How to Train Pastors to Counsel
This year at the Evangelical Theological Society’s (ETS) annual conference, I will be presenting on how seminaries should prepare pastors to counsel. The title is:
Pastoral Counselor Preparation in Evangelical Seminary M.Div. Programs: Toward a Best Practice Statement of Purpose, Theology, Pedagogy, Curriculum, and Educator
Here’s an introduction.
Problem Statement
Survey research over the past three decades indicates that pastors trained in M.Div. programs believe that:
a.) Seminaries are responsible for training them in pastoral counseling—the personal ministry of the Word,
b.) Their seminary insufficiently trained them as pastoral counselors in the local church, and
c.) They are unprepared to function in the role of a pastoral counseling “generalist” in a local church setting.
Best Practice Research
To address these issues, this paper will examine:
a.) The purpose of seminary pastoral counselor preparation in M.Div. programs: how should the seminary training location and the local church ministry setting impact and impart a distinctive pastoral counseling identity?
b.) The theology of seminary pastoral counselor preparation in M.Div. programs: what view of the Bible shapes the way pastoral counselors form their theology and methodology of pastoral counseling?
c.) The pedagogy of seminary pastoral counselor preparation in M.Div. programs: how could Evangelical seminaries in M.Div. programs equip students for pastoral counseling formation so that they think Christianly (content) and counsel effectively (competence) out of growing personal maturity (character) in the context of local church ministry (community)?
d.) The curriculum for seminary pastoral counselor preparation in M.Div. programs: given that the average seminary M.Div. curriculum allows for one course in pastoral counseling, and at most two in some select cases, what should be taught, why, and how?
e.) The educator for seminary pastoral counselor preparation in M.Div. programs: given the purpose, theology, pedagogy, and curriculum of pastoral counselor preparation, what “credentials” best qualify the seminary professor to equip pastoral counseling students for the personal ministry of the Word in the local church?
Join the Conversation
If you are a seminary-trained pastor, how would you evaluate the training you received to be a pastoral counselor?
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It was the one required class in pastoral counseling that I took for my M.Div. that motivated me to further explore the subjects of Christian counseling on my own. While the class did cover some basic counseling skills, I think it was lacking in providing a substantive framework for understanding how the doctrinal truths I was learning in my systematic theology classes cashed out in personal ministry. I got the distinct impression that while I might be able to help people with explicitly “spiritual” problems, in most cases I should be prepared to refer people dealing with more serious issues to Christian counselors. I didn’t understand how it was that in my other classes I was being taught about the power of God’s Word for addressing the most significant issue of eternity yet here it seemed as though it was being subtly communicated that the Scriptures weren’t of much relevance or use when it came to most of the ways in which people struggle. Granted, this was in the late ’80’s, early ’90’s. I’m not sure how, if at all, things have changed. I look forward to your session at ETS.
Thanks, Keith. I look forward to seeing you. I’d appreciate your prayers as I move from the paper to the presentation. My paper is three times too long to fit into the time slot. So I will hand out the full paper, but this week I need to decide which 33% I will actually discuss during the session! Bob
Like Keith above, I only had one required pastoral counseling class in my MDiv program. It was broad and general in scope and certainly left me wanting for more preparation. However, I could say the same thing for the one class I received concerning philosophy of religion and church administration (one each). As we are fully aware on the backside of the MDiv program, the scope of study and disciplines required to effectively pastor in the church today can never be adequately covered in a 3 year graduate program. My experience is that the MDiv program’s primary focus is to help men and women do biblical exegesis (language studies, biblical studies and homiletics) and develop an orthodox theology (biblical and systematic theology) which leaves little room in the curriculum for other pastoral disciplines like counseling.
Dr. K. will you make this paper available to on this site after the presentation?
Yes, a couple of days from now…
Rob, That’s why in my paper I explain the importance of every M.Div. professor seeing their role as being directly related to equipping pastors for both the pulpit ministry of the Word (preaching/teaching) and the personal ministry of the Word (counseling/discipling/equipping/small groups). Too many seminary profs limit their “reach” to the academic without thinking through how to help students/pastors-to-be learn how to relate truth to life.
Kevin, Yes, after ETS, I always place my complete manuscript online at my RPM Ministries Free Resources page. Right now, all my past year presentations are available on my site. This one should go “live” around mid-November.