A Reformed



              `Special Issue: SHEPHERDING GOD'S FLOCK





                Loveland Protestant Reformed Church
                            Loveland, Colorado
                                  Site of
              Officebearers' Conference, Classis West,
                            September I,1992


CONTENTS:                                                                                                                          March I, 1993

Called to Be Pastors
    Rev. Ronald H. Hanko ,,,..,................................................................                                                                           243
Has the Emphasis on Pastoral Counseling Gone Too Far?                                                                                                                                  ISSN 0362-4692
    Rev. Ronald L. Cammenga . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Dealing with the Depressed                                                                                                                                                             Semi-monthly, except monthly during June. July, and August.
                                                                                                                                                                                       Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.,
    Rev. Carl J. Haak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249    4949 lvanrest Ave., Grandville. MI 46416. Second Class
Does Psychiatry Have a Place in the Pastoral Ministry?                                                                                                                                 Postage Paid at Grandville, Michigan.
    Rev. Russell J. Dykstra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251              Postmwtor:  Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
The Role of the Eiders and Deacons in Pastoral Care                                                                                                                                    P.O. Box 663, Qrandvtlle, MI 464666663.
    Mr. Robert Brands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254      EDITOR&L COMMITTEE
                                                                                                                                                                                       Editor: Prof. Davkt J. Engetsma
Ministering to the Terminally iii                                                                                                                                                      Ssaetary: Prof. Robert Cr. Decker
    Rev. Michael J. DeVries ,,,.,,,,.,..,,.,....,,..,,,.,,.,..,..,,..,..,.,,.~..~~~~~..........                                                                           257          Managing Editor: Mr. Don Doezema
Pastoral Care Among Teenagers                                                                                                                                                          DEPARTMENT EDKORS
    Rev. Steven R. Key ,......,,.,,.,,,..,,,..,,.,,,.,.,,,,,,.,.,,..,,,,,,,,,,,.,,..,,,..........                                                                         260          Rw. Ronatd Cammenga, Prof. Robert Decker, Rev. Arie
                                                                                                                                                                                       denHartog, Rev. Sarry Qritters,  Mr. Fred Hanko, Prof. Herman
                                                                                                                                                                                       Hanko, Rev. John Heys, Rev. Steven Key, Rev. Kenneth
  Report on the Officebearers' Conference                                                                                                                                              Koole,.Rsv.  Jason Korterlng, Rev. Dale Kuipsr, Mr. James
                                                                                                                                                                                       Ltmtlng, Rev. George Lubbers, Mm. MarySeth  Lubbers, Rev.
                                                                                              Everett VanVoorthuysen                                                                   JamesStopsema,Rev.CharleeTerpstra.Rev.GiseVanSaren,
                                                                                                                                                                                       Rw.RonaklVanOverlwp,Mr.BMljaminWigg~.Rw.Bemard
                                                                                                                                                                                       Wwdenberg.
      On September 1, 1992 an Officebearers' Conference was held in the                                                                                                                EDtTORtAL OFFlCE            CHURCH NEWS  EDITOR
Loveland Protestant Reformed Church. This conference was held in conjunc-                                                                                                              The Standard Bearer         Mr. Ben Wigger
tion with the meeting of Classis West the next day. The theme of the conference                                                                                                        4646 Ivanrest               6597 46thAve.
                                                                                                                                                                                       Grandvtlte, Ml 46416        Hudsonvtlle, Ml 49426
was "ShepherdingGod'sFlock."  In attendance were all the delegates of Classis                                                                                                          EUSINESS OFFlCE             NEW ZEALAND OFFtCE
                                                                                                                                                                                       The Standard Bearer         The Stsndard Bearer
West, several members of the Loveland congregation, a few ministers and an                                                                                                             Don Doaema                  c/o Protestant Reformed
                                                                                                                                                                                       P.O.  Box 663                  Church
elder from the Orthodox Presbyterian Churches in the Denver area and Rev.                                                                                                              Qrandville, Ml              8. VanHerk
Hargrove of the Sovereign Grace Church in Spokane, Washington (who drove                                                                                                                 464666663                 65 Fraser St.
                                                                                                                                                                                       PH:  (616)  5361776         Wakiulomata, New Zealand
the 1,400 miles with Rev. Haak and his elder). We greeted one another very                                                                                                                      (616) 531-1466
                                                                                                                                                                                       FAX (616) 5313633
warmly in front of Loveland's new churchbuilding on abeautifulColorado  day
with blue sky and fluffy white clouds, and the majestic Rocky Mountains just                                                                                                           EDlTORlAL  POLfCY
                                                                                                                                                                                       Every editor Is solely responsible for the contents of his own
a few miles away.                                                                                                                                                                      articles. Contn`butionsdganeralinterestfromwrreadersMd
     We assembled inside- at 9                                                                                                                                                         questions for The Reader Asks department are weNome.
                                                                       A.M. to hear the keynote address of Rev. Ron                                                                    Contrtbuticns will be limited to approximately 366 words and
Hanko: "Called to be Pastors." Among other things, Rev. Hanko emphasized                                                                                                               mustbsnsatlywrittenortypewdtten,andmustbedgnsd. Copy
that elders as well as ministers are called to be pastors (IPet. 5:1,2). He pointed                                                                                                    deadllnes are the  first  and  ftfteenth of the month.  A5
                                                                                                                                                                                       communications relative to the contents should be sent to the
out in this connection that the first calling or duty of the minister is to preach                                                                                                     ediiorld offke.
the Word. Faithfulpreachingis essential in shepherding God's flock. He noted,                                                                                                          REPRINT POLfCY
too, that ministers and elders must be men of prayer, men who love God and                                                                                                             Permissiontsherebygrantedforthemprtntingofarttdssinour
                                                                                                                                                                                       magaztnebyotherpublicaticns.provMedz  a)thatwchrepiintsd
the flock and know their calling, and know that they are there for the sheep, not                                                                                                      articles are reproduced in full; b) that proper acknowtedgment
the sheep there for them.                                                                                                                                                              is made; c) that a copy of the periodical in which such reprint
                                                                                                                                                                                       appears le wnt to our edltorlal office.
      After the keynote address and the "question and answer" session which
followed, we enjoyed the first of several coffee breaks, at which delicious                                                                                                            SUNSCRlPTfON POLfCY
                                                                                                                                                                                       Subscription prka: $12.00 per year in the U.S., 515.00
refreshments were served by some of the women of Loveland Church. (No                                                                                                                  elsewhere. Unless a definite request for discontinuance  ts
wonder that, whenever I attend classis or synod, I gain about five pounds).                                                                                                            recetved. it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the
                                                                                                                                                                                       subscdptiontocontinue,andhewiHbeMlledformnewal.           Hyw
      After morning coffee we had our first two sectional sessions. Choosing                                                                                                           haveachangeofaddress,pleasenotnytheBuslnsMOtAceas
which to attend was, in every case, difficult. I very much desired to hear all of                                                                                                      early as possible In order to avotd the Inwnventence  of
                                                                                                                                                                                       interrupted delivery. lndude your Ztp or Postal Code.
the speakers and participate in every question and answer period; but that is                                                                                                          ADVERTRNNP POLlCY
manifestly impossible when two are going on at the same time. Printed copies                                                                                                           The SfsndsrdSeemrdoes  not accept commercial advertising
of the papers were made available, and these also appear in this issue of the                                                                                                          of any kind. Announcements of church and sclmd events,
                                                                                                                                                                                       anniversaries, obituades. and sympathy resolutions will be
Standard Bearer, but it's not quite like being there.                                                                                                                                  placedfaaS3.00fee.   The8e5houldbewnttothe9uslnese
     Besides the presentations and discussions themselves, there is the added                                                                                                          OfficeandshwldbeaccompaniedbytheJ3.001ee. Deadline
                                                                                                                                                                                       for anncuncements  ls at least one month prlw to publication
attraction of communion and fellowship of the saints at these officebearers'                                                                                                           date.
conferences. The latter, it seems to me, are so much appreciated in Classis West                                                                                                       BOUND VOLUMES
because great distances between the various churches make it difficult for                                                                                                             The Business Wee  will accept standing orders for bamd
officebearers to see each other more than twice a year. I heartily recommend                                                                                                           copiesofthecurrentvolume. Suchordersarefilledassoonas
                                                                                                                                                                                       possible after completion of a votume year.
that the conferences be continued. Those who plan them and contribute to them
should be commended for their efforts.                                                                                                                                                 16mm microfilm, 35mm microfilm end 166mm miaofiche. end
                                                                                                                                                                                       article copies are available through Uniwntty Mkroftlms
                                                                                                                                                                                       IntemationeJ.
242 /Standard Bearer / March 1,1993


 Shepherding God's Flock
                               Called to be Pastors
                                                                                                         Rev. Ronald Hanko
      Pastoring in the church of Jesus        word which means "to be a shep-               having grown up with them and
Christ is a work that has many differ-        herd." The elders are these shep-             among them. Nor should the elders
ent facets. As nearly everyone knows,         herds of God's people! I Peter 5:1,2          be afraid of this work Sometimes, it
theword"pastor"means"shepherd."               goes a step further and indicates that        seems, the elders are fearful of this
Pastoral work, then, has to do with           the ministers of the Word are shep-           work, thinking that they will be less
the work of church officebearers as           herds only because they are elders. In        effective than the ministers with their
shepherds. This calling to be shep-           other words, the calling to be pastors        theological training. Perhaps that is
herds, as we will see, really involves        belongs first of all to the elders!           especially true today when counsel-
all the workof  all the different offices.          The elders, then, must have their       ing, communications, and such-like
A complete study of pastoral work,            rightful share of the pastoral work of        nonsense are principal subjects one
therefore, would involve nothing less         the church. Many churches today do            studies in many seminaries. The el-
than a complete study of the offices of       not have elders at all. There the pas-        ders must remember that God Him-
the church.                                   toral work is done solely by the min-         self calls them to do their work And
     Because the subject is so large,         ister or by special "counselors," if it is    that means that they are called effica-
this article will have to be limited to a     done at all. But even in Reformed             ciously, which is to say, that the call
few important points concerning               churches the ,elders  do not always           itself provides the grace and strength
those church offices, their duties, and       have their share of this pastoral work        and wisdom that is necessary for the
the calling of the officebearers to be        of "shepherding" God's flock, espe:           work Not only that, but the Word is
shepherds. More particularly, the             cially in things like sickvisitation and      the most important thing in any pas-
points covered in this article will be        counseling. There is, for example, a          toral work. If they love the Word, and
those about which there is likely to be       tendency on the part of the members           love the sheep, they will be good
some misunderstanding in the church,          of the church to think that a pastoral        pastors. So will the ministers and
either among the officebearers them-          visit from an elder is acceptable only        deacons, to whom also this calling
selves or among the "sheep" they are          if it is impossible for the minister to       belongs.
called to lead.                               comeandeventhentheywouldrather                     The second point has to do with
      The first point has to do with          have the minister. Sometimes this is          the work itself. It must be empha-
who are called to be pastors. It needs        the fault of the elders for not knowing       sized here that Scripture has a much
to be emphasized here that this call-         their calling, for being unwilling to         broader view of pastoral work than
ing belongs to the elders as well as to       carry it out, or for not insisting that
the-ministers of the church. In fact, a       they be allowed to perform their call-
very good case can be made for the            ing. Sometimes it is the fault of the
idea that the deacons' work is also           ministers for "hogging" all this kind
"pastoral" work, though in their case         of work for themselves.        '
it is a very specific and limited calling.         If God gives this pastoral work
     That the elders especially are           to the elders, thenboth the people and
also pastors or shepherds is very clear       the ministers suffer when the elders
from Acts 20:28. Here Paul is talking         do not do their work Then the flock
to the elders of the church of Ephesus        is really shepherdless! Indeed, in
about their calling, and he tells them        Numbers 11, where elders were first
thattheircallingis"tofeedthechurch            appointed, they were appointed ex-
of God, which he hath purchased               actly because both Moses and the
withhisownblood." The wordtrans-              people were suffering from Moses'
lated "feed" in the KJV is actually a         inability to do the workof  shepherding
                                              Gods people alone.
                                                   What is more, the elders are not
                                              only called to do this work, but in
                                              many cases they are better equipped
Rev. Hanko is missionary-elect toNorth-       to do it because they know the sheep
em Ireland.                                   of God better than do the ministers,                      Rev. Ronald Hanko

                                                                                                 March 1,1993  I Standard Bearer I243


we often do. In Acts20:28  Paul speaks        and is fulfilling the most important              Much time is wasted by the pas-
of the general oversight of the church        part of his calling to be a pastor.            tor, in merely secular, social inter-
as part of "feeding the flock of God."             This is not to deny that personal,        course, even when going the rounds
In verse 20 of the same chapter, the          individual contact and visiting the            of his parish. Ostensibly, he is about
verse that has been used in Reformed          sheep is important. It is. A pastor            the business of his profession, the
churches to support the practice of           must know his sheep. Even the Great            care of souIs; but really he is merely
                                                                                             acting the part of a courteous and
family or house visitation, Paul indi-        Shepherd says, "I know my sheep                polite gentleman. Even if he gives
cates that this bringing the Word             and am known of mine" (Jn. 10:14).             the subject of religion some atten-
"from house to house" is also part of         But a minister will not, cannot be a           tion, it is only at the close of the
shepherding God's flock. In verse 20,         good pastor if he is not first of all and      interview, after secular topics have
although Paul is speaking of his own          foremost a good preacher. If a church,         been discussed. It may be, that he
work, he is making himself an ex-             then, wants a minister who is a good           shrinks from a direct address to an
ample to the elders in their calling to       pastor, she must pray that he be a             individual, upon the concerns of his
feed the flock of God. They must do           good, diligent preacher.                       soul, and therefore, as he thinks, pre-
as he did, bringing the Word from                  There are several reasons why             pares the way, that .he may broach
                                                                                             the difficult subject indirectly. He
house to house as part of their over-         this is true. The most important rea-          enters into a general and miscella-
sight of the church and as those who          son is that through the preaching of           neous conversation, and if he comes
feed the flock.                               the Word the sheep hear Christ (Jn.            to the subject of religion at all, it is
       In John 21:15, a passage which         10:27;  Rom. 10:13-15,  17). He is the         only late, and after the energy and
supports the practice of catechizing          great Shepherd and He is the one the           briskness of the conversation have
the children of the church, that work         sheep need to hear - must hear!                flagged.
also is described as "feeding God's           Everything the officebearers do is
lambs." Even the preaching of the             useless if the sheep do not hear and              The third point, and perhaps the
Word is really pastoral work accord-          know Christ through their work. But          most important of all, is that the flock
ing to John 10~27 in that it involves the     from a practical viewpoint this is also      in which ministers, elders, and dea-
people of God as sheep of Christ.             important because good preaching             cons are called to be shepherds, is
      This is not to deny that there is a     makesmuchotherworkunnecessary.               God's flock. Acts 20:28 and1 Peter 5:2
special sense in which we speak of            It is simply true, especially now, that      both remind us of this. The flock does
pastoral work, i.e., the special care         many members of the church have              not exist for the benefit of the
which the ministers, elders, and dea-         such great needs and suffer so greatly       officebearers, but the officebearers are
cons show for individual members of           spiritually because they are not             called by God to serve His sheep. In
the church or for families who have           shepherded by the preaching of the           fact, when the whole flock is finally
special needs or problems. Ezekiel            Gospel as they should be.                    gathered into the heavenly fold, then
3415 and Isaiah 4O:ll speak of pasto-              This close connection between           those officebearers will no longer even
ral workin that special sense. Never-         allotherpastoralworkandthepreach-            be needed, for the sheep will be under
theless, it is important to realize that      ing of the Gospel is a reminder to all       the direct care of the chief Shepherd.
all the work of the officebearers is          who are involved in the work, elders         This needs a great deal of emphasis
pastoral work, otherwise the differ-          and deacons as well as ministers, that       today, not only because many use
ent parts of the work will be divorced        their calling is to bring the Word of        their positions as "shepherds" to shear
from each other, and from the preach-         God to God's people. Pastoral visits         the sheep rather than to feed them,
ing of the Word which is at the center        are not social calls. Having coffee          but also because many seek office in
of it all.                                    with the elderly, and sitting in the         the church who are not qualified or
      For the preacher of the Gospel          waiting rooms of hospitals with those        allowed to do so. In seeking office,
thisisveryimportant. Itisareminder            who have a family member "under              they give no thought to the sheep, but
that his work of preaching is also            the knife" is not pastoral work. There       only to themselves. In any case, a
pastoral work, and that his calling to        is nothing wrong with doing those            pastor and shepherd, whoever he be,
be a pastor is first of all the calling to    things, but that is not the work of          had better remember that the .sheep
preach the Word. Ministers are some-          shepherding God's sheep, nor does it         are Gods. God will count them, in-
times separatedintotwogroups, those           require the presence of an ordained          spect them, check their spiritual
who are "good preachers" and those            officebearer. The danger is that the         health, and look to see that they have
who are "good pastors," the mem-              people begin to expect it, especially        been well fed, when He finally gath-
bers of the church preferring, so they        those who are lonely, and the minis-         ers them into His heavenly fold, and
say, one or the other, and approving          ter or elder then wastes a great deal of     those who have shepherded them
or disapproving of theminister's work         precious time that is needed for other       must be ready to account for every-
accordingly. This is altogether wrong.        things. W.G.T. Shedd warns of this           thing they have fed the sheep, every-
A minister who preaches the Word              and other dangers in his book, Horn&         where they have led them, and what-
faithfully is already a good pastor,          letics and Pastoral  Theology,               ever they have done to them. The cost

244 /Standard Bearer I March 1,1993


of their ill-health; their lack of nour-      says in Acts 20:28. They must take            sheep sufficiently to purchase them at
ishment, their weakness will be re-           heed that they honor and love the             the price of His own costly blood.
quired at the hands of the shepherds!         great Shepherd of the sheep, and that         They must remember the words of
      That the flock is Gods flock is         they serve as pastors and shepherds           Jesus to Peter in John21:15-17, "If you
also a reason, therefore, why the             for His sake and glory. They must             love Me, be a shepherd to my sheep."
officebearers of the church must first        love and care for the sheep with Him                                                    cl
of all take heed to themselves, as Paul       in mind, thinking of how He loved the


             Has the Emphasis on Pastoral
                    Counseling Gone Too Far?
                                                                                               Rev. Ronald Cammenga

      Has the emphasis on pastoral            the sheep. It will not be sufficient that     confined to his public ministry. But it
counseling gone-too far? Has the              he care for the flock as a whole, but         belonged to his work in Ephesus that
emphasis on pastoral counseling gone          disregard individual needs. In his            he labored "from house to house." In
too far in our churches and among our         care for the flock collectively, he must      other words, he did not only preach,
ministers? My answer to that ques-            pay attention to the sheep individu-          but he engaged in pastoral counsel-
tion is that I firmly believe that it has.    ally. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Great        ing.
I firmly believe that we have been so         and Good Shepherd, sets the example.                  Any minister who neglects this
influenced by the "counseling revo-           Of Him the prophet says in Isaiah             important aspect of the ministry is
lution" that pastoral counseling has          40:11, "He shall feed his flock like a        unfaithfultohiscalling. Anyminister
lost its proper but limited place in the      shepherd: he shall gather the lambs           who, because the work of pastoral
work of many of our ministers. I am           with his arm, and carry them in his           counseling is personally distasteful,
personally convinced that, for many           bosom, and shall gently lead those            draws back from doing it, sins against
of us, the workofpastoral counseling          that are with young." Speaking of             Christwhocallshimtoministertothe
has begun to take up space and time           Himself in the Parable of the Lost            one sheep that is in need. Any minis-
far out of proportion to that which is        Sheep, Jesus asks the rhetorical ques-        ter who remains aloof and detached
proper.                                       tion, "What man of you, having an
                                              hundred sheep, if he lose one of them,
Pastoral Counseling a Necessary               doth not leave the ninety and nine in
Aspect of the Gospel Ministry                 thewildemess, andgo after that which
     Lest I be misunderstood, I do            is lost, until he find it?"
not deny that personal counseling                       In His own earthly ministry, the
belongs to the calling and work of            Lord Jesus ministered to the personal
every pastor. I am firmly convinced           needs of Gods people. He met with
that this is so.                              Nicodemus at night. He ate in the
     The Scriptures require this of           home of Zaccheus. He healed the
the pastor. The pastor is a shepherd.         impotent man at the Pool of Bethesda
A shepherd is one who provides full           and later searched him out in the
and complete care for his sheep, so           temple and said to him, "Behold, thou
that under the care of the shepherd,          art made whole: sin no more, lest a
the sheep do not lack (Ps. 23:l). This        worse thing come unto thee" (John
will certainly require that the shep-         5:14).
herd attend to the personal needs of               The apostle Paul, summarizing
                                              his ministry in Ephesus, declares, "I
                                              kept backnothing that was profitable
                                              unto you, but have showed you, and
Rev. Cammenga is pastor of the Protes-        have taught you publicly, and from
tant Reformed Church of Loveland,             house to house" (Acts 20:20).  The
Colorado.                                     Apostle's work in Ephesus was not                      Rev. Ronald Cammenga

                                                                                                    March 1,1993 I Standard Bearer I 245


from the members of the congrega-           counseling revolution, ought to be          seling he simply does not have suffi-
tion, harms his own ministry. Any           taken to heart by every pastor:             cient time to spend with his wife and
minister who is not accessible to the                                                   children. I have heard the complaints
members of his congregation is re-           It is plain that house calling either      of ministers' wives, the complaint that
sponsible for the damage that his in-         can become a blessing or a burden to      they feel like widows. This is a seri-
accessibility causes.                         the pastor. Unless he learns to say       ous matter. This threatens one of the
         Commenting on Acts 20:20, Cal-       "no" to the incessant thoughtless re-     most important callings of the minis-
vin writes:                                   quests of some members to make            ter, namely, that he be an example in
                                              unnecessary house calls, and unless
                                              he develops the biblical view of visi-    his marriage and home life to the rest
  This is the second point, that he           tation that puts house calling in its     of the congregation. A minister who
  taught, not only all in the assembly,       proper but limited place, the pastor      allows himself to become so deeply
  but individuals in their homes, as          will, like many before him, carry         involved in counseling that he ne-
  each man's need demanded. For               about the unnecessary and crushing        glects his family, in the end does more
  Christ did not ordain pastors on the        load of the guilt of the unmade call      harm than good in the congregation.
  principle that they only teach the          (Shepherding God's Flock,  p. 90).        Pastors, are your pastoral labors hav-
  Church in a general way on the pub-
  lic platform, but that they also care                                                 ing an adverse effect on your family
                                            Evidence that the Emphasis
  for the individual sheep, bring back                                                  life?
  the wandering and scattered to the        on Pastoral Counseling                               Worst of all, the indication that
  fold, bind up those broken and            Has Gone Too Far                            the emphasis on pastoral counseling
  crippled, heal the sick, support the           There is evidence that the em-         has gone too far is that ministers are
  frail and weak (Ezek. 342, 4); for        phasisonpastoralcounselinghasgone           lacking sufficient time to prepare their
  general teaching will often have a        too far among our ministers. Permit         sermons. I am not referring to excep-
  cold reception, unless it is helped by    me to submit that evidence.                 tional weeks, when several serious
  advice given in private.                       First, there is the inordinate         situations arise that require the
                                            amount of time spent each week by
         J.J. VanOosterzee  warns, "Even                                                pastor's immediate attention. I am
                                            some ministers in pastoral counsel-
the most excellent Homilete runs the                                                    referring to a prevailing situation, that
                                            ing. There are ministers who spend
risk of making but a fleeting impres-                                                   week after week the minister must
                                            hours every week in calling on mem-
sion by his word, if he stands in no                                                    make last-minute and hurried prepa-
                                            bers or counseling them in the study.
pastoral relation whatever to his hear-                                                 rationof his sermons because so much
                                            For some, more than one appoint-
ers"                                                                                    of his time has been consumed in
     (PracticaZTheoZogy,  p. 511). That     ment a night, besides morning or af-
is a warning every minister does well                                                   pastoral counseling. Pastors, in all
                                            ternoon sessions where this is pos-
to take to heart. To be an effective                                                    honesty, are the demands of your
                                            sible, are necessary. More time is
preacher, a minister must be a caring                                                   pastoral labors consistently taking
                                            spent on personal counseling than on
pastor. He must labor with the de-                                                      away from time for sermon prepara-
                                            any other single aspect of the minis-
pressed, those struggling with mari-                                                    tion?
                                            try. Many other things have to be let
tal problems, those wrestling with                                                               Ibelieveitisatthispointthatthe
                                            go because of the demands of coun-
doubts concerning the assurance of                                                      devil gains the upper hand in our
                                            seling. Pastors, do you find yourself
salvation. He must seek the wander-         in this situation?
ing, counsel the wayward teenager,               A second indication that the
work with that member fighting              emphasis on pastoral counseling has
against the sin of drunkenness, or          gone too far is that ministers begin to
immorality, or worldliness. He must         suffer from "burnout." They are sim-
visit the aged, the shut-ins, the wid-      ply run ragged, driven by the de-
owsandwidowersintheirloneliness.            mands of the work to sheer exhaus-
         But granted that pastoral coun-    tion. Largely this is due to the de-
seling is a necessary aspect of the         mands of pastoralcounseling. All the
gospel ministry, is it possible that it     time spent, all the meetings to keep,
begins to assume too large a place in       all the problems of those whom he is
one's ministry? Can too much em-            counseling churning in his own soul,
phasis be placed upon pastoral coun-        drive the minister to the edge. Pas-
seling? Can too much time, time that        tors, does this describe you?
ought to be spent on other things, be            Yet another indication that the
taken up in pastoral counseling? The        emphasis on pastoral counseling has
answer to these questions is, "Yes."        gone too far is that the minister's own
         The following remarks by Jay       home life begins to suffer. Because he
Adams, himself in the forefront of the      is deeply involved in pastoral coun-

246 IStandard  Bearer I March 1,1993


ministry. If he is able to inundate us      of preaching. Every minister must be       in unexpectedly for a visit. Adams
with counseling situations, and we          convinced that this is his main calling    has this to say: "When he knows how
are able to excuse our lack of sermon       - to preach the gospel. His main           his time is allotted, the pastor will
preparation by appealing to the need        calling is not pastoral counseling. He     become invulnerable to inconsider-
to be involvedin counseling, the devil      may not let pastoral counseling any        ate and unthinking members of his
will have taken a significant step to-      more than any other legitimate aspect      congregation who otherwise will
wards removing the Word of God              of the ministry, usurp the unique place    waste hours of time for him innumer-
from the church. And this, of course,       ofpreaching(cf.ICor. 1:17). First and      ous ways" (Shepherding  God'sFlock,
is what he has aimed at all along. But      foremost he has been called by Christ      p.47). J.J.VanOosterzeewrites: "Cer-
in this case we ministers are his un-       to preach the gospel. Let the word of      tainly there is, even towards this
witting allies. The irony of it all!        Paul to Timothy, which is the word of      Church, a servilism which renders
     For a minister to become so in-        Christ to every pastor, make a fresh       the minister, without character of his
volved in counseling that he allows         impression on us: "I charge thee           own, the obedient servant of one or
his sermon preparation to suffer is         therefore before God, and the Lord         another tone-giver among believers;
self-defeating. He will find, as many       Jesus Christ, who shall judge thequick     shame upon every shepherd wholow-
a minister has found, that he simply        and the dead at his appearing and his      ers himself to be the follower of this or
compounds his problems. The less            kingdom; Preach the word!" (II Tim.        that bell-wether of the flock" (Pracfi-
time he spends in sermon prepara-           4:1,2).                                    cal Theology,  p. 511).
tion, the more need there is for per-            Convinced of the importance of             The pastor will also be aided in
sonal counseling. Ministers who al-         the preaching in our ministry, let us      keeping his pastoral counseling in its
low themselves tobe taken away from         resolve to take the time to make good      proper place by being careful with
necessary sermon preparation be-            sermons. Let us allow nothing to get       respect to the purpose of his counsel-
cause of pastoral counseling are only       in the way of time needed in sermon        ing. Much counseling, as it seems to
inviting more hours of counseling.          preparation, not even pastoral coun-       me, suffers on this score. The purpose
Weministersneed to realize that good,       seling. Making good sermons re-            of our counseling must not be to get
well-prepared sermons are the spiri-        quires study: "Study to show thyself       God's people through the present cri-
tual preventative to many personal          approved unto God, a workman that          sis, then to deal with the whole situa-
problems on the part of the members         needeth not to be ashamed, rightly         tion all over again down the road a bit
of the congregation. Many problems          dividing the word of truth" (II Tim.       when once more matters are of crisis
can be solved from the pulpit before        2:15). Makinggoodsermonsrequires           proportions. Rather, in our counsel-
they become so serious that the pas-        prayer: "But we will give ourselves        ing of God's people, we must aim to
tor needs to be involved.                   continually to prayer, and to the min-     equip them to deal with their prob-
                                            istry of the word" (Acts 6:4). Prayer      lems in the future. That has to be our
Keeping Pastoral Counseling                 and study, these are the things that       focus. That means, first, that we do
in its Proper Place                         ought to occupy the vast majority of       not continue to counsel them indefi-
     Pastoralcounselingmustbekept           the minister's time each week Once         nitely, so that they become depen-
in its proper place. It is primarily the    again, Jay Adams: "By far the amount       dent on us, in need of their counseling
minister's responsibility to see to it      of time spent in study, andin particu-     session to make it through the week
that his counseling does not begin to       lar in the study of the Word, ought to     But so soon as we can, we cut them
occupy an inordinate amount of his          outstrip the time devoted to anything      loose, by the power of God's grace
time. Elders ought to pay attention to      else," (Shepherding  God's Flock,  p.      and the direction of His Word to live
this as well. If it becomes plain that      27). If necessary, the minister ought      the Christian life to which they are
the minister is simply overwhelmed          to draw up a schedule that allocates       called. And second, before cutting
with pastoral work, especially if it        necessary time for study and stick to      them loose, we work at it so that they
becomes obvious that time spent in          the schedule rigidly.                      are able themselves to deal with the
pastoral counseling is taking away               Second, pastoral counseling can       same sorts of problems in the future,
from needed time in sermon prepara-         be kept in its proper place if the min-    making it unnecessary for them to
tion, the elders must intervene. The        ister does what he can to discourage       seek the help of the pastor.
elders must intervene for the good of       unnecessary calls. The minister must            Take for example the counseling
both minister and congregtition.            make very clear to God's people that       of those with marital problems. The
     How can we keep pastoral coun-         he is there to help them with their        pastor must make husband and wife
selingin its proper place? The follow-      serious problems. No question about        work through their problems together.
ing are some suggestions.                   it. But he must also make clear to         He must not allow them to "dump"
     First, pastoral counseling can         them that he is not there for unneces-     their problems on him for a quick and
onlybe  kept in its proper place if the     sary calls, for lighthearted chitchat,     easy solution. The pastor must get
minister himself is thoroughly per-         for friendly conversation whenever a       the couple to see clearly the cause of
suaded of the preeminent importance         member is in the mood for dropping         their problems and teach them to work

                                                                                             March 1,1993  I Standard Bearer I247


together to resolve their problems.           work must be delegated to others.           when he is requested. Calvin, when
He must teach them that, in the fu-            Apartfromastrictadherence  tothese         ministering in Geneva, insisted upon
ture, they must learn to work through          two vital principles, every minister       this principle, in accordance with the
their difficulties before they reach a         soon will discover that not only his       instruction of James 534,  "Is any sick
crisis situation.                              prayer life, but also his ministry as a
                                               whole will begin to slide downhill         among you? Let him call for the
      The same is true of the minister's       (Shepherding God's  Flock,  p. 25).        elders of the church." Adams re-
work with those who are depressed.                                                        marks:
He must work with individuals to get         In fact, Adams goes so far as to enjoin
them to see the causes of their depres-      ministers to enlist the aid not just of        There are some good reasons for
sion, the contributing factors, and the      officebearers, but other qualified             adopting a stricter adherence to this
solutions to their depressed state of                                                       principle than has been characteris-
                                             members of the congregation to assist
mind. The pastor's goal must be to                                                          tic of the pastor in recent times. First,
                                             him in pastoral work.
equip the individual to handle future                                                       the principle is biblical. However,
                                                                                            while  the pastor is required to go only
bouts with depression on his own.              Yetmanyaspectsofcallingvisitation            if requested to do so, the biblical
      Finally, the minister must learn         as theyarenowcarriedonbypastors              principle does not  forbid his  paying
to rely more upon other officebearers,         could be conducted by elders, dea-           calIs upon sick members when his
his fellow elders especially, for help         cons, and others within the congre-          presence is not requested. In going
in pastoral counseling. The thinking           gation - to the great benefit of all         only upon request, Calvin possibly
has gained too much acceptance in              involved. It is just simply a fact that      went too far. Especially would this
our own churches that the minister is          if the pastor does not mobilize the          sort of rigidity be erroneous now.
alone qualified to deal with pastoral          entire  congregation for the work that       For in these days'when Christians
                                               all can (and ought to) do, it will not
situations; he is the "trained profes-                                                      are so poorly instructed, the pastor
                                               be done, what is done will be partial
sional." This is far from the truth. The                                                    must at times go even when not
                                               and spotty, and the pastor soon will         asked. Yet (and this is crucial), he
elders ought to assist the minister in         find himself  carrying about the load        should teach, through preaching,
counseling, thus relieving him for             of guilt of the unmade c&l.... To            bulletin announcements, etc., that it
necessary time in sermon prepara-              meet specialized problems, such as           is as much the duty of every sick
tion. Not only is this their calling           severe illnesses and those occasioned        member (or his family) to calI for a
(James5:14ff.),but  GodHimself  quali-         by sin in which experience and abil-         pastoral visit as it is to request the
fies the elders for this task                  ity for counseling are needed, the           services of the physician. People do
      In the Old Testament, when the           eldership in general and the pastor in       not expect the physician to take the
                                               particular must be available and wiU-
work of leading God's people became                                                         initiative; why should they expect
                                               ing to make every house or hospital
too great a burden, God ordained the                                                        the pastor?  (Shepherding God's
                                               call required by the situation. But if       Flock,  p. 114).
seventy elders to assist Moses (Num.           thepastorwasteshistimedoingwhat
11). In the New Testament, when the            other members of the congregation                Pastoral counseling has a legiti-
care of God's peoplebecame too much            could do as readily or even better         mate and necessary place in the call-
for the apostles, God instituted the           than he, he robs everyone of blessing      ing of every minister of the gospel.
office of deacon (Acts 6). Adams               (Shepherding God's Flock,  p. 112).        But its place must be rightly under-
comments on the Acts 6 passage as                                                         stood by minister and church mem-
follows:                                          Finally, the minister will guard
                                             against a one-sided emphasis on coun-        bers alike. There must not be an
                                                                                          overemphasis on pastoral counsel-
  When  the apostles recognized  that        seling in his ministry if he follows the
  other matters crowding in had be-          general rule of going on a call only         ing, to the detriment of both minister
  gun to hamper them so that they did                                                     and congregation.  0
  not have the time to pray as well as to
  engage in other essential aspects of
  the work to which God had called
  them, they took the matter into hand
  and  made time for prayer. They  as-
  signedunessentialmatterstoanother
  group (deacons), whose office was
  created for this very purpose. They
  declared: "We will devote ourselves
  to the ministry of the Word and
  prayer" (Acts 6~4). The point of this
  passage is twofold: 1) Other matters
  must never be allowed to supersede
  the essentials. 2) To find time for the
  essentials, unessential aspects of the

248 IStandard  Bearer I March 1,1993


                 Dealing with the Depressed
                                                                                                           Rev. Carl Haak

        Why art thou cast down, 0 my         something from which I must repent          depression we become absorbed in
soul? and why art thou disquieted within     (I Pet. 2:9).                               thoughts like, "What good am I?
me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet              Spiritual depression is not a         What's the use anyway? I just can't,
praise him, who is the health of my coun-    malady before which we stand de-            I can't go on, I can't take it, it's too
tenance, and my God.                         fenseless and helpless, simply wait-        much."
                           Psalm 42:ll       ingforthetirnewhenthestormclouds                 The psalmist in the 42nd Psalm
                                             will pass and the sun will return. The      gives an extraordinarily accurate pic-
        Spiritual depression is an in-       child of God can do something about         ture of depression. Two figures are
volved and complex condition. In             it. Depression brings us to see our         used: 1) Downcast  - As a man
dealing with the depressed we must           helplessness(and a whole lot of other       bowed down under the weight of
be prepared for great anguish and            things about ourselves too). How-           some heavy object, so the depressed
heartache in the work, as well as for        ever, God shows these things not to         soul feels itself under a crushing
the richest blessings when God grants        crush us, but to reveal to us the all-      weight from which it cannot escape
uplifting to the troubled soul. Here         sufficiency  of the great Physician, who    and which it cannot bear. 2) Disqui-
we weep with those who weep, call            has carried our sorrows, andin whose        eted - As the sea is tossed by the
upon God out of the depths, feel all         wings there is healing. He instructs        storm and not at ease, so the de-
ourinadequacies,andcryoutforlight.           us as to where we have gone wrong in        pressed heart is plunged into the
Working with the depressed requires          our thoughts and failedin  our duties.      depths of woe and feels itself unable
much spiritual strength and wisdom           He gives us, through His Word, the          to attain peace. The psalmist also
and can leave the pastor/ elder weary        grace to change. As great as depres-        speaks of the outward symptoms of
if he is not consciously trusting in the     sion is, and we must not minimize its       depression. He looks troubled, hag-
Lord and hoping in Him (Jer. 17~7).          depths if we are to deal effectively        gard, dejected, vexed. He weeps day
        Spiritual depression is a com-       against it, the grace of Christ is far      and night. It has affected his appetite.
mon ailment of the soul. The fre-            greater. Also concerning this seem-         He is worried about himself and what
quency with which Scripture (espe-           ingly impenetrable spiritual darkness       is happening to him. Everything
cially the Psalms) deals with this sub-      we labor in the confidence that God's       seems to be on top of him and he is
ject brings one to the conclusion that       child "can do all things through Christ     drowning in a sea of woe.
it is a very common condition in the         who strengtheneth me" (Phil. 413).               The Scriptures impress onus the
lives of the saints. Almost no saint                                                     depth of this despair. We have al-
whose life is depicted in the Scrip-         What is Depression?                         ready seen that it can affect us physi-
tures was without times of depres-                By spiritual depression we mean        cally to the point of sickness, ulcers,
sion. This answers one of the great          more than what is meant by the popu-        weight loss, obesity, loss of memory,
questions of the depressed: "How             lar use of the term. Commonly when          etc. (For this see P.s. 77~2-4; 102:3-5;
can I be a child of God if I feel this       we say, "I'm depressed," we mean, "I        88.) It can lead to a total breakdown,
way?" The presence of depression             am feeling low, down, blue, discour-        in which we cease to function at all
does not mean one is not in a state of       aged." Spiritual depression is more         (see Jer. 20:7-9).  And still more, in
grace and adoption. It does mean that        than that. It is when the low spirit        depression the sense of God's pres-
my life is not consistent with what          affects our life in substantive ways,       ence is lost. In the throes of depres-
God has made me to be, and thus it is        when we are down and out, when the          sion we can conclude that God does
something I must seek the grace of           low feelings take over and drag us          not answer our prayers or take pity.
God to overcome and change. De-              even deeper. It is not just feeling bad     We become angry with Him and feel
pression keeps us from living to the         about one's self and one's circum-          ourselves cut off from His presence
praise of His grace, and therefore is        stances, it is being overwhelmed and        forever (see Ps. 13; 77:1-10).
                                             governed by those feelings.                      Thus spiritual depression is an
                                                  Depression is a feeling of guilt       interruption of the experience of the
                                             and unworthiness. It is a debilitating      peace of God in the soul, a loss of the
                                             mood. In depression the conscience          assurance  of God's favor, a surrender
Rev. Haak is pastor of the Protestant        becomes overly active and introspec-        to the monster of self-pity, an intro-
Reformed Church  of  Lynden, Washing-        tive while the body itself slows down       spection which is not guided by faith
ton.                                         and operates at a lower level. In           in Christ but by our own pride.

                                                                                               March 1,1993  I Standard Bearer I 249


                                              ourselves according to the standards         would be a mistake. Then, as with a
                                              we have devised. As a result we feel         toothache, so also when my soul is in
                                              bad. Then, instead of following our          the depths and I find fear and guilt on
                                              obligations before God and dealing           every side, I should take myself to a
                                              with that responsibility, sin, or lack of    medical doctor for the cure. Then I
                                              self-esteem as God would have-us to          need perhaps an injection, but I do not
                                              do, we follow our feelings on these          need the present power of Christ's
                                              things. We find ourselves seeking            grace delivering me from the bond-
                                              pity. And the end is that we feel            age of my sinful self. To make depres-
                                              worse and worse about ourselves,             sion primarily a physical ailment is to
                                              our circumstances, and our obliga-           negate the need for thereal delivering
                                              tions.                                       mercies of God working in the heart
                                                   We must remember that we are            and soul. Besides, even the aspects of
                                              frail and weak saints of God who             depression which are physically re-
                                              need at every turn of the way and            lated only underscore andmakevivid
                                              moment of the day to have our inner-         the problems which are present in the
                                              most thoughts governed by the Word           life of the particular saint suffering
             Rev. Carl Haak                   of the Lord. So easily we slip into          depression. Depression has to do
                                              viewinglife's situations and ourselves       with sin. Ultimately it has to do with
What is the Cause of Depression?              from our own vision, rather than             unbelief, the greatest sin against which
     The causes can be many. Any-             through the cross of Christ crucified.       we struggle. It is the failure to trust in
thing which tends to get us down a bit        When we do this, and then leave              God, even though He slay me. As
can be the initial cause of depression.       ourselves stand for a moment before          hard as that is for me to hear, hear it
It can be a change of job, working too        the gaping hole of our own feelings,         I must, for then, and only then, can I
much, resentment or bitterness to-            our steps well nigh slip and we con-         rejoice in the power of Christ Jesus
wards someone or something that               clude: "for all the day long have I          who came to save sinners also from
has happened, marital strife, the way-        been plagued, and chastened every            the pit of depression.
wardness of our child, a disappoint-          morning" (Ps. 73).
ment, our looks and abilities, etc.                The question is asked whether           How Should We Deal
These and more can be the occasion            depression can have physical causes.         With the Depressed?
from which depression arises. Or it           It would be a denial of Scripture to              First of all, we must handle the
can be when we know we are guilty to          rule that out. Scripture teaches that        Word of God skillfully, compassion-
begin with; that is, it can come out of       God has made us one, yet soul and            ately, and believingly.
a known and willful sin and trans-            body, and thus thereis aninseparable               I trust we need not work to es-
gression of God's will.                       relationship between the physical life       tablish the case among us that the
     However, depression is due to            and the spiritual. This is powerfully        Word of God is the powerful tool for
the  response one gives to the difficulty,    illustrated in the life of our Lord. We      treating depression. Depression can
change, disappointment, or sin that           read that the devil came to tempt            and does lead God's saints to be un-
has come into one's life. When we fail        Jesus after He had been in the wilder-       able to read the Bible and even to
to respond biblically, and fail to have       ness forty days and nights fasting,          become angry at the Bible itself. For
all our thinking and acting regarding         and therefore in a weakened physical         a time they cannot use it right. Or
the thing that has come into our lives        state. He, the devil, chose this mo-         they can be using it but not applying
or the thought that has risen in our          ment because he was and remains a            it. Therefore, I want to stress the
minds controlled by the Scriptures,
              .                               careful student of humannature, play-        modifiers above: skillfully, compas-
then depression strikes. Depression           ing every contributing factor in our         sionately, and believingly. To bring
arises when we are governed by and            makeup for his advantage. Because            this out, we should be aware of two
give in to our own feelings regarding         of the close relation between soul and       dangers in this regard.
these upsetting things, rather than           body, we may not dismiss physical                  The first danger is that of com-
being ruled in our thinking, wdling,          factors which either can enter in or lie     passion without actually bringing the
and  acting  by the Scriptures.               at the root of depression. A complete        Word of God. Now compassion is
     Depression can spiral. We can            physical examination, as well as the         essential for the work of the pastor/
fail to handle a responsibility bibli-        use of drugs which supply the body           elder as Paul sets that forth in Acts 20.
cally. We walk in a sin impenitently          what it normally produces and is not         But there must be more than mere
and without making amends as far as           producing can be helpful in the treat-       empathy. If allthatisaccomplishedis
we can. We fail to deal with a setback        ment of depression.                          that the distressed of soul says, "How
as God would have us deal with it.                      Nevertheless, to place ,depres-    understanding and sympathetic you
We look at ourselves and think of             sionin thecategoryof physicalillness         are," but he is not told what the Word

250  /Standard Bearer I March 1,1993


of God says to him in his need, what         whenit rests in the heart, must soothe     pression seriously, watching for the
good is it? The goal of much                 the troubled soul. Justification           warning signs, and spending the
shepherding today seems to be to             humbles pride by teaching that my          needed time and energy in counsel-
establish the reputation of ministers        acceptance with God cannot be based        ing which depression requires.
as sympathetic men. If we are to help        on myself, even if I were as good as                 Our eyes should be sensitive to
our people in their need, the Word           my pride would want me to be. Jus-         the beginning of depression in the
must be brought, for it is in the Word       tification proclaims to the soul in the    lives of the saints. Some of the indica-
that we believe Jesus comes with His         depths that there is no condemnation       tions of depression are: withdrawal
healing grace. More, we will make            to it. Justification is the truth which    from family and friends; loss of inter-
matters worse. The child of God has          supplies the motivation for sanctifi-      est or satisfaction in one's calling; a
come to us and told us his woe. It is        cation and thus the reason why I as a      feeling of isolation and loneliness;
out there as big as ever. If no word         despairing saint ought not despair         slowed thinking; feeling a burden;
from God comes, the preoccupation            and can do what I find so impossible       feeling helpless and without hope;
with the problem has only increased          to do. It was the knowledge that God       problems on the job or in the family;
as a result of the talk with the pastor.     had cast all his sins behind His back      sleep difficulty and weight loss; ini-
Wemustnotonlytalkabouttheprob-               that delivered Hezekiah from the pit.      tability; talk about dying; prolonged
lem, we must talk through the prob-          The sins and failures he saw and could     grief.
lem to see what God says about it.           not hide from his view had beqn hid                  Depressionshouldbesomething
Even thepastorof pastors, the apostle        by God. This knowledge got him up          we address in the preaching, fre-
Paul, did not allow his warm heart for       again to praise God and busy himself       quentlyinfact, as the struggle against
the sheep to keep back the Word of           with teaching his children (Is. 38).       depression is in one form or another
God. He reminds the elders of                     The adequacy of God is the an-        common in the lives of God's people,
Ephesus, "I kept back nothing that           swer to every conceivable feeling of       andwillbesoaslongastheyareinthe
was profitable for you . . . . V             inadequacy in ourselves. "Hope thou        body of this death.
      The second danger is to use the        in God!" was the counselDavid gave                   We should be prepared to spend
Word of God as some kind of magic            to his downcast and disquieted soul.       the time that is needed and deal as
wand. This is to use Scripture sim-          We labor in the conviction that in         thoroughly as we can with the cases
plistically, to read a few texts and         knowing God in His being there is a        of depression that come to our atten-
explain them in a general sort of way        balm for every wound, correction for       tion. Seldom is one visit to the pastor
and then send the person off reciting        everythought, strengthforeveryduty.        or elder going to alter a pattern of
a favorite passage. We must be faith-        God delights in having His people          depressioninthelifeofachildofGod.
ful and honest with the Scriptures,          know Him in the full array of his          It does not work that way. "This kind
using them skillfully - that is, prac-       virtues (Ex. 345-7).  He is Jehovah,       can come forth by nothing, but by
tically, substantively, concretely,          and, therefore, though we are so weak      prayer and fasting" (Mk. 9:29).
pointedly. The Scriptures must be            and sorrow is so strong, He abides                   As difficult as this work can be,
brought to bear on the specifics of the      stronger. To the fear which the de-        we engage in it, as with all our work,
depression the person is enduring.           pressed have that he will not help me,     in the undefeatable confidence that
      Secondly we must work with             He proclaims His name as merciful,         "The Lord redeemeth the soul of his
the depressed in the frameworkof the         gracious, and longsuffering. In deal-      servants: and none of them that trust
truths of justification and the ad-          ing with depression we must never          in him shallbe desolate" (Ps. 3422).  0
equacy of God.                               doubt the adequacy of our God.
      Justification is the truth which,           And thirdly, we must take de-

 Does Psychiatry Have a Place in the
                                    Pastoral Ministrv?
                                                                                        I
                                                                                                     Rev. Russell Dyksfra
                                                  The question posed by the title       ter. A few writers almost entirely rule
                                             of this article is not academic. It is     out the use of psychiatrists by Chris-
                                             faced by every pastor who counsels         tians. On the other end of the spec-
                                             depressed, troubled, hurting mem-          trum are pastors who seem more in-
Rev. Dylcstra is pastor of the Protestant    bers of his flock. A little reading        terested in "preaching" the psychol-
Reformed Church of Doon, Iowa.               reveals a variety of views on the mat-     ogy of the world than they are in

                                                                                                  March 1,1993  I Standard Bearer I251


bringing God's Word to their flocks.          The Arguments for Ruling Out                elf, nof God, and getting a good self-
In practice, many other pastors are           Psychiatrists                               oncept, raising one's self-esteem.
quick to steer their troubled members              The arguments against using                Such treatment generally turns
to"theprofessionals." WhenIthought            psychiatrists are of two kinds. First,      ut self-centered fools, or patients in
about whether or not psychiatry is            there are raised against psychiatry         lental institutions who are worse off
necessary for the church today, the           itself objections which maintain that       lan when they began their treat-
question arose in my mind, What               psychiatry is harmful. Secondly, ar-        lent. A serious study of worldly
did troubled believers do for thou-           guments can be made that psychiatry         Nsychiatry does indicate, therefore,
sandsofyearswithoutpsychiatrists?"            is not to be used because it is unnec-      lat it is antithetical to Christian be-
That led me to conclude that psychia-         essary -a better [for some, the only]       efs and practices.
try is not essential for helping men-         way exists for treatment of depres-
tally distressed church members, for          sion and other mental/ spiritual
believers somehow managed to                  troubles, namely, the care of a pastor.
struggle alongwithout this helpin the              We turn first to some of the ob-
first 6,000 years of the church's his-        jections against psychiatry itself. One
tory. Given then, that psychiatry is          mark against psychiatry is simply that
not absolutely necessary, can psychia-        it is not very effective. Over the years
trists be of some assistance? Myread-         a number of studies have been done
ing led me to answer that question            which demonstrate that neurotics not
affirmatively. Thus my answer to the          treated are as likely to get over their
question in the title is a qualified          troubles as those receivingtreatment.
"Yes" - psychiatry can be used as a           The same is true for disturbed chil-
tool by the Reformed pastor in his            dren. One could also add that, years
ministry.                                     ago already, psychiatrists claimed
      Before examining the topic, two         they held the key to solving the prob-
terminology notes are in order. First,        lems of society; but in the United
the title deliberately speaks of "psy-        States, where there are more psychia-
chiatry," not "psychology." The dif-          trists per capita than in any other
ference between men in these two              nation on earth, society's problems
fields is that the psychiatrist is a medi-    have only gotten worse.                              Rev. Russell Qksfra
cal doctor who deals with mental                   Secondly, worldly psychiatry is            A third objection to the use of a
problems, having also the right and           antithetical to Scripture in every as-      sychiatrist is that he oftenuses drugs
(one hopes) the ability to practice           pect. It is so with respect to its pre-     i his treatment. Ethical questions
medicine for physical ailments. A             suppositions, for the unbelievingpsy-       rise over the use of drugs. May
psychologist, on the other hand, isnot        chiatiist maintains that there is no        lroblems  which involve not only the
a medical doctor. Even if he' has             God and that man has no soul (in the        tind, but also spiritual problems of
earned a PhD in psychology, and is            biblical sense). He views man as an         in, be treated with drugs? Everyone
called "doctor," he may not practice          animal whose being has been deter-          ught to realize that sin cannot be
medicine. This article is concerned           mined by evolutionary processes.            esolved, removed, using drugs. At
mostlywithpsychiatry, thoughmuch              Also, he considers man to be basically      le same time, one wonders whether
overlapping exists. Where the differ-         good, and denies the existence of sin.      uch drugs really restore, or just give
ence is important in the discussion, it            In that same line, the methods of      le illusion that they do? Are they
will be pointed out.                          unbelieving psychiatry are, at best,        ke alcohol - just getting a man's
     Secondly, mental troubles are a          suspect. Its methods include psycho-        tind off his problems for a while?
difficult mix of physical, emotional,         therapy [excavations of the sub-con-            Another problem with the use of
and spiritual problems. For that rea-         scious], getting in touch with your         rugs is that they can be addictive,
son, we ought not to call them a sick-        true self, behavior modification [as        nd still the original problem may not
ness. This article will not use terms         one might train dogs], reality therapy,     e solved. Then a more serious evil
which in any way suggest it to be an          self-actualization, and more. A study       dsts, and more sins are committed
illness [even words like cure, recov-         of these methods reveals that, for the      ecause of the dependence upon the
ery, etc.]. Rather the words "restore"        most part, they are foolish or just         rugs.
and "restoration" are used. One can           plain sinful.                                   In addition to those objections
be restored to good physical and                   In addition, the goals of worldly      gainst  psychiatry, it is also main-
mental health, but also a sinner is           psychiatrists are markedly different        lined thatpsychiatryisunnecessary.
restored by repentance. The amount            from Scripture's goals for the Chris-        help is necessary, the care of a
of restoration necessary in each area         tian. Their goals include such things       lastor is the only way to restoration.
will vary in every case.                      as mere earthly happiness, serving          L number of reasons for this can be

252 /Standard Bearer / March 1,1993


     given. First, since mental problems           troubles of a Christian, through drugs.      cal ailments and/ or chemical imbal-
     are almost always inseparably con-            No responsible Christian psychiatrist        ances in the blood. In such a case, the
     nected with spiritual problems, they          claims that drugs will restore any-          advantage of going to a psychiatrist
     require spiritual counseling from the         way. The use of drugs depends much           over a regular medical doctor is that
     Scriptures. The pastor is then the one        on the kind of problem and the ap-           a psychiatrist is trained to recognize
     to consult. Also, the Word of God is          proach of the psychiatrist. Again,           the connections between the physical
     sufficient to resolve the troubles. It is     with a responsible Christian psychia-        and the mental, and should grasp the
     also true that the Holy Spirit operates       trist, this problem is much less signifi-    problem more quickly.
     without psychiatrists. The Spirit             cant. This will be discussed further               Again, because of this close con-
     works only through the Word. And,             below.                                       nection between body and soul, de-
     finally, the believer already has far              Finally, all the reasons why a          pression and other mental problems
     greater resources in Christ. He has           troubled Christian cannot hope for           have effects on the body which some-
     the Spirit, all the blessing of salvation,    restoration without spiritual coun-          times can be treated with drugs. If
     and an unfailing supply of God's              seling are true, and are reasons why         severe problems are not treated, the
     grace. These, not the psychiatrist,           the pastor is effective in the great         restoration willusuallybe slower and
     will restore the troubled saint.              majority of his work. Nevertheless,          more difficult. As an example,
          Can these criticisms be an-              they do not answer the question, "Can        through anti-depressant medicine, a
     swered? The first two objections [psy-        or may psychiatry be used effectively        severely depressed individual may
     chiatry is 1) largely ineffective and 2)      in some instances?" To that question         be able to relax enough to function
     antithetical to Christianity] are true        we turn next.                                and sleep, and thus have the ability to
     for a worldly psychiatrist; however,                                                       get at the real problems [mental and
     with a good, Christian psychiatrist,          The Expedient Use of Psychiatrists           spiritual] that cause the depression.  **
     these arguments carry much less, if                Is the use of psychiatry permit-              Another reason why a psychia-
     any weight. What is a Christian psy-          ted? Certainly the Bible permits us to       trist [or psychologist] maybeusefulis
     chiatrist? Heis, first, a Christian- he       approach a fellow Christian for ad-          that he is skilled at opening the lines
     confesses Christ to be his Savior. But        vice and help with spiritual, physical,      of communication. The Word of God
     he is more, because some who call             and emotional problems. If the psy-          restores; but sometimes the mental
     themselves Christian psychiatrists            chiatristis Christian, andnot enslaved       state is such that the member cannot
     deal with troubled people in about            to a worldly psychology, it would be         [will not?] hear the Word brought by
     the same manner that worldly psy-             allowed by Scripture.                        anyone. The soul is troubled. But the
     chiatrists do. But he ought, at the                However, if only worldly psy-           mind, the avenue to the soul, is closed.
     least, to believe what the Bible teaches      chiatrists are available,, the question      In this instance, a psychiatrist often
.    about sin, the need for repentance,           is much more difficult. But notice,          can bring the individual to the point
     and the hope of forgiveness in the            first of all, that ungodly men are used      where he can listen to and talk with
     cross; about the soul of man and his          to treat physical ailments. Secondly,        his pastor. By no means should the
     depraved nature; and about the sov-           some areas seem to straddle the fence        pastor back out of the work, but he
     ereign God who hates sin and whose            between the physical and the mental.
     fellowship is experienced only when           For example, anti-hallucinatory drugs
     man walks in obedience. These be-             could be administered equally well           **    Some  psychiatrists make even
     liefs may not be merely academic, but         by a believing or unbelieving psy-           greater claims in this connection. Drs.
     must be the basis of his work. He             chiatrist. But an extremely danger-          FrankMinerth  and Paul Meier (Introduc-
     must follow the biblical pattern for          ous situation arises when such a man         tion to Psychology and Counseling) in-
     dealing with troubled souls. If he            gives  counsel  to the Christian, because    sist that the physical effects of manymen-
     does, then his work will not be anti-         he will inevitably touch the spiritual       tal problems are more than just the physi-
                                                                                                cal symptoms 
     thetical to Christianity, nor will it be      aspect of the problem.                                        that a person cannot eat or
                                                                                                sleep, or that heis tired, etc. They say that
     ineffective. We recognize the diffi-               Still we maintain that psychia-         the chemical balance is affected in the
     culty often times of finding a psychia-       trists  can be used. Why? Simply             body of the depressed and that some
     trist that has a Reformed view of God         because of the close connection be-          chemicals necessary in humans are de-
     and man; but the closer a psychiatrist        tween the body and the soul [the             pleted because of the continued depres-
     is to the Scriptures in his belief and        mental and the physical]. The body           sion. Thus the drugs are not merely a
     practice, the more effective he will be       and soul are not two separate, inde-         "pick-me-up," but are also like a vitamin
     in working with the believer.                 pendent entities; they are two "parts"       which gives the depressed person the
          As noted, objections are raised          of the individual, very much inter-          chemical in which he is deficient. That in
                                                                                                turn makes him feel better, and better
     against using drugs to restore the            twined and interdependent. What              able to deal with his problems. This idea
     troubled soul. All Christians should          affects the body affects the mind. So        is rejected by others, however, and this
     recognize the impossibility of restor-        true, is this that some mental prob-         writerisnotqualifiedtojudge thetruthof
     ing a sinner, or even removing the            lems are actually the result of physi-       the  matter.

                                                                                                       March 1,1993  I Standard Bearer 1253


may need this help to get through to         appear that it is advocating wide-          bors. Pastor and flock must remem-
the individual.                              spread use of the same. That not            ber that weakest means are used by
      If it be granted that there are        being the case, we conclude by trying       God to bring the Word of God which
certaininstances whereapsychiatrist          to put it backinto the proper perspec-      will restore. Thirdly, the believer has
canbeusedbythe troubledchristian,            tive.                                       the Spirit of Christ dwelling in him,
questions still must be faced as to                   First, the Christian ought not     and an all-sufficient supply of God's
whenand how tousepsychiatrists. In           seek psychiatric help too quickly. Two      grace.
general, we believe that the psychia-        reasons can be cited for this. First,            In addition to that, the church as
trist should by all means be Christian       unless the psychiatrist is a Christian      a whole must be used effectively to
in belief and practice. At the same          whose practices are very much in            support as well as counsel the
time, the pastor must be involved in         harmony with the Bible, his workwill        troubled. This includes the elders,
the work.                                    not restore completely, and, on the         who are also pastors of the flock [Acts
      But certainly, not all troubled        contrary, he will probably lead the         20:28; I Pet. 59-51.  Let not the role of
Christians need a psychiatrist. When         troubled saint down wrong paths. A          the older women in the congregation
should one be sent to a psychiatrist?        good Christian psychiatrist is hard to      be forgotten. It is the particular call-
No absolute rules canbe given in this,       find, impossible in many places. Sec-       ing of the older women to help the
but some guidelines may be sug-              ondly, since pastors are called to this     younger women [Tit. 23-51.  Not only
gested. If theindividual: hearsvoices,       labor, psychiatry ought not be used         that, but in Acts 20:35, Paul makes the
experiences hallucinations or delu-          unless there are good reasons why a         support of the weak the calling of
sions; cannot function; cannot hear          pastor cannot handle the problems.          every member of the church. And,
the counsel of the pastor; seems to be                Besides, we must not forget the    finally, the members of the congrega-
genuinely suicidal or homicidal; has         tremendous resources on hand for            tion who have experienced mental
an obvious physical problem causing          theseverelydistraughtbeliever. First,       problems must understand that they
the emotional difficulties - a psy-          the Word of God is the most powerful        were given their problems and re-
chiatrist should be consulted.               and effective instrument for helping        stored by God in order to help others
                                             him. Secondly, pastors are called to        in the church.
A Christian Perspective                      be shepherds of the flock. They are              May God use these means first
      Because this article maintains         therefore qualified and commanded           and foremost to sustain and restore
that psychiatrists can be used, it may       by God to perform these pastoral la-        each member of His church. 0


 The Role of the Elders and Deacons
                                         `in Pastoral Care
                                                                                                           Robert Brands

      It is in keeping with our theme,                Although our ministers espe-       His blood. He is the door, and whoso
"Shepherding God's Flock," that we           cially have been given the title of         would enter into the heavenly man-
now consider the involvement of the          pastors, it is also true that the elders    sions must enter through Him. He
elders and deacons in the labors of          and deacons are pastors. The term           holds the threefold office of prophet,
pastoral care. I take it for granted that    "pastor" is a title which means "shep-      priest, and king. This threefold office
you are all agreed that the elders and       herd." In Hebrews 13:20 Jesus is            is now divided up into three distinct
deacons have a definite responsibil-         referred to as the great Shepherd of        offices, namely, the minister preach-
ity in regard to pastoral care. What         the sheep. In I Peter 5:4 He is called      ing the Word of the Lord as prophet,
we must determine is to what extent          the chief Shepherd, and in John 1O:ll       the deacon providing for the needs of
we are to be involved in this work,          Jesus refers to Himself as the good         the church as priest, and the elder
and what is the precise character of         Shepherd who giveth His life for the        exercising the rule over the church as
our work.                                    sheep. This latter chapter provides         king. These offices cannot be sepa-
                                             the highest comfort possible, as it         rated from each other but must be
                                             emphatically asserts the safety of the.     kept distinct.
Mr. Brands is an elder in the Protes-        sheep. Indeed, Jesus is the great and            Although each office has its own
tanf Reformed Church of Loveland,            good Shepherd who giveth His life           distinct labor, a labor which does not
Colorado.                                    for His sheep. He bought them with          belong to the other offices, there are

254  /Standard Bearer I March 1 ,I993


labors which overlap and can be car-        themselves, they are to be instructed
ried out mutually. It is with these         to seek the Lord zealously in prayer,
labors that we are dealing when we          since the Lord will grant His grace
speak of pastoral care. Ministers,          and Holy Spirit only to those who
elders, and deacons have been called        sincerely and continuously ask this of
by the ,great  Shepherd to lead His         Him. We also must pray that the Lord
sheep in the green pastures of His          will grant this to them, since our la-
Word. They are to exercise extreme          bors are in vain if the Lord does not
care for the sheep because those sheep      workin the hearts of His sheep by His
are very precious in the sight of the       Holy Spirit.
Lord. It is absolutely essential that            We now consider some of the
officebearers have a deep and over-         specific work of pastoral care, which
whelming love for the sheep, and that       in large part is carried out by the
they see to it that the sheep with          minister. This is work which is kept
whom they are working can see this          confidential and of necessity has to
in them.                                    do with stressful situations. It has to
     As we labor with the wayward           do with serious problems which, for
we must be deeply aware of our own          one reason or another, cannot be                           Mr. Robert  Brands
sinful nature, acknowledging that in        solved by the parties involved. These
us dwelleth no good thing. There is         are problems which fit in the follow-        and can say, "Thus saith the Lord."
no room for pride on the part of an         ing categories: lack of assurance of         He has to go forward with confidence
officebearer. He must come as a ser-        salvation, depression, loneliness, dis-      in thelord, believingihat,  even as the
vant of the Lord in all meekness and        satisfaction with God's way, disci-          Lord has called him to this high office,
humility. Jesus taught that lesson to       pline problems, marital problems,            Hewillalsoqualifyhim,andwillgive
His disciples as He washed their feet.      physical problems, and a number of           him the strength to do the work.
And in Numbers 12 we are informed           other problems which can cause much               I want to emphasize, however,
that the man Moses was very meek,           grief. There is no question about it         that the Lord does not qualify auto-
above all the men which were upon           that the elders are in duty bound to be      matically without any effort on our
the face of the earth.                      involved in this type of work. Their         part, but rather uses means. Just as
     It is also necessary that we be        calling is to comfort and instruct the       the Lord does not have any use for a
patient with stubborn sheep. It is          members. This is so important that           lazy preacher, He also does not have
impossible to force sheep to go where       the church visitors will ask if these        any use for alazy  elder or deacon. We
they do not want to go. Our calling is      tasks are carried out faithfully by the      have to be fully dedicated to the work.
to lead the&, and this we have to do        elders.                                      In addition to making a diligent study
gently. They must follow willingly,              You might have reservations             of the Word of God, we will find it
being persuaded that this is the best       concerning this work, and believe that       verybeneficialtoreadgoodReformed
path for them to follow. Since sheep        this work should be done only by the         booksandmagazines. Althoughthese
can easily be led astray we have to be      minister because he has much more            are not infallible, they are extremely
certahithtit  we are leading them faith-    knowledge in this field of labor and         valuable as an aid to understanding
fully to the great Shepherd.                has received training to do this par-        the Bible. We live in the communion
     It must be remembered that most        ticular work. There is an element of         of saints and can learn from each
of the people are followers and are         truth in that. No doubt this is why          other.
looking for leadership. The Lord has        members who need help will often                  We also should be well ac-
placed His sheep under our care and         call on the minister. It must not be         quainted with the confessions of our
has given us the mandate to lead            forgotten, however, that the effec-          church, as they are the expressions of
them according to His Word. The             tiveness of the work lies strictly in the    what we believe concerning various
Lord has made us to be leaders by           power of the written Word of the             points of doctrine of the Bible. Still
giving us the authority to teach His        Lord, applied to the heart by the work-      another means which the Lord uses to
Word to these sheep. We will be held        ing of the Holy Spirit. There is no          qualify I-35 officebearers, and which I
accountable if we fail to carry out this    reason why the-elder cannot be pre-          want to emphasize, is the use of prayer.
task faithfully. We also have to see to     pared to bring that Word. It is incum-       The Lord will not grant His grace and
it that the helpless sheep are using the    bent upon him that he study that             Holy Spirit to us if we do not pray
Bible for direction and guidance in         Word diligently and thereby be               fervently for it. We have to pray for
their life and that they are turning to     equipped to bring it to God's people         wisdom and understanding in doing c
it often as a remedy for the manifold       in all of'their distresses, no matter        the work of the Lord properly. An _
problems which they encounter. Since        what they may be. He has just as             officebearer should never leave his
they are spiritually unable to care for     much authority as the minister does          home without first praying that the

                                                                                                   March 1,1993  I Standard Bearer I255


Lord will provide for all of his needs      the congregation. It is to be avoided       the young who are guilty of straying
in his spiritual labors, and that the       at all costs. The officebearer has to       from the fold. When working with
Lord will bless the work that he does.      admonish the flock to seek peace with       them, always treat them as redeemed
You will be surprised at what the           all of their hearts, pointing out that      in the blood of Christ, even though
Lord will enable you to do when you         the mark of Christians is that they         you might feel otherwise. It is highly
rely on Him in such a manner. Prayer        love even their enemies, as Christ          desirable to have a good working
is also an art which has to be learned      commanded, or they are not different        relationship with them. Officebearers
and developed as you work with the          from unbelievers, who love only those       must evaluate each case separately,
saints and pray with them.                  who show love to them.                      while paying attention also to the
     There is another very compel-               The chief task of the officebearer     effect which one member has on-the
ling reason why elders must be pre-         in pastoralcare is to take good heed to     rest of the flock. Discipline has to be
pared to do this type of pastoral work,     the spiritual condition of the flock        carried out with dispatch if a member
namely that they. cannot take for           and to see to it that all of their needs    isinfluencingothermemberswithhis
granted that the minister will always       are met. This begins with the little        life style.
be available for the work. He might         lambs of the flock and ends with the              We also have to look at worship
be gone temporarily, or it could be         elderly members. I am very thankful         as pastoral care. It is through the
that the congregation is without a          for Article 23 of the Church Order,         worship services that the gospel is
minister. Taking this into consider-        which demands that the ,families of         preached and the sheep are fed. The
ation, we should dismiss any notion         the congregation be visited. There is       elders are to see to it that the minister
thatwewillneverbecalledintoavery            no better way to become acquainted          preaches Jesus Christ and Him cruci-
difficult pastoral labor.                   with the flock and to learn to know         fied, which is the power of God unto
     There is also a broaderperspec-        them, than through family visitation.       salvation to everyone that believes.
tive of this matter of pastoral care by     It is through these visits that a deter-    The flock has to be edified through
the elders and deacons which we must        mination can be made as to theirspiri-      the preaching and be blessed by it,
now consider. It can be said that all of    tual condition and as to what their         having their faith strengthened. God
the work which is done by the               needs are. Avoid questions which            has to be honored, glorified, and
officebearers has to do with pastoral       require only a yes or no answer. Ask        worshiped through the sermons. The
care of the flock. They are called to       questions which require an explana-         question is not, first of all, "What's in
watch over the flock in all things,         tion on their part. The idea is to get      it for me?" but rather, "Can I worship
being fully aware of the very power-        the sheep to open up their hearts and       God through the preaching?" Is His
ful threefold enemy, namely the devil,      souls to you. In connection with this,      name highly exalted so that I can bow
the world, and our own sinful flesh.        I highly recommend a book entitled,         down before Him in holy adoration
This enemywillnever cease to assault        Taking   Heed  to  the  Flock,   by P.Y.    and reverence? The congregation is
the sheep as long as they are on this       DeJong,  which gives valuable infor-        to be made aware of their sins and
side of the grave. The sheep have to        mation for the conducting of family         admonished to flee from them. They
be encouraged to fight this battle, and     visitation.                                 are to be comforted with the knowl-
they must be guided along the path-              The elders are also to visit the       edge that deliverance has come
way which leads to eternal life and         sick, the aged, and those who are           throughtheLambofGodwhichtaketh
glory. They are to be led with a            dying. I would like to bring to your        away the sin of the world. They are to
shepherd's rod, namely the Word of          attention a rather neglected form in        be exhorted to live a life of thankful-
God whichis also used to protect and        the back of our Psalter,  entitled "The     ness for this great salvation.
correct them. They are to be kept           Consolation of the Sick." This is an              The elders should feel free to
together as a flock, and, therefore, all    excellent form to prepare the sheep to      discuss with the minister the contents
strife must be removed as soon as it        meet theirMaker.  Beacquaintedwith          of the sermons, what is not being
comes up. There is nothing that the         it, and use it as the need may require.     preachedandshouldbe,andimprove-
devil thrives on more than division in      I would also like to recommend a            ments in the delivery of the sermons.
a congregation. This gives him fuel to      book entitled, The Elder's  Handbook,       The elders have to make the judg-
workwith. Put a stop to it right away.      by Berghoef and DeKoster,  which I          ment themselves if the Word is edify-
Members at serious odds with each           found to be extremely helpful. It is a      ing in the preaching and if the minis-
other have to be denied the right to        good idea to prepare ahead of time          ter is proclaiming the Word faithfully
come to the Lord's Supper. How              for various pastoral labors such as         - apart from what the people might
wicked it is in the Lord's sight when       death, sickness, or discipline, by se-      say about it. It can be that the people
grudges.are  harbored, to the extent        lecting appropriate Bible texts, since      are completely satisfied with the
that one saint will not speak to an-        you never know how much time will           preaching, but yet the minister is not
other. There is nothing more detri-         be available when the need arises..         pleasing in the Lords sight. Think of
mental to being a faithful witness in            Pastoral care also includes the        the many false churches who have             ,
the world than this matter of strife in     discipline of the youth, as it is often     people satisfied with the preaching

256 /Standard Bearer / March 1,1993


because they are not confronted with           who makes rich and makes poor. Our             flesh removed so that we can do the
their sins.                                    trustistobeplacedinHimatalltimes               workmore  effectively. Ibelieve, how-
         As for the deacons, they are in-      to provide for all of our needs. The           ever, that the Lord's purpose with
volved with pastoral care especially           deacons are also to give instruction           these thorns is to keep us from sinful
by providing for the needs of the poor         concerning proper stewardship, and             pride and to cause us to turn to Him
and distressed. They must reveal               they must make sure that these sheep           in prayer for all of our needs. He is
themselves as messengers from                  are not lazy, but are working to the           our help, our strength, and our great
Christ, comfortingthe sheepwithHis             best of their ability. The deacons             Shepherd who leads us. Let us follow
word. They are to apply that Word to           should seek out the poor and not wait          Him faithfully and let us lead the
them in their needs. Sometimes these           for a call from them. When the dea-            sheep to the arms of this merciful
sheep can become very despondent,              cons do this, they are showing genu-           Savior. What a blessed work and
being dissatisfied with the ways of            ine love and concern for the sheep.            what a blessed privilege the Lord has
the Lord. In that case the deacons                   As we consider all of the pasto-         given unto us. We should be deeply
have to be more concerned about that           ral labors which the Lord has given            concerned that we do it right and that
spiritual problem than with their fi-          us, we may wish, like the apostle              we do it heartily as to the Lord. 0
nancial one. The Lord is sovereign             Paul, to have various thorns in the


             Ministering to the Terminally III
                                                                                                                    Rev. Michael DeVries

         Yea, though 1 walk through the        is then that the valley is the darkest,        and apply it. We ought not lecture or
valleyof  theshadowofdeath,lwillfearno         the most lonely, the most dangerous.           sermonize, but rather authoritatively,
evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy    Especially then the sheep need Christ          yet with compassion and sensitivity,
staff  they  comfort me.                       their Shepherd. Especially then they           open and expound the Word for them.
                              Psalm 23:4       need to be able to confess with the            Bring the good news of Christ, and
                                               Psalmist, "I will fear no evil: for thou       Him crucified and risen again!
         In a talk given in our Protestant     art with me!" That means, very sim-                            The other essential in minister-
Reformed Seminary several years ago            ply, that the undershepherds of the            ing to the terminally ill is prayer. Come
on the subject of "Sick-Visiting" Rev.         Good Shepherd must be there. The
C. Hanko, a veteran pastor, remarked           officebearers of the church, minister,                                                                                                    pi   I
                                                                                               q*`s'*&            $`  I",v     \\;-~     3,     S'    ,.    _                   *        j       *
                                                                                              g  * 
                                                                                                *e$ a,   _
                                                                                                       :*    i
                                                                                                              `,    **
                                                                                                                  $   \Wh%  A   b  _I  "(  ._  \*  r        "
                                                                                                                                                                   XI  :  1.    _  I  :  "..  `:  :
regarding terminal cases, "You walk            elders, and deacons must be busy               t \i  .*..**  _.  \  ,"                    L
with themdownthevalley. Youmust                visiting the dying. They come as
stay behind. Sometimes you'll envy             representatives of Christ in the ser-
them. The grace of God will amaze              vice of the Good Shepherd.
you." To a student, the truth of those         The Essentials
remarks did not really "sink in." But               We will not belabor what ought
now, having served as minister of the          to be obvious  - that the
Word and as pastor to the dying for            undershepherd and ambassador of
several years, I can say that the truth        Christ must only and always come
of those remarks has struck me again           with the Word of Christ. The sheep,
and again.                                     especially the dying sheep, need to
         Though our entire earthly life is     hear the voice of the Good Shepherd!
a walk through that valley, the con-           We must be there to bring the Word!
sciousness of that is most emphati-            Our ministering to the terminally ill is
cally realized when one is confronted          not a series of social visits, not a series
with the reality of terminal illness. It       of medical consultations, not a series
                                               of psychiatric sessions. Briefly, point-
                                               edly, simply, bring the Word! Usu-
                                               ally five to ten verses are enough. In
Rev. DeVries is pastor of  the Protestant      some instances just a verse or two
Reformed Church of Edgerton, Minne-            maybesufficient. ButbringtheWord,                                          Rev. Michael DeVries
sota.                                          a specific passage, and briefly explain                               and Mr. Gilbert Griess

                                                                                                               March 1,1993  I Standard Bearer I 257


to the dying with the prayer of faith        of becoming a burden. Serious illness        - anger on Monday, accepting on
which saves the sick (`James 5:13).          is seen as imposing inconvenience on         Wednesday, and back to anger on
Always  pray! The needs of the dying         family and friends. Prolonged illness        Friday.
mustbebrought to the throne of grace.        may be feared as being financially                Be sensitive too to the fact that
The dying usually want us to pray,           disastrous to survivors. There may           the family, loved ones, are going
and often need us to pray. It can be         be the fear of pain, which is insepara-      through their own stages of anticipa-
difficult for them to pray for them-         bly linked to dying in most people's         tory grief and may not always be in
selves. In prayer lead the dying in the      minds. There may be fears of per-            synchronization with the terminal
confession of their sins; lead them to       sonal indignity, of being subjected to       patient. In this connection, the loved
the cross of Christ and forgiveness;         medical procedures, to parapherna-           ones also need the pastor's care and
lead them to the riches of the salva-        lia in the body, etc.                        must not be ignored. As much as or
tion we have in Christ; lead them to              Be sensitive to what the dying          more than the ill, they need to be
the grace and mercy of our sympa-            says both verbally and non-verbally.         prepared for the reality of death.
thetic Savior who is there to help in        Tears, turning to the wall, not want-             Finally, be sensitive to sin; that
time of need; lead them to the victory       ing to talk- each of these says some-        is, recognize that the need of the sick,
we have in Christ even over death            thing.                                       also the terminally ill, is fundamen-
and the grave.                                    To minister effectively to the ter-     tally spiritual. Sickness and dying are
                                             minally ill saint, one should try to         inseparably connected to sin. There
Effectiveness in this Ministry               understand the emotional stages they         may be instances where a concrete sin
      Bring the Word! Pray! Indeed,          may pass through. It is striking that        may and must be pointed out - for
these are basic, indispensable in min-       the terminal patient's grief before          example, drunkenness. But beyond
istering to the terminally ill. Never        death is very similar to the grief expe-     this we cannot go. Generally it must
despair of the Word and prayer -             rienced by the survivors after death.        be left between the individual and
even if the dying saint has lapsed into      Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross has given          God. But be sensitive to a need there
a coma or has sustained brain dam-           the classic description of the coping        might be to talk about a sin. And lead
age. God never leaves His saints             patterns of patients who know their          the dying into the comfort of the gos-
without the consciousness of His             diagnosis is terminal, in her book On        pel of our salvation.
Word. Jesus promises: "My sheep              Death  and  Dying  (New  Y o r k :                2. Preparation
hear my voice."                              Macmillan, 1969).                                 This sensitivity with regard to
      Butitismyconviction  thatmuch               The first stage is d&d. "No, not        the dying saint and his needs means
more is necessary to make that Word          me." "There must be a mistake of             that preparation for the visit is essen-
and prayer more effective by the grace       some kind."                                  tial for the officebearer of Christ.
of God, in the working of His Spirit.             Next comes  anger  or resentment.       Prayerfully prepare. Decide what to
Consider the following:                      "Why me?" "Why now?"                         read and what to say. Take time to
      1. Sensitivity                              The third stage is bargaining.          collect your thoughts, whetheritbein
      Officebearers ought to realize         "Yesme,but-`"  "If You just give me          the study or in the car. Focus on your
that the dying saint probably knows          five years, I'll . ..." "I'll be a better    purpose for visiting. Determine how
he is going to die, whether he has been      father if you just give me another           the Word you are bringing will meet
told or not. We ought to be sensitive        chance."                                     the need of the dying saint. Especially
to their struggle in that connection.             The fourth stage is  depression.        for lengthy  ilh-tesses,  keep careful
The dying person always has a                Now he says, "Yes, me." "I'll never          record of the visits, passages read,
struggle! After all, death is the last       feel good again.n "I'll never see my         etc. Above all, pray! Be conscious of
enemy. But rest assured that the Lord        grandchildren grow up."                      your  dependence upon Christ in this
never fails to give dying-grace to the            Finally comes  acceptance,  a time      difficult labor.
w-%                                          of facing death calmly, of quiet sub-             Then, having prepared, be flex-
      We must strive to be sensitive to      mission to the Lord's way. "I am at          ible. Being sensitive to the needs of
the fears and feelings of the termi-         peace. " "I'm ready."                        the dying saint, determine the situa-
nally ill. There are fears of being               During visits we must strive to         tion that day (is it an "up" day or a
useless. There is the realization, al-       be sensitive to where the patient is,        "down" day), and minister to him
most surely disappointing that his           with respect to these stages, after a        with the Word and prayer. You may
work, his contribution is ending. He         few minutes of conversation. But             decide to bring an entirely different
has achieved as much as he will ever         bear in mind that these stages are not       Word from that for which you pre-
achieve, whether in vocation, or rais-       like climbing a ladder. One does not         pared.
ingchildren,orformingrelationships.          necessarily go up one rung at a time.             3. Listening
There can also be a growing under-           And the lines between them are not                Though this is an aspect of being
standing and fear of the separation          clearly drawn. Further, the dying            sensitive to the needs of the dying
death will bring. There is the fear, too,    saint may fluctuate from day to day          saint, it deserves separate emphasis.

258  /Standard Bearer I March 1 ,1993


G. Clarke Chapman, Jr. writes in the         that can be distasteful." In "Help, I             Many factors must be consid-
foreword of Albert J.D. Walsh's book         Have Cancer-My personal thoughts             ered with regard to life support, both
Reflections  on  Death  and  Grief,          on what people can do for me," Pete          its use and its removal. Obviously the
"When we are called to minister to the       Meulenbergwrites,"Touchmeasyou               medical condition is at the forefront.
dying and/or bereaved, many of us            leave. The isolation of having cancer        Many aspects must be weighed: prog-
who count ourselves as servants of           makes the power of your touch sweet          nosis, risk, treatments, success rate,
God too easily prejudge the matter           with love."                                  pain,benefits. Ibelieveitiswisetoget
and rush in with words and a trite                    5. Availability                     a second medical opinion in most
formula.~ Words have become our                       The dying need their pastor! No     cases. Certainlylegalaspectsmustbe
trade, jargon our bane, and verbiage         matter how busy you are, take the            considered. State regulations, as well
our downfall.". Perhaps it seems a           time to visit. And let the dying saint       as hospital policy, are involved. Even
harshjudgment,butinsomeinstances             and his family know that you are             financialfactorsoughtnotbeignored.
it is undoubtedly deserved. This is          available at any hour, day or night,              It is my conviction that the pas-
one occasion in which we ought to            and that you want to be with them in         tor and elders ought to refrain from
"be swift to hear, slow to speak."           times of crisis. Visits may need to be       "playing God" in any sense. They
After greeting them, listen! Let them        frequent. But the undershepherds of          ought not seek to impose their will or
tell you how they feel and what is           Christ must be with the sheep espe-          opinion upon the dying or his family.
going on with them. Do not assume            cially in their dying. The dying must        As much as possible the under-shep-
anything. You may ask leading ques-          be assured that you will be with them        herds of Christ must be sympathetic
tions, you may guide the conversa-           as they walk down the valley.                and supportive of both patient and
tion to keep it on a spiritual level, but                                                 family. At the same time, the patient
be sure to listen. Listening does not        Life Support                                 (if possible) and the family must be
come easy. Walsh puts it this way in                  It used to be much simpler, this    led to see and to be submissive to the
his book, Reflections  on Death  and         whole business of dying. For the             will of God. They must be led in the
Grief  (Grand Rapids: Baker Book             most part people used to die at home,        Scriptures and through prayer to com-
House, 1986): "When we truly listen          often surrounded by their children           mit their way unto the Lord. And I
to the dying and the bereaved, we will       and grandchildren. Now it may well           believe that the Lord will make His
bear their pain in our heart, as though      be in the intensive care unit of the         will plain in due time. His grace will
it were our own. Listeningimplies an         hospital, surrounded by tubes and            be sufficient both for the patient and
honest, heartfelt, and courageous re-        needles, respirator, heart stimulator,       for the family.
sponse to genuine suffering and the          etc. It was not long ago that the lack            Inconclusion,undoubtedlymin-
deep sense of loss death brings in its       of heartbeat was considered final evi-       istering to the terminally ill is some of
wake."                                       dence of death. Because of modem             the most difficult, yet at the same time
     4. Touch                                medical technology the attention has         some of the most spiritually edifying
     Though the pastor or elder must         shifted from heart to brain for a reli-      and rewarding, of an officebearer's
always remember his office and main-         able criterion of when death has oc-         labors. It is indeed blessed to walk
tairia ministerial dignity as the repre-     curred. It is my conviction that there       with the saints down the valley. The
sentative of Christ, he ought not over-      are no easy, pat answers as far as life      grace of God is, indeed, amazing! To
look the power and significance of           support is concerned. Each case must         Him be the glory! U
touch, especially with the terminally        be considered on its own merits.
ill. A firm handshake, a gentle touch,                As Gods children we struggle
a hand on the arm can say much more          along with the apostle Paul who was
than many words. Feeling increas-            "in a strait betwixt two, having a
ingly isolated from the world and            desire to depart, and to be with Christ;
people, the dying saint often desires        which is far better: nevertheless to
and appreciates touch. Walsh writes,         abide in the flesh is more needful for
"I stress the importance of these ex-        you" (Phil. 1:23,24).  Our testimony
pressions of affection and concern           then must also be, "For to me to live is
because my experience has been that          Christ, and to die is gain" (Phil. 1:21).
the dying often feel untouchable, as         The pastor must emphasize, in that
though death were a contagious dis-          light, that the main question for the
ease. We who would minister to the           child of God is not his recovery, not
dying experience a curious sense of          something physical, but spiritual. Is
discomfort, making it difficult for us       the dying content and even happy in
to reach out and touch and embrace.          the way of the Lord? Is he able to
And this is the place for candor: death      testify of that? Or are we assured of
has a certain sight, smell, and sound        that?

                                                                                                March 1,1993  I Standard Bearer I259


         Pastoral Care Among Teenagers
                                                                                                        Rev. Steven Key

      As officebearers at this time in      who are only one generation older.          of video-tapedmovieswithin  thefam-
 history we have much work cut out                The temptations were' always          ily rooms of Protestant Reformed
 for us when it comes to necessary          there. Young people have always             homes has reportedly become quite
 pastoral care among our youth. Let         been tempted to rebel against author-       widespread. Advertising and televi-
me add to that: It is important first of    ity figures -be it the temptation to        sion programming makes illicit sex
 all that we take our calling seriously     defy the rules set down by parents, or      glamorous, and puts increased pres-
 as overseers of the whole flock, in-       teachers; or to get away with violat-       sure on youth to "join the crowd and
 cluding (I dare say, especially) our       ing certain laws of the land. All gen-      get in on the action" -whether that
youth. Secondly, in this day when           erations have faced the temptations         be drinking beer to attract handsome
many scriptural principles are  for-        of alcohol abuse and fornication, to        men or beautiful women, or buying
saken for theories of modempsychol-         mention but two others. Peer pres-          clothingandautomobileswaybeyond
ogy, I would emphasize that we can          sure is as old as society itself. But in    our earthly means (and to the neglect
only provide proper and profitable          no other age have these temptations         of our support of God's kingdom), or
pastoral care by strict adherence to        been so open and the attacks so vio-        having sex outside the marriage bond.
the principles of Scripture. But Scrip-     lent against the innocency  of Chris-            Prosperity abounds in our day.
ture requires of pastors and elders         tian youth.                                 This also has made a solid spiritual
especially that they provide spiritual            What was considered shameful          life all the more difficult for our young
direction and counsel for the youth of      just 20 years ago is now accepted           people. And when their parents set
the church. That is not to overlook,        matter-of-factly. Behavior that once        an example of running after every
and certainly not to exclude, the call-     was unacceptable even to unbeliev-          earthly idol and making a god out of
ing and responsibility that parents         ers is now considered a part of grow-       pleasure (II Tim. 3:4), it is no wonder
have toward the children God has            ing up. To mention one example:             that with increasing numbers chil-
placed within their own home. But           some time ago1 had an opportunity to        dren are showing signs of deepseated
we look now beyond the parental             work with two young men in their            spiritual disease.
calling to that calling which is ours as    late teens, one ofnon-Christian back-            Wepointoutanotherfactorcaus-
officebearers, particularly as elders       groundandtheothernominallyChris-            ing an increase in troubled youth.
and pastors in churches with large          tian. When these boys reached their         Our churches have not escaped the
numbers of young people.                    middle teenage years, their parents         breakdown of the family structure
                                            actually encouraged them to go out          that has reached epidemic propor-
Necessary Labors                            and find an attractive girl with whom       tions in our society. The sad fact is
      Although all teenagers must go        they could go to bed. They needed to        that there are in our churches more
through the struggles and difficulties      findoutwhatsexwasallabout. Now,             and more children that are being
of adolescence and require careful          you know that those parents had not         raised in single-parent situations,
instruction and leadership by home          been taught that in their youth. But        whose stable home life has been tom
and church, there are a few who re-         theopenfornicationseenandaccepted           to pieces by the devastation of di-
quire the special attention of pastors      in our society has so influenced the        vorce.
and elders. And though their number         thinking of people, even nominally               All of these factors, in conjunc-
be still small in comparison to the         Christian and church-going people,          tion with the depravity of our na-
many young people in our churches,          that they actually encourage their          tures, gives increase to the problems
one wonders if we do not see an             children to fornicate with the world!       seen among our young people today.
increase of such cases in our day. I             Our young people can go into           And the problems are real. It is easy
thinkwe do. It would stand to reason.       any number of gas stations and con-         as pastors and elders to bury our
Our young people today face open            venience stores or book stores, and         heads in the sand. After all, unless we
temptations that were not faced by us       see pornographic material displayed         haveourfingerfirmlypressedagainst
                                            right in front of their eyes. The devel-    the pulse of our congregations, we
                                            opment of the VCR in the past ten           will be the last to know about the sins
                                            years, and the proliferation of video       with which our youth are struggling.
                                            stores, has put within the reach of our     Sometimes ignorance is bliss. But
Rev. Key is pastor of the Protestant Re-    young people any number of repro-           ignorance cannot address the issues
formed Church  of  Randolph, Wisconsin.     bate movies. Sad to say, the watching       properly or effectively.
260 IStandard  Bearer I March 1,1993


Addressing the Problem                                                                     appreciation for that officebearer of
        Whenit comes to addressing the                                                     God. And such a relationship be-
problems seen among our youth, not                                                         tween an elder and a young person
to be overlooked is the preventive                                                         also has residual effects. It will be
careessentialinmaintainingspiritual                                                        appreciated by godly parents, and
health amongour  young people. Fore-                                                       noticed as well by the young person's
most in preventive care is the faithful                                                    companions and friends  - with
preaching of the Word. It is no mere                                                       whom you, as an elder, may have
coincidence that in churches where                                                         opportunity to build more relation-
the faithful preaching of the Word has                                                     ships.
fallen by the wayside, there are mul-                                                         Cleland Boyd  McAfee,  in his
titudes of young people who show                                                           book The Ruling Elder, published by
the effects of spiritual malnutrition,                                                     the Presbyterian Board of Christian
or have already spiritually died.                                                          Education in 1931, wrote: When
        Solid preaching has a twofold                                                      young people feel at home in the
effect upon the church's teenagers.                                                        church, especially on the terms of real
        In the first place, such preaching                                                 spiritual relationships, the strongest
bears the fruits of spiritual youth. It                                                    type of church develops.... In this
should not be necessary to expand                                                          relation to young people the session
upon this particular point among us.                      Rev. Steven Key                  (consistory, SK) cannot be too watch-
Let us remember, though, that God                                                          ful."
has ordained the faithful preaching of                                                              It is a mistake to suppose that
the gospel as the means of salvation           young. But even in a new pastorate,         young people object to true spiritual-
and strengthening not only of adults,          the minister can make catechism a           ity. We must not be afraid to use the
but children and young people. Those           place very beneficial toward building       Scriptures in our labors with youth.
regenerated children who sit under             a healthy relationshipwith the youth        At the same time, there is no age
faithfulpreachinghavingbeentaught              of the church. Openness needs to be         group more sensitive to and contemp;
by their parents the need for atten-           encouraged. In this setting, doctrine       tuous toward inconsistency in reli-
tiveness, will themselves grow spiri-          may be applied very particularly and        gious practice, which they will quickly
tually and show fruits of spirituality.        discussion encouraged. Especially in        term "hypocrisy." They may not be
        But in the second place, preach-       areas where we do not have our own          so quick to see it in themselves, but
ing which is faithful in its exposition        Christian high schools or where we          you may be sure they will see it in
of the Scriptures and the calling Christ       have catechumens going to college,          others, and especially officebearers, if
has given the church also bears as             our youth run into particular difficul-     it is there to see. Here, as in all our
fruit a strong fahziZy  life in the church.    ties either from a doctrinal point of       labors, a godly walk is essential.
Where a church has been blessed by             view or in practice. If opportunity is               When Peter wrote to the elders
sound preaching for any length of              given them to ask questions of a gen-       of the church (I Pet. 5:1-4), he did not
time, there will be found a church             eral nature at the end of the class, or     pen an empty phrase, when he called
characterizedby families that arefaith-        if there is an open relationship be-        us to be examples to the flock. And
ful in their calling within the home.          tween pastor (or elder) and young           when the writer to the Hebrews calls
And when we speak about preven-                people, there may be an opportunity         Gods people to follow the faith of the
tive pastoral care among young                 for conversation even after the con-        elders, considering the end of their
people, essential is a family life char-       clusion of the catechism class.             conversation (Heb. 13:7), the clear
acterized by spiritual-mindedness                   Finally, still in the area of pre-     implication is that elders must set a
and an openness to speak about spiri-          ventive medicine, we ought not be           good example for the flock. That
tual things and to live in a spiritual         hesitant as elders or pastors to estab-     godly example is of particular impor-
way.                                           lish friendships with the church's          tanceinourlaborswithyoungpeople,
        Additionalpreventivemedicine           young people. Establishing a friend-        who, in all their striving for indepen-
is tobe administeredin our catechism           ship does not detract from the God-         dence, are still looking to others for
classes. Ministers do well to use those        ordained authoritative function of the      examples. True spirituality among
classes not only for solid biblical in-        office. Rather it puts the office in the    officebearers will also serve as a good
struction in doctrine, but also to try to      best possible light and makes the ex-       vaccine among the youth, provoking
buildarapportwith the youngpeople.             ercise of the officeall  the more effec-    many.unto good works and genuine
Here is an area where a longer stay in         tive. When a teenager sees an elder as      Christian piety.
a pastorate is beneficial  - when a            a friend who is truly spiritual, and                 But administering preventive
relationship canbe establishedbegin-           who cares for him in all areas of his       medicine is only part of the calling of
ning already when the children are             life, that teenager will have much          the pastor and elder. There are cases

                                                                                                     March 1,1993  I Standard Seam I261


thatariseinanychurchwhereayoung                Nor should this be difficult, when we     our Bibles in every situation with a
personsuffersfromaspiritualmalady              bear in mind the truth that Christ has    passage to read and apply. Some-
that is beyond the effects of preven-          given us the calling to work with         times we have to be walking Bibles,
tive medicine. These cases must be             those "which he hath purchased with       simply applying the principles of
treated not only by the pastor, but            his own blood" (Acts 20:28). If Christ    Scripture, rather than quoting texts.
also by the elders of the church.              so loved His sheep, we who stand as       But, in every case, searching ques-
                                               His officebearers must love likewise.     tions need carefully to be asked, in
Dealing With Specific and Indi-                A young person who is caught in the       order to provide sound spiritual guid-
vidual Problems                                snares of a sin or who is struggling      ance and instruction.
      In such cases several things are         spiritually is generally intimidated
worthy of note.                                `by authority figures. That is espe-
      A relationship of trust is essen-        cially true of men who are regarded                     Too often
tial. And when I speak of a relation-          as spiritual bulwarks. If such a young          as elders and pastors
ship of trust, I refer to the fact that the    person is to hear us, he must see that
young man or young woman with                  we are not "out to get him," but that        we tend to deai only with
whom we labor must have a trust                we truly love him for Christ's sake                  the symptoms
toward us. There are some young                and desire his good.                           of  a person's problem.
people, especially those with serious               We must also have a solidknowl-
problems, who will not allow a rela-           edge of the Scriptures, if we are to
tionship of trust. But if there is to be       laborproperlyamongtroubledyouth.               In this connection it should be
positive fruit upon our labors with            This stands to reason. Our entire         added that pastors and elders need to
any individual, a relationship of trust        calling as officebearersis summarized     workat  and develop Zisteningskills.  It
must first be established. And crucial         inthecallingto"bringthe Word." We         is always a danger that we speak too
to such trust is the knowledge that we         must know our Bibles thoroughly,          soon, thereby bypassing the real
deal in confidentiality. In many cases         also searching them regularly to see      needs. Always we must listen care-
it is necessary that a consistory be           what Word of God applies well to          fully and seek to listen more. We
fully or partially informed about the          given situations and sins with which      must search for the deepest need.
labors with an individual. But where           God's young people struggle. But,         Then we apply the Word. Too often
that is so, we had better be sure that         more than bare knowledge, we must         as elders and pastors we tend to deal
suchmattersarekeptwithin  thewalls             seek from God wisdom in how to            only with the symptoms of a person's
of the consistory room. Woe to those           apply the Scriptures to the given case    problem. We try to correct the most
elders or ministers who violate the            with which we deal. PatrickFairbaim,      obvious situation, and achieving that
trust of certainindividuals by making          in his bookPastoral Theology,  points     correction feel as if we have solved
private matters public and who                 out "that a pastor has often much         the problem. This is like giving an
spread confidential matters. Such an           more to do with those who seek ad-        aspirin to a person with bone cancer.
officebearer makes himself worthy of           vice from him regarding their soul's      To use one illustration, when a young
disciplineandpossiblyevendismissal             interests than quote a few passages of    person's church attendance falls off,
from the office.                               Scripture and point their way to the      and there is neglect of the, means of
      Secondly, genuine spiritual con-         Savior" (p. 286). Though the Scrip-       grace, we must not be hasty in focus-
cern and care for the individual must          ture must serve as the foundation of      ing on that one problem. The neglect
also be conveyed by us in our work             all pastoral work, and must be our        of the means of grace is always a
with young people. This should be              "tool for the trade," that does not       symptom of a deeper spiritual prob-
our constant attitude as officebearers.        necessarily mean that we come with        lem. What is the deeper problem?
                                                                                         Why the lack of desire to attend the
                                                                                         house of God for worship? To fail to
                                                                                         address the deeper problem is to be-
                                                                                         come guilty of treating the symp-
                                                                                         toms, but neglecting the killer dis-
                                                                                         ease. To listen is an essential aspect of
                                                                                         all pastoral work, but most necessary
                                                                                         in dealing with youth.
                                                                                              Patience is another necessary
                                                                                         virtue in pastoral care among teenag-
                                                                                         ers. If you "blow up" in your dealings
                                                                                         with a young person, you have just
                                                                                         blown for good any opportunity to
                                                                                         labor for his salvation. We must rec-

262 IStandard  Bearer I March I, 1993


ognize that in most young people            another few months while he contin-          hath purchased with his own blood."
there is a certain level of immaturity      ues in his sin.                              Not to be neglected in your pastoral
and irresponsibility. This can become            On the other hand, visits made          oversight as elders are the youth of
irritating at times. But in our care for    regularly and frequently will convey         the church.
such youth, our irritation must be          to the person a sense of urgency and                  McAfee,  in the bookcitedabove,
suppressed. I do not mean to imply          deep concern on the part of God's            states that it can be most helpful in the
that with patience we must avoid all        officebearers. The effects of such con-      consistory'sworkwithyoungpeople,
firm instruction and admonitions.           sistent labor will be seen much more         that a fair number of young elders be
Where there are particular sins, and a      quickly than with inconsistent and           brought into the consistory. At the
rejection of admonitions and instruc-       infrequent visits. Either the person         same time, he points out that an elder
tion, there must be reproof given in a      will be given by God to see the seri-        need not be young to have a strong
firm but loving manner. Patience            ousness of his sin, and will be led by       relationship with the youth of the
must never prevent us from provid-          the Word to confess'and turn fromhis
ing firm direction. But patience must       sin in the sorrow of repentance; or he
be exercised with a view to the gen-        will soon refuse to see the elders that
eral weaknesses of youth. Immatu-           are frequently darkening his door-
rity and signs of irresponsibility must     step. The Word not received will
not anger us in a pastoral setting, so      become an irritant to him. For the
that it prevents us from dealing with       welfare of the church I urge you el-
the deeper issues. In addition, when        ders: Bring the Word with frequency
we speak about patience, we must            to those walking in sin or struggling
realize that the Spirit works in His        with various problems.
children over a period of time and               Although such has been implied
through consistent labors. We need          throughout this writing I want to
patience also to wait upon the Lord,        emphasize the importance of elders
seeking His blessing upon our labors.       becoming personally and directly in-
     This, however, points to another       volved in working with the youth of
need - that of consistency in our           the church. The church in centuries          church. He writes, "In one church
work Consistent labors must be given        past has recognized the importance           this natural friend of the young people
those young people in whom we ob-           of consistory's laboring with the            was the senior elder, well in his eight-
serve particular problems.                  church's youth. Article 44 of our            ies, but any young person would have
     It isaseriousmistake, when there       Church Order, which speaks of the            gone to him as naturally with a sug-
are concrete symptoms of spiritual          calling of the classical church visitors,    gestion for the session as if he had
illness or a sinful walk, that elders       requires them II to take heed whether        been a member of the Young People's
make an initial visit only to let the       the minister and consistory . . . prop-      Society. A deeply spiritual life is not
issue lie for several months. Though        erly promote as much as lies in them,        forbidding or restraining to others if
this matter reaches beyond our-work         through word and deed, the                   it is warm and winsome" (op. cit., p.
with wayward youth, it deserves             upbuilding of the congregation, in           163).
emphasis. Our pastoral or disciplin-        particular of the youth."                             At the same time, we must rec-
ary labors must be consistent and                As a pastor I readily acknowl-          ognize that God gives different gifts
ongoing, until the person is completely     edge that my calling is not only the         to each of His chosen officebearers.
restored or reveals unbelief and de-        pulpit ministry, but the pastoral min-       Just as all pastors differ in gifts, so do
parts. I urge our elders to make            istry as well. Although, without ques-       elders. Where one elder is not as
regular and frequent visits in all cases    tion, the preaching of the Word must         comfortable as another in caring for
where problems are evident. Such            have the chief place in our labors as        the afflicted, such will be the case also
regular and frequent visits (at a very      pastors, we also are called to follow        in caring for the youth of the church.
minimum once a month, while greater         the example of the apostle Paul, who         At the same time, elders must be
frequency is desirable in many cases)       ministered not only publicly, but from       encouraged to develop in the labors
willprovetobethemosteffectiveand            house to house (Acts 20:20). But let it      of their office. The most difficult part
ultimately the least time-consuming         be clearly understood, pastoral over-        of any difficult task is usually getting
way to do the work. A person who is         sight is primarily the calling of the        started. An elder who devotes him-
walking in sin will often receive the       elders  of the church. To you elders         self to labors among the youth of the
elders of the church, if they visit only    comes the calling of Acts 20:28, "Take       church will grow through those la-
once a year or once every few months.       heed therefore unto yourselves, and          bors.
Such a person can "put up with the          to all the flock, over the which the                  Fervent prayer is necessary in all
elders for an hour," if his receiving       Holy Ghost hath made you overseers,          our labors of a pastoral nature. This
them "keeps them off his back" for          to feed the church of God, which he          is a matter that can be emphasized in

                                                                                                  March I,1993 I Standard Bearer I263


 &DMD
    BEARul                                                                                                    SECOND CLASS
                                                                                                              Postage Paid at
                                                                                                              Grandvile, Michigan
    P. 0. Box 603
   Grandville, MI 49468-0603


all areas of pastoral labor; but I will     people stubborn in their sinful rebel-
certainly emphasize it here. In deal-       lion-are a great threat to the church's
ing with difficulties among youth,          welfare. By their carnal lives they
and with particular individuals, you        influence other young people in the
often will not know, at least initially,    church. And if they are allowed to
the problems which you must treat.          continue undisciplined in their rebel-                       NOTICE!!
For the most part, therefore, in the        liousness, not only will they go to hell,                  Anfichrist
initial stages of working with an indi-     but they will take the church (as an
vidual, you willnot know what Scrip-        institute) with them! And although                  by Rev. Barry Gritters
ture ,passages  you might study in          the emphasis in the text referred to is
preparation for your meeting. Your          that of parental responsibility, there       A new pamphlet ($1.00) published by
preparation will be confined prima-         is clear instruction given also to the       the Byron Center Evangelism Com-
rily to that of prayer. And let it be       elders of the church. The elders are         mittee. Available from:
fervent prayer, prayer for wisdom,          called to execute judgment according,                    Leonard Holstege
for patience, for knowledge, and for        to the law of %od. I do not mean to                       1522 144th St.
the presence of the Holy Spirit in your     imply that the elders in the New Tes-                     Dorr, Ml 49323
labors.                                     tament church should execute God's
      Finally, I must say something         judgment by stoning. But they are
about laboring with rebellious and          still called to declare the sentence of
impenitent youth. The remedy of             death upon all who reject Christ and                         NOTICE!!
Christian discipline must, according        His Word and way. The judgment                      All students enrolled in the Prot-
to Scripture, be exercised also toward      that they execute is the judgment ren-       estant Reformed Seminary, who will
the young people of the church who          dered in Christian discipline, and es-       be in need of financial assistance for
are obstinate in their rebellion against    pecially by excommunication (cf.             the coming school year, are asked to
God. That is the clear teaching of          Matt.`16:19;  18:15-18;ICor.  5; IIThess.    contact the Student Aid Committee
Deuteronomy 21:18-21.                       3:14,15).                                    Secretary, Mr. Larry Meulenberg.
      There are those children of the            After the elders have worked            (Phone [616]453-6466.) This contact
church who, to our sorrow, do not           faithfully and have brought the Word         should be made no later than March
walk in the way of Gods precepts,           of God to that young person, only to         15.
who reject all parental and pastoral        see the Word rejected and the heart                         Student Aid Committee
care and instruction and show no            hardened, the elders must cut off such                 Larry Meulenberg, Secretary
impenitence for their sinful walk.          a rebel from the church. Such disci-
Some of those are wayward only for          pline is, according to Gods inscru-
a time; others go astray never to re-       table purpose, "the last remedy." In
turn to the shadow of the cross and         certain cases God in mercy will use                         NOTICE!!
the bosom of the church. We must not        such discipline eventually to work                  All standing and special commit-
letourtreatmentofsuchyoungpeople            repentance in the heart of him toward        tees of Synod, as well as individuals
be governed merely by our emotions          whom this remedy is applied.                 who wish to address Synod 1993, are
and natural parental love. We must               Do we love the church? Do we            hereby notified that all material for the
treat them with the love of God, which      love the youth of the church? Then let       1993 Synod of the Protestant Re-
se+sGod'sgloryandwalksinobedi-              us heed our calling in providing pre-        formed Churches should be in the
ence to His Word and instruction. To        ventive medicine for all our youth,          hands of the Stated Clerk no later than
theprinciplesetforthinDeuteronomy           and surgical remedies of counseling          April 1. (Please note the earlier date
21:18-21  you and I must give heed          and discipline in the individual cases       - as determined by Synod 1992,
and wholehearted obedience, lest the        where necessary. Negligence is far           Acts, Article 54, B, 3, a.)
wrath of God rest upon us not only as       too prevalent today in these things.                    Rev. M. Joostens
families, but as a church.                  May God be pleased to use us for the                  2016 Tekonsha S.E.
     The children whose example is          strengthening of the church by the                  Grand Rapids, Ml 49506.
setforthinDeuteronomy21-young               nurture of her youth. 0

264 /Standard Bearer / March 1,1993


