Senkbeil, The Care of Souls - a review

Harold L. Senkbeil, The Care of Souls: Cultivating a Pastor’s Heart (Lexham Press, 2019)

ISBN: 9781683593010

US $21.99

290pp, hb



I very much enjoyed this book as a reminder of the noble craft and art of the pastor. Senkbeil believes we need the Holy Spirit to cultivate a pastoral temperament or character in us. He urges us to recall that we are the authorised representatives and servants of Jesus who are to be about his business and act in his stead. We act as his agents as stewards or proxies administering gifts which are not our own. We are the emissaries, the errand boys of Jesus, the sheep dogs of the Good Shepherd, and as such we ought to be loyal to him and spend time in his presence. We should seek to cultivate Christ’s love for the sheep in our own hearts.



Senkbeil makes what he calls the classical model of pastoral care and the cure of souls seem attractive. The Word of God is the source and norm. Attentive diagnosis, with careful listening which takes time to avoid leaping to conclusions, is to move towards intentional treatment. The minister is not a psychologist or therapist (and these may be helpful to our people). The pastor’s vocation is to minister the Word and Sacraments, which give what they promise. He must carefully distinguish guilt and shame in those whom he treats. Almost always we are both sinning and sinned against, but it is harmful to confuse these and to produce a false guilt or fail to deal with a sense of shame, however unjustified that might be. Holiness is Christ’s gift and the goal of pastoral care. The pastor and the Christian are engaged in spiritual warfare and require the armour of Christ their hero. The cure of souls also goes hand in hand with mission. Of course, those who come to believe will require soul care. There is helpful teaching here on how to pray for people in response to the Scriptures and how to teach others to pray. We might particularly remember that we pray “Our Father” not only in solidarity with other believers but in Christ. Senkbeil encourages steadiness in the face of inevitable opposition from the world, and joy in the pastor.



With his high view of the pastoral office, Senkbeil is convinced that the pastor needs a pastor and that it is normally best if this person is not also the pastor’s ministerial supervisor.



Senkbeil is a Lutheran and some contemporary evangelicals might balk at the emphasis on baptism and “the sacrament of the altar”, Holy Communion, and on the ministry of absolution and blessing. But Michael Horton of Westminster Seminary as written the foreword, so this must be approved reading for the Reformed!



A life time of pastoral experience has gone into this book, which includes anecdotes and examples / case studies. Senkbeil also draws winsomely on his upbringing in rural western Minnesota to provide analogies pertinent to the minister of the Word.



I think any pastor could benefit from this counsel.



Senkbeil is the executive director of Doxology: The Lutheran Centre for Spiritual Care - www.doxology.us