Do You Have the Right Habitus for Soul Care?

Pastor, I want you to consider these five situations. 

1. You are sitting with a church member in a hospital coffee shop as their child is on life support. They tell you, “It feels like God is punishing me.” How do you respond?
2. You are counseling a Christian husband and wife whose marriage is on the rocks. The husband becomes aggressive, cursing and blaming his wife. How do you respond?
3. You are having lunch with a seasoned believer who serves the church faithfully. He confides in you that he is addicted to pornography. He knows it is wrong but can’t seem to stop. How do you respond?
4. You are visiting an elderly saint in their home. The hospice nurse comes in to check her vitals. The saint reaches for your hand and says, “I know the Lord will take care of my family but will you make sure they start attending church.” How do you respond?
5. You are meeting with a family who attends your church. They have been there for 10 years. You’ve baptized their kids. They inform you that they are leaving your church because they disagree with a leadership decision you made. How do you respond?

These situations are real. Each one carries complexities. Every pastoral circumstance has a context. However, each situation can really be reduced to this: What is the pastor’s fundamental work in any given context? The answer: The pastor is a physician of the soul. His primary task is the cura animarum, the care and cure of souls.¹ The cura animarum is the church’s long-standing understanding of pastoral care. Rooted in the biblical image of the shepherd (Psalm 23; John 10; 1 Peter 5) and developed by the early church fathers, the medieval church, and the Reformers, this model focuses on people and their relationship to the Triune God.² As Senkbeil writes, “the care of souls means to care for people, realizing they are not disembodied spirits, but God’s own creatures with both fleshly and spiritual features.”³ The goal is not merely emotional relief or behavioral change. It is not providing the immediate answer to complex life issues. Rather it is the healing, strengthening, and forming of the soul so that the person may live faithfully before God and persevere to the end.

Pastoral Habitus and Posture

These situations presented require navigating the complexities of the person, the emotions, the spiritual condition, the context, and a whole host of factors. But simply, it requires a pastoral habitus. It requires a certain kind of man, a man whose own soul has been formed by the Spirit of God. We can describe habitus as the settled disposition of the pastor’s heart and mind that enables him to discern spiritual realities with wisdom and to respond with care. Again, Senkbeil notes, “This practical disposition is acquired through a lifelong process by which the pastor as Christian goes on receiving what he brings to others.”⁴ It is not a personality type or a set of natural gifts. It is something the Holy Spirit works into a man over years of living under the Word, practicing repentance, praying, and faithfully shepherding the people of God. Pastoral habitus is related to the virtue provided by the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). Habitus comes through walking with Jesus, knowing His heart, and participating in His present work in the world.

Habitus is who the pastor is becoming before God.

Going back to the given situations above – how would you respond? Well, this question relates to how the habitus shapes the posture of soul care. Habitus is who the pastor is becoming before God. The postures are how that becoming expresses itself toward others. Because the true good of the soul is the aim, pastoral care includes both comfort and confrontation, consolation and correction, guidance and watchfulness. The pastor acts for the soul’s eternal welfare, sometimes by sustaining the afflicted, sometimes by admonishing the wayward. But ultimately the pastor acts with the goal that Christ would be formed in His people (Galatians 4:19). What follows are pastoral postures grouped under four movements of soul care, each with an example explaining what this posture looks like.

Consolation and Sustaining the Soul

Strengthening the person under affliction so they do not lose heart. 

• Burden-bearing (Galatians 6:2): A young father loses his job and falls into deep anxiety about providing for his family. The pastor visits, helps him review a budget, prays with him, and connects him with two men in the church who walk with him until he finds new work.
• Comfort of the fainthearted (1 Thessalonians 5:14): A new believer shares her faith with her non-Christian parents and receives harsh rejection. She begins to withdraw. The pastor meets with her, listens carefully, reminds her of Jesus’ words about the cost of following Him, and reassures her that fear does not mean she has failed.
• Help for the weak (1 Thessalonians 5:14): An elderly widow can no longer drive and has begun missing worship. The pastor arranges a regular ride, encourages the connection team to visit her monthly, makes sure a deacon knows the situation and encourage him to maintain contact with her.
• Encouragement and building up (1 Thessalonians 5:11): A faithful but quiet member feels useless because he has no public gifts. The pastor points out how his consistent presence, quiet generosity, and care for children have strengthened many.

Admonition and Correction of the Soul

Calling the soul away from sin and back to obedience out of love for its true good.

• Gentle restoration (Galatians 6:1): A respected member confesses an ongoing pattern of viewing pornography. The pastor meets with him privately, expresses sorrow rather than shock, and begins a process of accountability marked by patience and hope rather than shame.
• Admonition of the unruly (1 Thessalonians 5:14): A young man has stopped attending regularly and is living with his girlfriend. The pastor seeks him out, speaks clearly about the disorder of his life in light of Scripture, and calls him to repentance.
• Rebuke (Luke 17:3; 2 Timothy 4:2): A small-group leader is spreading critical gossip about the elders. The pastor confronts him privately, names the sin directly from Scripture, and calls for immediate repentance and an end to the behavior.
• Patient correction and exhortation (2 Timothy 4:2): A long-time member repeatedly lashes out in anger during meetings. Over several months the pastor meets with him, shows the pattern from Scripture, points to the root of pride, and keeps urging him toward gentleness.
• Gentle instruction of opponents (2 Timothy 2:25): A member begins promoting a teaching that denies the Trinity. The pastor invites him to coffee, listens carefully, answers from Scripture with boldness, and pleads with him to repent.

Guidance and Formation of the Soul

Directing the soul toward maturity, wisdom, and fruitful living before God.

• Teaching and admonition (Colossians 3:16): In a counseling session with a couple struggling with bitterness, the pastor opens Ephesians 4:31–32 and Colossians 3:12–14. He explains the text carefully, shows how the gospel addresses their resentment, and warns them of the spiritual danger of nursing unforgiveness.
• Spurring on to love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24): A gifted professional is spiritually passive and rarely serves. The pastor affirms his abilities, challenges him to use them for the body, and helps him take a first concrete step by joining a mercy ministry team.
• Equipping (Ephesians 4:11–12): The pastor identifies a man with clear potential to lead a small group. Over six months he trains him, lets him co-lead, gives feedback, and then releases him to lead on his own.
• Being an example (1 Timothy 4:12): During a season of financial pressure in the church, the pastor and his family quietly simplify their lifestyle and give sacrificially. Members later say they learned more about trust and contentment from watching him than from any sermon on the subject.

Watchfulness over the Soul

Attentive care that guards the individual and the flock from spiritual danger, including sounding the alarm.

• Watchful oversight (Acts 20:28): The pastor notices that a usually faithful couple has become distant and irregular in attendance. The pastor initiates a conversation, discovers marital strain, and begins walking with them before the problem deepens.
• Warning (Acts 20:31): A popular young adult is being drawn into a progressive Christian group that softens clear biblical teaching on sexuality. The pastor meets with him early, warns him of the spiritual danger with genuine concern, and continues to pursue him even after the initial conversation.

God has called men to be before He has called them to do.

So, again, how would you respond in the five situations listed at the beginning of this article? You respond by being the type of pastor who aims to care for the souls of each person God has providentially placed under your pastoral care. The pastoral postures are only possible through the cultivation of pastoral habitus. When approaching (or being thrown into) a pastoral situation, consider the posture necessary to address the issue. The habit and the virtue which the Spirit has worked in you will inform the posture you assume in the real-world experiences of pastoral ministry. God has called men to be before He has called them to do. By the Spirit, He works to form this man into the shepherd who will care for the flock. It takes time, repentance, and habit. Yet, the slow plodding of pastoral ministry requires the necessary habits nurtured over a long period of time. Pastor, aim to be the type of man God uses in any situation to bear witness to His grace in the person of Christ. 

1. Harold L. Senkbeil, The Care of Souls: Cultivating a Pastor’s Heart (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2019), 63. ↩︎
2. See these works for more information on the classical pastoral tradition: Coleman M. Ford and Shawn J. Wilhite. Ancient Wisdom for the Care of Souls: Learning the Art of Pastoral Ministry from the Church Fathers (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2024); Thomas C. Oden, Becoming a Minister, Classic Pastoral Care (New York: Crossroad, 1987); Andrew Purves, Pastoral Theology in the Classical Tradition (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001).  ↩︎
3. Senkbeil, The Care of Souls: Cultivating a Pastor’s Heart, 64. ↩︎
4. Senkbeil, The Care of Souls: Cultivating a Pastor’s Heart, 19. ↩︎