By Dr. Roger Pittelko

Each language has its own flavor that often makes it very difficult to translate a word or a phrase into another language. One of those words comes to us from the land of the Reformation. It is the word Seelsorger. This is a word that is used as a synonym for the word Pastor. It means one who comforts and cares for the soul. There is no possible way you can turn that phrase into a noun that would be an alternative for the word Pastor.

If we can’t translate Seelsorger into English as a title, we can at least understand the word and see that it helps us understand the role and mission of the pastor. The pastor is the person who does care for the souls of those entrusted to him. He is the man who is called by the Lord through the church to be a comforter of souls. He is to be the physician of souls under the Great Physician of souls, even Jesus Christ our Lord.

Physicians have knowledge of the human body and knowledge of disease and maladies. They have a knowledge of remedies and drugs and have skill in using diagnostic instruments and surgical instruments. They have a "tool bag" of instruments and remedies.

If the pastor is a "physician of souls", a Seelsorger, what are his instruments and tools? What is in his "tool bag"? Just as the physician of the body spends many years in school gaining knowledge, so the pastor is educated and schooled. The pastor’s education as a Seelsorger is in the knowledge of the Word of God. He studies the Bible in the original languages. He knows how to interpret a text. He knows the history of the church and the church’s understanding of the Scriptural texts through the centuries. He understands the doctrine of the Scriptures as confessed by the Evangelical Lutheran Church.

The Seelsorger has knowledge as a "physician of the soul." It is the Word of God as both Law and Gospel which the pastor knows and believes, that is in the "tool bag" of the Seelsorger. The pastor applies the Word of God and the holy sacraments as healing balm and medicine to the troubled soul. It is to the troubled soul that the pastor announces and pronounces forgiveness through Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. It is the Sacrament of the Altar by which Christ gives His true body and blood for the forgiveness of sins that the pastor administers to troubled and bruised souls. In fact, one of the ancient names for the Sacrament of the Altar is "the medicine of immortality."

Through the means of the Word of God and the sacraments, the pastor is at work among his people as the physician of souls, as the comforter and healer of souls, as the Seelsorger. It is to this high and holy calling that the Lord of the Church continues to call men. There is no higher calling!

The Rev. Roger D. Pittelko, D. Min., is an Adjunct Professor of Pastoral Ministry and Missions at Concordia Theological Seminary. He is also Fourth Vice-President of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.

From Volume 2, Issue 6, November/December 1998