BIBLIOGRAPHY

Murry, Ezamo. An Introduction to Pastoral Care and Counseling. Delhi: ISPCK, 2005.

This book is an interesting book which contains 24 chapters for which it deals with
pastoral care and counseling by signifying their importance with some special elements
invocating it. This book is introduced with the concept of Christ’s ministry because many people
have an idea that when God called them to do his work, they will not realize that it is the
ministry of Jesus but it is theirs. Therefore, Christ ministry is formed on the basis of Christian
ministry. As we see in Mark 10:45-“for the son of man also came not to be served but to serve
and to give his life as a ransom for many”. The ministry of a Christian is basically to serve
others. The purpose of ministry is based on ‘Nazareth manifesto’ which includes humanitarian
works like bind the broken, feed the hunger, liberate the captives, release the imprisoned and
comfort those who mourn. S F Winward suggested four meaningful intentions about Christ as
servant, king, shepherd, Prophet, and the priest. Jesus revealed himself intentionally to set an
example for us to be like him. There should not be any confusion regarding the call or doing
ministry in our lives because our calling is based on general or specific calling. The church is the
body of Christ which is differentiated and functional as an arrangement with no superiority in
status.

The author of this book gives importance for the church because the church derives its
authority from God to minister unto the people. The ministry will be explained in one term called
as ‘Pastoral care’. Steward Hiltner defined pastoral care as healing, guiding, reconciling,
nurturing and sustaining which represent the helping act of good pastor. As the Lord commanded
us to ‘go’, it is the work of the called out people to be a witness for him for the purpose of the
kingdom of God. Minister should be in commitment to God’s call to do a particular work for
being a slave of God. The New Testament understanding of God’s work is based on ‘Diakonia’
which means the ‘ministry’ that is rendered to God (2 Cor 6:4), to Christ (Col 1:7) or to Gospel
(Ephesians 3:7), to the Church (Rom 12:17), and to Saints (Acts 6:1-2). As John Knox says, ‘A
minister of God should useful to Christ who is assisting in the fulfillment of Christ’s purpose in
the World.

1
 The third chapter speaks about the worship which signifies ‘liturgy’ meaning ‘an act of
worship’ and ‘one who performs service to public at one’s own expense’. Worship is the creature
act of ascribing what is due to the creator for it is the emotional satisfaction of a worshipper.
Here, God is the object of worship and worshippers are his subjects. The elements of worship
are: Call to worship, invocation, adoration, praise, confession of sin, assurance of pardon,
thanksgiving, supplication, intercession, hymns, special numbers, responsive readings, scripture
lessons, sermon, affirmation of faith, consecration and offering. While preaching is defined as
‘the communication of divine truth through human personality’. Here, the preaching, sermon and
teaching are considered as the same terms in which they will be given during the evangelical
campaign and public worship. Exposition, exegesis and application are the most important things
to be used in the preaching.

Christianity is not only based on reaching but the initial essence is related teaching. The
teaching in a sense means Christian education for it is defined as ‘the process of communicating
the Christian gospel to others in such a way that all of life is surrendered to the lordship of
Christ’. It is helping the person to accept the Christian faith out of their living faith in the
experiences of their common life. Even the teaching can also be done through relationship basing
on the trust and faith in God. Biblical foundation is needed for a pastor to be involved in his
ministry because it contributes theology and human science. Pastoral ministry has a special
concern for the individual and draws his or her attention towards Christ by faith. Pastoral care is
nothing but a basic term ‘shepherding’ which means the direct care and love for the persons or
individuals based on the terms like care, feed and tend. Even, there is a pastoral psychology
dealing with the doctrine of man insisting with their essential potentialities and existential
activities. There are some psychotherapeutic approaching in counseling which are transactional
analysis which means, it will take away all the ego between the individuals like mom, dad,
children or spouses. Rational emotive therapy which means, taking away all the frustration and
establishing belief in oneself and for others. There are other therapies like reality therapy, Gesalt
therapy, behavior therapy, and client centered therapy. In pastoral approach, the pastor should
consider the persons to be very important by understanding their capabilities and the real person
of what he/she is. The approach is meant by directive counseling which attempts to give his/her
opinions of what the solution could be and advises the counselee to follow certain directions.

2
 Pastoral care and counseling is a ministry to the total person which is preventive and
healing, therapeutic and nurturing them. Pastoral care is defined as ‘a proclamation in which the
person in crisis is simply reminded by prayer and sacrament, by use of the biblical language of
faith in God is present and active in behalf of the person in whatever the crisis of situation that
may exist’. While pastoral care and counseling comes under a category of the ministry like
teaching, exhorting, helps, services and healing.

The pastoral care and counseling should represent the church. Now-a-days, the church is
a society of a complex organization which is organized and administered worldwide like any
other human organization. In the Old Testament, we can see the type organization that God
arranged for the Israelites into tribes, groups and families. In the New Testament, we can see the
type of organization that Jesus arranged for his disciples like Peter as a spokesman, Judas as a
treasurer, and James and John as the members of his inner circle. Paul set the marks of
organization in responsible persons like bishops, elders, deacons, prophets, teachers and others
worked in co-ordination. The qualities of a pastor for his effective ministry are: firstly, the pastor
should have a real commitment to suffer with Christ in re-creating the broken humanity.
Secondly, the pastor should have the mind of Christ. Thirdly, the pastor should be one who lives
according to what he/she preaches. Fourthly, the pastor needs an adequate training to meet the
needs of the modern people. Fifthly, the pastor’s support is one hidden agenda that pervades all
the thinking and activities of the pastor. These are the qualities that show the readiness of the
pastor to be involved in the ministry.

Biblical understanding of Pastoral counseling is very necessary for a Christian behavior.

The counseling activities are rooted from the New Testament because it teaches the concept of
assisting, consoling, and comforting or compensate, admonishing, encouraging, help and
patience. The author of this book represents Jesus as a model counselor to insight the human
mind. The counseling relationship should between two individuals by disciplined listening and
reflecting to the feelings of the counselee in an accepting attitude. The effective qualities of a
good counselor are ability to listen, confidentiality, being sociable, acceptance, Rapport,
genuineness, respect, understanding nature and humility. For example, the counselor needs to
know the four phases for the counseling of sick which are injury phase in which his need
patience and politeness for the sick person as a result of his weakness. Secondly, turning point in

3
which the person’s infection comes under his controls for the counselor has to continue to be in
positive attitude and becomes happier to talk. Thirdly, muscle building phase for which the
patient regains his strength. Finally, fat building phase for which the patient shows great interest
to get well.

The most important thing in the counselee ‘understands’ the counselee’s condition and
situation like human temperament’s in their lives. Mostly, the author is speaking about the youth
to understand them because their age is considered as a powerful force. Youth is a person
between childhood and adulthood. Youth are focused on the importance of trust and acceptance
for the counselor should develop their attention towards you by these two things because it is
based on person’s relationship. Acceptance of the person is a vital factor irrespective of creed,
status, sex or behavior. Regarding the youth, the pastors should not be moralistic, authoritarian
and judgmental because they like to be in freedom. In this book, the writer the come across the
topic of sex and marriage. It was most important in anyone of their marriage life because sex is a
good creation of God. The church holds that sexual relationship should be confined to married
couples and that marriage should be monogamous and for life time.

Counseling cannot remove human finitude because it can only help people to recognize
the strength and wisdom to face realties more meaningfully. This means that healing does not
always mean removal of the impairment for it continues to takes place even beyond death. This
understanding of healing is more meaningful to the present day contagion diseases like AIDS.
Taking care of the people living with HIV/AIDS needs social support to ensure that nutrition is
effective for these kinds of people. While caring for them, the counselor needs to realize that
he/she should take care of himself.

When the counselee is entering into the field of counseling, he should know some
techniques to follow, which are as follows:

- The process is by asking to speak with the counselor

- He/she should pick up the conversation
- He should observe the signs from counselee like disturbance in eyes and the
statements that they made.
- Communication skills are very essential.

4
EVALUATION

Overall this book begins with the introductory courses of the Christian ministry which
should have biblical foundation on the depth. It is a comprehensive guide book for the counselors
and pastors for the content is based on the elements of counseling and pastoral care.

The positive impacts of this book are: we need to appreciate the author by bringing many
challenging views regarding counseling to the various issues. This book explains about basic
goals and principles of counseling for the development of the counselor. There are many things
in which the author is determining the readers to practical thinking and applying in their lives.
The strategies, method, approaches and techniques of counseling for relationship bonding, youth,
sex, marriage, AIDS and drugs which are given by author are quite interesting to learn. We can
also observe the biblical understanding of counseling and the way of Jesus to approach an
individual is very important to deal and to know.

The negative impacts are: the book is written in a good way with lots of important things
and in the same way there are many things which are not needed in relation with pastoral care
and counseling like task of interpreting the scriptures, preaching, worship and some aspects of
group dynamics. Because these topics are not related to the book. Here, it will be determined that
the secular people cannot use this book for counseling because the author’s main concentration is
on pastor in which he wrote the book with a perspective of the church. In this book, we can find
a repeated themes and content in some of the chapters for this is almost not considered as a
valuable book because the treasured information is not written. The known things are only
mentioned by the author, there is no new information regarding it.

Recommendation:

This book is a valuable source which is recommended for anyone who is interested in the
build the relationships in the family and who can understand the feelings and emotions of the
people. It is intended to be a guide for pastors, counselors, ministerial students and general
readers and also for the theological students because it will create impact upon the people to
transform their lives.

5
6