Access Care In A Confused Climate: Pastoral Care And Postmodern Culture Picturized By Paul Goodliff Accessible As Digital

really thoughtful and helpful book about Pastoral Care and even though it isyears old there is still so much to root myself in.
The Essence of Pastoral Care

This review is a critical analysis of Paul Goodliff's definition of pastoral care.
Each aspect of his definition is addressed separately and is discussed in comparison with the views of other prominent authors.
A significant portion of the essay will address Goodliff's mention of “faith communities” as an essential context for effective pastoral care.
Finally, three metaphorical images are addressed,

Introduction
Pastoral care and counseling are valuable instruments by which the church stays relevant to human need.
This Christiancentred care helps believers to “be” the church, that is, the community in which God's love becomes an experienced reality in relationships.
Howard Clineball says that pastoral care is the instrument through which communities attain “renewal through reconciliation, ”

Healing:
The term “healing” is a succinct word that describes the broad scope of the pastoral care function.
The goal to see people restored as whole persons in the image of God has been the great task of generations of Christian leaders.
The cure of souls, the cura animarum, has always been the predominant objective of pastoral care,Clebsch and Jaekle suggest pastoral care is primarily “directed towards the healing of troubled persons, ”
Goodliff expounds the concept of healing the soul as an inclusive task of pastoral care in addressing the issues of forgiveness and guilt, “One of the most common conditions encountered in the therapy or counselling room is an overwhelming, constricting sense of guilt.
”He expresses this guilt as being a pervasive sense of shame, feeling distant from God and other people, and often manifests as physical illhealth.
Such chronic shame sense of failure, inadequacy, selfloathing and despair is a sickness of the soul and a heaviness of spirit.
Goodliff highlights that the core quality needed in the pastoral carer is a willingness to love the other person within the therapeutic boundaries established and a desire to see them healed, whole and growing, both in their humanity and in the grace of God.


Sustaining:
Goodliff devotes a whole chapter to the urgency of nurturing and sustaining faith.
He argues that since the recent subtle shift to therapybased care, pastoral carers need to be all the more diligent to see their ministry as sustaining the Christian faith held by both the carer and the cared for.
Eugene Peterson insists that genuine

pastoral care is about helping people be sustained in their faith throughout the journey of sanctification.


The Christian life is a journey, as depicted in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, Alastair Campbell refers to the Christian walk as a “life search”,He suggests that pastoral care sustains people in a way like that of a fellow companion on a journey, “The root meaning of companion is he who shares bread.
”

Guiding:
Guiding people into Christian maturity is an important element according to Goodliff, This “spiritual direction” involves teaching people to pray, helping people discern God's grace in every day events and feelings, recognising and affirming God's presence at the core of a person's life, guiding the formation of a selfunderstanding that is biblically spiritual instead of merely psychological or sociological.


Such guidance is part of what Jean Stairs refers to as “active care” and “listening for the soul”.
Andrew Benner says that spiritual guidance is intrinsic to pastoral care and therefore requires dealing with each person holistically, paying attention to the person's history in order to help them attain the Lord's purposes for them.
John Patton asserts that the essential ministry of pastoral care is to offer presence and guidance toward the restoring of a person's soul.


Personal and societal formation:
Roger Hurding agrees that formation is the end goal of pastoral care and sees this goal encapsulated in the Hebrew word “shalom”.
Walter Brueggeman says that the pastor of a congregation is to ensure that “the purpose of preaching and of worship is transformation.
”

Their relationship to family and community:
From both a theological and an anthropological perspective human beings need each other.
Ironically, the awareness of our sinfulness, brokenness and weakness serves to both divide and unify our communities.
But pastoral care needs to be as grounded in the realities of human failure as in the promise of restoration and transformation if it is to be credible.
Goodliff emphasises this by asserting, “That combination of gritty realism about the human condition and expectation of its hopeful transformation characterise the biblical traditions.
”Eugene Peterson stresses the importance of family and friends, “When biblical people wept, they wept with their friends.
”

The reconciliation of persons to their families, communities and world around them can only be attempted on the basis of trust.
This sense of trust can only be learnt, or more accurately “relearnt” through the experiencing of trust in another person.
But just as a lack of trust stifles reconciliation and transformation, so too an overly dependent relationship distorts trust resulting in unhealthy codependency.
The essence of effective pastoral care is that both the treatment and the cure are found in the struggle to form a real relationship that is based on genuine trust.


Representative persons:
Pastoral care has always been the ministry of all believers unto each other.
However, the prevalent anticlerical attitude of this postmodern era has devalued the calling and gifting of those men and women who have been given representative appointment.
William Willimon asserts that pastoral care as encompassing the wider role of pastoral ministry is by nature “representative” since ministry is both an act of God and an act of the church, and thus representative of both.
Thomas Oden states, “Regrettably, the deliberate study of the pastoral office and its functions traditionally called pastoral theology has been neglected in our time.
”Patton recommends that a pastoral carer be a pastor in charge of a particular faith community or a member of the congregation who has been recognised by that community as a lay minister.


Ambiguity and misunderstanding about the representative nature of pastoral care results in damage being done to the unique quality of the pastoral vocation when it is conflated with the mandate of all Christians to follow Jesus.
Those who are called by God and the church to lead in ways defined byCorinthiansand Ephesians:do so in order to empower all believers in their obedience to Christ.


Faith communities:
In his chapter titled “Building Christian Community” Goodliff describes the community as being the context for pastoral care, compared to the predominantly individualistic approach of much secular therapy and counselling.
The Christian life is lived with others and for others, Nothing can be done alone or solely for oneself, Eugene Peterson acknowledges that in an age of heightened individualism, it is easy to assume that the Christian life is primarily what “I” am responsible for “on my own”.
But each person and each family is to be placed in community in order to “become full participants in all that the risen Christ is and does, living resurrection lives.
”

John Patton says that pastoral care is conducted as a ministry by the Christian community and takes place through remembering that God created us for relationship with him, each other and the creative order around us.
Derek Tidball highlights that Jesus' pastoral ministry was to a group of disciples, or “learners”, and this learning took place within a community, “The community was not incidental to the learning process the learning took place both in it and because of it.
”

The Greek word koinonia, translated as “fellowship” is the characteristic description of the relationship between people in the faith community, also known as the ekklesia.
In describing this gathering of believers, Goodliff asserts that it is not a group of individuals united by a common idea or interest based on gender, race, social status or recreational pursuits, but rather united by faith in Christ and constituted by the Spirit.
For this reason “fellowship” is not the thing in itself but rather it is the community anchored in divine realities.
Further biblical terminology expand our ontological understanding of Christian community: 'people of God', 'congregation', 'church', 'chosen people', 'royal priesthood', 'holy nation', 'saints', 'household of God', 'temple of the Holy Spirit', 'family', 'body of Christ', and 'commonwealth' are terms corporate in nature.


In recent years there has been a greater emphasis on the doctrine of the Trinity as the underlying premise for building faith communities.
Goodliff says that Christianity's roots are “in the Trinitarian nature of God himself, the circle of relationships that opens out to include the world in its embrace.
”Therefore, the first pastoral task in building a trustworthy community is to foster the love of Christ.
Peterson says that the images of Father, Son and Holy Spirit allow for both knowing God and being known by God.


The Gospel accounts provide fascinating insight into the trusting relationship between Jesus Christ and his heavenly Father.
This relational dynamic point towards the trust that there is within the Godhead, In the recorded dialogue and resulting actions, readers can discern that God can be trusted, and that he continually goes out to others in trust, and is able to makes them trustworthy.


Willimon claims that pastors live in the gap between this high and noble Trinity dimension, and the gritty earthly realm of fallen humanity.
Closing that gap is the great challenge and privilege of pastoral ministry,Thus the vision of transformational life in a faith community is confronted with the existence of ordinary human failure.
Still, Paul becomes our model of one who continued to work, teach, encourage and pray that the corporate Christian community might authentically reflect the faith that it professes, demonstrating Jesus Christ and becoming a sign of hope to a disillusioned culture.


Theological perspective:
This phrase may be the most important in Goodliff's definition, especially considering the postmodern context in which we live and in which Goodliff contrasts his pastoral care philosophy.
There seems to be a trend of many church ministries to be more seekersensitive and less austere.
The stigma of religion and the current idol of “relevance” creates a very real temptation to disdain theologyoriented pastoral care and to replace it with clinical counseling or relational advice.
Some ministers are looking to reinvent themselves in order to find a niche in the competitive market of people's allegiance by redefining their vocations from pastor to “life coach” or from preacher to “motivational speaker”.
But for pastoral care to truly remain effective and therefore relevant carers must be anchored in the biblical perspective.


Clineball stresses this by proclaiming that a minister's selfunderstanding must have a theological base,Willimon emphasises that simply to care for people is not the goal of pastoral ministry, Rather, to care in the manner of Christ is what distinguishes pastoral carers from therapists, The ministry of pastoral care is an act of God and is his idea before it is ours.
Tidball, in discussing pastoral leadership, says, “All ministry is about continuing the work and works of Jesus and teaching people to live under his rule, in his kingdom and in accordance with his truth.
”

Developing the theological framework and practical wisdom required for pastoral care is paramount, This is because care is only truly pastoral when it looks deeper than the immediate circumstances of a person's life and reminds that person that he or she is a child of God created in and for relationship.
Pastoral care must be grounded in theology, not only for the benefit of the recipients, but also for the carers themselves.
Willimon speaks from experience when he says, “Time and again, amid the challenges of the pastoral ministry, this divine, morethansubjective authorisation is a major means of pastoral perseverance.
”Pastoral carers need to believe that they are in ministry because it is ultimately God's idea, rather than their own sense of occupational advancement.

Personally remain faithful:
The need for pastoral carers to genuinely believe in what they do is part of their authenticity.
The old adage of “practice what you preach” is applicable here, Unlike other vocations where a service is rendered for a specific oneoff occasion, the affects of pastoral care ministry take time and can easily be unravelled by the foolish behaviour of the carer long after the ministry sessions have concluded.
This is because pastoral care is encapsulated in fragile context of “trust”, People look to the pastor's personhood and not just to their insight, The authenticity of the vessel is as important as the verbal instruction,It is for these reasons that Goodliff suggest the key boundary in pastoral care is that of supervision.
Volunteers and lay carers should be accountable to a team or supervisory committee that provides care for the carers.


Metaphors:
Various metaphors are utilised to visualise pastoral care, One of the most common is that of a shepherd,Oden says that the biblical connotation of shepherding is the pivotal analogy for pastoral care,Tidball suggests the shepherd motif was the dominant image of leadership in Hebrew culture resulting from the national roots of a nomadic lifestyle.
The shepherd's authority lay in his competency and ability to engage in acute empathy,Goodliff avoids any metaphorical language but the shepherding function is evident in the verbs employed in his definition.


A second metaphor is that of a prophet, The crucial element being the proclamation of truth and advocating justice, This takes the shepherd motif a logical step further by considering the pastoral carer as not only one who nurtures the members of the flock but who also defends them from assailing external influences.
It is not confrontation for it's own sake but the proclamation and demonstration of God's truth and justice which consequently clash with falsehood and oppression.
Brueggeman insists that prophetic pastoral carers are a destablising presence in that they confront society with consequences of the sovereignty of God, “.
. they have an alternative perception of social reality that they insist is true, and for which they want to create working space and allow for social responsibility to emerge.
”

Goodliff's definition, like that of many others, is void of any semblance to the prophet motif.
The faith community that pastors serve are to be a prophetic witness to the community at large.
Contemporary pastoral carers are more than social welfare workers, They need to have the audacity to intervene where there is social or familial abuse of power.
Prevention is better than cure, Many pastoral carers would do well to reframe their understanding of their task, The question could be asked, “Why is your ambulance parked at the bottom of the cliff” Such a reorientation takes continued courage and integrity.


A third metaphor is that of the wounded healer, a phrase coined by Henri Nouwen.
By this, it is meant that the carer accepts their own wounds as part of being a fellow human being and are thus empowered by God to empathise with others.
Goodliff covers the wounded healer motif in a later chapter in his book,Alastair Campbell compliments Goodliff when he says, “The wounded healer heals, because he or she is able to convey, as much by presence as by the words used, both an awareness and a transcendence of loss.
”Clineball states, “Only those who have discovered new life in their own depths can become spiritual obstetricians, aiding the birth of new life in individuals and in the church.
”

In conclusion, Goodliff's definition provides a comprehensive appraisal of the pastoral care task, He is consistent with other scholars in highlighting essential elements as healing unto formation, the importance of relationships to community, the role of representative persons and the crucial theologicalcentric perspective.
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