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April 1, 1997
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THE BUSINESS OF MAKING
SAINTS (p. 20)
Eugene H. Peterson, long-time pastor, author, and now professor of spiritual theology at Regent College, discusses what it truly means to give spiritual care.
Today, people come to pastors for help with addictions, abuse, incest, and other complex problems that didn't seem as common a generation ago. What can a pastor do for someone that a mental health provider cannot?
The previous century suffered just as much; in fact, probably much more. The big difference today is that we have this mentality that if something is wrong, you can fix it. The pastor is in the front line of people who get approached: "Make me happy. Make me feel good."
What do you do, then, when a parishioner assumes you can fix his or her problem?
You have to go back a step and ask, "Why am I a pastor? What is my primary responsibility to this congregation?"
The most important thing a pastor does is stand in a pulpit every Sunday and say, "Let us worship God." If that ceases to be the primary thing I do in terms of my energy, my imagination, and the way I structure my life, then I no longer function as a pastor. I pick up some other identity.
I don't ever want to convey that our primary job as pastors is to fix a problem. Our primary work is to make saints. We're in the saint-making business. If we enter the human-potential business, we've lost our calling.
When would you refer someone to a counselor?
My process was ...
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