church RESOURCes
Pastor and Supporter Guide
Participant Workbook
How we use Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams is a secure system that allows communication within a group of people. It also enables secure video calls.
You will be given a link to your own Church team within Microsoft Teams. You will not be able to see any other Churches, nor will they be able to see you.
Within each Church team there will be:
A “General” channel – this is mainly for informational use. Please do not include any participant information / discussion in this channel.
A private channel for each Participant. The invitees will be the Church Pastor and the Supporter from the Church, and the Recovery Coach from Better Futures for Gamblers. Management can also oversee all channels. The Participant themselves will not be on the Teams Channel for privacy and confidentiality purposes. Treat this channel as a confidential space, where you can discuss progress, ask questions of the Recovery Coach, and use for general communication.
You will likely only have one Participant at first (or perhaps ever!). When you have more than one Participant, then as the Pastor you would be able to see them all, but the Supporter allocated to them would only see their Participant(s). This is the same for our Recovery Coaches too.
Just to reiterate:
If there is anything you want everyone to see you can ask us to post it in the General channel.
Where there is anything specific to one case, please put it in the relevant channel.
Other things to note:
You must only contact your Recovery Coach through Teams, do not contact your Recovery Coach by email.
We strongly recommend having the Teams app on your phone or device, and enabling notifications.
Meetings will be set up by Better Futures for Gamblers to your availability. The links will be posted in the Participant’s channel.
more general free resources
We understand that church leaders carry many responsibilities, and gambling may not feel urgent compared to other pastoral demands. Yet in a culture where gambling is deeply normalised, wise leaders are proactive in areas that often go unspoken.
That’s why we provide simple, practical tools that make it easy for you to address gambling confidently and responsibly. These tools require minimal preparation and can be used as standalone resources or alongside teaching on gambling, money, or other lifestyle issues. They help you lead with clarity, care, and foresight — without creating unnecessary burden.
Our free resources include:
A biblically grounded “Should Christians Gamble?” resource which complements the pastor’s toolkit from CARE, and will enable you to easily generate the conversation and momentum for change in your church.
A confidential survey, designed to help your congregation understand if they need support, and give you an oversight of need. Where further support is needed, we can walk with you and establish some clear next steps.
