Is there a chance you’re trying to live your life too much on your own and in your own strength? It’s good to periodically determine if you’re receiving the emotional and knowledgeable support you need in order to reach a new level of faith, and be all that the Lord intended when He created you. There are various circles of care you could already have without fully realizing it, or you may want to pursue additional support.

Types Of Support

Inner Circle – Comprised of closest friends and/or family, your inner circle is small, safe, and intimate.

Small Group – Typically formed based on a topic or stage of life, a small group is often a great place of prayer-partnering and growth. Out of this circle may come a mentor who is further along in his/her spiritual or life journey who can guide you, or a discipleship leader who may teach you specific material.

Community – Not as close as the inner circle or small group, yet community is still a place to feel known, valued, and encouraged.

Developmental – For a time, your community circle can be expanded to include consultants or specialists who provide specific and additional support to aid in further growth, such as:

• Teachers & Coaches: Instruct and encourage you for maximum potential
• Life Coaches: Exhort you for increased productivity, especially in careers and forward-movement
• Educational Specialists: Offer alternatives to traditional educational methods
• Counselors, Therapists, Pastors: Provide exercises to attain healing or help learn new thoughts & behaviors and give practical application to spiritual truths
• Psychologists: Conduct testing for aptitude, functioning, personality, IQ, etc.
• Clinicians: Look at how the mind and body are working or not working, and make physical and emotional recommendations

Recovery – Trained lay persons come together to provide support for those dealing with specific hardships such as addiction or grief, providing a crucial circle of care for those in deep pain or destructive lifestyles. Stephen Ministers and pastoral shepherds are often found serving in recovery groups. This circle is also where you might find spiritual warfare prayer warriors, accountability partners or sponsors for problems like addiction, experienced couples who come alongside divorced couples entering a second marriage, etc.

Functional – Some mental and emotional needs can cripple someone’s functioning to the point where expertise is required from the psychiatric field, adding an additional support circle of professional options:

• Psychiatrist: Office appointments treating conditions that have not improved with other support
• Out-Patient Care: Daily group therapy until ready for stepping back into other support circles
• In-Patient Care: Hospitalization until stability has been achieved

Next Steps

1. Be thankful for the people the Lord has brought into your life to surround you with care.
2. Evaluate your support circles to determine if you need to make any additions or changes.
3. Make sure your support systems are compatible with one another and not giving you inconsistent messages.
4. Obey God if He is prompting you to add a circle, even if you feel like resisting. He really does have your best interest in His mind.
5. Be aware of where you are in other people’s circles so that you can provide adequate support to others as well.
6. Teach others how to build, manage, and participate in circles of care.

Two are better than one…for if they fall, one will lift up his companion. Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a three fold cord is not quickly broken. (Eccl. 4:9, 10, 12)