There naturally are those men in the pastorate whose ministries tilt more in the direction of counseling. And then there are those pastors who give more of their time to preaching. But far from being competing aspects of the pastor’s central charge to minister God’s Word (Acts 6:4) as he shepherds the flock of God (1 Peter 5:2), this article takes the position—based on the following five observations—that the pastor who is personally invested in counseling God’s Word can expect to see increased effectiveness in his role as a preacher of God’s Word.
Counseling Cultivates a Shepherd’s Heart
The pastor who regularly engages in counseling has seen “secret atheism”1 enthroned in the hearts of countless counselees as they harbor secret sins. The pastor who counsels has seen the time-proven plague of idolatrous self-love rear its ugly head in his office, as he begs people to worship God aright and to live the life of faithfulness and obedience that He rightly commands.
In other words, such a pastor, while theologically astute and doctrinally grounded, is not aloof and entrenched in an ivory tower. He is not a clinical academician, a stiff stoic, a dry exegete, or an ungrounded pulpiteer. Rather, such
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