Gregory the Great was the leader of the Western Church in the sixth century. In the preface to the Third Book of his work titled Pastoral Care, Gregory suggests that church leaders along with their congregants must be in agreement if they want the church to be edified through the Scriptures. Such accordance would allow these leaders to preach the same doctrine of the gospel but using different ways to exhort. Gregory writes, “every teacher, in order to edify all in the one virtue of charity, must touch the hearts of his hearers by using one and the same doctrine, …

One important aspect I had to develop as a chaplain was increasing my self-awareness. In that regard, reflecting on what biblical character I identified with the most served this purpose. In my case, I identified strongly with is Gideon, the judge. While for some, Gideon is a courageous and strong figure; for others, he is just a flawed hero. The way we see Gideon depends a lot on the cultural lens we use. In the end, Gideon was a person of his time. He lived in a culture where the religious and the cultural were so ingrained in the social …

In his book How to Have a Healing Ministry without Making Your Church Sick, Pentecostal theologian Peter Wagner discusses the ministry of healing prayer and the reasons a congregation should have one. I think nobody would disagree that the care of sick people is a common area among Christian denominations that deserves attention despite tradition. Despite Wagner offers readers an interesting point of view on healing prayer, he may stir some controversy when he claims that “some times God heals directly, and sometimes he uses means for the healing but he seldom heals directly unless we ask him to” (p. …

The Shawshank Redemption is about the experiences Andy had in prison when he was falsely convicted of murdering his wife and her lover. One theme portrayed in the movie is the role of hope in the lives of human beings. This film explores a series of motifs that help us understand better the process of restoration in the practice of providing pastoral care to Christians, even though this is a secular film. One of the thought-provoking quotes of the movie is when Andy states, “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things.” It is this hope that leads …