Quote:
Originally Posted by RandyWayne
Qualified COUNSELORS are a good thing to have in certain situations that come up.
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I'm not a big fan of "qualified counselors" just because I haven't seen that many of them that I felt were qualified.
My pastor is a counselor licensed with the state and that is still his occupation outside of the pastorate.
I would trust him completely because he has demonstrated himself to be a consistent of wise and well thought out advice and I would feel that he would be counseling from his prayer more than his diploma.
I fully understand what you are saying about pastors that just don't have what it takes to be counseling. I have seen quite a few that would cause me to fear as to what they might say in "counsel".
I would imagine that it would just be on a case by case basis for me. Both can be wonderfully qualified (with and without any formal training) and both can be horribly misguided.
But I certainly could not offer any blanket endorsement for pastors etc as a good source of counsel nor could I write a blanket disclaimer against trained and licensed counselors.
But, given the option, I would feel better with a good man of God (in the ministry or not) who has what it takes to counsel well and a prayer life to hear from the Lord. Barring that, I would not have a complete opposition to those "other guys"
but I would be a very picky customer.