Pastoral Care: How to Give Guidance Without Being Controlling

Pastoral care is shepherding care, and shepherds give guidance to their sheep. But many Christians are nervous about the idea of giving guidance to others. The influence of non-directive models of counselling and experiences of manipulative 'heavy shepherding' combine to feed our doubts. In this talk, we learn from Scripture that guidance is an essential aspect of pastoral care and also seek some practical principles to help ensure that we can give it without controlling people.