster may attend one class and then not come in. Basically what you are going to find is close to 50 percent or better of the names that you get in, or I’d say closer to 70 percent of the names that you get in, never actually make it to being counselors. It may seem like a discouraging number, the people that actually make it. You have weeded out the people that may not be truly interested, they may not be dedicated, or they may not been in a position that they can actually do it. So the people that you are actually investing the counseling training time in are going to be a backbone of your ministry. This is going to be important for you to understand because even though you seem like you have gone through a large amount of names, what is actually happening is you are forming your ministry by people that you know will be truly dedicated and doing God’s work. Basically that is what we’re here for is to do God’s work.
After you have completed this, you may find that they may be interested in doing office work or something like that and they go into a different area. Basically what you are trying to do is you are trying to get five people or more — and I’ll be honest with you, you want to get at least 10 names on that class roster in order to make a go class, which is five or more. You don’t really want to go under five because it makes it very hard for teachers to rearrange their schedules to be there and then to only have four or fewer people there. So the standard policy at Love Lines is there must be five in a class to make it a go class. The one thing I have noticed in the years that I have worked at Love Lines is that when you have got a group of people coming in there is a certain knowledge that you know you are supposed to be there. You know that God has called you to that ministry. When you know that and when they know that they have been called, and the staff knows that they have been called, the mighty work, the mighty hand of God will be upon your ministry and you will see miracles upon miracles working there and you will see so many breakthroughs that you would never realize God’s mighty hand, and that is the awesome thing about working for this ministry is seeing the work of the Lord portrayed daily, 24 hours a day..
SCHEDULING OF VOLUNTEER COUNSELORS (8)
ATHENA HOLMER
I’d like to talk about scheduling. We talked in the past about recruiting, we talked about leaves and drops, we talked about a lot of your personnel department issues. One of the things you are going to be faced with is how do you schedule your counselors.
We have devised a 42 shift week. Basically there are 42 shifts per week in which we schedule counselors on. I’d like to go over with you tonight a little bit about how that is set up and how do you go about getting people into those shifts.
All shifts consist of four‑hour intervals, starting at 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Our work week starts on Sunday. So if you look at the form over there you are going to see that the very first form is Shift A.
Shift A goes 7 days a week from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.. We have a captain on every day of the week. That captain oversees the entire shift so the receptionist and the counselors are underneath him. There is also what you would call the captain servant. Your captain servant will oversee the entire week of the 6:00 to 10:00 a.m. shift.
The next shift you are going to see is the B Shift, which is 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Again there is a captain on each individual shift who oversees just that shift. Then there is a captain servant who oversees the entire week, seven days of that shift. So if I was referring to let’s say numbers of 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. I could easily see these two shift. The remaining 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. ‑‑ meaning Sunday being 1, Monday being 2, Tuesday being 3, Wednesday being 4, Thursday being 5, Friday being 6, and Saturday being 7.
You have the A shift and the B Shift, then you have the C Shift which consists of 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. This is in the afternoon, and again it’s the same type of setup. Your C Shift has a captain for every day and a captain servant which oversees the entire week.
The D Shift is 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. A lot of people like to work this shift because this time is after work hours. They can go directly from work and work their shift. 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. is a very popular shift.
The next shift that we’re going to go into is a little harder to fill because the next two shifts are called the late night shift. And that is the E and F Shift. The E shift is from 10:00 at night until 2:00 in the morning and this is hard to fill because people are having to work the next day and it’s hard sometimes for people to get up. This is good for late night people. You can see that there is a receptionist missing on Monday. We’re trying to fill that now. Kelly, again, is our captain servant and there is a captain for each individual one. After the name on Monday day you will see Lori and then you will see an S in parentheses. She is a specialized counselor called a Springer counselor. She works the David Springer show, which is our a late night TV show. Then down at the bottom we see the code after one of the names that says NH. 1‑888‑FOR HIM. It’s under counselor No. 3, Athena Hay. She works the NEED HIM salvation line from her home. We also have an NH under Janis. She does the NEED HIM at the center.
Basically when you look at this schedule you can tell exactly who you have on on what day and exactly what they should do. On the 2:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. we normally only have one counselor on.
The next sheet that I am going to show you is called our sign‑in sheet. Every day has a different sign‑in sheet, and what we ask the counselors to do is to mark the time that they come in and mark whether they are here or not. It also gives us a place, if there is some reason that they can’t come in they write it in that they can’t come in, or if there is a substitute for them on that shift. That is all made out for them. They just mark the amount of hours that they have worked for that day. The one thing that you will notice on this is that you don’t see the codes after each of the, before each individual counselor’s name is the 1T3. Those are actually just codes to help us in our computer work. It really doesn’t need to be gone over.
What we try to do is make sure we know who is coming in and who is not coming in. This is important for statistics, but it’s also important ‑‑ in the United States we need to keep track of volunteer hours. It’s also important when you are doing the in‑person you need to know how many counselors are working. Also, as you keep track of the amount of calls that you have got coming in you need to know how many people you have working that shift to see if you need to put more on. These little tiny things that seem minute are very important in completing and running the ministry.
One of the things we have is we have the office worker sign‑in sheet which is the next sheet that I will be filling in, and this just has a sign‑in sheet for all the office workers, and basically all they do is they sign in the time that they come in and the time that they go out and the department that they are in. Basically this tells us when our office workers are in. The first page is simply for counselors, this page is simply for the office workers,. They sit right next to each other in a red book that sits on the receptionist’s desk so the minute the counselors come in they can easily mark their name off that they are here for the day.
When you are running a ministry you need to keep track of who you have got in the building at each individual hour, who is supposed to be there, who is not there. If you don’t keep track of this particular information you are not going to be able to properly staff your ministry.
You need to know if a counselor is not showing up for their shift and why. If a counselor is not there in the appropriate time our receptionist or captain may call them if they haven’t signed in. We may call to see if they are okay. We request the counselor that if they know they are going to be absent from a shift to please try to find someone to fill it. We ask them that if they know they are going to be absent from a shift to at least give us a call.
This is for the glory of God and for the heavenly reward and our eternal life, so God bless you as you continue to keep track of all your counselors, in Jesus’ name.
CAPTAIN SERVANTS (9)
ATHENA: I am the Director of both personnel and Counseling at Love Lines here in Minneapolis. I would like to introduce tonight two very special people who have agreed to join us this evening. Brenda and Ruth are our captain servants. They each run a shift for the entire week. I want to introduce them because they form an important and necessary part of our leadership department. Without them we would not have the ability to run our center. We need qualified people that are willing to serve the counseling department. In order to do serve in this capacity, they must be willing to give of their personal time and energy, as well as their prayer life. These are two very special people. The leadership that you will be developing in your centers will be just as special.
I would like to start by introducing Brenda, who runs our shift that lasts during the hours of 10:00 a.m. through 2 p.m., seven days a week. Brenda spends much of her time at the Love Lines, and does many special jobs. Brenda, can you please tell us about your work at Love Lines?
BRENDA: Well, the first thing I do when beginning my workday at Love Lines, is to give the whole shift to God. I cannot do anything without God. I am responsible for basically all of the training. I meet with the captains. I also meet with all of the counselors once they complete the training programs. If they have any problems or concerns I talk to them and get their suggestions, their input. I then take these back to Athena and Dan. What else can I add? I have done data-entry of statistics. I have done mailing. I have recruited new volunteers for the ministry. I help make things move here at Love Lines. I feel that this is God’s ministry, it is not my ministry. I just want to be totally used of God.
ATHENA: She does and incredibly good job. She also does much of the administrative work of the ministry. She will help me by entering data in the computer. She meets with each one of our captains at least once a month, if not twice or three times a month. She talks with each shift. She prays over each shift and then returns to me. We meet once a week and she comes back to me with suggestions, problems, or information – anything that will help the ministry run better. She serves as my eyes and ears seven days a week.
The next person I would like to introduce is Ruth, who runs the shift that begins at 2:00 p.m. and lasts until 6:00 p.m. It is a shift that is sometimes hard to fill because a lot of people are working. But Ruth is very diligent, and always here when we need her. She is always willing to help, and always, always willing to pray. Ruth, what would you like to add about your ministry here at Love Lines?
RUTH: Captain servants are really part of the training program. We try to see that the counselors understand the procedures. We encourage the counselors and the receptionists, and we also try to fill in wherever needed. We are servants. We tend to think of leaders as being these very wise and experienced people who have organizational skill. Then when we have an opportunity to have a leadership position, we back away from the responsibility. We prefer to see ourselves as humble followers. I have always backed away from leadership using the excuse that I was only a humble follower. Certainly, you must actively support the leaders you have. However, if there is a need for a leader, prayerfully consider the possibility that the Lord may want you to be a leader. Jesus taught us that leaders are servants. The tenth chapter of Mark teaches that if you wish to be first, you should be a servant for all.
ATHENA: I think that is a very important point, and one that needs to be understood: that the captain servants are indeed servants to the captains. Many times you need to choose others to fill positions in leadership, it is necessary to seek only those who have a servant’s attitude, or a Christ-like attitude. If someone begins with an attitude such as, “I am going to run things my way and I am going to do things my way and everybody better just look out.” you are going to have divisions and strife. The shift will be broken instead of unified. These two ladies you have met are such excellent leaders because they started out as servants.
I would like to tell a story about Brenda. The first time I met Brenda, she was withdrawn. She hated the computer. She thought that working on the computer was something that someone else should handle, not her. She was intimidated easily. Now I look at Brenda and see a very powerful leader who can take control. When she walks through the door, she holds her head up high. Her self-esteem has just bloomed and she is one of my top computer aides. She works on the computer continuously. The Lord transformed this “scared little bunny rabbit” into a strong Christian woman. I feel blessed that I have the opportunity to work with these ladies and the others of our organization.
I wish to emphasize again the necessity advancing in prayer when it is time to choose people for leadership. Both Brenda and I started out as receptionists. We worked our way through the different positions: first as receptionists, then after training, as counselors. After serving as counselors for a season we became captains, and then we became captain servants. After serving in that position for a time, I now serve as a director. Ruth advanced in much the same progression. She began as a counselor, then served as a captain, then was raised up as a captain servant. It is best if your people are promoted through the ranks after they have had sufficient training and experience in the previous position. Do not try to move them too quickly if at all possible. I know at times there will be needs that must be met quickly. The Lord will provide the person that is best qualified for the position. There have been times here when people have graduated from counseling class, and within a few months have been moved up to captain. It is best to have them work as a counselor for at least six months. However, things happen and with the Lord’s guidance it may be necessary to promote someone before this time has elapsed. When Ruth and Brenda were brought into leadership, there was no doubt that they would be the best that God had called them to be. They know that they are here to serve the Lord, by serving the shifts. We are all here to be God’s servants. But to serve Him most effectively we must understand that in these times, the last days, there is much work to be done and very little time to do it. The best we can do is to take it step by step with the Lord as your guide. Thank you very much.
PAPERWORK (10)
(Recording the Telephone Ministry)
ATHENA: I’d like to talk about paperwork. It’s necessary for you to keep track of what kind of calls you are getting, what kind of calls are coming into your center, and what kind and type of calls, how many there are. We have a set of paperwork that has worked for us for 25 years. Now we have gone to computer so a lot of the forms I am going to be showing you tonight we now have on computers.
The first form I’d like to show you is called the Prayer and Counseling Report. (See Fig. A). Every time a person picks up the phone they start by filling out this form. At the top they put their name and the date and they put the start and the end time of the call. This tells us how long the call was. You are going to see also they have the shift up there that we were talking about before, the 6:00 a.m. To 10:00 a.m., the 10:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. You are also going to be able to see where they have put the information below, the callers, or who I call the client. This is the client’s name, their number, their address. Sometimes you are not going to be able to get all that information. Over in the side you are going to see whether they were a first time caller, an occasional caller, a frequent caller, and also the main code. I will explain that on the main sheet, exactly what goes into that box. Whether they were an adult, a child, or a teen. The next thing you are going to see, down below, you are going to see whether or not they have had any kind of relationship with Jesus Christ.
How important is it for us to probe on every single call that comes in? Their relationship with Jesus Christ is so important. Because we are here to spread the gospel, we’re here to introduce them to Jesus, so we probe on every single call that comes in exactly where they stand with Jesus.
We also have the ability to send out newsletters and literature which we can go over at another time. So we offer that to the caller as a benefit.
We also give them the ability if they would like to come in and possibly work with us. Are they interested in being a volunteer or a financial pledger at Love Lines? Every call that comes in starts with this form. As much of the form is filled out as possible on each call.
The next form tallies every call. (See Fig. B). It shows the whole shift. On this form, this next form, you are going to see that there are categories on it.
The number of calls. On the right-hand side of the sheet you are going to see that is has a blank spot right after number of calls. We put tally marks in there for every call that comes in. Then right to the left of that box there is an empty box where they can total it at the end of their shift. Answer to prayer is a subject, family problems is a subject, emotional problems, drug and alcohol problems, financial job problems, sexual problems, suicide problems, inquiries and other calls, pregnancies and abortions, calling for healing, agreement in prayer, partner appreciation calls, or abuse. We pick one topic that this call best fits under. An example would be if you took a call and a woman called in and said I can’t understand why my kids are never home, my husband won’t come home, my family seems to be falling apart, and the only comfort that I have is my glass of wine. Now although you may be able to — and we never have any money on top of that. Her problems consists of a lot of different things but you may want to probe into that alcohol or that glass of wine. When is she starting that drinking? A lot of times people look to the other problems and will call in about other problems when the root of the problem may be something to do with drugs, alcohol, or maybe the root of their problems are financial, or family problems. But you find the basic problem where the root is and you call that the main code.
On the other side of that same form you are going to see where it says, you tally exactly the number of calls that you have probed on. This side of the form shows how many calls have come in that you have probed on Jesus, whether they would like literature, prayer for salvation, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Would they like follow-up, did they want a newsletter, would they like to support Love Lines, would they like to be a volunteer worker, financial pledger.
Then the bottom four numbers that you are going to see are the length of the calls. Remember we said we put the start time and the end time on the basic form. Then we tally in how many calls that they had that were one to five minutes, or six to 10 minutes, 11 to 30 minutes, or over 30 minutes. In a telephone crisis center you really try to keep your calls at about 10 to 15 minutes. If they need more time than that we may want to get them into an in-person counseling situation which allows for more time.
The next form I am going to show you is called the Receptionist Form (see Fig. C), and this is a green form in which every call that comes into the center is tallied, and the receptionist then keeps — she will ask whether the person has called before, are they an occasional caller, are they an office caller, are they a lost call. What is a lost call? A lost call is when somebody calls in and there is no counselor that they can talk to at that point in time because all the counselors are busy, and they don’t want to leave their name and number. We keep track of this to tell us if we need more people on that shift. How many prank and hang-up calls, and frequent callers. People learn about whether or not they are frequent callers in the training program. It also tells the caller how did they learn about or hear of Love Lines. This is important to find out what type of advertising is best suited to grow your ministry.
After the end of the shift this information along with the information on each individual counselor sheet is handed to the captain. The pink form is filled out (see Fig. D), the captains fill out each individual counseling service, and what happens is that every counselor’s name is written on the top of the form, and then their stats are put in and totaled for that shift.
On the top of the form you are going to see where it says captain. Remember we talked about each captain, there is a captain on each shift. Their name would go in there. And then on the side you are going to see there is a blank spot there where people write their names in and the total of the number of calls that they would have. Over to the right part of the sheet the shift is totaled and we know exactly the total number of calls that came in.
At the bottom of this sheet you are also going to see where it says the lost and prank calls and hang-up calls. Those are taken off the receptionist forms and then they are put on to that form. This gives us an information sheet on exactly how many calls came in on that shift, and exactly what type of calls, and what type and the amount of calls, and which counselor took which calls. This is then totaled into a daily summary in which at the end of the shift the captain takes those shift totals and puts it on a daily total in which every shift puts on that number. (See Fig. E). Like the 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m., their total shift numbers are put there. At the end of the day those total numbers are then kept to keep track of how many calls came in for the total day.
When you are going into the churches people are going to want to know what kind of calls you are taking. They are going to want to know what kind of testimonies you have, how many suicides did you actually take, what kind of calls did you take, how many salvations you have had. Remember when I talked a little bit about the recruitment speech and I said that we had 1400 salvations? The only way we can keep track of how many salvations we have is by doing paperwork, by having every counselor keep track of the type of calls that they have had, and how many people they have led to the Lord. With that basic information we can make up stat sheets. We can tell how many suicide calls we have had, how many agreements in prayers, how many healings we have had, and how many people have called back with praise reports. We can take this information to the local churches. We can also take it for purposes of raising money and financial aid and show the work that we’re doing in the community. So this is the major reason why we keep paperwork. You have to keep track of the type of calls that you are taking. With this kind of information you are going to be able to go to your financial aid and to go to your churches and explain to them exactly what kind of work you are doing in your ministry, and that is why it’s important. Every call should be treated with the utmost respect including paperwork.
FOLLOW UP ON CALLERS (11)
DIANE MORSTAD: I am Diane Morstad, the Associate Director at Love Lines in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and I am here today on this segment to tell you about what we call follow-up. Follow-up is the process when a caller is initially contacted, determined to need more help, and we refer them to a local church. There is a wide amount of biblical reasoning behind indicating that people should be in fellowship, that we should not let people wander back into the world; that if somebody is in sin, somebody from the church should help them, confront them and lead them to the right way. The church is where they learn more about the Bible. They get prayer, they get the fellowship, they get ongoing nurturing. These are things, these are all things that are important to your callers. Whether or not they have made a new decision for Christ or if they were backsliding and came into a renewed relationship with Christ, or if they have been a Christian for a long time and they just need more teaching they should be in fellowship with other believers. These are all valid reasons for somebody to be involved in a church.
I am going to read some verses out of 1 Thessalonians, Chapter 3. This is in amplified version so it’s a little bit longer than others. Verses 2 and 3: We sent Timothy our brother and God’s servant in spreading the Good News of the gospel of Jesus Christ to strengthen and establish, to exhort, to confront and to encourage you in your faith, that not one of you should be disturbed or beguiled or led astray by afflictions and difficulties, for you, yourself, know that this is unavoidable in our position and must be recognized as our appointed lot.
The enemy is out to take the loved ones away from the kingdom of light, and we need to be there, the churches need to be there, the fellowship needs to be strong so that the people who get help through the Love Lines ministry continue to walk in strength. One of the ways we do this, actually at Love Lines in Minnesota we have two different ways of doing this. The counselors have access to a computer. These things you will see in the section on computer operation. I will not be referring to that much at this point other than to say that all the things that I show you now are also available on the computer. The counselors, themselves, can put the information into the computer, they can assign the church from the computer, and the computer prints out the report that gets sent off to the churches. So these things you will see on the computer segment of your training. I am not going to go into great detail. You will see a little bit of the detail here but not a whole lot of it, so be sure to tune into that computer segment so you can see how it’s done on the computer. But I am going to talk about the way that it’s done on paper, and most people who are starting in a new center for telephone ministry will probably start on paper.
What you will be doing is first of all contacting a variety of local churches. Now through the years we have chosen not to judge by denomination or by size or by who the pastor is or by how many of their people work for us. The way we determine if a church is qualified to be what we call a follow-up church qualified to participate with us is if they believe in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, they believe that the Bible is infallible (meaning that there are no mistakes whatsoever in it, and that is important to us) and that when we send somebody off to a church that it’s a church where salvation is taught and where the Bible is believed. That is the same criteria I want you to use when you determine which churches in your area you are going to be used as follow-up churches. You will have your own personal opinion about some of the pastors and some of the people who go to the churches, but make your determination by do they believe in Jesus Christ and do they believe the Bible. Those are the things that are important at this point in time. If you are expecting to get thousands and thousands of phone calls you have to have places to send these different new believers. So keep that in mind when you make your determination. Find the churches that believe the same way we believe.
The next point is that you will attempt to personally contact as many churches as you can. If you can talk to the pastors by going to a pastor’s fellowship, introduce yourself, make yourself known that you are there, that you are putting together this program where people are going to be receiving ministry over the telephone and that you need participating churches to send these names to. So I want you to do that first, that you are going to go introduce yourself personally to as many pastors as you can.
Then the next step will be to send out a mailing. You will want to try to encourage as many different pastors, even those you never met, to get involved with Love Lines or whatever your telephone ministry is called. You will send a letter identifying yourself and what church you belong to, what your project is, how the telephone counseling works and that you need participating churches. You will also send them a questionnaire, if they desire to be involved in the Love Lines crisis ministry. The questionnaire will cover a lot of different things: How big is your church, where is your church, what time are your services, do you have activities for teenagers, do you minister to people who are having problem with alcohol or drugs; all these different kind of questions you will put on your questionnaire. There is a questionnaire in your packet, if you are going by the notebook. There is a questionnaire there, a sample questionnaire of what kind of questions to ask: What ages do they have? All these different things you will want to know because someone you might assign to a church needs a very specific type of ministry and you will want to know which churches are comfortable doing that kind of ministry, so that is another thing.
So you have contacted the pastors personally, you have sent out a letter of information, and you have also sent out a questionnaire for these churches to send back to you so that you know what they are comfortable ministering to.
To go into a little bit more detail, we have a follow-up department. We have an actual group, an individual who takes the information from the counselors. Currently it’s a lady, and she is responsible to take that information, go through her computer to see if the person has called before and if they have already been assigned to a church previous to that moment. She chooses what she believes to be the best church possible. She finds a church that she can send this particular person to and then she mails off the paperwork. She also expects a response back. I’ll be showing you a response form that we expect a response back from the church within two weeks to show that they actually were able to contact or at least tried to contact the person that we sent. Occasionally we send out information and the phone number is not good or the address is not good, and the pastors can’t do anything about it, but they send those papers back saying they were not able to contact that particular person.
Our information is held in a variety of different ways and now I will go through some of the paperwork. We have on the computer and in our referral books we have information where the churches are listed alphabetically by name. The important thing by listing the churches by name is that sometimes you remember that there is a really good church that is going to exactly fit your caller’s needs, and we do that, and there is a list for the counselors. The follow-up department can look for the church by name, and then that way they can assign the list. We also, on the computer alone we have the list by denomination. The denominations are important because sometimes somebody might have a Catholic background or Lutheran or Baptist, a Pentecostal background, and they will want to stay within their own church range, and that is just fine with us. We don’t break up by denominations. We don’t judge by denominations because people need to feel that they can learn wherever they are at.
Then the other version is by Zip Codes and that is one that was just on the screen now, the zip code version. In our area we have a variety of, a large variety of local mailing codes, and that is a good way to tell what area of town somebody lives in, so we can also assign it by zip code, so I want you to know those three things: That the computer and the follow-up department can do them alphabetically by name, they can do them by denomination, or by Zip Code.
Then the next part I want to show you is the form that the counselors use to log their information. The one that you are going to see now is the one that is done if they are handling it on paper. Remember they can also do this exact same thing by putting it directly into the computer themselves. We get as much information as possible for the pastor. Encourage your people to print clearly because a pastor has to read this. We do put it also into the computer. We type it on a form so they can see what we guessed their name was, but it’s important to print the information as neatly as possible. We ask for their last name, we ask for their address, a full address, if they have an apartment number. The date that they called; it’s important to know, did they call last week or yesterday? When did they call? The date is important. In our area we have different area codes so it’s important to get the area code and the phone number so that the pastor can call. It’s important that the pastor knows why did they call. Did they pray for salvation? You can see the first checks there: Prayed for salvation. Did they pray to be filled with the Spirit? Did they want a call or follow-up contact from a pastor? Those are important things.
And then on the bottom part of the page there is comments. It’s explained, anything you can, any kind of detail, but not anything condemning. Don’t say they don’t want to go to church because they don’t like that pastor. Be very careful about what kind of information you put on the follow-up forms because the pastors get to read this. We have a large supply of scratch paper at each counselor’s telephone on which they write down all these little thoughts to themselves. If there is something that they think the follow-up department should know they put it on the scratch paper, paper clip the scratch paper to the follow-up form and then send it off to the follow-up department. It is not our directive, it’s not our purpose at all to offend any of our pastoral participants so don’t get into writing things on this form that you don’t want the pastors to see.
The next one that you are going to see is a letter, a sample letter to a church asking them to participate with Love Lines. And what has happened is through the years we started off with like 400 different churches that we worked with, and through the years as more churches came into being we’d find out that we needed to contact them to see if they wanted to participate, so in your supplies you will see that there is a letter to the pastors of a church that we have never used before, and that one says: Included is a contact reply form — and it explains what their responsibility is, so it’s an ongoing process. You are going to constantly add more and more people, churches, pastors, ministries. Whatever it is you need, keep adding them to your staff.
The next two things, I just wanted to show you what it looks like when it’s done. There is a sample follow-up form, and this is one that was done when a young man named John called us, and this is his ministry, I mean the ministry that was attached to him. He prayed for salvation, he prayed to be Spirit- filled and we determined that it was important for a pastor to contact him. So we took the information down and have it in the file all ready for the pastor to contact him.
Then the next form, the final form here is the contact reply form, the one that the pastor is going to send back to us. On that form it has our date, the date that the young man called was July 8th, and we are asking them to return it by August 8. In that one month time we want them to get back to us and tell us what they did. Did they try to contact him by telephone? Did they try by in-person? Did they invite him for church? Did they go pick him up for church? Was he interested in Sunday school class, whatever it is, they are supposed to write the results of the first contact on there. Then an important paragraph at the bottom, and I am going to read this: I will be making no further attempt to contact the troubled person and I am returning your form with this. They do that if the phone number is wrong, if the address is wrong, or if, in fact, the person never called. And that does happen once in a while where somebody has given the wrong name. So these things are things you need to know ahead of time. Anyway these are wonderful things that happen.
Ours is set up so that we have it both by computer and by paper, so whichever way the counselors are comfortable doing the follow-up assignments, it’s doable, there is no problem whatsoever. I want you to do the best you can to encourage people. Just as your counselors are recruited from a lot of different churches we also want you to feel free and comfortable to assign people to many different churches. Remember, the same Holy Spirit that brought them the call the first time is going with them as they go off into these different churches to learn what is necessary. And if you look back in your own growth in the Lord, many times he has taken you from one church to another as you have gone through the growing process.
So this is the follow-up department. Again part of this is covered in the computer segment, so be sure to watch for that also, the part that goes on computer. That is all I need to say. Enjoy, and don’t let your new little sheep get lost in the pile. Be sure to watch out for everybody who calls in. Thanks.
IN PERSON COUNSELING (12)
MARILYN: As the spirit of prophecy and Jesus Christ is residing in Darlene and in me we trust that his Spirit is speaking to the person, the counselee that comes in for ministry. We also use the Word of God and Scriptures as the Holy Spirit gives us unction to impart to them the words of wisdom that comes from the Scriptures, and we’re dealing with the inner man. As it says in Romans 7 that truly the inner man, we do the things that we don’t want to do. Paul was saying to the Romans, the things even that we do are not necessarily the things that we ought to do. It’s as though we would need that stumbling block removed by the Holy Spirit and by the words of Scripture. It could be that a childhood experience or abuse of some kind (verbal, physical, mental, sexual, even spiritual abuse) can be a deterrent in the person coming to the fullness of what God has for them. So by the Holy Spirit revealing these things that stumbling block can be taken away. Sometimes a stumbling block is fear (fear of man, fear of not being perfect enough, fear of not doing it correctly, fear of the unknown, what is ahead, fear of the future, etc.) has been a stumbling block for many people that come in for ministry in Love Lines. So we are not wanting the past to in any way deter our future, to be a barrier for what God has for us. When the in-person counseling ministry was formed some time ago at Love Lines it was the desire for those who call in for ministry, that they would make an appointment to come in and see Darlene and to see another team that also functions to have the barriers removed. So Jesus came to set us free, and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom., The Holy Spirit wants to remove the damaged part of our past. He wants to heal them, to bind up the wounds and set them at liberty, to free them up for his purposes. He wants to use us in the future, and he will restore us, he will renew and revitalize us and prepare us for his work. In 2 Corinth 1:4, that those areas in our lives where we have been comforted, where we have been healed, we can be used for his purposes for helping others to be healed and comforted.
What this is not is behavior modification. It is not guided imagery. It is not using affirmations. It is not using relaxation responses. It is not using any other human potential exercise, for by the Spirit of God those are the things that we deal with. We are not operating with the areas of what man’s dictate is. And Darlene and I have found that in the past when we are obedient to let God use us, that God will bring things up that we could never have ever thought of, so we need to cooperate. And how do we cooperate? We cooperate by allowing God to renew our mind, by allowing his Word to renew our mind, that the Holy Spirit will then set us free, and we do desire to be free and the counselees who come in desire to be free and remain free. It says in Deuteronomy 30, that we choose this day life or death. We can choose to walk in the mire, we can choose to walk in the past, we can choose to walk in the ways of the abuse that we have had in our past, and we can also choose to walk in freedom,. We have now a covenant with the Lord to be ready. We have a covenant with him by his dictate that we will be transformed by his Word. We need to know that it is not what man says that I am. If anyone has said to you that you will never amount to anything, or if you have said to yourself, I will never be able to do anything well, those are words that are planted deep in our spirit, and only God can pluck out those words so that they can’t sabotage us. So what matters is what God says about us. What does his Word say about us. So we make a decision for Jesus, we make a decision for Christ Jesus, and our decision is to be free, for where the Spirit is there is freedom. He came to set us free, and he whom the Son has set free is free indeed.
So the ministry of Love Lines is to minister by the love of God to the in-person, as well. It’s God’s love. It’s his mercy and his grace that sets the captive free. And the Lord brings words of conviction upon us, not condemnation. Often people will come in for ministry and they have been under such condemnation and they are viewing God as a harsh God, but he is not a God of harshness. He is a God of conviction, wanting us to change, change our thinking, to change the always ruminating about the past, thinking about the past. So that we can come to the point where we can say that Satan has nothing in me, as Jesus said to the apostles in John 14:30. It is a time when we move to repentance, we move to having a repentant heart and turning away from the things that we have been thinking about, it’s the time that we bring that to the Lord and ask his forgiveness. It’s already ours. It’s the time that we also come to him in that repentance so that he will assist us. And as we bring the people to the time of apologizing and asking God’s forgiveness, we then deal with the spirits and ask them to renounce the spirits, and ask the Lord to move in with his Holy Spirit to set them free and to fill them up. Because it says in 2 Corinthians 7:10, Godly sorrow brings repentance.
So we, Darlene and I, have had situations where we have seen transformation right before our eyes, and maybe you’d like to share one of those.
DALENE: There have been several. I know a lady who had like a split personality and she wanted so to be set free. When she came in it was almost like self-deliverance, but God did awesome work in her and she just was set free and she went home as one person. It was the first time I ever saw anything like that. It was just awesome.
MARILYN: And the Lord did that.
