ROUGHLY EDITED COPY LUTHERAN PASTORAL THEOLOGY & PRACTICE LPTP-32 Captioning Provided By: Caption First, Inc. P.O. Box 1924 Lombard, IL 60148 800-825-5234 www.captionfirst.com *** This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. *** >> NICK: Professor Senkbeil, I really appreciate the direction David's question and your response have taken us. But I have a concern. As I may have already said, I was formerly a high school biology teacher. Our school's principal went to great lengths especially in recent years to remind us regularly that we need to protect our reputation as a teacher and the reputation of our students by not creating reason for idle talk, gossip, or formal accusation. As a male teacher, I never met with a female student alone. Now, we were just speaking about spiritual counseling. Do similar concerns arise in this context for a pastor? What can I do as a minister to protect the office of public ministry, my member's reputation, and my own reputation? >> PROF. SENKBEIL: You know, Nick, all three of those areas are very, very important -- your member's reputation, your own reputation, and above all the ministry to which you're called. You remember when we were looking at the duties of a pastor, in I Timothy chapter 3 the apostle reminds us that pastors must be well thought of by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace into a snare of the devil. You know, Nick, I can't think of any area that has really caused more of a problem for the public ministry than that specific area you mentioned. Obviously, a pastor does not want to be open to litigation in terms of lawsuits or expensive kinds of processes that might happen as a result of incidents like you talked about. But, chiefly, as a steward of the mysteries of God, as a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, we certainly would not want our actions or some people's perceptions of our actions to reflect poorly upon the ministry of the means of grace. So how is it that a pastor then protects this public reputation of the office? I think it is important in a very similar way that your superiors there in the high school urged you to be cautious in this area, it's important that pastors also be somewhat guarded. For example, when you're counseling with a parishioner by yourself, it's important that someone be nearby to ascertain and to affirm that the relationship that was going on in that conversation was generally a pastoral one. In my case often times, when I did not have a secretary in the early years of my mission congregation I served, I would on occasion invite my wife to come over and to do some crocheting in the outer office nearby. One must be careful not merely regarding members of the opposite sex. But, unfortunately, sad to say in the times in which we live, even with the same sex so that there be somewhat of a protection regarding the sanctity of the office that you represent and the work that you're doing on the Lord's behalf. Now, that said, it's also important to remember that, by definition, some of what the pastor does is by definition confidential. How can a pastor then prevent this kind of -- these kinds of acquisitions being leveled against him when he's engaged, for example, in a situation of private confession? Well, I think it's important there that the external arrangements be conducive to exactly what's going on. Personal confession, I think, might well take place, for example, in the sanctuary before the altar in a private circumstance in that there are no others there, but, nevertheless, within the sanctuary, which is a public place designated for the gifts of God. Also to have a particular time when that might take place. Posted times, for example, might be a good way to do that. Also, above all, I think it's important that a pastor be a man of his word, that he achieve a good reputation not because of an image that he projects but chiefly because of what he does. That he's trustworthy; that he speaks God's word in every occasion; that he exudes, if you will, the aura of what it means to be a shepherd of souls; to be one who is himself under the authority of God, who's given charge of preaching the word and teaching the word and administering the sacraments. This, as I said before, Dr.�Walther called a habitus of the soul. It's something that a pastor embodies because of what he does, faithfully administering God's very graces to the people of God. So, in other words, caution is certainly well-advised; discretion, certainly; and above all, integrity in office is very, very important. Thanks for that question, Nick. *** This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. ***