{"id":65601,"date":"2004-06-02T18:26:00","date_gmt":"2004-06-02T18:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?p=65601"},"modified":"2026-03-17T18:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T18:28:09","slug":"building-your-church-through-counsel-and-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/building-your-church-through-counsel-and-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Building Your Church Through Counsel and Care"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>One of the best definitions of leadership is &#8220;being willing to take responsibility for someone else.&#8221; While pop culture encourages people to break free from obligation to anyone but themselves, Christians who have heard the call of God know that ministry is about caring for others. Care is more than an emotion, a general warm feeling toward people, or an affection for a few individuals. Pastoral care implies ensuring basic needs of the flock are met all with a purpose of cultivating mature Christian character.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This third volume in the <em>Library of Leadership Development<\/em> explores how to give effective counsel and care in a wide range of critical areas using person-to-person ministry, care groups, preaching, and teaching. Now, in a never-before-collected lineup, are thirty chapters of expert advice from:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Randy Alcorn<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Danny Armstrong<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Greg Asimakoupoulos<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>James Berkley<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Andre Bustanoby<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Randy Christian<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>James Dobson<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Richard Exley<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gary Gulbranson<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Richard Halverson<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Archibald Hart<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bruce Larson<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kathryn Lindskoog<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Victoria Martin<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>S. Bowen Matthews<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Louis McBurney<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Al Miles<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Robert Morgan<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eugene Peterson<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Michael Phillips<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gary Preston<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kevin Ruffcorn<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dale Ryan<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hal Schell<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Marshall Shelley<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gary Sweeten<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Matthew Woodley<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the best definitions of leadership is &#8220;being willing to take responsibility for someone else.&#8221; While pop culture encourages people to break free from obligation to anyone but themselves, Christians who have heard the call of God know that ministry is about caring for others. Care is more than an emotion, a general warm <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/building-your-church-through-counsel-and-care\/\">Read more&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_books":[326],"tax_ctp_categories":[154],"tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory":[],"tax_ctp_field_guides":[],"tax_ctp_format":[134],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[156],"tax_ctp_tags":[],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-65601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tax_publications-leadership-journal"],"acf":{"scripture_references":null},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - 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