Re: Finally - What really is Bill's Business? (was about the sanity of advice columnists)

In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Jenny6833A) wrote:


> As for the garden variety preachers who ... er ... "counsel" parishoners or
> tent show attendees, my knowledge -- though not extensive -- indicates
they are
> far inferior to the people who write columns in newspapers.


Counseling is an important function of a minister, but not their primary
function.  A minister who is poor at counseling is not a whole minister. 
For a church with only one minister, that minister must be able to wear
several hats, and counseling is one of them.

I have belonged to my church for 25 years, although I haven't been active
for some time.  We were a lay led (no minister) church for the first 7 of
those years.  Our church grew to where leading the church was more than
volunteers could reasonably do.  So we explored the idea of hiring a
minister.  I was involved in that process, and so needed to learn what a
minister does, especially for all that time other than the Sunday
services.  We needed to learn what it was exactly that we were looking
for, so we could intelligently search for such a person.

-- 
Dan Abel
Sonoma State University
AIS
[EMAIL PROTECTED]