Pastoral Care
PC002-612/712/812
Semester 1 every year
Lecturer
Karl Hood
Is this unit for you?
Caring for others is a fundamental dimension of the Christian life. This unit is for you if you want to expand your understanding of the human condition and the desires and attitudes that drive us, and to develop ways of helping and bringing change.
What you will learn
You will look at a history of pastoral care; special revelation and common grace; a biblical-theological model of the person, life, change, and helping relationships; care and change in Christian community; an integrated approach to physiological issues; an introduction to a Christocentric approach to a range of basic difficulties that are common to many life stages—suffering, anger, anxiety and fear, conflict and reconciliation, and, marriage and family issues.
Unit content
Section A: Biblical and Theological Perspectives
1. Biblical and theological perspectives on the nature of persons and groups; the human predicament; salvation and wholeness.
2. Biblical patterns and models of pastoral care, including the roles of the people of God as a caring community.
3. The maturity theme, individual and corporate, within the New Testament; the relationships between pastor-teacher functions and pastoral care functions; proactive and reactive styles.
4. An overview of the history of pastoral care; the integration of insights from the social sciences.
Section B: Pastoral Care in the Stages of Life
1. The distinction between pastoral care and pastoral counselling; the relationship between pastoral care and the regular life of the church, including Christian education and liturgy.
2. Caring for the carers; supervision; support groups; the role of the church and church leadership.
3. Pastoral care in major life-stages and transition; common crises of life in childhood, youth, early adulthood, middle age, old age, with attention to Christian initiation and nurture.
4. Pastoral care of families and single people; preparation for marriage; vocational guidance.
5. An introduction to cross-cultural factors in pastoral care; family patterns in various cultures and sub-cultures.
Delivery
- 3 lecture hours per week with class discussion
- Assignments
KEY TEXTS
- Michael R. Emlet, CrossTalk: Where Life and Scripture Meet (Greensboro: New Growth, 2009).
- David Powlison, Seeing with New Eyes: Counseling and the Human Condition through the Lens of Scripture (Phillipsburg: P & R, 2003).
- David Powlison, Speaking Truth in Love: Counsel in Community (Greensboro: New Growth, 2005).
- Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small: Overcoming Peer Pressure, Codependency, and the Fear of Man (Phillipsburg: P & R, 1997).
