Pastoral Care
I believe that our mission as lay and professional leaders is to remember and to re-member (with a hyphen) the interdependent web. This means that we call to mind and heart the spiritual, intellectual, social, and emotional assets that promote health and wholeness. It also means we are called to repair—to re-member—the emotional, spiritual, intellectual, and social connections that support abundant life.
In pastoral care, remembering the interdependent web is a framework for coping in times of grief, increasing resiliency, healing, and equipping the gathered community for positive change. We remember the interdependent web through the practical care and the ministry of authentic presence that members offer to one another, as well as through skills such as counseling and facilitated group reflection offered by trained religious professionals.
There are several ways the practice of pastoral care re-members the connections that bring abundant life. When pastoral care invites storytelling, we strengthen connections with the past, with legacies of resilience that help us to recall and re-use the strategies and inspiration of our heritage. When pastoral care leads us to be attentive and non-judgmental listeners, when we share a moment of focus on the sacred, we strengthen connections with the present moment. When constituents and representatives of congregations reach out with sympathy and encouragement, we strengthen connections with our community of hope.
We can imagine pastoral care and pastoral counseling as circles in a Venn diagram. Pastoral counseling is a specialized set of skills that overlaps with the larger circles of pastoral care and psychosocial care. Pastoral counseling is a discipline that incorporates listening skills, a theological framework, and psychotherapy techniques to assist clients with goals such as healing, reconciling, and challenging. Counselors bring the client's spiritual and theological resources to bear as well as their emotional and mental resources. As a form of clinical counseling, pastoral counseling uses evidence-based treatment and tested psychological theories to assist clients. Clergy offer basic pastoral counseling as part of the leadership of a congregation, yet pastoral counseling may also be offered in a clinical setting. Indeed, even those of us who have advanced mental health training will usually refer parishioners to a specialist for long-term or in-depth counseling.
Pastoral care is the larger circle of ways people give and receive spiritual and emotional healing and hope as representatives or constituents of a faith community. When members show up with casseroles following a birth or a surgery, that is pastoral care. When the Memorial Tea Society plans and implements a reception to follow a funeral service, providing a ministry of hospitality to the grieving family, that is pastoral care. When one member sits and listens attentively to another without judgment, that is pastoral care. Certainly, clergy leaders can and do assist with training, equipping, and coordinating lay people in pastoral ministries. The wholeness of pastoral care is a shared ministry, not limited to pastoral counseling delivered by ordained ministers.
In congregations, I have enjoyed training and meeting with Pastoral Associates who extend the circles of caring of the church. Sharing ministry in this way brings exciting and important conversations about confidentiality and its limits, coordination of a team, and understanding boundaries. I find that pastoral care happens everywhere people from shared or linked spiritual communities interact: in corridors, on the playground after worship, through on-line social networks, during chance meetings at the coffee shop, and so on. Pastoral counseling in the minister’s office is only part of the picture. Healthy connections throughout the congregation are strengthened when ministers, staff, and lay leaders share an understanding and a practice of being fully present in the circle of a covenant and in the spirit of love.
In pastoral care, remembering the interdependent web is a framework for coping in times of grief, increasing resiliency, healing, and equipping the gathered community for positive change. We remember the interdependent web through the practical care and the ministry of authentic presence that members offer to one another, as well as through skills such as counseling and facilitated group reflection offered by trained religious professionals.
There are several ways the practice of pastoral care re-members the connections that bring abundant life. When pastoral care invites storytelling, we strengthen connections with the past, with legacies of resilience that help us to recall and re-use the strategies and inspiration of our heritage. When pastoral care leads us to be attentive and non-judgmental listeners, when we share a moment of focus on the sacred, we strengthen connections with the present moment. When constituents and representatives of congregations reach out with sympathy and encouragement, we strengthen connections with our community of hope.
We can imagine pastoral care and pastoral counseling as circles in a Venn diagram. Pastoral counseling is a specialized set of skills that overlaps with the larger circles of pastoral care and psychosocial care. Pastoral counseling is a discipline that incorporates listening skills, a theological framework, and psychotherapy techniques to assist clients with goals such as healing, reconciling, and challenging. Counselors bring the client's spiritual and theological resources to bear as well as their emotional and mental resources. As a form of clinical counseling, pastoral counseling uses evidence-based treatment and tested psychological theories to assist clients. Clergy offer basic pastoral counseling as part of the leadership of a congregation, yet pastoral counseling may also be offered in a clinical setting. Indeed, even those of us who have advanced mental health training will usually refer parishioners to a specialist for long-term or in-depth counseling.
Pastoral care is the larger circle of ways people give and receive spiritual and emotional healing and hope as representatives or constituents of a faith community. When members show up with casseroles following a birth or a surgery, that is pastoral care. When the Memorial Tea Society plans and implements a reception to follow a funeral service, providing a ministry of hospitality to the grieving family, that is pastoral care. When one member sits and listens attentively to another without judgment, that is pastoral care. Certainly, clergy leaders can and do assist with training, equipping, and coordinating lay people in pastoral ministries. The wholeness of pastoral care is a shared ministry, not limited to pastoral counseling delivered by ordained ministers.
In congregations, I have enjoyed training and meeting with Pastoral Associates who extend the circles of caring of the church. Sharing ministry in this way brings exciting and important conversations about confidentiality and its limits, coordination of a team, and understanding boundaries. I find that pastoral care happens everywhere people from shared or linked spiritual communities interact: in corridors, on the playground after worship, through on-line social networks, during chance meetings at the coffee shop, and so on. Pastoral counseling in the minister’s office is only part of the picture. Healthy connections throughout the congregation are strengthened when ministers, staff, and lay leaders share an understanding and a practice of being fully present in the circle of a covenant and in the spirit of love.