PASTORAL THEOLOGY

This summer I taught an exciting course in Pastoral Theology at the American University Of Biblical Studies (AUBS) in Decatur, Ga. It was most demanding and enlightening: demanding because I had little time to select and read the texts, and to develop the curriculum; enlightening because it provided me with a clear and systematic grasp of its nature, need and neglect. The major texts used were Richard Baxter’s The Reformed Pastor; Patrick Fairbairn’s Pastoral Theology; Andrew Purves’ Pastoral Theology—extreme care had to be taken in studying the latter because Purves writes from a Barthian viewpoint—and The Westminster Confession Of Faith. All in all, it was an enriching experience that was mutually edifying to students and teacher.

What is Pastoral Theology? It is the theology of the covenant God's care for His covenant people, in and through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit, within His covenant community, to His glory alone. Derivatively, this work is carried on by the Pastor. From this biblical perspective, we see that pastoral ministry is solely God’s work being conducted through His servants. Pastoral theology’s focus is the gospel, which Purves calls “God’s extrinsic grace in Jesus Christ”, the divine verbum alienum, the word beyond us. This perception radically differs from the prevailing contemporary understanding and practice which, having been co-opted by secular principles of psychology and sociology, are void of a sound biblical theological foundation.

The modern movement is founded on the teaching of Princeton professor Seward Hiltner whose thoughts were laid out in his influential 1958 work, Preface to Pastoral Theology. In it he advocates and emphasizes the tasks of healing, sustaining and guiding-- reconciliation was later added to complete the so-called fourfold task of pastoral work. Considered the father of modern pastoral theology, Hiltner, in the words of Purves, ".. moved the discipline into a distinctly clinical, psychotherapeutic, social-scientific rather than theological or doctrinal direction." Purves observes there are two major consequences and characteristics of contemporary pastoral theology:
1. “.. the loss of Christology, soteriology, and the Christian doctrine of God..”

and stemming from this,

2. ".. the tendency for pastoral work, when it lacks adequate theological foundation, to be given over to control by secular goals and techniques of care."

In other words, contemporary pastoral theology is viewed as a functional activity carried out by professionals whose main responsibility is to provide immediate therapy and healing to parishioners by, at best, combining biblical principles with secular, pragmatic and expedient means and methods. As a result, we are left with religious communities in which “Meaning has replaced truth; acceptable function has replaced discipleship; concern for self-actualization and self-realization has replaced salvation.”

To this end, many churches have incorporated secular psychology and sociology in their counseling programs. Such an approach grounds the emphasis of pastoral work in worldly wisdom, in the here and now and demonstrates at least a practical denial of the transcendence of God. With its ugly head buried in the existential sand, this methodology has no view of the comprehensive, sovereign providence of God Who is constantly arranging, deploying, directing and re-directing all persons and things as He wills, to His glory alone, and no conception of the church as His elect covenant community in and through which He directs the continuing work of Christ's redemption in the power of the Holy Spirit.

The contemporary perspective is clearly evidenced in George Barna’s and Dr. Harry R. Jackson's influential but regrettable work, High Impact African-American Churches. For example, they promote an anti-biblical view of pastors as ".. power brokers of black influence in a white society..." utilizing politics "as the means of making faith real by introducing faith principles into every fiber of life.. as marketplace gladiators representing black interests.” In addition, they are “able to motivate people to rise above their circumstances and limitations..," to mobilize them around specific goals and priorities; to help them gather the human, physical and financial resources necessary for the accomplishment of these tasks and to direct them toward their compelling and unique God-given vision. To make matters worse, pastors also see themselves as civil rights advocates, community development leaders and representatives, religious spokespersons, spiritual models, organizational directors, and so on. (pp 43, 44, 53, 120). In the end, this view of the pastor is one which degenerates into that of a hyper-active superman, one who is adept at pragmatic multi-tasking and one who imbibes freely at the broken cisterns of bankrupt secularism. A gargantuan tragedy indeed!

One must admit that this high-powered secular view of the pastoral office runs contrary to the Scripture which casts pastors mainly in the role of feeders of God’s sheep. In accordance with the prescriptive pattern of our great Lord and Head, Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, our responsibility is to protect, to provide for and to promote the well-being of the souls the He has trustingly placed under our care by preaching His gospel. This central task is most pointedly summarized in the apostle Paul’s words that “.. he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” Eph 4:11-14. Pastoral care has both an insular (protection from false teachers and teachings) and maturing dimension; these two are inseparable.

As stewards of the gospel of Jesus Christ and as those entrusted with watching over the souls of the saints, our overriding responsibility is to recapture the biblical notion of pastoral theology which does not “begin with the human experience on its own terms” but which understands it “.. christologically rather than phenomenologically through the social sciences.” As cautioned by our dear brother, Dr. John Piper (from his book of the same title), “brothers, we are not professionals.”

Our most important task, therefore, is to recover pastoral theology from the sinister grasp of modern practitioners and to place it squarely and soundly on its rightful Christological and soteriological foundation, so that, in the power of the Holy Spirit, the eternal truths of the gospel may be applied to the existential conditions of all God’s people, regardless of the nature of their particular angst.