Gifts and Graces Abound
CRIC has a wonderful board of multi-talented people from across the nation and from a variety of denominations. It also has some gifted and experienced consultants who bring needed specialized expertise to this fledgling organization.
Rev. Tom Hathaway of Small Steeple.com and Board President, Wendy Miller Olapade have built a first class website, restoreimpairedclergy.com. Mr. Chad Harmon and his company doc-technologies.com have provided IT support (and a great deal of patience with yours truly). He has also helped CRIC acquire free access to a number of Microsoft products. Prof. Jim Yankech has done the research to prove that clergy have behavioral health problems – honest, we had to prove it. He is also completing research on the success of other professions and will soon begin work to show the need in church bodies.
Joining this group are Mary Louise Bewley and Eric Lempala. Eric is a former fighter pilot who also flew for FEDEX for 28 years. More importantly, from CRIC’s perspective, he was a leader in the company’s program for recovering pilots for eight years. His experience with successful recovery programming is already proving to be a great asset to CRIC.
Mary Louise has had a 30-year career in public relations and outreach with school systems and communities. Says she, “I find the work of CRIC to be just incredible.” She will be helping us devise a complete outreach plan.
When learning of these exceptionally talented consultants and board members, two people had contrasting reactions. The secular one nodded, “This is an idea whose time has come.” The theology professor smiled, “This is the Lord’s doing.”
We covet your prayers for the success of this mission.
CRIC is a non-profit whose sole purpose is to influence church governing authorities to use the best practices with clergy behavioral health issues. To learn how you can help, contact the editor, Otto Schultz, at 402-770-1974. Otto.Schultz@restoreimpairedclergy.com