Restoring the Pastoral Ministry to the Church

By Rick Joyner

First, the church must recover the biblical perspective of what mental health truly is before we will be able to convey it to the world. The popular, humanistically based definition of mental health is so easily debunked it is hard to understand how it ever gained so much ground in the church, except that Satan truly is skillful at deceiving.

The only true mental health that we can ever know is Christcentrici ty--"For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things have been created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things and in Him all things hold together."(Colossians 1:16-17) Christ is the Center of the universe. Everything that does not revolve around Christ is eccentric (off center) and to that degree in delusion.

To be "normal" according to the world's definition is to be in a state of serious mental imbalance according to God's definition. True mental health will only be attained when our minds have been renewed, when we have been delivered from the spirit of this world and have taken on the mind of Christ.

The Basic Christian Faith

For all of the attention that the church has given to the inroads of the New Age Movement into the church, we are soon going to wake up to the fact that a more devastating infiltration has come through psychology, psychiatry and psychoanalysis than through all other sources combined. These have all worked fundamentally to turn men from the cross in their greatest area of need--the renewing of their minds. Pastors who turn God's people over to secular mental health professionals for help have made a fundamental departure from their calling, and have, in many cases, delivered the Lord's own sheep into the hands of wolves.

Do I think that all psychologists and psychiatrists are wolves? No. I honestly think that many of them are sheep in wolves clothing--they have just taken on the wrong garments. We should not spend our time attacking psychology or psychiatry, these only developed in order to fill the void abdicated by the church--they are trying desperately to help fallen men from the consequences of the fall because we will not do it. In many cases this is the very noble attempt of drowning men trying to help their fellow drowning men, while the church sits on the life preservers and pays no attention to the world drowning around them.

Psychological sciences have, in some ways, done an admirabIe job of illuminating the source of many "mental" problems, but their cure is often even worse than the disease. Several studies showed that people overcame "mental" problems faster with no help than with the help of a professional. Many of those who were "helped," may feel better, but are even further from the truth and from the power of true deliverance than before. Our goal is not to feel better about ourselves, but to be Christlike. This sometimes requires that we not feel better about ourselves, but that we allow "godly sorrow" to move us to genuine repentance. Only repentance will lead us to the cross where we find the only real answer to every human need.

Secular psychology at its best is humanistic, and is often diabolical. Do I include Christian psychology or "inner healing" in this? I honestly am not familiar enough with how these have become "Christian" to take a position on them. The Christian counselors that I have met were sincerely trying to help their fellow Christians, and some even acknowledged that they were only trying to fill the void abdicated by the church. I recognized a true pastor's calling on some of these, and I could not help but wonder why there was no place for them in the church. How could a pastor call himself a pastor if he must send his people to outsiders for counseling? Counseling is basic to the pastoral ministry, and if we cannot handle that we should change our title. This is not to infer that they should leave the ministry, or even the leadership of the church, but to call them a pastor is a misnomer.

Why Heal The Old Man?

Even the secular television news magazines have been blowing the whistle on the practice of some psychologists and inner healing specialists, who while seeking to blame their patient's problem on something, have planted in the "sub-conscious" memories of their patients, child abuse, molestation and other violations which never took place. Some of the psychologists interviewed actually justified this practice by saying that it helped their patients to feel better about themselves! No one seemed concerned about the families that were wrecked, or the relationships between parents and their children that were forever destroyed. The Lord has revealed to many that this will be the source of some of the enemy's most devastating attacks on families and churches in the days to come.

I have talked to many who claim to have been "helped" by psychology or inner healing, but without exception, I felt that these people remained, and in some cases may have been made, chronically self-centered. From what were they helped? As Paul lamented, "But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ" (II Corinthians 11:3). Before becoming a Christian I made an effort to study every major school of psychology, and now I can say with assurance, all of the psychology that is needed for this life is found in the Scriptures and I categorically reject that which has its source anywhere else.

Regardless of the abuses, the answer is not to attack psychology, but to return to the cross where the answers to every human problem are found. The Lord intends to do more than just revail a few people who have overcome their depression or low self-esteem; He wants to reveal "new creation" men, women, children and families who have been delivered from all of the power of the enemy, and all of the consequences of the fall.

If we were going to fulfill the true shepherd ministry of Jesus in the church, we must first recover the fundamental truth of our faith, that Jesus is the answer to all of the world's problems, period. Everyone who is called to the pastoral ministry has the power of that cross at his disposal to give to everyone in need. Let us not continue to turn to any other prop or device that will never truly heal or deliver. It is the truth that sets people free. If we do not have the truth that can deliver people from their bondage, we do not have the truth of the gospel. "Healing is the children's bread." Basic to tending the Lord's sheep, is healing them mentally, physically and spiritually.

Summary

With the mature, controversy leads to deeper seeking, the challenging of entrenched thinking that needs to be chalIenged, and communication, all of which can help lead us to answers.

I will have much more to say on many of these subjects in due time, but I never expect to have all of the answers on them. I do not believe that we will have all of the answers until the pastoral ministry is restored, as well as the other ministries. By this article I am only trying to point to issues that must be addressed now.

If we are called to the pastoral ministry, and we are faced with problems that we do not know how to handle, we must seek so as to find, we must knock until the Lord opens and gives us the answer that is in Christ! The pastoral ministry is far more than we have perceived, and through it the Lord is going to fully reveal His nature as the Good Shepherd who is the answer to every human need and problem. We do have a long way to go to recover all that this ministry is meant to be, but we must never be satisfied with anything less than a full recovery. Through this recovery all of the ministries given to the church will be able to take their proper place, and the glorious revealing of the Lord's own nature as the Good Shepherd will be fully revealed to the world again.

If you are called as a pastor, do not be concerned that you now must become a school principal, or spend years studying psychology or human behavior. The Key to fulfilling your calling as a shepherd, is to behold the Shepherd, and to be changed into His image. Our Shepherd was able to meet the needs of all who came to Him. His shepherd ministry in the church is called to do the same. Though we must not settle for less than this, let us understand that we cannot climb a mountain with one big leap. It will be a long and difficult journey to recover all that this ministry is meant to be. So let us begin, and maintain the resolve never to fall short of all that the Lord intended for His church to be.

Basic to the recovery of the pastoral ministry is the understanding that no one man can possibly fulfill the whole ministry of shepherd to the Lord's people, even in one congregation. Much of the responsibility of this ministry has been abdicated to secular professionals mostly because we have often tried to force the entire ministry upon just one person who we call the pastor. The primary reason for so much of the "burnout" suffered by this ministry is that we have tended to take the people's yokes in place of the Lord's yoke. Pastors are not called to be executives, or managers, but ministers of the grace and power of God. The true essence of this ministry must be recovered if the church is going to accomplish her mandate in this hour. Regardless of our own calling, let us pray for and do all that we can to support the recovery of this essential ministry in the church.

Copyright: 1994 by Morningstar Publications and Ministries. All rights reserved. This article is published courtesy of "The Morningstar Publications and Ministries". If you would like to peruse more articles from the pen of Rick Joyner, visit Morningstar's website.