I could not believe my ears. A well-known member of the presbytery of which I was then a part stood and pleaded with us to not become involved in counseling members of our congregations! Then another stood and echoed those sentiments. And, the members of the presbytery nodded in agreement.

Of course, the reason they did so was that four pastors in as many years had to be disciplined for sins of adultery and wife abuse. Three of those problems arose due to "counseling situations gone wrong." So the solution, we were being told, was to stop or radically cut back our counseling activities. Instead of dealing with people's problems we were to refer them to "professionals" who knew how to handle those matters.