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Christian Pastoral Counseling
What is it?
Faith-based counseling and pastoral care has been a cornerstone of the Christian Faith from the beginning. The Bible tells us each person must carry their own load, but also to carry other’s burdens. A load is your responsibilities in life, but a burden is something that overwhelms you. It takes others to help you carry an overwhelming burden. Faith-based counseling is the practice of sharing a burden by coming alongside a fellow human being and offering support and help. It is not religious propaganda, proselytizing, or efforts to convert people. It is loving others in their need, where ever they are.
There perhaps as many definitions of Christian Pastoral Counseling as there are individual beliefs about the Christian faith. To bring clarity to the clients of Crossroad Christian Counseling (CCC), the following presents our general policy and understanding of what Christian Counseling / Pastoral Counseling is with regard to how we view and practice it. This is not a universal definition; this is a statement of faith and application of Christian scripture and believe as we understand it.
Christian pastoral counseling has been in existence since the foundation of the Christian church in the first century A.D. Prior to the Advent of Christianity, the roots of pastoral or Biblical counseling is found in the Jewish Bible, which Christians refer to as the Old Testament. There’s a substantial amount of wisdom provided in scripture through books such as proverbs as well as the general writing throughout the Christian Bible. In fact the nature of counseling is well established in the Judeo-Christian heritage they can back thousands of years.
The Greek root-word for Psychology is Psueke, meaning ‘soul’ and is found 105 times in the New Testament. Psychology therefore best understood as the study or care of the soul. However, one might also call it the coming along side or bearing an other’s burden as seen in the New Testament (Galatians 6:1-3). Other Biblical examples of soul care include mandates to offer competent counsel, exhortation, chastisement, or even general advice has long existed as part of the ministry offered by people of faith in our traditions.
In fact, Christian counseling or pastoral counseling, taken from the entirety of the Holy Bible, supporting documents and writings of church fathers, rabbinical sources, and many other academic texts and sources, provides irrefutable evidence that counseling existed long before the invention of what is now regarded as psychology or professional counseling.
Most of the psychological theories that we hold to be reliable in the modern age, whether they intended or not, reinforce what we have known for centuries in the practice of worship through the ministry of helps within the church. This understanding is reflected in the ordering the mind (2 Corinthians 10:5), living in such a way that is pleasing to God (Ephesians 5:10; Romans 12:1;Romans 1:12; 2 Corinthians 5:9; Galatians 6:8; 1 Thessalonians 2:4) and seeking to live in harmony with others brings a level of success and happiness.
“The instructions of the Lord are perfect, reviving the soul.
The decrees of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.
The commandments of the Lord are right, bringing joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are clear, giving insight for living.” Psalm 19:7–8
The following is our general policy statement on what constitutes Christian pastoral counseling at Crossroad Christian Counseling:
Our Definition: Christian Pastoral Counseling is best described as counseling by a Believer in Christ, often but not limited to ministers, pastors, or lay persons as disciples of Christ, using learned skills of empathetic attending and communication (1 Thessalonians 4:9) that supports the goals and needs of an individual, leaning primarily on the theoretical underpinnings of the Holy Bible and supporting scriptural and non-scriptural documents which are historically supportive of the coming alongside and bearing one an others burdens (Galatians 6:1-3) in an expression of faith and worship (James 1:27; Psalm 72:12, 13; Psalm 82:3; Isaiah 58:7; Psalm 10:18; Acts 20:35).
“Neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship God, but in spirit and in truth” (John 4:21–23).
Christian counseling when performed by a Christian Pastoral Counselor is an act of worship. It is rendering to God a tithe of talent based on how he has equipped that pastoral counselor to care for those in need.
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