My Theology of pastoral Counseling The shepherd and sheep relationship is the best illustration for the relationship between pastor and parishioners. When Jesus asked Simon Peter does he love him three times and said to him “Feed my sheep”, the shepherd and flock relationship has been set. Since Jesus is our good shepherd (Jn. 10:11a), he laid out a good example for us to follow - to lay down his life for the sheep. (Jn. 10:11b) Thus, the wellness of both in and out of the parishioners should always be the concern in the pastors’ hearts. Soul care for the people is essential. Christian friendship is the foundation of Christian soul care. Pastoral ministry including preaching, teaching, and worship forms the broad context of pastoral counseling. Pastoral care is within pastoral ministry but broader than pastoral counseling. God’s love is the source and motivation. Within the pastoral care, there are spiritual direction and pastoral …show more content…
Jesus is the head of the church and he is the reason why we care and provide counseling. It is his command and passion to care. He can offer the rest (Matt. 11:28-30), guidance and protection because he is the good shepherd. (Ps. 23, Jn. 10:11) We serve in the God’s household, which is the church of loving God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. (1 Tim. 3:15) We rely on the law of the Lord, which is perfect and refreshing the souls. (Ps. 19:7) God is the one truth source for the sorrow souls. For him, he is the father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles. (2 Co. 1:3) Our main goal is to present everyone fully mature in Christ. (Col. 1:28) we warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. (1 Th. 5:14-15) We pray for them (Jam. 5:13-16) and help them to recognize and repent for their sins. (Matt.
Clinton, T. & Ohlschlager, G. (2002). Competent Christian counseling: Foundations and practice of compassionate soul care. Colorado Springs, CO: WaterBrook Press.
In most Baptist Churches, the pastor serves until he passes away, voluntarily resigns or terminated by church for some ethical or moral indiscretions. Therefore, many Baptist churches have enjoyed their pastors for longer intervals than some other denominations. In my ministry context at Oak Grove Baptist Church (OGBC) the former pastor served for forty-six years and died unexpectedly. Unfortunately, OGBC did not have any procedures in place for pastoral transition and was unprepared for the change. Pastoral transition can be difficult for any church that does not have procedures in place. Once the church has selected a candidate the work of welcoming the new pastor and his family begins. In addition, the work of strengthening the relationships
Mark McMinn purposely writes this twofold book to first, address the pragmatic assimilation of psychology, theology, and spirituality. Secondly, he explores the spirituality of a Christian counselor, and how this aspect of character affects the methods he or she may use to represent Jesus Christ when dealing with clients. Altogether, this book discusses the dual need for Biblical Counselors to multitask with clients while pursuing personal development in spirituality to advance a Christian worldview. The objective is to “help Christian counselors and researchers unite around certain key questions and perspectives so that our interventions become increasingly relevant and effective" (p. 6).
The author maintains that the Christian counselor must not only utilize these practices in their counseling sessions, but must also live a Christian life, modeling the attributes of Christian values and core concepts to their clients (McMinn, 2011). The book begins with a discussion of prayer and scripture, and the way these elements can be successfully integrated into the counseling relationship, providing several models for the use of prayer as a counseling technique (McMinn, 2011). The book also outlines ethical dilemmas associated with the use of prayer and scripture as counseling techniques, including misinterpretation, overuse, and lack of training (McMinn, 2011). When applying Christian counseling techniques, McMinn suggests comparing techniques to scripture to ensure that therapeutic techniques are found in scripture directly, or are implied (McMinn, 2011). The counselor should use caution to avoid implementing techniques that are inconsistent with Biblical teachings (McMinn,
In order for Biblical counseling to be effective, a counselor must be completely prepared to work in the ministry of helping others. Beyond the worldly challenges, a Christian counselor also faces humanistic therapeutic false views of secular therapy. Christian counselors maintain a focal point in guiding people to living a life that is full of spiritual richness and maturity. Yet, secular therapist focuses on self-gratification and self-actualization. As Christian ministry helpers, you must be living by the truth and exemplify a Christ-centered life. Crabb (1977) developed a counseling model that teaches us how to develop individualized life maps that will guide people to spiritual growth, maturity, and a long-lived Christ-centered life. It is essential as Christian counselor’s we are able to bring people to understand that the elucidation to their problems God has the answer prearranged scripturally. Furthermore, enlighten the client that their inclusive security is in Christ Jesus that our negative life events have no precedence, as HE will accept us no matter the circumstances. Scripture offer direction to lay helpers “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26).
People with depression often experience interpersonal problems. Family therapy for depression is a widely used intervention, but it is unclear whether this is an effective therapy for the treatment of depression.
The common goal of Christianity is to spread faith and good morals, and we give inspiration. We try to be a good influence in the world and try to make an impact on people lives. Our ambition is to be like God. Everyone is not perfect, so we also try to improve ourselves as well as others. Another goal is to be
The Davis family is facing multiple problems and has difficulties meeting the emotional needs of its family members. Recent events/crisis and the stresses associated with these events resulted in feelings of anxiety and poor communication between family members. This further impacts the family’s coping ability. An appropriate nursing diagnoses for this family is: Interrupted family processes related to vulnerability and dysfunctional behavior of family members. Setting mutual goals and proper interventions can help this family achieve a positive outcome and ensure the family’s wellbeing.
According to McMinn (2011), “confrontation should be a valid option for most Christian counselors under many circumstances” (p. 167). He goes on to say there are “four approaches to appropriately confronting sin: silence, pondering, questioning, and direct censure” (McMinn, 2011, p. 167). In confronting sin in a client’s life, counselors must proceed with caution. Each client is different, so it is important for counselors to choose an approach “with regard to the particular client, the situation, and the nature of the therapeutic relationship” (McMinn, 2011, p. 167). Counselors must discern when it is appropriate to confront sin in their client’s life. They will not automatically and quickly confront sin in the client’s life because it is all about timing. The counselor must build a trusting relationship with the client before addressing sin in their life. The sensitive counselor will “start smaller, with
When people hear the words ‘spiritual maturity’ many different connotations of what the meaning of those words are and how to achieve them can come to mind. How is one supposed to attain spiritual maturity? Are you supposed to strive toward spiritual maturity on your own or is this a task for the church to help people mature in their faith? What do prayer and meditation have to do with spiritual maturity? All of these questions are needed to understand what spiritual maturity looks like and how to strive toward this ultimate goal. In the Bible, Ephesians 4:13-15 explains why spiritual maturity should be important to us by stating “until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of
Although the field of spiritual leadership is still in its infancy, it is attracting a lot of attention in the last decade and many authors and scholars link spirituality to organizational leadership (Dent, Higgins and Wharf, 2005). A very popular definition of workplace spirituality is: “ a framework of organizational values evidenced in the culture that promote employees’ experience of transcendence through the work process, facilitating their since of being connected to others in a way that provides feelings of completeness and joy” (Krishnakumar et al., 2014). Since leadership is not simply about power and authority, but it also includes emotional connections, authenticity,
There are two main pastoral care issues within this situation. The first is the question of how churches should be hospitable during joys and concerns. The sharing of joys and concerns in worship has biblical roots (Romans 12:15 and Galatians 6:2 ). It is a practice that has been done in churches for centuries. There are a few different ways that churches go about sharing joys and concerns. This usually happens right before the pastoral prayer or the prayers of the people.
Evans devotes this chapter to giving specific ways to start a health care ministry in the local church. The author says that Denis Duncan, a British theologian, suggest three priorities in a healing ministry. (1) Form a group to intercede weekly for those in need. (2) Organize a Bible study centered on faith and healing topics. (3) The leadership is to preach and teach on the function and role of the church (p. 176).
In the church, each of us is designed to serve his/her fellow Christian within the church with the gifts of God which the Lord has given us, we are also to go out and preach the gospel to those outside the church with love and kindness to them, to show them the way of life.
...quired to comfort and exhort one another: “Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.” Therefore, a non-involved role of a therapist cannot fulfill the role that God has for them. Dr. Crabb suggests that at times it is important to just listen (Level I counseling), but sometimes the counselor must be prepared to exhort and enlighten (Crabb, 1977).