Shepherding as Counseling

When I was a high school senior, I told my pastor I wanted to be a pastor of counseling. Without missing a beat, he said to me, “There’s another name for that—it’s called pastor.” With a smile, he went on to explain that every pastor does counseling, and very few specialize in it.

He was, after all, appropriately equating the term counseling with shepherding. While there could be some nuancing between the two, the common ground will be sufficient for our present purposes. Every pastor engages in shepherd counseling; it is just a matter of how, how often, and how well. Every pastor has conversations with his flock. And in those conversations—whether formal, informal, after service, in his office, or from house-to-house—he speaks the wisdom of God into people’s particular circumstances. This is what we call counseling or shepherding, and every pastor does it.

Preaching as Counseling

There is another time every week when every pastor counsels his flock—when he stands before them and applies God’s Word publicly to the particulars of life. Applicational preaching, where the Scriptures are expounded and brought to bear upon our contemporary situation, is a form of pastoral counseling; it simply takes on a more corporate and less individual focus.

The Two Texts of Counseling

When one engages in shepherd counseling, there are always two texts to accurately interpret. Those two texts are the text of Scripture and the “text” of the person. No one should have any discomfort with the idea that we must accurately interpret the text of Scripture—after all, we are Reformed Christians who want to rightly divide the Word of truth! But there is a bit of unease when we say that one must interpret the “text” of an individual. Everyone would agree we want to understand people accurately, but to suggest that a person is a text to be interpreted might make us uncomfortable. Yet, Jesus says in John 1:18 that He came to properly interpret and expound the Father. He uses a word we translate “made him known.” That word is the basis for our English word exegete, which means to rightly interpret and explain. Jesus is saying He rightly interprets the Father and expounds Him to us. Jesus alone fully understands the “text” of God the Father and appropriately explains Him to the world. What a glorious truth!

Building on this concept, then, the most loving and compassionate thing we can do is to rightly understand someone and their circumstances. In fact, Peter, in his first letter, speaks of living with one’s spouse in “an understanding way” as a means of showing great honor to the other (1 Pet. 3:7). When we make sure not to misunderstand a brother or a sister in Christ, we demonstrate our care for them. Thus, faithful shepherding must always rightly interpret the text of Scripture and the text of the person we are interacting with.

How Counseling Serves Preaching

This is where faithful counseling supports faithful preaching. Those who understand people, walk with people, and care for people in the messiness of their world will all the more ably apply the Word of God to the people in the pews. Pastors who understand sin, suffering, human experience, and the general difficulties of life are most apt to bring the Word of God to bear precisely and helpfully in this world of sin and misery.

If, on the other hand, a pastor merely knows books and does not know people, his sermons will tend toward the abstract. While they may be theologically accurate and intellectually rich, sermons that do not connect with where people live and how they spend their days will be less effective than they could be.

An Example

Take, for instance, the pastor who has spent the last few months walking alongside a grieving family who has experienced the devastation of a miscarriage. He has wept with this family, prayed with this family, applied the balm of the Word of Christ to this family, and spent countless hours caring for this family in his shepherding ministry over the past dozen weeks.

In his sermon series, preaching through the gospel of Mark, he is set to preach on Jesus and Jairus’ daughter (Mark 5:41). Will not his shepherding-care for these dear saints be brought to bear in his sermon preparations? Will not his applications of the Word be tenderly influenced by his re-cent tears shed alongside this beloved family?

In such an illustration, tragic though it may be, we can see how the shepherding ministry rightly impacts and bolsters the preaching ministry of the pastor.

How Preaching Serves Counseling

The opposite direction is also true. Not only does understanding shepherding build up sound applications from the pulpit, so too the right use of Scripture expounded week after week from the holy desk strengthens a pastor’s shepherding. Sure, preaching itself is a form of counsel, as mentioned above—but it is more than that. When a pastor spends hour upon hour in his study each week, and only has, at most, an hour “presentation” to show for it (I’m being facetious here), is that the only value a congregation receives?

First, who besides the Lord can measure the eternal value of preaching itself? Second, the pastor himself has been transformed by the whole process: the hours meditating upon the truth of God, the incredible amounts of time praying over the text and praying for the congregation, and the knowledge gained from his Greek or Hebrew study, the commentaries read, and supplemental books drawn upon, all which are brought to bear in the sermon. But how much of that is left on the editing floor? How much of a pastor’s preparations do we not get to hear in the Lord’s Day message? All of that has gone into the personal growth of the pastor, not to mention his ever-increasing mastery of the book of the Bible he is presently working his way through.

All of that preparation is a gold mine of heavenly wisdom. The fruit of his study for the weekly sermon bears dividends in the rest of the pastor’s ministry—not least of which is the shepherding ministry. What newfound illustrations has he come up with? How many applications has he considered, which never made it into the sermon? What biblical insights does he carry with him fresh from his study? Can he not draw upon these in his next shepherding visit? Does he not offer encouragement from these truths as he casually speaks to a congregant after a fellowship meal? It is easy to see how the purposeful, regular, and consistent study of God’s Word is always growing the pastor’s practical knowledge, just waiting to be applied.

A Second Example

Take, for instance, the pastor who recently preached through the book of Haggai. In the opening chapter, Haggai prophesies against the Jewish people who prioritize their own houses over God’s house. With careful study, the chapter takes on the exact opposite emphasis of Matthew 6:33, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.” In Haggai 1, God shows what happens when you don’t seek first the kingdom of God. Of the rather crucial things like food and a bountiful harvest, he says, “I blew it all away” (v. 9). While God does not leave His people destitute, He does make them realize their lack when they prioritize themselves and so removes their blessing. The Lord additionally calls them to self-examination in this passage: “Consider your ways” (v. 7).

But what does this have to do with shepherd-counseling? When the pastor interacts with a man from the church who has lost his job and is wondering if God is punishing him, this under-shepherd may draw upon Haggai 1 as a means of encouragement and appropriate self-examination. While the brother may feel the Lord has wrongfully taken away his job, Haggai provides an honest means of assessing: Consider your ways; have you been forsaking the Lord and prioritizing yourself? If you have been seeking first God’s kingdom, and this difficult providence has befallen you, that does not imply God is punishing you like the unfaithful Jews of old. Instead, as the counsel goes, continue seeking first God’s kingdom, and these important matters will be added unto you, just as God says to his faithful people of old: “I am with you, declares the Lord” (Hag. 1:13).

In the first illustration above, we see how knowing people can add benefit to the pastor’s preaching ministry. And in this second illustration, we see how deeply studying the text through the preaching ministry can result in applying a fitting passage to one’s shepherding ministry. Preaching and counseling inherently complement each other and build on one another. After all, they are the right interpretation and application of two texts: the text of Scripture and the text of people. May we be right interpreters of both.