I imagine you or someone you know has said or thought one of the following statements regarding the issue of counseling in the life of a pastor:

• When I signed up to be a pastor I didn’t sign up to be a counselor!
• I just do not have the time to counsel anyone—I’m busy enough as it is!
• Counseling is for the professionals.
• Seminary didn’t equip me to counsel.
• My job is to preach the Word not to counsel.
• I’m not gifted in the area of counseling.
• I don’t counsel but delegate that to someone else.

In recent years I have become intimately aware that my “job” as a pastor is not merely relegated to the preaching of the Word in corporate worship but is also to be worked out amongst the lives of the people to whom I serve. Further, I would submit to you that the Scriptures expect not only pastors but also all Christians to counsel one another with the Word of God (Rom 15:14; 2 Tim 3:15-16). This expectation is seen repeatedly in the Scriptures as there are thirty-eight one-another statements that all Christians are commanded to live out.

What is counseling?

• Counseling could easily be defined as intensive discipleship. More specifically, counseling is the Spirit-empowered process of one Christian humbly and compassionately coming along side another Christian to give words of encouragement, loving admonition and/or practical help toward the goal of becoming more like Jesus (Rom 8:29; Eph 3:14; Col 1:28).

Biblical warrant for the Pastor-Counselor

Here are several passages where we can glean some counseling practices that aptly describe the role and responsibility pastors have to be counselors:

Acts 20:28 “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.”

• Despite Paul not using the word “counsel” or “counselor” I believe he is prescribing to leaders in the church (namely pastors/elders) a mandate to preach the gospel publicly, as well as privately in people’s lives. The private ministry of the Word (i.e. counseling) is nothing more than the intensive discipleship of other Christians concerning their specific issues.
• As Paul highlights the perilous circumstances in Ephesus he is conveying the seriousness of the responsibility that the Ephesian leaders have in knowing the Word, knowing the sheep (not in a superficial sense but in a personal manner able to address the issues of the heart), defending the truth from false teachers, as well as equipping the flock to know and defend the truth.
• Paul exhorted the Ephesians elders to not only pastor their own hearts, but also to exude that same intentionality to the flock that the Spirit of God has set them apart to care for. A shepherd spends time with the flock; a shepherd knows the flock and as the shepherd comes to know the flock they realize there is much work to be done.

Colossians 1:28-29 “Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.”

• The work that is to be done by pastors is described as presenting all believers as mature or complete in Christ.
• This is hard work. In fact, Paul uses the words “toil” and “struggling.” Pastoral ministry is an arduous task and not for the faint of heart. Pastors all too well understand that pastoral ministry is a difficult work that is never-ending
• Perhaps the most encouraging truth we see in these verses is that we work to see believers grow up in Jesus with God’s power and presence in our lives – we don’t do it alone!

In the next post I’ll walk through how biblical leaders are to aim their counsel at the heart, while also detailing that God’s Word is the tool by which we shepherd the flock of God.