In recent years, seminaries have noticed increased demands from their graduates–young men in ministry–desperately seeking more education in one specific area: pastoral counseling.

Ours is a therapeutic age, so it is not at all surprising that folks in the pews are now willing to entertain psychiatric help for various situations and trials in their own lives. Still, modern psychology–and all its assumptions about personhood, spirituality, sexuality, and relationships–pushes many conservative Christians to seek help from a pastor before a therapist. What are pastors to do?

No doubt there is a kind of danger in the increased demand for pastoral counseling. On the one hand, pastoral counseling is taking up more and more time in the pastor’s week, leaving less time for preparing sermons and their duties as churchmen. Moreover, the seemingly endless church scandals suggest counseling dynamics within the church are ripe for abuse.

Still, there is a case, argues Benner, that pastors can meet the expectations and needs of their congregants without sacrificing the traditional role and functions of the pastoral office. One need only think of spiritual counseling as one, specific area of his pastoral obligations, bound and governed by particular rules. For Benner, these regulations include being short-term (ideally, no more than five sessions) and spiritually focused. In pastoral counseling, the pastor ‘stays in his lane,’ so to speak, addressing what he has been trained for and not trying to unravel messes he is not equipped to fix.

For example, a congregant may seek pastoral counseling for marital issues. A pastor may address the ways a failing marriage affects the parishioner’s thoughts about God, his character, and providence. He may point the parishioner to passages in Scripture that challenge distorted views of marriage and spousal relations and prepare us for what reconciliation and love may look like. Further issues, however, may best be resolved with a licensed and trained marriage counselor.

Benner is also right to address the specific setting of pastoral counseling, namely the church. Pastoral counseling can never be understood as something outside or separate from the regular patterns of the local body of Christ. It is a living, spiritual community where individuals receive the blessings of God together, in community, or not at all. Therefore, a pastor ought to consider whether God has prepared other members to assist a fellow believer’s concerns better than himself. Moreover, pastoral counseling must always fit within the confessed doctrines of the body of believers and can never contradict them. There is a danger of affirming the generalities while allowing exceptions in the counseling room. For example, we may find it easy to proclaim the Bible’s position on sexuality from the pulpit while trying to affirm the orientation of individuals in a counseling context. But truth is truth, wherever it is applied.

There is much that pastors will find helpful in Benner’s short manual, ensuring it will be a resource one turns to again and again. ( )

A model for pastoral counseling in 5 sessions or less. Benner argues that pastoral counselors do not have sufficient psychological training for counseling beyond the short-term. However this is not to say that they do not have a valuable contribution to make to the field of counseling. No other counselor has the same background in systematic theology, biblical study and ethics. A pastor's seminary training makes them uniquely equipped to attend to a person's spiritual needs. Benner's model is holistic, focused, limited in scope, and directed. He gives sound advice for empathetic listening, setting counseling goals, etc. I think overall this very helpful, even if it feels stilted in places. ( )

Practical advice on how to implement short-term, strategic pastoral counseling. Benner sets out the goals, the phases this type of counseling moves through, and how to bring it to closure. He then offers a couple of illustrations about how it works in a five-session and one-session model. ( )

Practical advice on how to implement short-term, strategic pastoral counseling. Benner sets out the goals, the phases this type of counseling moves through, and how to bring it to closure. He then offers a couple of illustrations about how it works in a five-session and one-session model. ( )