Equipping pastoral caregivers to counsel competently in the local church

Abstract

In a world where broken people are in search of help, the church serves as the most suitable environment for them to become whole through counselling based on the Bible. This research investigates the current state of counselling practices in local churches in Johannesburg, Gauteng. Enquiries were made to pastors regarding their work on counselling within the local churches. Using Richard Osmer's (2008) fourfold research of practical theological interpretation, which comprises the descriptive-empirical ("What is going on?"), the interpretive ("Why is this going on?"), the normative ("What ought to be going on?"), and the pragmatic ("How might we respond?") tasks, the researcher employed a qualitative approach through interviews with selected pastors about counselling in the local churches. The research describes and discusses issues related to the shortage of competent counsellors and the concept of counselling as a shared responsibility in local churches, supported by scholarly sources. The need for trained counsellors and development programmes to train people in counselling was identified. Information gathered through the literature study provided an interpretation of counselling and the issue of counselling as a shared responsibility in local churches. The study was enriched by the normative and ethical perspectives drawn from Biblical scriptures that portray using the Bible in counselling (Psalm 19:7-11), caring in counselling (1 Thessalonians 2:1-16), and how to counsel (Romans 15:14-22). Data collected from the descriptive, interpretive, and normative tasks were analysed to develop pastoral guidelines to help caregivers provide competent counselling in local churches. These guidelines will assist pastors in recognising mature believers and offering counselling training to help them become effective counsellors in the local church.