About Us
MESS Mission
To equip clergy, lay leaders, and community responders to care for those in need of mental, emotional, and spiritual support.
MESS Vision
We envision communities where people are equipped to help one another hurt less and heal better—by offering mental, emotional, and spiritual support to self and others.
Meet Dorie & Joey
Deacon Dorie Jones
Dorie is the heart behind MESS Ministries—an ordained Deacon (Word and Service) in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) with a passion for equipping others to bring mental, emotional, and spiritual support where it’s needed most.
With years of experience in crisis response, pastoral care, and training design, Dorie created the MESS 6-Part Protocol©to teach practical, faith-rooted ways to stabilize distress and foster hope. Her calling is simple yet profound: help helpers care for themselves while caring for others.
Joey Fennell
Joey brings both professional expertise and personal compassion to MESS. As a Licensed Professional Counselor and Peer & Patient Advocate in hospital and community settings, he walks daily with people navigating physical, mental, and emotional concerns, trauma, and recovery.
Joey’s calm, grounded presence and deep understanding of the healing process inform every MESS training—bridging clinical insight with heartfelt care.
Pictured: Dorie with wife, Andrea.
Not pictured: their 2 precious pups and loving parents.
Pictured: Joey with wife, Lisa.
Not pictured: their 3 precious kids, their spouses, and 1 grand.
The MESS curriculum was adapted from years of teaching first responders at the federal, state, and local levels to provide support to peers struggling with stress (aka Peer Support). For that work, Dorie and Joey founded Crisis Support Solutions, LLC in 2011.