Ethical Code for Church and Para Church Organizations

Ethical Code for Church and Para Church Organizations in a Multicultural society is a toolkit which pastors counselors and help-givers can use during counselling and at other times. It is envisioned to edify the body of Christ and as a living Pastoral tool that helps shape the help-giver’s character as we confer with help-seekers in their life destiny with Christ Jesus-the living Head of the Church. Particular people who can benefit from this book are: Pastors Guidance Counsellors chaplains Pastoral Counsellors Deacons midwives Nurses Youth workers educators teachers and other professionals who interact with or intervene in other people’s lives in churches and Christian institutions or do outreach in the wider community. It is a detailed and practical construct of Ethical Code to Guide the Professional Conduct of Counsellors and Helping Professionals in a Multicultural Society and so has utility and relevance at all levels and spheres of help-giving in Christian witness.The author posits that Ethics is not co-terminus with law; though the law of the land should be followed in ethics of care. Ethical behaviour is not co-terminus with abiding by the laws and ordinances of a nation and so decisions made by a pastor guidance Counsellor church midwife chaplain or other hlpers in a church organization is not the same as abiding by the laws of the land; it is much; much larger. Ethics is a product of love the love for humanity and of creation. It is the counsellor unalloyed love for the help-seeker’s holistic health and homeostasis through life. Ethical love is done as a duty devoid of ulterior motives or self serving or group serving bias and notwithstanding the situation at hand. Each child born into this world has God’s seal. Each person is teleologically pre-potentiated (pre-packaged) with his/her own somatic psychic and spiritual inheritances which determine the potential talents embedded in him/her by God. With the unavoidable life milestones and encounters that may populate a person’s life he/she may be short-changed of his/her teleological potentials. Herein lays the value of the helping professions- to confer with the help-seeker in dealing with the hindering life challenges so that the individual will achieve adjustment and homeostasis through rational autonomy. In light of the above the book addresses issues of:i. Confidentiality welfare of help seekers and counselees.ii. Professional commitment and professional qualifications. iii. Multicultural diversity counselling and competence.iv. Electronic communications and records handling.v. Respect for rights and dignity of help seekers.vi. Self respect and avoidance of self serving bias.vii. Professional responsibility social responsibility.viii. Non-nepotism and valid learner assessment.ix. Boundaries of relationships in counselling. x. Justice benevolence non-maleficence. xi. Pedagogical and content competence.xii. Avoidance of walking on help-seekers. xiii. Learner development and autonomy. xiv. Fidelity and integrity of help-givers. xv. Non omnipotence and fallibility.xvi. Truthfulness and candor.xvii. Termination and referral.xviii. Life related case studies. The book serves as a framework for how people make decisions and judgments and how helpers act on them to influence other people’s lives. Decision-making for a Christian help-giver is ethical when it is firmly grounded in the scriptures in the love of God and love for humanity and does not damage the help seeker; for it is only in these that we find a basis for understanding the will of God.As a backdrop of Knowledge the book explores ethics in the Bible and in horizons of understanding including theology psychology philosophy sociology education medicine and multicultural underpinnings to bear on the principles and articles.The book is a resource for dealing with human life hurts and as a channel of Gods healing to humanity throug