Theological Of Pastoral Care And Pastoral Counseling

Jim was never there for the mother due to the long existing tensions between him and the family. This was a thing of concern for the patient in her dying bed. The patient was anxious about the tensions in the family, on how to deal with it and resolve it, as well, she was anxious about dying. These anxieties enveloped the entire family, and everyone wonders what’s next now that the seeming unifying factor is dying. The dynamism of the family was critical and overwhelming.

I am so thankful for the amazing gift of grace that God as gifted us. Grace, as defined by McMinn is, “merciful kindness offered by God to those who do not and cannot ever deserve God’s kindness, and it is our only hope.” Grace is such an interesting concept. The idea that we have already been forgiven for our sins before we even commit a sin is not widely accepted by most people nowadays. When people sin, they feel a sense

My faith tradition informs my theology of pastoral care as that a pastor has an authority in the pastoral care relationship. The pastor’s image in my faith tradition is an advisor, director, and guide. In my faith tradition, the lay people like to have the pastoral care, when they make important decisions. Since my culture is the hierarchal and patriarch system, the lay people believes that pastors are better to know about God’s will. Therefore, the lay people are too much depending on the pastor’s advices, and taking pastor’s perspective, rather than choosing what they want. There is no space to listen their inner voice in the pastoral care in my faith tradition. My theology of pastoral care in my faith tradition was that what Jesus did is what we should do. Because of my traditional ideal of pastoral care, I thought pastors have to know everything and be better than others until becoming like Jesus. However, I realized that the theology can be dangerous to look down the lay people and non-Christians, and is not helpful for the pastors and the lay people as well. I think it is important to remember in my tradition that the head of the church is the only one, Jesus, and we are all the body of Christ. There is the better part in the body of Christ. We are all the same and we need each other.

Bob Kelleman, in his book Gospel-Centered Counseling, suggests that a study of human mind is not a product of modern psychology. However, men’s attempt to know and understand human suffering and problems began even far back from Greek philosophy. Thus, Paul rightly says in Colossians 2:8, “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ (KJV).” However, it is certainly true that rise of psychology in modern era restricted the use of counseling to a secular world, while breaking a tie between counseling and religion in its usage. Secular society claimed counseling has no place in religion, its usage and methodology can be utilized and systemized only by pure science. This is how Christian ministry began to lose a counseling in its domain.

The book is neither meant to be a theological treatise nor an academic exposition but a toolkit to unleash human potentials; a resource for intervention in dealing with human life hurts and as a channel of Gods healing and liberation through Jesus Christ.

Your job is to help people deal with the changes that come into their lives and make changes that will improve their lives (Collins, 2007, pp. 3-4). Additionally, Pastoral counseling can be both distinctively pastoral and psychologically informed. This occurs when it takes the identity from the rich tradition of Christian soul care and integrates appropriate insights of modern therapeutic psychology… (Benner, 2003, p.14). ). The primary goal lies with change; and our change is stemmed by our reliance upon the Father for change and healing and through “Jesus Christ [who] is the only all-sufficient and perfect healer for hurt people” (Wilson, 2001, p. 14).

This paper is the development of my personal theory on Christian Counseling. I use many scriptural references to support my beliefs and stress the importance of gaining wisdom and knowledge from the bible. It incorporates all of the presentations, readings, and critiques I did at Liberty University’s Theology and Spirituality in counseling course. I talk about how I integrate Psychology, Theology, and Spirituality into my Christian counseling and believe that they all have a lot to offer the Christian counselor. The role of integration and multitasking is necessary to be an effective Christian counselor under the guidelines of the American Association of Christian

In 2011 Mark McMinn updates his book on Psychology, Theology, and Spirituality in Christian Counseling, which discloses three important perspectives of Christian counseling. This recently evolving frontier for Christian counselors is what McMinn calls interdisciplinary integration. The relationship between psychology and theology is not the vital key component, but it’s how Christian faith is practiced in counseling. Bringing religion into the counseling office will bring challenges but with personal spiritual training and professional development it can be accomplished. McMinn shares a theoretical map on the prospective values and dangers of using religious interventions in counseling. In the first two chapters McMinn establishes a framework on the variety of religious interventions like prayer, the use of Scripture, forgiveness, and so on. Theses chapters would be part 1 of a 2 broad part that lays down a foundation for the rest of the book. The chapters that follow would be part 2 that explains the indispensable components in McMinn’s methodology to the integration of psychology, theology, and spiritualty in counseling. Psychology, theology, and spirituality is highlighted in the sessions of Christian counseling by guiding the person who reads an insightful understanding of integrating stages of: prayer, scripture, sin, confession,

Psychology, Theology and Spirituality in Christian Counseling by Mark R. McMinn is a conscious effort to apply all the major elements of Christian faith to the work of counselors. McMinn has created a workable blueprint for Christian counselors by writing at length about Christian faith in and out of the counseling office, psychological health, prayer, scripture, sin, confession, forgiveness, and redemption. In doing so, McMinn has successfully blended modern counseling techniques with Christian life in such a way that a Christian counselor can easily apply it to his/her own life and ultimately to effective counseling for his/her clients.

McMinn tells how psychology, theology, and spirituality are used and how they should be used in Christian counseling. A Christian counselor has to look at not necessarily psychology and theology in a counseling session but how religion and spiritually is brought into the session. McMinn (2011) states, “Religious interventions require us to understand spiritual formation, place priority on personal spiritual training as well as professional development, challenge prevailing models of mental health, work toward a stronger scientific base, and sensitively recognize ethical issues” (p. 26). Counselors need to work on their own spiritual foundation so they can are able to help clients. This consists of prayer, scripture, redemption, sin, forgiveness, and confession (McMinn, 2011).

Chapter two starts off with the author talk about his education of true christian counseling before settling on one called the discipleship approach (Collins, 23). Readers explore some people-helper principals; starting with “the helper.” This principal starts out citing Paul’s letter to the church in Galatia in which Paul instructed the leaders there to “restore” the individuals who were apparently struggling with sin and other issues (23). Paul instructs that only those who are spiritual may help the struggling individuals so that the struggling individuals may get the real help they need by means of healthy, loving caring relationships. In principal two, we learn how to help people that can be difficult to penetrate

The new Christian Counsellor: A fresh Biblical and Transformational Approach is a book that aims to teach people and empower them to take possession of their souls in the contemporary life of a multi-faceted approach design. The authors are seasoned Christian counsellors who have a vast experience in dealing with people’s psycho-spiritual issues from a Christian point of view (Hawkins & Clinton, 2015 p.6). Through their noble ideas, the professors seek to guide their reads through the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives, under the influence of God’s word and in a manner that is supportive of the accountability ideas of the entire community.

In Chapter 10 of Rudolph K. Sanders’ book, Christian Counseling Ethics: A Handbook for Psychologists, Therapists and Pastors, Mark Yarhouse, Jill Kays and Stanton Jones discuss the “sexual minority” as it pertains to the field of professional counseling. This group is defined as “individuals with same sex attractions or behavior, regardless of self-identification” (Sanders, et. al., 2013, p. 252). By looking at counseling the homosexual community through its etiology, standards by which a counselor should proceed with treatment, and the options a client has on deciding treatment options, we can be better prepared as Christian counselors to be better prepared in serving the needs of others.

It is evident in the world today that there is a need for guidance and counseling. There are many statistics of issues the world faces that prove the need treatment. For example, 35% of persons who marry end up divorced. 40% of children live in a home where a father is not present. By age 18, 1 in 3 girls and 1 in 6 boys will be sexually abused by someone they love and/or trust. Approximately every 20 minutes a person commits suicide within the United States (Clinton, 2005). This list goes on and is even found within the church. Professional counseling and lay Christian counseling have found a way to help individuals overcome these issues though certain techniques and methods. These techniques and methods are often adopted from secular psychologists such as Carl Rogers who founded Client-Centered Therapy. While both counseling groups have a goal to help individuals overcome their issues, should Christian counselors, specifically, accept secular professional counseling techniques?

Christ is the leader of the Church, Paul in Ephesians 1:22 said “God placed everything under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the Church” however, God entrusted the authority to lead to his servant whom he set them aside to lead the community. Pastor as a public Leadership is to lead community. A person who is called by God to lead public has a responsibility to be in the community, with the community and for the community. One of best questions raised in the class during public leadership discussion was “How we can be a community pastor rather than just a church pastor?” This really a kind of question we are to consider as pastor especially as rural congregation pastor. In most cases when pastor are called to