Some years ago I heard a denom­i­na­tional leader state that the work of coun­selling was not a legit­i­mate min­istry because it did not ful­fill Paul’s def­i­n­i­tion of min­istry in Eph­esians 4:11–13. While some might find his com­ments shock­ing, his words invite us to con­sider the basis upon which we might con­sider the work of coun­selling to be a mis­sional activ­ity. Using a case study approach this arti­cle will con­sider three con­texts in which Chris­tians coun­sel with a view to answer­ing the ques­tion the ways in which the work of coun­selling is a king­dom activity.

Each study focuses on a dif­fer­ent indi­vid­ual, a pas­tor and two pro­fes­sional coun­sel­lor. Each coun­sel­lor attends a large multi-​​ethnic con­gre­ga­tion where s/​he enjoys the sup­port and encour­age­ment of other Chris­tians. In addi­tion to their church involve­ments, they are active mem­bers of their respec­tive pro­fes­sional asso­ci­a­tions. Finally, all three coun­sel­lor are con­cerned for the spir­i­tual wel­fare of those they work with.

Pas­toral Coun­sel as Soul Care

Pas­tor Darnell’s approach to the work of pas­toral coun­sel­lor draws on the Chris­t­ian tra­di­tion of soul care (Seel­sorge). His­tor­i­cal exam­ples of this approach are found in the writ­ings of the Puri­tans whose reflec­tions uti­lize a com­pas­sion­ate under­stand­ing of the human con­di­tion com­bined with instruc­tion in the doc­trines and dis­ci­plines of the faith. For pas­tor Dar­nell this is accom­plished through the work of spir­i­tual for­ma­tion which he under­stands to be “the con­tin­u­ing response to the real­ity of God’s grace shap­ing peo­ple into the like­ness of Jesus Christ, through the work of the Holy Spirit, in the com­mu­nity of faith for the sake of the world” (cited in Green­man and Goertz, 2005). Thus we see that the mis­sional char­ac­ter of pas­tor Darnell’s coun­sel­lor is to help peo­ple respond to God’s grace and mature in their faith.

Chris­tians Who Coun­sel – Being Salt and Light

Maria, who is a social worker in a sec­u­lar agency, has a dif­fer­ent sense of mis­sion. Although Maria is expected to hon­our the sec­u­lar man­date of the agency and not pros­e­ly­tize her clients, the agency val­ues her knowl­edge and exper­tise in the areas of spir­i­tu­al­ity and her famil­iar­ity with the evan­gel­i­cal com­mu­nity. As a result, Maria’s col­leagues con­sult with her on these mat­ters and the agency per­mits her to explore her clients’ ques­tions relat­ing to spir­i­tu­al­ity as long as she does not impose her val­ues. While Maria tends to view her work as pri­mar­ily sec­u­lar in nature, there is nonethe­less a mis­sional com­po­nent in what she does. First, her pres­ence within this agency pro­vides oppor­tu­ni­ties to engage the pro­fes­sional con­ver­sa­tion in ways that assist oth­ers to work with Christ fol­low­ers. Sec­ond, as a Christ fol­lower her engage­ment of the pro­fes­sional con­ver­sa­tion pro­vides an impor­tant voice or per­spec­tive that would oth­er­wise be miss­ing. Finally, her pres­ence within this agency pro­vides sup­port and encour­age­ment to clients who are awak­en­ing to their spir­i­tual needs. Thus we see that being a Chris­t­ian who coun­sels enables Maria to bring her faith into the mar­ket­place in ways that con­tribute to the mis­sional work of the church.

Chris­t­ian Coun­selling – Part­ner­ing with the Church

Henry is a Chris­t­ian ther­a­pist in pri­vate prac­tice. While he is sub­ject to the eth­i­cal guide­lines of his pro­fes­sion, his rep­u­ta­tion as a Chris­t­ian ther­a­pist means the major­ity of his clients are open to explor­ing how their faith speaks to, and serves as a resource for address­ing, the rea­son they have sought coun­selling. Curi­ously, Henry’s con­ver­sa­tions with clients about the role of their faith and faith-​​based resources in ther­apy is not what defines the mis­sional char­ac­ter of his coun­selling prac­tice. Rather Henry’s con­tri­bu­tion to the broader work of the mis­sio dei is evi­dent in at least three other ways. First, pas­tors have a lim­ited amount of time to devote to the work of coun­selling (Ben­ner, 1992) as well as lim­ited train­ing for this type of work. Thus Henry part­ners with area pas­tors as he pro­vides longer term coun­selling for those who require some­one with skills and knowl­edge that is beyond the com­pe­tency of many pas­tors. This part­ner­ship with pas­tors becomes evi­dent when a Chris­t­ian client matures through the inte­gra­tion of his/​her faith with his/​her life and as a result is bet­ter pre­pared to engage in works of ser­vice (Eph 4:11–13). Sec­ond, stud­ies indi­cate clients pre­fer ther­a­pists who have spir­i­tual val­ues and are able to engage the client’s spir­i­tual val­ues (AAPC, 2000). Viewed from this per­spec­tive, the mis­sional nature of Henry’s coun­selling prac­tice lies in the fact he and his Chris­t­ian clients are fel­low pil­grims. As a result his use of spir­i­tual resources in ther­apy is not merely a mat­ter of join­ing with the client but an out­growth of his own expe­ri­ence of God’s grace (2 Cor 1:3–7). A third poten­tially mis­sional dimen­sion of Henry’s prac­tice arises from his involve­ment within his pro­fes­sion. As a pro­fes­sional work­ing with an iden­ti­fi­able com­mu­nity within soci­ety Henry engages the main­stream pro­fes­sional cul­ture in ways that con­tribute to an improved under­stand­ing of Chris­t­ian clients when he speaks to the val­ues and con­cerns of these clients and helps oth­ers be effec­tive in their work with Christians.

Con­clu­sion

These case stud­ies present three par­a­digms for the work of coun­selling that are dif­fer­en­ti­ated by the counsellor’s con­text while retain­ing a mis­sional ori­en­ta­tion. Thus while con­text shapes the form and much of the con­tent of the coun­selling process, each con­text pro­vides the coun­sel­lor with spe­cific oppor­tu­ni­ties to engage God’s king­dom work. Thus the ques­tion is not whether coun­selling is a legit­i­mate king­dom min­istry but rather whether the Chris­t­ian coun­sel­lor makes use of the oppor­tu­ni­ties pro­vided by his/​her con­text in ways that are ben­e­fi­cial for Christ seek­ers and Christ followers.

Bib­lig­ra­phy

• Amer­i­can Asso­ci­a­tion of Pas­toral Ther­a­pists (AAPC). Pub­lic Opin­ion Poll. 2000. Retrieved May 29, 2009, http://​www​.aapc​.org/​c​o​n​t​e​n​t​/​p​u​b​l​i​c​-​o​p​i​n​i​o​n​-​p​oll.
• Ben­ner, David G. Strate­gic Pas­toral Coun­sel­ing. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1992.
• Green­man, Jef­frey P. and Don­ald Goertz. “Toward a Def­i­n­i­tion of Spir­i­tual For­ma­tion.” Toronto: Tyn­dale Sem­i­nary, May 2005. Retrieved May 29, 2009, http://​www​.tyn​dale​.ca/​l​e​a​d​e​r​s​h​i​p​/​f​i​l​e​s​/​T​o​w​a​r​d​_​a​_​D​e​f​i​n​i​t​i​o​n​_​o​f​_​S​p​i​r​i​t​u​a​l​_​F​o​r​m​a​t​i​o​n​.​pdf.