Description

It is a common instinct to judge before we are called to serve. From the Shepherd's Seat is built on this founding premise: we are often quick to judge until the moment we are entrusted with someone's care — and it is in that moment that our perspective must change. This course exists to cultivate that change deliberately, before the moment of crisis arrives.

Pastoral care is not confined to those who hold the office or title of pastor. Anyone entrusted with serving, supporting, leading, encouraging, or caring for people in ministry can benefit from developing the heart and perspective of a shepherd. Offered within the Chaplaincy Curriculum at MKWW Bible Institute, this course is designed for pastors, chaplains, ministers, ministry leaders, church workers, and any student who desires to care for others with greater grace, wisdom, compassion, and discernment.

Across twelve weeks, students will examine how responsibility for the well-being of another reshapes judgment itself. Through biblical exposition, case-based discussion, and applied ministry scenarios, students will be formed toward the settled, tested posture of a shepherd — one who has moved from evaluating people to bearing them.

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Learning Outcomes

• Articulate a biblical theology of pastoral care applicable at every level of ministry, not solely to ordained pastors.

• Practice extending grace while upholding truth, accountability, and biblical correction.

• Handle confidential and sensitive information with discretion, trust, and integrity.

• Establish healthy boundaries that distinguish godly support from control or enabling.

• Navigate conflict, disappointment, criticism, and betrayal without forfeiting compassion.

• Recognize and minister to the spiritual, emotional, relational, and practical needs of the whole person.

• Demonstrate the capacity to care for pastoral leaders themselves, not only those under their care.

• Sustain a shepherd's heart — patient, enduring, and still willing to love — through the ordinary disappointments of ministry.