What kind of pastoral care are you providing now?
UPDATE: October 2025
Because pastoral care is such a critical part of shepherding, here’s a little update to add to the one below.
I’ll not be able to recount every conversation here, but a quick continuation of the bullet-point summary below include new examples such as
Mentoring a new ex-Satanist, helping him/her transform old ways of thinking into one shaped by the Bible and a biblical worldview
Fielding multiple phone calls from a podcast listener, helping her walk through parenting a child with concerns of self-harm and sexual identity confusion
Working with a young man interested in ministry to address his challenge with pornography
Walking beside a small-town gal with a really big job offer/opportunity in a populous part of California
Hospital visitation for a family facing a near-death physical trauma
These kinds of experiences might be assumed for a pastor, but my bi-vocational resume doesn’t have years and years of “pastor” in a way that communicates them. That said, counseling, mentoring, and personal/relational growth are all part of helping someone grow in Christ. I relish these, because it’s where, in a sense, operating in the power of the Spirit gets real.
April, 2024
A ministry of God’s word, I believe, “will not return void” (Is 55:10-11) because it’s His mission, not mine. Sometimes it’s focused on prayer and teaching (a la Acts 6), but more generally it’s incarnational ministry.
I say this, because I just moved to a new town and church (where my now-wife was attending before we married), and my primary ministry is via my daily Bible reading podcast, and it is from this that most of my care opportunities have bubbled recently. Put another way, listeners grow to trust me pastorally, and some of them reach out.
Just so far in the first few months of 2024 this has included:
Newly married man asking about how to lead his wife well spiritually when she knows the Bible better than him
Multiple members of one family (over multiple different calls) who just lost a baby to being stillborn
A widow now dating asking for resources on how to discern a man who will be committed to a Jesus-centered wedding.
Answering common questions (for multiple people) such as “What version of the Bible should I use?” or “What’s your take on gender dysphoria?”
Answering uncommon questions such as one gal asking about a cult her mother is involved with
Sharing the gospel with a mentee who identifies as queer
Prayer for a listener headed into a hospital procedure
A request to be at a hospital for another listener local to me.
At my new church I’ve already been asked to co-lead a small group and fill in for the men’s ministry leader facilitating a men’s meeting. Each of these led to a “pastoral moment” outside of the formal with someone who approached me for something.
The point is this: I’m already providing pastoral care to people regularly, and my current “ministry of the Word” is more than preaching/teaching… and while the podcast is the lead instrument of the ministry, I do more than just talk into a microphone. ;-)
