Counselling

3 Goals of Pastoral Counseling 1. Address the presenting problem. Pastors get to help struggling people respond wisely to their problems: anger needs control (Eph. 4:26); sorrow needs comfort (2 Corinthians 1); fear needs rest (Ps. 56:3–4) etc. Counseling that is truly Christian will have much more: the person and work of Christ will be its theological and practical center. Christ and his gospel must be the foundation, means, and end of our counseling. If by the end of your time together you have not helped this person look more like Christ, then what you’ve done is not Christian counseling. This leads to our second goal. 2. Display the relevance of the Gospel. The Word of God exposes the heart in ways nothing else can, surgically bringing to light what is unhealthy (Heb. 4:12–13) so that what is out of order may be put right (Heb. 12:12–14). Faith is the means by which a person receives the righteousness of Christ, such that the quality and character of one’s heart and life are transformed (Rom. 1:16–17; 6:22–23). Even when faith in the word of Christ is difficult, a person will always find Christ more than trustworthy with his or her life (Mark 9:24) 3. Help people to grow in Christlikeness. most important, we want to help people to grow to be more like Christ (Eph. 4:22–24; 5:1). Human beings were created to image God. The more we are conformed to his image, the closer we reflect God’s ideal for human life (Rom. 8:29–30).