10 Pastoral Care Teachers in Honor of Herb Hoff's Birthday: Dietrich Bonhöffer

7th Teacher: Dietrich Bonhöffer

Bonhöffer teaches me that I am an idolater and that anyone I give care to is as well. I am usually blinded to my own idolatry, and so is the person before me. The person before me ultimately needs God’s wisdom more than my advise, God’s authoritative word more than my speculations, and most of all a clarifying revelation of God in Christ Jesus. With Isaiah (Ch 6) we need an experience with the Holy Trinity to purify our hearts and minds and lips.

Harold Senkbeil wrote a helpful article called "The Art of Spiritual Evaluation" and quotes Jay Rochelle, 

"In his introduction to Bonhöffer's Spiritual Care, identifies three components in the care of the soul:1. Invocation-meditation and prayer; calling God into our presence by Word and by prayer.2. Revocation-the exposure of false gods and exorcism of demons "by which we construct false selves apart from the sustaining word of God."3. Evocation-conversation aimed at awareness of God's presence in a person's life; reaching below the surface of a constructed ego for the soul-the person who is named by the Word. (Jay C. Rochelle, Introduction to Spiritual Care [Bonhöffer] (Fortress Press, 1985), 26.

All to often, I insert myself and am more an “in-the-way” guy instead of the “prepare the way” guy. 

"The pastor's goal in soul cure is to bring the soul to Christ and Christ to the soul.”

"Gregory [the] Great in his monumental manual on pastoral care writes:For that man is an enemy to his Redeemer who on the strength of the good works he performs, desires to be loved by the Church, rather than by Him. Indeed, a servant is guilty of adulterous thought, if he craves to please the eyes of the bride when the bridegroom sends gifts to her by him. (Gregory the Great, Pastoral Care (trans, Henry David, New York: Newman Press, 1950), p.75 from (Harold L. Senkbeil, "The Art of Spiritual Evaluation: A Framework for Understanding the Health of the Soul and Its Cure." Christ's Gifts for Healing the Soul: Toward a Lutheran Identity in the New Millenium, 2001).