Should Every Pastor Be a Counselor?
Should every pastor be a counselor?
No.
Does that answer surprise you, especially coming from me?
What should every pastor be?
An equipper.
Biblically, what is the primary calling of every pastor?
According to Ephesians 4:11-16, every pastor should equip every Christian to be a one-another minister/counselor/discipler—people who speak the truth in love to one another so that we all mature in Christ.
What Prompts the Question?
I’m pondering the question again because my friend and fellow Biblical Counseling Coalition Board Member, Pastor Deepak Reju, penned a recent post at the BCC called: A New Breed: Pastors Who Love Counseling. In his post, Deepak talked about the important role of counseling pastors.
In response, another good friend, Dr. David Murray, opined that pastoral counseling specialists may imply that not every pastor should be a counselor. In A New Breed and a Dying Breed, David asked the insightful question, “Can you really call yourself a pastor without constant counseling involvement in people’s messy lives?”
My Initial Response
Here’s how I responded to David in the comment section of his blog post.
David,
Thanks for your challenging words.
Knowing you and your ministry and knowing Pastor Deepak and his ministry, I hear you both saying “Amen!” to the same message.
When I first edited Deepak’s post for the BCC’s Grace & Truth blog, I did not “hear him” saying that it was a good thing for pastors not to love counseling. Nor did I hear him saying that the “typical pastor” should separate the personal ministry of the Word and the pulpit ministry of the Word.” I heard him urging a both/and.
Perhaps that both/and is where there is some room for discussion. Is it helpful to have “counseling pastors,” or does this “take the burden away from” “other pastors”?
Again, I think Deepak and you would agree that every pastor should be a pastor who counsels. I’ve found that an “effective” “counseling pastor” is one who:
1.) Counsels biblically
2.) Equips the saints for one-another ministry
3.) Encourages and equips the rest of the “church leadership team” (pastors, elders, deacons, etc.) for one-another ministry. In that way, the “new breed” encourages every ministry leader to be part of the “historical breed” of pastoral soul physicians…
Upon Further Reflection
I still stand by my comment to David.
However, as today’s blog post suggests, it is essential to distill the primary calling of every pastor—an equipper.
Through the pulpit ministry of the Word and through the personal ministry of the Word, God’s ultimate call upon every pastor is not simply to do the work of the ministry. Rather, God’s call is for every pastor to equip God’s people to do the work of the ministry.
As I develop in Equipping Counselors for Your Church, the work of the ministry that Paul highlights in Ephesians 4:11-16 is one-another ministry. It is speaking and living gospel truth in love so that every Christian is a disciple-maker—a person who helps others to mature in Christ.
Every Pastor a Soul Physician
So, if we changed the question, I would change my answer.
Should every pastor be a soul physician?
Yes!
Biblically and historically a soul physician is someone who understands people, problems, and God’s solutions—biblically. In the pulpit ministry of the Word and in the personal ministry of the Word every pastor should be a soul physician.
Every Church a Teaching Hospital
If every pastor were a soul physician, then every church would be a teaching hospital.
People talk about the church as a hospital for the hurting.
More than that, the church should be a teaching hospital that equips every believer to be a soul physician who changes lives with Christ’s changeless truth.
Join the Conversation
Should every pastor primarily be a counselor or should every pastor primarily be an equipper?
Should every pastor primarily be a counselor or should every pastor primarily be a soul physician?
Should every church primarily be a hospital for the hurting or should every church primarily be a teaching hospital that equips soul physicians?
RPM Ministries: Equipping You to Change Lives with Christ’s Changeless Truth
I’m involved in a church-plant, we actually do not use the words ‘pastor’ to describe our FT guys. They are all ‘equippers’, and our goal is to see equippers raised up for each of the five-fold gifts over our body. They function as elders with the requirements and expectations that come with it.
We also don’t release another Gospel community to form unless they have the seeds of each of these giftings expressed.
Agree completely and believe the terminology is important to highlight, as then it moves away from the ‘pastor-centric’ model of leadership. A gift of apostleship can lead out a church, as long as the others giftings are expressed in the body. Frees our definition of leadership to form into something very different than we see in the church.
Thanks for posting.
Thanks, Bob. You have, along with Deepak and David, summarized all of the themes/arguments that my book “Counsel Your Flock” seeks to propel. O, that the Lord will be pleased to give to His church a truckload of caring shepherds who love sheep, feed them His Word, bind up their wounds, and equip them for fruitful ministry in God’s pasture and God’s world!
Hi Bob. Thanks for your contribution to the world of biblical counseling! I’ve recently started reading Soul Physicians and have been encouraged and stimulated thus far. You’ve answered the question of whether every pastor should be a counselor. In your opinion, should every full time fee for service counselor be a pastor?
That’s a great question, Wes. Myself, Paul Tautges, and David Murray will be doing some periodic “group blogging” where we each blog on the same topic. Your question (should every full time fee for service counselor be a pastor?) would make for a great three-way blog discussion.
Enjoyable read Bob (and others)… I appreciate Deepak’s initial post and the conversation flow since. As I read I considered this issue: if every pastor is a member of the body, and every member is to counsel (as part of the regular practice of one-anothers in the church), then wouldn’t we say that every pastor should counsel as much as every member walking in the Spirit is also competent and responsible to counsel? BC isn’t a role issue; it is a body issue. There are some of us in the body that do more and do more formally than others, but all of us should be doing some counseling. Thanks brother for your ministry to all of us as we consider all these issues.
Kevin, I definitely agree. Every pastor should be involved in one another ministry because, as you say, we are all members of the Body called to apply Ephesians 4:15-16. My focus is on encouraging pastors not to stop at preaching and not to stop at counseling, but to see their preaching and their counseling and their teaching as means toward equipping the entire Body to do the work of the ministry. I’m thanking for your shared vision and emphasis in that area. Bob
Thanks for your response, Bob. I agree with you about the pastor being an equipper. But I know you’ll also agree that to be an equipper, you also have to be a doer! I probably read Deepak’s article the way I did because I’m seeing a lot of this in the USA – pastors who hardly every have any personal contact (counseling or home visitation) with the people they pastor – and it’s not just the so-called “celebs.”
David, You’re correct, I do agree that one can’t equip others if one is not also developing the competence to offer one another ministry through the personal ministry of the Word. And you are correct, in my opinion, that many pastors do focus almost exclusively on the pulpit ministry of the Word. That’s why I believe that you, Deepak, and I, are on the same page urging all pastors/elders/leaders toward both/and: pulpit/personal, doing/equipping. Bob
Some pastors would be (are) pretty good counselors. Some…not so much.
Their first priority is tp proclaim God’s law…and His gospel. And to shepherd people in the Christian faith.
He can have rolodex with qualified counselors to refer people to.
Thanks.
Steve, Thanks for your thoughts. I would tweak it a bit, myself. Something like this: The first priority of a pastor is to proclaim the Gospel in the pulpit ministry of the Word and in the private/personal ministry of the Word.
As for the rolodex, I hope a pastor has on it the names of people he equipped in his own church to do one another ministry.
Bopb