As I was saying… there are a lot of pastoral care myths out there.  Here’s 2 more:

Myth 3: Pastoral Care is about ‘meeting people’s needs’.

This is a very popular myth, especially among people who have needs. The idea of having a pastor, who will provide pastoral care, which will meet my needs is very appealing.

This is particularly the case with perceived emotional needs. If I’m feeling hurt or lonely or angry and so on it’s an attractive idea that someone might come and talk with me and make me feel better.

This myth can also be popular among pastors or leaders who like to feel needed. Meeting people’s needs can be a gratifying emotional experience. You can feel special or needed and so on so this myth gains traction among pastors too.

Myth 4: Pastoral Care is different to Bible teaching.

This myth separates the two things. Bible teaching is something we do in the sermon or Bible study. Pastoral care is the talking and relating that happens elsewhere. During pastoral care the Bible goes back on the shelf and we focus on listening, sharing and talking.

This myth is reinforced when we give titles and job descriptions to pastors that make one out to be the teaching pastor and one out to be the pastoral care guy.

Next week, we’ll see what the Bible says about pastoral care and do a bit of mythbusting.

photo credit: Markusram

Tags: pastoral care

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 3rd, 2010 at 10:24 pm and is filed under Maturity, Pastors thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.