{"id":65631,"date":"2004-06-02T20:36:00","date_gmt":"2004-06-02T20:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?p=65631"},"modified":"2026-03-17T20:37:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T20:37:28","slug":"mastering-pastoral-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/mastering-pastoral-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Mastering Pastoral Care"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In our fax-paced age, when personal contact is often replaced by the technological touch, it is not easy to care personally for parishioners. You see many members only on Sunday morning. Those who are inactive you see approximately two times a year. Because families are so busy, you may be discouraged about finding your members at home. And if you\u2019re buried under administrative details, pastoral care seems like a luxury of a small rural nineteenth-century ministry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In spite of obstacles, however, you entered the ministry\u2014and remain in it\u2014because you long to care for others. You willingly assume the varied duties of the modern pastorate, but pastoral care is what you want to provide. How to do it with today\u2019s busy members, under the constraints of modern church life, is the subject of this fifth volume in the <em>Mastering Ministry<\/em> series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bruce Larson, Paul Anderson, and Doug Self remain committed to pastoral ministry and are known for offering fresh models of pastoral care. Their insights arise out of the daily challenges of pastoral life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You are called to be many things these days: a preacher, a manager, a counselor, and a teacher, to name a few. But your congregation still calls you \u201cpastor,\u201d and you happily accept the title. <em>Mastering Pastoral Care<\/em> will help you live up to it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In our fax-paced age, when personal contact is often replaced by the technological touch, it is not easy to care personally for parishioners. You see many members only on Sunday morning. Those who are inactive you see approximately two times a year. Because families are so busy, you may be discouraged about finding your members <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/mastering-pastoral-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":[346],"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-65631","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 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mastering Pastoral Care - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In our fax-paced age, when personal contact is often replaced by the technological touch, it is not easy to care personally for parishioners. You see many\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/mastering-pastoral-care\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mastering Pastoral Care - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In our fax-paced age, when personal contact is often replaced by the technological touch, it is not easy to care personally for parishioners. 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