Strategic Pastoral Counseling by David G. Benner

Author:David G. Benner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Baker Academic & Brazos Press
Published: 2003-08-31T16:00:00+00:00

Pastoral counselors are in a unique position to help large numbers of people who will never go to any other counselor. They are also in a unique position to help many who may need further help but who choose to first consult a pastor. In the course of a typical week, pastors regularly encounter more people than most other helping professionals encounter in months, and a significant percentage of these people desperately need the help of a skilled counselor. Many of those in need will see their minister as a competent, trusted shepherd and will ask him or her to walk with them through their struggles, pain, or confusion. But as noted by Clinebell, “If the pastor lacks the required skills, such persons receive a stone when they ask for bread” (Clinebell 1984, 47).

Strategic pastoral counseling provides a framework for pastors who seek to counsel in a way that is congruent with the rest of their pastoral responsibilities and that is psychologically informed and responsible. While skill in implementing the model comes only with time, it is quite possible for most pastors to acquire that skill. However, counseling skills cannot be adequately learned simply by reading books. As with all interpersonal skills, they must be learned through practice, and, ideally, this practice is best acquired in a context of supervisory feedback from a more experienced pastoral counselor.

The pastor who has mastered these skills is in a position to proclaim the Word of God in a highly personalized and relevant manner to people who are often desperate for help. This is a unique and richly rewarding opportunity. Rather than scattering seed in a broadcast manner across ground that is often stony and hard, the pastoral counselor has the opportunity to plant one seed at a time. Knowing the soil conditions, he or she is also able to plant in a highly individualized manner, taking pains to ensure that a seed will not be quickly blown away, and then gently to water and nourish its growth. This is the unique opportunity for the ministry of pastoral counseling. It is my prayer that pastors will see the centrality of counseling to their call to ministry, feel encouraged by an approach to pastoral counseling that lies within the skills and availability of most pastors, and will accept these responsibilities with renewed vigor and clarity of direction.

Additional Readings

Benner, D., and R. Harvey. 1996. Understanding and facilitating forgiveness. Grand Rapids: Baker. This book presents an application of strategic pastoral counseling to problems of forgiveness, providing particularly helpful case illustrations of the interaction of the work of emotional exploration and the development of new understandings in the process of forgiveness counseling.

Benner, D., and P. Hill, eds. 1999. Baker encyclopedia of psychology and counseling. 2d ed. Grand Rapids: Baker. This twelve-hundred-page encyclopedia presents the symptoms and current recommended treatments for 184 mental disorders. It is also a good general resource for a Christian perspective on a wide variety of topics in psychology.

Egan, G. 2001. The skilled helper. 7th ed.

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