The Difference between Preaching and Pastoral Care⤒🔗

What exactly is the difference between preaching and pastoral care? The difference is not that the former is the ministry of the Word and the latter is not. The difference lies in the way in which the Word is brought. In preaching, the Word is ministered to the congregation as a whole. In pastoral work, the Word is ministered in a personal encounter.

There is also the difference of context: Preaching takes place in the assembly of the church; pastoral care takes place in the pastor's study or a home or some other locale. There is also the difference in the size of the group. It is true, a pastoral conversation need not take place between only two persons. It can involve more persons, such as a married couple, a family, or even a larger group. A large group often inhibits personal and intimate exchange of thoughts and ought to be rarely used.

The chief difference between preaching and pastoral care is the format of the encounter. While the pastor is preaching, the members are silent and listen. Granted, before and after a sermon, members may speak to the minister about the sermon. The minister can use feedback, insights, experiences, etc., in composing his next sermon. He should try to digest these insights to benefit from them and use the Word to address appropriate aspects of the feedback received. In this way, even preaching contains a dialogical element. Yet the sermon as such is not a dialogue like the pastoral conversation.

The Nature of a Pastoral Conversation←⤒🔗

What exactly is a conversation? A conversation can be defined as an exchange between two or more persons in which each alternately speaks or listens. To speak only and not to listen is a soliloquy, and not a conversation. If you listen, without speaking, you are merely witnessing a soliloquy. A conversation needs a subject or topic. In the conversation the topic brings the conversation partners together, involving the exchange of ideas on a topic. The Greek has a beautiful word for this, from which we have our word "dialogue." The Greek verb dia-legomai actually signifies to hold a conversation back and forth between two or more persons. The term "dialogue" also suggests that there is movement in the conversa­tion. If you do not progress in the conversation, the conversation stag­nates and will run in circles. It will become wearisome, tedious and unpleasant like a puddle of stagnant water. It is crucial that in a conversa­tion headway is made. This move­ment applies to both the subject of the conversation as well as the conversing partners. As people delve deeper into the topic, they will understand one another better. As they open themselves more, the topic is opened up.

The goal of conversation is mutual understanding. A conversation is not the same as an interrogation. A police interrogation or an oral examination may have a back and forth exchange, but the goal is different. In an interrogation, one party sets the agenda exclusively and does not aim at mutual understanding.

The Parties in a Pastoral Conversation←⤒🔗

There are at least three parties in a pastoral conversation. First, there is the pastor or elder. The second is the member or group of members. The third is Jesus Christ, Who speaks through His Word.

It is clear who are the first two groups. They often do not have exactly the same level of knowledge or insight, but those who carry on a conversation do not need to have the same level of knowledge. For instance, a physician and a patient are unequal in their knowledge of the body, illness and health. Yet they can converse because the information provided by the patient can be of essential significance for the physician. The physician could not do his work without a conversation with the patient.

Likewise, the pastor or elder will often know more than the member. Yet, the input of the member is indispensable for the pastor or elder to do his work well. He needs to be ready to listen, ask for information and let the member of the congregation make a contribution to the conversation.

It is essential that the partners in the conversation listen to each other and respond to each other's words. Only in this way will they make headway in terms of the topic of conversation. It is essential that both parties consider the contri­bution of the other to be indispensable for the conversation. If one participant, even unconsciously, does not accept the contribution of the other person as indispensable, he is not able to carry on a conversation with him or her. It has the effect of putting the other person down and shutting him out. He lacks the openness, which is essential for a conversation.

In a pastoral visit the member of the congregation receives every opportunity to speak. His contribution is most essential. Likewise, the member also regards the pastor's contribution as essential.

If all goes well, a wonderful reciprocity develops. Matters will be introduced and questions will be raised naturally. Problems will be defined and described, and where necessary, clarified. As both parties become more involved in the focal point of the conversation, a sense of openness and mutuality is experienced. If a person is not open to the topic, he or she impedes the conversation.

The pastor or elder is a servant of His Sender, Jesus Christ. He is to speak His Word, even though he is but an ordinary human being. Does this endanger the balance of the conversation? It does add a certain tension, for the pastor must wrestle to bear God's Word on the conversation. This does not change the format of the conversation, however. Instead, the pastor or elder must work hard to introduce the Word of God into the conversation.

The Word of God is of primary importance in pastoral conversations. All problems, difficulties, struggles, joys, sins, and whatever else is brought up during the pastoral conversation, must be discussed before the face of God and laid bare before the Word. Thus the dialogue becomes a triangular relationship. That intensifies the character of the conversation. The pastor or elder and the member of the congregation are not merely together as two persons focused on the same topic, but the topic places them before the Word of God. The Word must illumine their dialogue. That is the actual secret of the pastoral conversation. In the deepest sense, every conversation is a gift. The pastoral conversation is a gift in a double sense. It is a gift when God involves Himself with the conversing persons and their topic.

The Secret of Pastoral Care←⤒🔗

You may wonder: "Who is capable of conducting such a pastoral conversation?" The Word of God is a power unto salvation (cf. Rom. 1:16). That is why the secret of the pastoral conversation lies in the opened Word of God. Where the Word of God remains shut, the pastoral conversation is blocked. Therefore, the pastoral conversation must be accompanied by prayer for openness — for the participating persons to each other, for the topic to be opened to the persons, and especially for the Word to be applied to the conversation.

What the Psalmist prayed for himself may well be the prayer of all the parties involved in a pastoral conversation: "Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law" (Ps. 119:18). In that light we will also see the subject of our conversation and see each other. For "in Thy light shall we see light" (Ps. 36:10).