2025 Pastoral Counsellors Network
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The European Pastoral Counsellors Network is for leaders involved in pastoral care or personal discipleship ministries. The Network will focus on common pastoral issues with the aim of building basic counselling skills grounded in a biblical understanding of, and approach to, the human heart. This year’s programme focuses on the character and spiritual life of the counsellor, understanding how to truly care for those who experience evil and suffering, discipling the whole person, the power of the relationship in counselling, and other topics relevant to those involved in pastoral care and discipleship.
2025 Network Theme - Knowing God, Self, & Others Better: A Christian Approach to Assessment
The Gospel calls us to love God and our neighbor as our ourself, based on Christ’s redemption. But we can’t love what we don’t know. So, Christians have historically paired knowing with loving. Contemporary psychology has advanced the quest to know ourselves with its attempts to assess features of the human soul like personality, intelligence, and psychological disorders through measurement. However, the most important features of human life are beyond measure, like integrity, spiritual growth, glory, and love. Consequently, a Christian approach to assessment supports the use of sound psychological tests but recognizes that the fullest knowing and loving of God, self, and others involves the Spirit and the heart.
What Network Participants Are Saying
- "As a pastor, I often feel overwhelmed and quite lonely in my ministry, helping out people in the church, encouraging evangelism, and 'fixing' all sorts of physical and spiritual problems. ELF is the occasion for me to be served, encouraged, and strengthened in many ways: physically, emotionally, and of course, spiritually. I feel refreshed, equipped, and encouraged thinking about going back to my congregation."
- Michal Domagala, Pastor, Poland - "Being in the Forum’s Pastoral Counsellors Network has been an incredible experience. It has been so helpful because I spend my time working with elders, people in the hospital, and also discipling young people. I have been blessed by the many brothers and sisters I have met, by connecting with them, hearing their stories, and receiving their advice."
- Emanuela Marinkovic, Medical Student, Bosnia and Herzegovina - "I came to the European Leadership Forum to learn more about how to help people in need of counselling. We went through a difficult situation in my church that involved spiritual abuse. The Forum has helped me to understand how to relate to people in a deeper way, especially those who need spiritual and emotional healing, and how to point them to Christ the Healer."
- Samuel Carp, Youth Leader, Romania
Applicants should be leaders involved in pastoral care or personal discipleship ministries. The Network will focus on common pastoral issues, with the aim of building basic pastoral skills grounded in a biblical understanding and approach to the human heart.
Network Leadership
Network Speakers
Rev. Stephen P. Greggo, PsyD, was Chair and Professor of Counseling at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, IL, for 28 years. He is a licensed psychologist, ordained to Christian ministry, and a guest preacher. He has published three books with InterVarsity Press: Assessment for… Read more
Eric L. Johnson is professor of Christian Psychology at Houston Baptist University, serving in the Gideon Institute of Christian Psychology & Counseling. He taught psychology for 10 years at University of Northwestern and counseling for 17 years at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. In… Read more
Jerry Root is a Professor of Evangelism and Leadership at Wheaton College and serves as the Director of the Evangelism Initiative. Jerry is a graduate of Whittier College and Talbot Graduate School of Theology at Biola University; he received his… Read more
Jelena Sivulka hails from Serbia, where she was born and raised. She obtained her master's degrees in psychology and theology from her homeland. Thirty years ago, she embraced Christianity, igniting a passion for ministry alongside her husband Greg. Together, they have been instrumental in… Read more
Network Programme
Sunday, 18 May
The search for identity and purpose is indeed unique to humanity—a quest woven into the fabric of our existence. As John Calvin insightfully noted, "Nearly all the wisdom which we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves." This statement suggests that a true understanding of our own identity cannot be separated from a deeper relationship with God. The more we know Him, the more we come to know ourselves, for we are created in His image. What are some of the tools that help us discover ourselves and shape us into His likeness?
Pastors and Christian ministry leaders can strategically tap into the extensive contemporary empirical research into spiritual resiliency and struggle to forge a framework to further member care and formation. Specifically, six patterns of faith-diminishing spiritual struggle have been identified (Divine; Demonic, Moral imperfection, Interpersonal, Doubt, and Ultimate Meaning). Given the pluralistic assumptions of this research, a translation into Christian worldview is offered. Assessment techniques for Christian ministry leaders to discern these disorienting inner cycles are coupled with recommendations to guide the helping partnership and its formative dialogue.
Monday, 19 May
Assessment in counseling—like its biblical counterpart, discernment—is an ongoing and dynamic routine to encourage movement toward genuine change. Becoming a better therapist or pastoral caregiver requires a deliberate strategy on two fronts: implementing assessment into care that establishes benchmarks to track change (practice-based evidence) and entering a helping partnership as a comforted comforter in search of wisdom to stimulate spiritual formation (empirically supported relationship). In this session, a flexible assessment structure will be provided.
We define ourselves by means of the love of God. Having been recipients of his love we are also ambassadors of his love and forgiveness to others. Throughout the history of Christian spiritual formation, maturity has virtually always been conceptualized as union with God and His mission for the world. This session will explore those areas of life that can possibly prevent maturity in Christ. Time will be invested in discovering in what way our wounds tend to be deeper than our convictions, and why. It will also explore how God can work through our human weaknesses and recycle them into assets of empathy in order to reach others for Christ and His Kingdom.
Tuesday, 20 May
Beyond tools and techniques, it takes an understanding of the heart to shape living souls. The core of our helping conversation is cultivating a theological imagination in the heart that recognizes the great Theodrama (God’s active creation care), secures our inner narrative to that meta-narrative, and guides our attitudes and actions to perform the Gospel. The intent is to extend care outcomes beyond symptom relief or problem resolution into the domain of character development, life narrative clarity, and faith enhancement. In this session, we will discuss how to take our assessments and align them with a biblical grounding for wisdom cultivation.
Some Christians have tended to treat psychological problems as purely a matter of sin. Modern psychology and psychiatry, by contrast, have tended to treat psychological problems as purely biological and a result of poor socialisation. However, the greatest thinkers and pastoral leaders of the Christian church typically rejected such simplistic views, favouring a more holistic approach that takes into account all four dimensions of human life and that can be easily incorporated into church life. A case study of a church member with psychological problems will be discussed that illustrates the presence of all four dimensions, and we will consider how ministers, lay people, and Christian mental health professionals, including physicians, can collaborate to help.
Wednesday, 21 May
Many exemplary Christians over the centuries have offered a model of psychospiritual growth, including such luminaries as Augustine, Bernard of Clairvaux, Thomas Aquinas, and John Newton. Building on the main themes and wisdom of their models, and incorporating some insights from contemporary psychology, we will reflect together on God’s design plan in psychospiritual development across the lifespan and whether it follows a stage pattern.
The assessment of spiritual needs in people struggling with mental health issues is a critical yet often overlooked aspect of holistic care. Individuals facing mental health challenges frequently experience spiritual distress, questioning their faith, purpose, and relationship with God. By assessing their spiritual needs, people in the congregation can address feelings of isolation, guilt, or hopelessness, offering support that integrates both emotional and spiritual well-being. A comprehensive assessment by pastoral counsellors includes exploring their congregant’s beliefs, sources of spiritual strength, and the impact of their mental health on their faith, ultimately providing personalised pastoral care that fosters healing in both mind and spirit.