Pastoral Care in the Community

TROWEL & SWORD

Rev. D. Groenenboom

Picture what might be a typical church council meeting…

It was Peter and Fred’s turn to give a run down of the pastoral visits since their last report. They reported on a young family “all is good, terrific family, we had a great visit, we encouraged them in their work in the church…” But after their report the pastor says, ‘brothers, I am sorry to have to say this, but these people have just spoken with me today … they have now separated and the future does not look good at all…” Was there a reason the couple did not share their struggle at the home visit?

From another angle, many congregations regularly struggle to find people suitable to serve as elders. Even when the right number of nominations are identified, church councils are sometimes faced with a stream of men seeking to decline their nomination.

In still other places, where church councils have a full complement of elders, the brothers typically struggle to meet their responsibilities and to feel confident and competent in their calling.

This writer has no intention of focussing on negatives, yet I do believe that the scenarios outlined above are more common than not. Today’s eldership is in crisis:

There is a crisis of resources: elders are struggling to do what they are expected to do. The main issue is time: busy people feel huge stresses on their schedules, families suffer, and a sense of failure intensifies it all.
There is a crisis of confidence: on the one hand elders often doubt whether they have what it takes to address the typical raft of pastoral issues and concerns. Church families, on the other hand, sense this crisis from another angle: they often wonder whether the elders who visit really understand what they are going through. In fact, if they only visit annually, do they even really know these men? Would they ever feel comfortable talking about their real struggles with people they hardly know?
There is a crisis of effectiveness. Is it realistic or responsible to expect an annual visit to address the pastoral needs of any person? The annual home visit is just not working. This is not a matter of ‘fault’, it is a matter of changing culture. People tend to only open up with others when there is a pre-existent relationship. Further, it is unrealistic to expect elders to have such a high level of relationship with anywhere from 15 to 20 families in a typical elder’s district.

The problem? if we ‘drop the bar’ and abandon elder’s home visits, we seem to be relinquishing something that at least indicated the high value of pastoral care. On the other hand, how can we continue with an ineffective approach, where elders don’t have the time or even the likelihood of making improvements that will deliver a more responsible pastoral care to people?

And this is the critical issue: we must ensure the best possible pastoral care for the body of Christ. This is a biblical given. And if churches today knowingly settle for an approach to pastoral care that is glaringly and increasingly ineffective, they settle for something other than God’s intention for his church.

New Testament realities
Pastoral Care in the body of Christ

From the angle of the NT, pastoral care is never the sole responsibility of elders or pastors. There is a pervasive emphasis in the new testament that pastoral care belongs to the body of Christ, and that the members of the body provide pastoral care to one another. The overwhelming weight of evidence indicates that the body – the church community – is God’s chosen instrument for the provision of pastoral care. How is this seen?

Paul’s letters address significant pastoral issues, and yet these letters are not addressed to the leaders, elders or pastors but to the people, the body of Christ:
Rom 1:7 “To all in Rome loved by God and called to be God’s holy people”
1 Co 1:2 To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours
2 Co 1: 1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God in Corinth, together with all the saints throughout Achaia:
Ga 1: 1 Paul, an apostle … and all the brothers with me, To the churches in Galatia: …
Eph 1: 1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To God’s holy people in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus
Php 1: 1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all God’s holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons… ¹
Col 1: 1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 2To the holy and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ at Colosse…
1 Th 1: 1 Paul, Silas and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians …
2 Th 1: 1 Paul, Silas and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians …

When we consider all the “one another” encouragements Paul gives to the body of Christ throughout his letters between Romans and 2 Thessalonians, we find the following:

The phrase is used about 64 times
If we remove all incidental references like, “they spoke with one another”, all negative observations like “hating one another”, and just concentrate on the positive commands and imperatives, it turns out that we still have 30 commands that can only be fulfilled as the members of the body care for one another. Here is a sampling:
Be devoted to one another; love one another; meet with one another; greet one another; serve one another in love; speak with one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs; stop passing judgement on one another; spur one another on to love and good deeds…
Interestingly, this work of the body also includes some things that have sometimes been regarded as the sole domain of the elders:
You are competent to instruct one another… Rom 15:14
Submit to one another… Eph 5:21
Teach and admonish one another… Col 3:16
Build each other up… 1 Th 5:11

At no time are any of these actions regarded as the sole domain of those identified as elders or leaders. Paul clearly regards the body of Christ as God’s powerful instrument of encouragement, growth and outreach.

Clearly, Paul’s intention and - given our belief in the God breathed nature of the Bible – God’s design for pastoral care is that is happens in the body and for the body and by the body.

As a consequence, the question we need to ask is whether our current approaches to pastoral care reflect this NT emphasis.

Oversight & Leadership

The question naturally arises, ‘what then of the role of the elders as leaders and overseers – where does that stand?’ In response, there is no doubt that elders and pastors are called to a significant responsibility of supervision in the church. Their responsibilities fall into several major categories:

Develop and equip the body for their various ministries. This is clearly what Eph 4:11-16 teaches. When Paul says that pastors and teachers ‘equip his people for works of service’ (Eph 4:12) he is saying that one focus of leadership is to get people ready for ministry – whatever form that ministry might take.
Pastors and elders have the responsibility to ensure that this equipping happens effectively, i.e. their interest will be to help people discover, develop and deploy their gifts, in a way that honours God and bears fruit in the body and beyond. Elders will be placing people in different ministries and areas of service. This will be one of their prominent goals as they prayerfully consider the members of body.
Even where pastors and elders feel inadequate in the work of gifts development, there are very many helpful resources available to assist them.
Helping people discover, develop and deploy their gifts will see some changes, and perhaps along the following lines
From “ordained ministry” to “multiple ministries”
From solo players to team approach
From using people for tasks to nurturing people toward maturity
Encourages a strategic and developmental focus
More effectively leads to long term expansion
It will mobilise ministry, not management²
Shepherd God’s flock. When Paul gives his farewell to the elders in Ephesus he says, Ac 20:28 “Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.” Paul delivers this command because he knows that savage wolves from outside and false teachers even from their own number will seek to destroy the church. A few points can be made about this passage…
While shepherds tended to be despised, the positive aspects of care, protection and responsibility have their roots deep within the Old Testament, see Psalms 23, 68, 80 not to mention Isaiah 40, Jeremiah’s prophecy (both positive and negative imagery), Ezek 34, and Zech 10-11.
There is little doubt that the Lord calls leaders to responsibly care for his church, protect people from false teachings, and lead them into a mature expression of restored community. This is why Paul writes to Timothy that elders should be able to teach, and have exemplary character and reputation. It also explains their responsibility to “take care of God’s church” (1 Tim 3:5).

Putting it into practice

Perhaps the most pressing question is this: if we accept that pastoral care is the ministry of the body for the body, how can we implement it?

Our answer is perhaps two fold

Elders need themselves to be equipped to be equippers of people, and they need to be freed from an unsustainable load of pastoral visitation (time does not permit me to offer concrete suggestions here). This will give elders more focus in their calling, and resourcing them will address the crisis of confidence
Members need to meet in small groups (call them what you like: home groups, growth groups, cell groups…). In smaller gatherings the trust required for healthy sharing, encouragement, learning from one another, accountability and trust can grow naturally. In times of pastoral need, or when one member needs to be challenged, it happens in the context of that group and by the group. Only in serious situations would it be necessary to ‘step outside the circle’ and involve elders

Summary

The threefold crisis can be addressed in the following ways:

Resources: develop the elders in their areas of responsibility

Encourage the body to pastoral care in the context of small groups
Train elders’ in pastoral skills
Develop elder’s leadership skills
One on one development of elders by the pastor or others
Difficult pastoral situations referred to gifted others, elders there for focussed support

Confidence: have elders and small groups minister effectively following NT emphasis

Elders more focussed on the calling of leadership and oversight
Small groups develop relationship, care and trust – providing the foundation for regular pastoral care and support
Elders interact with groups and support small group leaders

Effectiveness: small groups grow community and care in smaller, more effective units

Every member accepts the concern and challenge of others in their group whom they know and love
Regular meeting times provide contexts of ongoing support
The possibility is that all members have a pastorally caring context every few weeks at the most. What a positive experience that would be!

Friends, I am driven to see God’s people grow in their passion and ability to care for one another in the most effective way.

Imagine a church where every member felt the care, concern and commitment of others in their joys and sorrows all the time. Where those with deep and intractable problems knew they would be cared for, and knew that people who loved them would be there consistently. A church where encouragement and support wasn’t concentrated in a few, but palpable and overflowing right through the body. In fact, imagine a church where the body was the body. Each part, caring for the others. No part in isolation. Every member matters. Wow! That is not just a great calling, that is a restored community.

1 In this instance where leaders are mentioned in the salutation, they are mentioned after ‘God’s holy people”.
2 These emphases are further developed in MTS training, now being undertaken in several CRCA Classes.

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