Focus: Pastoral Care

Text: Col.1:28

"WHOM we PREACH, WARNING every man, and TEACHING every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man PERFECT in Christ Jesus."

David declares with great hilarity, "The LORD is my Pastor; I shall not lack anything." God cares for His sheep. He is committed to the welfare and wellbeing of His children. Our total wellness is His priority. David acknowledges Him as his personal pastor. Long before David was Jacob, who said while blessing his son, Joseph, "God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which FED me all my life long unto this day" (Gen.48:15). The word 'fed' is the same as 'pastor' or 'shepherd.' So Jacob was saying that God had been his pastor, relentlessly caring for him. God was Jacob's personal Shepherd. 

*The job of pastoral care

In Jer.3:15, God says, "And I will give you PASTORS according to mine heart, which shall FEED you with knowledge and understanding." Again, the word 'feed' is the same as 'pastor' or 'shepherd.' Here in this Scripture, the pastors provide the foods of knowledge and understanding. Knowledge and understanding nourish and nurture the soul. The Lord Jesus accused the scribes of His day of having taken away the key of knowledge from the people. Key is for access. Without the key of knowledge the believer will not be able to access and avail himself of the limitless resources of God available for him.

In Jer.23:4, God says, "And I will set up shepherds over them which shall FEED them: and they shall FEAR no more, nor be DISMAYED, neither shall they be LACKING, saith the LORD." In the first Scripture, God says, "I will GIVE you pastors…" In this second Scripture, He says, "I will SET UP shepherds over you…" So we are dealing here with God-given and God-raised pastors. God-elevated pastors will arrest your fears, stop the dismay, and ensure sufficient supplies of divine resources. They do more than feed you; they provide leadership and care. They provide, protect, and pleasure the sheep. Under a good shepherd you will lose your fear, operate in faith, and rise above dismay and lack. Paul tells the church in Thessaloniki that at his coming, he would supply what was lacking in their faith.

*The goal of pastoral care

Paul says the goal of pastoral care is to present every man MATURE in Christ. To present advanced human beings. To present men who have arrived at the state of spiritual adulthood. To present men who are no more infants or adolescents. To present men who have reached up and realized their full potential in Christ - full-grown adults.

Having this divine goal in mind, Paul says, "I am preaching, warning and teaching every man." He is preaching Christ - the whole Christ to the whole man. He says, "Whom we preach…"

Christ is the message - His worth and work. This is the job of a God-given and God-raised pastor. He preaches, warns and teaches with love in his heart and tears in his eyes. He warns because he has guts. He has spiritual spines. He knows how to wield the stick and where the rod applies. He makes sure that you did not end up where you started from. In other words, he does not keep you at the level of spiritual infancy perpetually. He presents God to you and represents him in your life. He brings the pastoral care of God to you, attending and tending to your needs in a holistic manner, even combining theology and therapy as divine means for achieving the divine end.

God-ordained pastors understand that the soul is sexless. That is to say, that it is neither masculine nor feminine, but a spiritual entity in need of pastoral attention and tending. I pray, let pastors care for SOULS!

by Bishop Moses E. Peter