How do we hold fast with core commitments to a richly biblical understanding of counseling ministry – and at the same time extend the scope and depth of implications and applications? How can our thinking and practice remain unwavering – yet develop creatively? How do we pursue dynamic and fresh insights – while standing on familiar ground? Today we seem to be peering into a deeper abyss of darkness as we face drug addiction, domestic violence, abuse of children, despair, sexual perversity, pervasive anxiety, escapist fantasy worlds, bingeing/purging, and suicide. These familiar sins and sorrows will always be part of pastoral care, but when the virulence is heightened, pastoral care needs to go deeper.
