Pastoral Care in Practice by Michael Hopkins 

'An excellent guide to pastoral care - should stimulate both the deepening of the church’s fellowship and enhance corporate and individual evangelism'


Pastoral Care in Practice - an introduction and guide
By Michael Hopkins 
ISBN 978 1 78622 500 9
Canterbury Press 
Reviewed by Martin M’Caw 

 
It’s not very often you score a book at eleven out of ten. This is an excellent guide to pastoral care. Should you happen to look at the back cover in a bookshop you will be impressed by the glowing comments from three denominational leaders from the United Reformed Church, the Methodists and the Baptist Union indicating ‘it is an excellent guide to pastoral care’.
 
I am a member of a small church in a Flintshire village and my thoughts turned to the midweek meetings of larger churches. In my experience they generally centre on Bible studies, but to have a series concentrating on the headings of Pastoral Care in Practice should stimulate both the deepening of the church’s fellowship and enhance both corporate and individual evangelism.
 
Ministers will have had some training in pastoral care but many of the people in the pews need to learn that pastoral care is more than just saying ‘Hello. How are you today?’  

The question section at the end of each chapter pinpoints the reader or members of a discussion group reader to think about the issues covered and how they might apply them. For example the Understanding People chapter has a small section on LGBTQI which may well take some out of their comfort zone. The questions ask ‘Do you have a sense of your own biases? Do the minorities mentioned strike a chord or give a particular challenge? How do you feel about listening and looking twice as much as speaking?'
 
In the section on Visiting, the stereotypes of visiting within the lifetime of older church members do not serve as well for patterns of pastoral care in the current age. Ten rules are outlined for pastoral care. The questions ask ‘Do the ten rules need adding to, changing, or do they cover everything?’ A pertinent question for church discussion groups.
 
The final two chapters cover caring for sick people and those in difficult situations. Having a cough or cold is one thing but a terminal illness is something else. Visiting problem families goes from issues of poverty, difficult broken relationship to those in trouble with the law, and there are always those who have left a church whether it be one's own or another. 

The questions at the end of each chapter are as thought provoking as the chapter is stimulating.
 
I hope this review will encourage those who are not aware of it to purchase a copy for themselves and or their church.

 

The Revd Dr Martin M’Caw is a Retired Baptist minister and Wing Chaplain to No.2 Welsh Wing RAF Cadets (also retired)