An assessment on the ministry of pastoral care and counselling skills of pastors in the church of south india diocese of medak

Abstract

Pastoral Care and Counselling is the vital dimension of the Christian faith and an newlineessential function of Christian ministry. Since creation, there have been attempts to meet the newlineneeds of others and the self. The Holy Bible is replete with umpteen instances of care and newlinecounselling aspects. God is glorified as wonderful Counsellor (Isa 9:6). The chief purport of newlinethis study is to assess the Ministry of Pastoral Care and Counselling Skills of Pastors in the newlineChurch of South India Diocese of Medak. newlineThe study was a descriptive, cross-sectional survey based on a questionnaire carried out newlineamong trained and un-trained pastors in theology, and parishioners from Medak Diocese newlinecovering Adilabad, Nizamabad, Medak, Rangareddy, Hyderabad and Mahbubnagar districts in newlinethe State of Telangana. The survey comprised three assessment sheets for theologically trained newlinepastors (25); untrained pastors (34) and for congregational members (34) on the ministry of newlinepastoral care and counselling skills. This study falls under non-experimental designs and a newlinenormative survey is employed to elicit appropriate information from the respondents. newlineA total of 200 trained as well as untrained pastors and 100 congregational members from newlineMedak Diocese were approached and responses were obtained. A good majority of the sample newline(32.0%) agreed to the statement that church as a caring community. An equal number of newlinerespondents (42.0%) agreed and strongly agreed for the statement that church provides comfort newlineand counselling to the bereaved families of the congregation. A good majority of the sample newline(56.0%) could share personal problems with the pastors; a scintillating majority of the sample newline(80%) confessed in a cheerful tone pastor s confidentiality. A good majority of the sample newline(36%) were very much satisfied by the Ministry of Counselling. newlinePastoral counselling is a constituent of practical theology. The study implies that there is newlinean urgent need to organize and extend the counselling sessions for trained as well as untrained newlinepastors in the d