By Dr. Arthur Just

The time has come to tap the resources God has provided for his church by proclaiming without apology the rich heritage of Lutheran pastoral theology to those who want to confess the Biblical and Lutheran faith.

Christ the Good Shepherd Institute of Pastoral Theology has accomplished that task by dedicating its energy to the recovery of the classic care of souls by integrating theology into the pastoral life of the church.

Administered by Concordia Theological Seminary, the institute provides a place where campus pastors and scholars retreat to

• pray the hours in Kramer Chapel
• converse about pastoral theology
• produce pastoral materials that reflect who we are as Lutheran Christians that can be used by congregations and pastors

What does it mean to be a "pastor" in our post-modern world? It is the same today as it was yesterday and as it will be tomorrow—a pastor is a shepherd. A shepherd offers God’s people a map of the real world, a world that has radically changed since our Good Shepherd gave up his life for the sheep. This world became our reality the moment we were baptized into Christ and entered his church which is the new creation—a foretaste of the world to come where the Good Shepherd is host of the banquet of the Lamb.

This Good Shepherd cares for his sheep as they journey together as his body, the church. He cares for them through pastors who administer the ordinary means of pastoral care that includes liturgy, preaching, and catechesis, and the extra-ordinary means of pastoral care (or the "private care of souls"), any one-on-one pastoral relationship as sick or shut-ins calls, counseling, etc.

"Ordinary" suggests that the normal place for pastoral care is the gathering of the people of God around the Gospel and Sacraments to receive the gifts that come from the real presence of Christ in the divine service. All rites, all words, all actions are God’s, and it is God, by his Word, through the pastor, in the congregation, who cares for souls. "Ordinary" also means corporate, that is, it is the Lord’s body that gathers on the Lord’s Day to receive the Lord’s gifts in his Word and Supper, whereas "extra-ordinary" means individualized, that is, to individuals in special circumstances who were prevented from joining the Lord’s body on the Lord’s Day to receive the Lord’s gifts. But in both the ordinary and extra-ordinary means of pastoral care the same means are used—Gospel and Sacraments—although these means are administered either corporately to the community gathered or privately to individuals at home or in an institution.

The recovery of the classic care of souls is experiencing a renaissance in our churches as God’s people tire of the therapeutic, social science, and executive models of pastoral care. They yearn to hear the clear voice of the Good Shepherd in Biblical preaching, historic liturgies, substantive catechesis, and hymns that confess the faith. They long to hear from Jesus Christ the chief pastor who speaks and acts through the pastoral office to create his church that is both his kingdom and his new creation.

From Volume 3, Issue 1 January/February 1999