Fall 1980

How can the counseling demands of the 1980s be met by the local church? Five leaders share their observations.

Good leadership is a limited resource that must be carefully nurtured and renewed. David McKenna advocates a great idea that could go far toward eliminating leadership frustration, waste, and break-down.

Ted Engstrom shares five books that are helping him in ministry.

A Christian leader tells how he embarked on a self-examiniation program at the onset of his fortieth birthday.

An interview with Dr. Richard C. Halverson

Pastoral care and counseling

The case study of a patient and a Christian counselor, plus an analysis of why the therapy worked.

Lay counseling accomplishes many things: it involves members in the work of the church, it provides a fulfilling ministry for lay persons, it takes a load off the pastor. It also solves people’s problems.

Tragedy seldom gives warning. A pastor and his wife share how they dealt with a family’s grief.

Burn out is a common hazard that need not destroy its victims.

It’s not church polity and ecclesiology that make churches work. A caring mood, a Spirit-led harmony of purpose, and a spontaneous outreach to the needy world develop unity out of diversity.

A look at pastoral care by a minister who spent six weeks flat on his back.

A pastor shares a working model of how Christians can build supporting relationships into each other.

Few youth leaders disagree that there’s a need for effective youth work–it’s the how that causes problems. Here are four questions youth workers should ask themselves about their ministry.