I saw this article the other day arguing that your pastor is not meant to be your therapist and vice versa. I can sympathise to some extent with the argument.
On the one side of things, there can be a tendency to treat church like a self help process. This doesn’t just affect one to one counselling relationships but how we view the whole provision. What do we look for in books, Bible Studies, sermons and even worship? If all we are looking for is a kind of therapeutic effect, then we end up as consumers.
On the other side, it is worth noting that in the US, there is a whole Christian Counselling industry. This means that if what you are looking for, all you are looking for from church is the therapeutic process, then you will be tempted to go looking for someone to do that. However, they will be pastoring you outside of the context of the local church
However, I am here suggesting that actually our pastors are our therapists and our therapists our pastors. Why do I say that?
Well, consider three things. First, consider what therapy actually is. The word’s origins are to do with healing. A therapist is someone who offers healing, we tend to use it to mean without surgery or medication, though strictly speaking, a course of medication is therapy.
Secondly remember that historically, the pastor was referred to as a curate. The title today tends to be applied just to assistant/trainee vicars but actually applied to anyone holding the post. Why? Because they were responsible for the cure of souls. Discipleship includes the idea of healing, not from physical maladies but by being restored to wholeness in Christ. This includes learning to think and feel right as well as speak and act right.
Thirdly, remember that the secular psychotherapy profession arose out of a desire to provide such care without the need for churches and Bibles. The therapist is in effect a secular/ humanist pastor. Their focus is on helping you to think and feel right.
Putting all of those things together and I want to suggest two things. First, the person you go to when you need help reordering your thoughts and emotions will be your pastor. They will be shepherding your life.
Second, this means that those of us who are pastors -and here I include all elders – are and should seek to be the therapists for our congregation. This does not mean that it must always happen in the counselling room, nor that there aren’t occasions where we need to refer to a particular specialist. It does mean that we need to be offering more than a bit of Bible homework. It means too that we need to take seriously the training of elders and other leaders/workers in the life of the church.
Faithroots 