Pastor As Carer (Curer) of Souls
PASTORS, I might argue, are wounded healers: in the industry of healing persons inside their midst; though they're, themselves, somewhat plus some ways very wounded anyway.
pastor Richard Taylor
The Latin word cura means "care," nevertheless it can be shown to indicate "cure." Based on Eugene Peterson in The Contemplative Pastor, the care of souls is "Scripture-directed and prayer-shaped" - a determination to be effective at the prime of a person; "to concentrate on the essential."
Centering on the essential is working hard on getting to the main; to strip away allegiances to the superficial; to compel focus and attention toward what is most shimmeringly truthful.
That's the pastor's job; to get beyond the task-nature of the relational task, to escape the transactional 'tick list' mentality, and hone in on the person - their wounded soul to worry - to teach and instil self-care.
The pastor, themselves, is to be an exemplar of that that they or she is called to accomplish in others - to facilitate such self-care (self-cure) through integrity of private cooperation (their flesh in subjugation using the Spirit) and Spiritual obedience. This is not perfection, but it is maintenance; a degree of competence to augment health. So now, in a continual sense, there's freedom to care for (and cure) souls.
Passing the baton is a thing every pastor desires to do. There are those who came before them; those that healed their very wounds. The pastor stands on not-so-rickety shoulders. As well as the pastor wants others to serve God with passion, and even to answer their own calling: to pastor. But pastoring is not only about who came behind and who goes ahead. It's centrally about healing; about speaking the gospel of God's gracious power into people's lives.
They sense their opportunity, and it is not limited to the church; it is a Kingdom role. Which means the whole of every day life is a series of opportunities for healing to become done, and not one moment is without that beautiful and devoted purpose - we are able to see why pastoring is a 'called' life; few would like to surrender 24/7.
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