Howard W. Stone Books

More and more professionals in ministry realized the benefits of brief pastoral counselingtypically three sessionsfor addressing the real-life dilemmas of their congregants. In this very helpful resource, eleven leaders in pastoral counselingboth established leaders and new thinkers in the fieldoffer a convincing rationale. Based on reserach, case studies, and the latest thinking, they lay out (1) the dynamics of the pastor-parishioner relationship, including the need for collaborative, hospitable, future-oriented, and wholistic counseling, and (2) specific strategies, including brief counseling's solution-focused method, its relation to spiritual direction, its focus on people's strengths, and time limits. The volume concludes with a call for the whole field to recognize the contextual, practical character of effective, responsible pastoral counseling.

Decades of use and refinement have confirmed How to Think Theologically as a guide for theology students realizing their call to be theologians. Focusing not on thinkers or thoughts, but on thinking, Stone and Duke induct readers into habits of mind that allow understanding of all things social, cultural, and personal in relation to God.