News and Announcements

SFC recruited to develop pastoral education training program for 30,000 churches in Uganda

During our President’s visit to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in late October/early November, he met with a key leader who heads the church growth department (which includes evangelism, discipleship, church planting, and doctrine) for a fellowship of 30,000 churches in Uganda. The churches there have an urgent need for pastor education, and our President, Dr. James Scott, Jr., was sought out to design and develop that educational program.

Dr. Scott has been working on defining the needs with the Ugandan leaders and have finalized an agreement for SFC to take on, as a consulting project, developing the needed educational program. This means SFC will have an opportunity to significantly influence the spiritual development of 30,000 pastors throughout Uganda, and the churches they serve. This is a monumental task for a very poor ministry such as SFC, but with God’s help we will accomplish it. Please pray for us!

SFC celebrates its 10th anniversary!

Thousands of changing and changed lives later, Scott Free Clinic marks its 10th anniversary this month with praise and thanksgiving to God for what He has done for, and through, this international ministry.

Ten years ago, our Founder, our founding Board of Directors, and an initially recruited team of Prayer Partners set out to launch a ministry that would remove the barriers of cost and access to critically-needed services in order to help people around the world change their lives. We have been able to do that, and what we have witnessed over the past 10 years has included (just a tip of the iceberg):

• • Unbelievers hearing the Gospel and entering a covenant relationship with Jesus Christ.
  • Biblically-sound, clinically-excellent counseling being provided that has helped thousands of people overcome struggles with their mental health, and thrive through mental illness.
  • Serving numerous pastors/church leaders through Pastor Care, helping them through their own mental health struggles, supporting, equipping, and strengthening them for their service to the Lord and their local congregations.
  • Through effective counseling, seeing marriages and families rekindled, restored, and reconciled.
  • Strengthening and improving marriages by equipping couples in the world’s number one couple communication program.
  • Through our free consulting service, we’ve helped churches, Christian ministries, and Christian organizations improve their ministries to be more fruitful in achieving their mission.
  • Consulting church leaders through difficult times of church conflict.
  • Training people in effective relational evangelism so they can serve the Lord as fruitful ambassadors for Christ.
  • Through our various publishing efforts, we’ve educated, inspired, encouraged, and challenged countless thousands of people.
  • And more …

Doing this work hasn’t been easy. We started this ministry with a national “audience” wanting our services, but no funds to finance it … we launched anyway. For the first nine years, we struggled with the means to deliver our ministry services, working from coffee shops and very often from the front seat of our ministry car in order to have a confidential place to go online to counsel and provide other services. Last year, we were able to get our first office … a 69-square-foot dedicated workspace with WiFi … definitely not the international headquarters we still desperately need, but still a big step forward! We even expanded our six core services (all still for free) to eight by adding evangelism training and brain health coaching.

Today, we continue to provide our eight services to people, pastors, and churches around the world. We’re also contributing through our consulting with the formation and launch of a major evangelism ministry throughout all of Africa known as the Union of African Peace Makers, and our Founder is about to take up the role of interim pastor for a San Diego-area church to serve and support them during their time of transition while continuing all of SFC’s regular services (see the two announcements below).

What hasn’t changed is the funding to provide the ministry we offer. We have an unceasing demand from people across the country and around the world for our services, but barely enough support to operate at the most minimal level. You can best help us celebrate our 10 year anniversary in two ways: One, pray for us. We would greatly appreciate your remembering us in your prayers, and even possibly consider becoming a regular Prayer Partner with us (you can find out the simple details about that here), and Two, you can support us with a donation today, and even consider becoming a regular Care Partner with us. You can make a donation, and find out about being a Care Partner, here.

It has been our privilege and joy to serve the people we have over the past 10 years, and we look forward to what God has in store for us in the time ahead.

New consulting project includes taking on interim pastor role, consulting with church for new pastor search

One of Scott Free Clinic’s free eight core services is consulting with churches, as well as Christian ministries and organizations. We do a lot to help others fulfill their mission well. Yesterday evening, our President, Dr. James Scott, Jr., formalized a new consulting project with a church in the San Diego area which will include him taking on the role of interim pastor at the church, and also consulting with the elders and the pastor search committee during their search for a new senior minister.

We’re excited to come alongside this church to serve and support them in this fashion. Dr. Scott has 39 years experience as a minister, and through his work leading SFC he counsels and consults with church leaders across the country and around the world. Between serving the dedicated team of elders at this church, and getting to know and serve the people of this congregation, Dr. Scott looks forward to preaching regularly while the church searches for their next preacher.

While this is a significant consulting project, Scott Free Clinic will continue to provide its eight core services.

SFC will be a contributor to a major new evangelism ministry for all of Africa

Through the consulting work SFC has been doing with John Hendee, the founder and leader of the international ministry, “You Share Jesus,” which equips Christians, church leaders, whole churches, and Christian organizations around the world in highly effective relational evangelism (check out their free online, on-demand training in evangelism at https://www.yousharejesus.org/), our President (Dr. James Scott, Jr.) will be traveling with John in late October to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for the final planning and launch of the new ministry, Union of African Peace Makers, which will focus on evangelism throughout all of Africa.

Dr. Scott learned this relational evangelism method and use of this evangelism presentation decades ago and has been using it with great fruitfulness since. Then a few years ago, SFC served John for about a year while he was Chair of World Evangelism at Hope International University. Now, as John takes on the role of architect for crafting the significant Union Of African Peace Makers (UAMP) ministry, it’s been our privilege to resume consulting support to John, which will include SFC contributing to some of the work of UAMP. We’re excited to do so, as the potential that can be realized from this new evangelistic work is a great harvest for the kingdom of God. Please pray for SFC as we strive to make a beneficial contribution to this new work throughout all of Africa, and to be a wise and helpful consultant to John and the You Share Jesus ministry. Also, we need your financial support to be able to offer services like this; you can donate to the Scott Free Clinic ministry from our website here.

We invite you to participate in “A Month of Prayer for Scott Free Clinic” throughout September

During the month of September we’re inviting the friends of Scott Free Clinic, and the public, to join us in participating in a “Month of Prayer for Scott Free Clinic” emphasis.

The work Scott Free Clinic does across the country and around the world centers on helping people change their lives, supporting church leaders, and serving churches and Christian organizations by helping them accomplish their mission. For us to be able to do that, we’re wholly reliant on the Lord, which makes prayer a pivotal part of everything we do.

Because prayer is so essential to this ministry, we’re inviting you to participate in our “Month of Prayer for Scott Free Clinic” emphasis that runs throughout the month of September. Participating is SO easy! All we’re encouraging you to do is pray for this ministry each day throughout September. We believe some great things will come from this sustained time of prayer.

If you would like to participate in this emphasis on prayer, you can pray anytime, anywhere for this ministry; there’s not a formal structure to the emphasis, just a request you join us in sustained prayer for SFC throughout the month. For a little guidance in your prayers, here are a few things we would ask you to include regarding SFC as you pray for us during September:

• • Start by giving thanks and praise to God. Over the last 10 years, we’ve seen thousands of changed and changing lives by God working through this ministry. We thank Him for all He has done, is doing, and will yet do in the lives of people we serve in His name, and praise Him for His faithfulness and lovingkindness.
  • Continued changed lives. Pray for those we’re currently serving, and that God would bring about the needed change in their lives for their benefit and His glory.
  • Continued fruitfulness. All eight of SFC’s core services are or have been fully used (and stretched!) this year, and we have much more work to do before 2024 concludes. A specific prayer request from our Consulting Services work is that in late October our President will be traveling to Ethiopia to participate in the final planning and launch of a new ministry called the Union of African Peacemakers (UAPM) which will have a primary emphasis on training Christians, church leaders, and churches throughout all of Africa to effectively share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the anticipation that such work will eventually yield a great harvest of new followers of Jesus. Please pray regarding SFC’s participation, and for this new ministry as whole. We’ll share more about this as it unfolds.
  • Our most pressing need – funding. There hasn’t been any decline in 2024 for the ministry services of SFC, but the very little support we had has dried to just occasional drops. To be able to function and offer critically-needed services to people, pastors, and churches in need, we must have much greater financial support. We need both donors NOW as well as “Care Partners,” those who would be willing to support this ministry on an ongoing basis (whether monthly, quarterly, bi-annually or annually). We’re moving into a critical time, financially for this ministry as we have been “spending down” funds on hand since so little has been donated, but some needs are piling up: end-of year costs are now ahead of us, our ministry car will have to have new tires SOON (we don’t have any funds for this), and then near the start of the new year we face one of our largest annual expenses, which means we must begin to gather support now. Without additional donations, these expenses could wipe out our finds on hand and render us inoperative. Further, it took us nine years (last year) before we were able to rent our first office, which is a tiny workspace (literally 69 square feet, some of you have walk-in closets bigger than our office!); we have a great need for the means to have a full headquarters from which this international ministry can more fully serve people.

James 5:16b states, “… The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.” We would greatly appreciate your participation in this sustained time of prayer for Scott Free Clinic, we believe some “wonderful results” will come from it!

THANK YOU for your participation!

March 2024 marks 15 years of blogging about extraordinary living

People across the country and around the world have followed the ministry of Scott Free Clinic, and have benefitted in some significant ways, by being regular readers of the blog on the SFC website written by our President, Dr. James Scott, Jr.

This month we’re celebrating the 15th anniversary of our blog, which features more than 2,900 hundred articles on 10 topics: Mental health, brain health, church, church leadership, Christian living, relationships, human behavior, fitness, personal development, and professional development. Read more about the blog in a new blog post here.

Don’t miss future posts! You can subscribe to our blog (which is searchable) for free on our website here. With so many articles on such important subjects, we think you’ll find plenty to interest, inform, encourage, and challenge you.