How it works
A clear path, from first message to steady care
Most families arrive tired and unsure what to ask for. You don't need the right words — you only need to start.
The first two weeks
- 1
Tell us what's happening
A short private intake: who needs care, what the season looks like, and what you hope changes. Pastor Matt reads every one himself.
- 2
We schedule your first call
A 60-minute intake session on secure video, $149. You don't pick a slot off a grid — we reach out, usually within two days, and find a time that fits your family.
- 3
A written Pastoral Care Plan
Sent to your dashboard after the call: what we heard, the scripture to stand on, the words your family will use, and one doable next step.
After that, care sessions are 30 minutes at $50, booked whenever you need one. Most families come back monthly for a while, then less. That is the goal.
How we do it
We do not start with what is wrong. We start with who you are.
- Movement One
We get to know the person
We start in their world. What they love, what they would do all day, what they lose track of time doing. Ten minutes in and we still have not asked about the hard part. That is on purpose. A kid decides in the first ninety seconds whether this is one more adult assessing them.
- Movement Two
We name what they are carrying, in their words
Not our word for it. Theirs. What would you call the thing that has been hard. Then the good half, the hard half, what happens right before it gets bad, and what it feels like in their body. We write it down exactly the way they said it, and we tell them we are writing it down.
- Movement Three
Two witnesses
Scripture says a matter is established by two or three witnesses, so we bring two. What God says about them in his word: made on purpose, fearfully and wonderfully made, known before they explain themselves. And what their own parent has personally seen, written down before the call, five specific true things. We read the parent's five out loud, slowly, one at a time. Then we ask the only question that matters. Do you believe them.
- Movement Four
One plan that no other family gets
Everything from movement one becomes the language of the plan. Their sport, their instrument, their animals, the thing they build. A shared language every adult in their life uses the same way. A signal they design themselves. Ten minutes a day they lead and you follow. Words you can say that will actually land. One verse. One prayer for you and one for them.
Where this comes from
Long before there was a word for it, there were shepherds.
Nobody in the Old Testament had the title pastor. They had a job instead. Shepherd. It is what Moses was doing when God called him, and what David was doing when they came looking for a king, and God took him from the sheepfolds and he shepherded the people with an upright heart and a skillful hand.
Psalm 78:70–72
It is the picture God uses for himself: he gathers the lambs in his arms and gently leads the ones with young.
Isaiah 40:11
And when the leaders of Israel failed, God named the failure in the plainest terms available. You did not strengthen the weak, heal the sick, bind up the injured, bring back the strays, or go looking for the lost. That is still the whole job description.
Ezekiel 34:4
Jesus took the same word for himself. The good shepherd, who knows his own and is known by them, who leaves the ninety nine for the one. He is the reason we do this the way we do it.
John 10:11–14
Watch how he actually cared for people. He went to them. He asked questions he already knew the answer to, because the person needed to say it out loud. What do you want me to do for you. Do you want to get well.
Mark 10:51
He built every illustration out of the hearer's own world: nets for fishermen, seed for farmers, sheep for shepherds, water for a woman who came to draw water. He gave people their name back. He touched the ones nobody would touch.
John 4
And he withdrew to lonely places to pray, and slept through a storm, because even he did not carry it without rest.
Luke 5:16
Then he handed the work to ordinary people. Shepherd the flock among you, not because you have to and not by lording it over anyone.
1 Peter 5:2–4
Feed my sheep. That is the whole commission, and it is the same one an ordained minister still stands under.
John 21:17
One more thing, and it is the part most parents have never been told. In your house, in this season, you are the pastor. Talk about these things when you sit down and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. That was never assigned to a building or a professional. It was assigned to you. Our job is not to replace you. It is to hand you the staff and show you how to hold it.
Deuteronomy 6:6–7
Inside a care session
What a pastoral care session actually looks like
On secure video. Nothing is rushed and nothing is recorded.
Listening first
Scripture, gently
One next step
Boundaries we keep
Confidential, and honest about our limits
Conversations stay private, with two exceptions we always name up front: risk of harm to a child or to self, and anything the law requires us to report.
What pastoral care is. KNOWN. offers biblical pastoral care. It is not psychotherapy, medical treatment, or licensed counseling, and it does not diagnose. Pastoral care can work alongside licensed counselors, physicians, schools, and other professionals when additional support is appropriate.
Take the next step today
One conversation is enough to begin. We will meet your family right where you are.