I recently had a review of the Pastoral Care Companion published at World View Church.
I mentioned it in passing there, but it’s really a very important point. The introduction to this fine little work makes a good point. Pastoral visitationis primarily KERYGMATIC not THERAPEUTIC.
So what does that mean, preferably in English?
Well “kerygmatic” is a word that points us back to the sermons in the Book of Acts which announce the fulfillment of all God’s promises in the person and work of Jesus Christ. How this relates to pastoral care in a moment…
Let’s talk about the word “therapeutic”. Is a definition really necessary? We all seem to viscerally identify with it’s meaning….In the context of pastoral care it implies the smooth, soothing words of a “Mister Rogers” character in a cardigan and, preferably, with a reassuring goatee telling us exactly what we want to hear.
In our “therapeutic” age, we (meaning modern secular-minded Americans) seek out and employ counselors to solve our problems, to “fix” us (or others), and to – as quickly as possible – get us out of the mess we find ourselves in. Our goal, of course, is to eliminate our pain, get on with life, and go about doing whatever we want as much as possible.
We retain religious counselors either because they are cheaper and/or because we want the nice God-veneer affixed to the process. That makes our self-assertion look “good”. After all, the more we can gratify ourselves in the name of baptized self-actualization, the better things must be, we imagine.
Under a paradigm of pastor as therapist, we are really talking about using God in the same way a person with a dead battery avails themselves of the kindness of another driver who offers to “jump start” a motionless car. The assumption is that just a bit of help is needed. Only a bit of intervention is required. When we seek out pastoral therapists, we come because we believe God can offer the help quickly and easily. After a bit of bother, a verbal genuflection perhaps, and some god-words, we hope we can soon be on our way!
Back to our battery metaphor – the therapist comes to the stalled vehicle, attaches the “jumper cables”, utters an invocation, and – in theory – the stagnant situation rumbles quickly to life and all is well. And just as automobiles with formerly dead batteries travel without needing to seek further help from their “therapist” (or what he represents), we usually seek to head off into traffic again under our own power without reference to the God who might speak in our weakness.
The pastor as therapist approach works fine with splinters (“use tweezers and go in peace!”) and other lesser catastrophes like a child’s first unrequited “puppy love” (“time heals all wounds, be blessed!”). That approach fails, however, when the harsh realities of life have no easy, imminent answers and the starkness of death confronts us.
One wonders, what would a pastor as therapist have said to Moses when he had just fled Egypt and was one year into his 40 year preparation in the Wilderness with no hope in sight of the Exodus?
Then, what what would have happened had Moses tried to follow that advice – fix up your resume, consider all the transferable skills you’ve accumulated as a former Prince of Egypt, be optimistic, keep looking for a job, you’ll be back on top in no time!
Soon the words would have proven worse than useless because, in God’s sovereign timing, any change was far in the future and beyond Moses’ horizon even when it all was about to unfold! His training and exile in the Wilderness was essential to his future usefulness. But at the time, humanly speaking, there was no proof that Moses’ exile had any redeeming value.
What if the counselor Moses had gone to had been a priest like Melchizadek in therapist mode. Would the worthless words have strengthened or detracted from Moses’ faith in the Living God?
Suddenly the “Pastor as Therapist” model falls apart when the “self-help” clues we offer people never work for one reason or another.
Worse, in the name of God, the pastor as therapist may undermine the faith of those he serves by letting them believe that problems that defy simple human solutions also defy the grace and power of the Living God.
In reality, sickness and struggle are a blessing precisely because they put is in touch with the spiritual reality of our lives that defy easy, self-help solutions. The remind us of our ultimate powerlessness and mortality.
Whether we describe our spiritual predicament in the words of Ephesians 2:1-10, the words of the Council of Orange, or just the plain old “12 Steps” , we are people who are spiritually dead, powerless over our sins, and hopeless without the grace of God coming to help us even want to be helped.
No amount of human resuscitation can bring hope to our own personal recognition that we are our own Valley of Dry Bones, and that divine intervention is required.
God sends us our troubles not to enable us to exercise our self-help techniques, but so we will learn how to live out our professed faith in the One who has Risen from the Dead, Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:29). That’s quite a bit different than trusting in ourselves. That is the goal of “kerygmatic pastoral care”.
It’s the only kind of help that can sustain a Moses who has descended overnight from the status of a Prince of Egypt to being a wandering vagabond. At that moment, without divine foreknowledge, we could have only pointed him to the promises of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God’s moment of vindication and usefulness for Moses awaits another day 40 years in the future. Even when it is on the verge of becoming a reality in the Exodus, it was still beyond the horizon and his ability to see. There is only hope when we entrust ourselves to the One who can see beyond the human horizon.
Sometimes, like Moses, the temporal struggle will yield to a new brighter, unexpected future in this life. But whether or not that happens, we all have the expectation of the new heavens and the new earth where tears are wiped away. It is the example of Christ that Paul offers us as encouragement to persevere in mutual love and through suffering (Phil. 1:29-2:11). Our Lord Himself had no earthly hope short of death, resurrection and glorification. No self-help techniques would work for Him. But His resurrection which anticipates our own demonstrates that quick earthly remedies may not, in fact, be God’s best for us. Following Christ for us may require learning trust in the Valley of the Shadow of Death (Psalm 23).
Kerygmatic help – proclaming the help available only by entrusting ourselves to the Risen Christ – is the kind of help we should ultimately seek, as pastors and Christians, to offer. Sure, if we can offer some pratical insight based on our experience and the Word, that is fine in its place. But such help as the “Fix it” and “coddling” “Self-help” preachers give is insufficient when we do not remind ourselves and those we serve of our ultimate need for the Risen Christ. Only while trusting in the Risen One instead of ourselves can we be sustained today in the midst of depression, sickness, tragedy, and looming physical death – when God’s glorious future for us – like Moses’ then – lies beyond the horizon and our ability to see.
That is the difference between the Kerygmatic versus the Therapeutic ministry. Let us help as we are able, but let us not believe we are done until those we serve (as well as we ourselves) are reminded to entrust ourselves to the Risen One whose resurrection promises us life.
So should pastoral ministry or pastoral counseling help people work through problems? Yes, as long as the focus is ultimately on the source of our help in life and in death… where obedience isn’t mere “self-help” but springs from the realization of our helplessness without the Risen One.
Here’s my radio interview on the topic with Matt Friedeman/American Family Radio…:
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