Definitions of Pastoral Care

“Pastoral Care consists of helping acts, done by representative Christian persons, directed towards the healing, sustaining, guiding, and reconciling of troubled persons whose troubles arise in the context of ultimate meanings and concerns”.

 — Clebsch and Jaeckle Pastoral Care in Historical Perspective 1975:4

“Pastoral Care is the broad, inclusive ministry of mutual healing and growth within a congregation and its community, through the life cycle …​ Pastoral Care is a response to the need that everyone has for warmth, nurture, support, caring. The need is heightened during times of personal stress and social chaos”.

 — Howard Clinebell Basic Types of Pastoral Care and Counseling, 1984:26,46

[ Pastoral Counselling is the utilization, by a minister, of a one-to-one or small group relationship[p to help people handle gtheir problems of living more adequately and grow towards fulfilling their potentialities.’

 — Howard Clinebell Basic Types of Pastoral Counseling 1966:20]

“Pastoral care is, in essence, surprisingly simple. It has one fundamental aim: to help people know love, both as something to be received and as something to give”.

 —  Alastair Campbell Paid to Care? The Limits of Professionalism 1985:1

“Like all evangelical activity, pastoral care is to permit, legitimate and evoke change toward life in the kingdom and away from life with the ‘rulers of this age’. The promise of pastoral care is that we may be transformed and need not be conformed …​evangelical pastoral care is an act of powerful, resilient hope against the despair of our world which believes no change is possible. Change is not impossible, but it is not easy or painless. Pastoral care is buoyant about the prospect for change and candid about the cost”.

 — Walter Brueggemann Interpretation and Obedience: From Faithful Reading to Faithful Living 1991:161

“Pastoral Care (is) the practical expression of the Church’s concern for the everyday and ultimate needs of both its members and the community”.

 — Roger Hurding The Bible and Counselling, 1992:45

“Pastoral care is a pattern of corporate, responsible, sensitive acts motivated by a compelling vision”.

 — R A Lambourne in Frank Wright Pastoral Care Revisited 1996: 21

“The healing, sustaining, guiding, personal/societal formation and reconciling of persons and their relationships to family and community by representative Christian persons (ordained or lay), and by their faith communities, who ground their care in the theological perspective of that faith tradition and who personally remain faithful to that faith through spiritual authenticity.”.

 — Paul Goodliff Care in a Confused Climate 1998:10,12

“Pastoral Care is that activity, undertaken especially by representative Christian persons, directed towards the elimination and relief of sin and sorrow and the presentation of all people perfect in Christ to God.

 — Stephen Pattison A Critique of Pastoral Care, 2000:13

“Pastoral Care involves the establishment of a relationship…​whose purpose may encompass support in a time of trouble and personal and/or spiritual growth through a deeper understanding of oneself, others and/or God…​it will have at its heart the affirmation of meaning and worth of persons and will endeavour to strengthen their ability to respond creatively to whatever life brings.

To name such care as ‘pastoral’ is to locate it within a community of faith, either because of its setting or because the carer is a designated representative of that community.

Pastoral care is sensitive to the uniqueness of the spiritual journey of each human being, respecting the autonomy of individuals and their freedom to make their own choices.

Pastoral care involves a freedom, but not a compulsion, to draw upon the traditional resources of the community of faith, such as prayer, Scripture and sacrament; the needs, stated or perceived, of the person receiving care to be determinative.

Pastoral care takes seriously the social and political context of care and its relationship to the total ministry of the Church, its ultimate aim being not merely adjustment to, but the transformation of society”.

 — David Lyall “Integrity of Pastoral Care” 2001:12