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The Pastor As Counselor

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David Powlison’s “The Pastor as Counselor” casts a vision for how counseling operates as one primary aspect of ministry. This article is written to pastors—but it is for anyone interested in counseling. Pastoral counseling is distinctively and refreshingly different from popular understandings of what “counselors” and “counseling” are all about. That difference has many implications for how all Christians should think about counseling.

“David Powlison’s essay ‘The Pastor as Counselor’ is far and away the best thing I have ever read on the role of pastor-elders in counseling God’s people. It was originally published in For the Fame of God’s Name and is reprinted in CCEF’s The Journal of Biblical Counseling. At our church we have read through it together as an elder council, and I’d encourage other churches to do the same. I also wish every seminarian could read through this at least once.” - Justin Taylor