Christian Counseling Ministry in the Church in India--Causes for Concern and Opportunities for Growth

This dissertation addresses the need of Christian counseling in the churches of India. The Church however has not been responding to this urgent need adequately. There is a tremendous opportunity for the transformational leader to meet the expectations of the members in the church and build an emotionally strong and spiritually mature church. Failure to do so will alienate the members and the initiative will be lost. As a result of the extensive research, surveys, and interviews and drawing from fifteen years of experience of leading a national level counseling ministry, I have established that

1. An average member of the church in Hyderabad is aware of the need for counseling for personal problems and will seek it if provided in the church.

2. Pastors and elders in the churches have had basic training in counseling while studying at bible schools. They desire specialized training.

3. As much as members in the churches would go to pastors for personal problems, they would seek counseling services of a trained Christian
counselor, if available. Churches could train pastors and mature, gifted and committed members in specialized counseling areas like marriage, parenting, and spiritual guidance.

I have evaluated the reasons for lack of counseling services in the churches and suggested ways to overcome them and presented a counseling ministry model for the church. A pamphlet showing the findings with a suggested road map will be made available to the church leaders.