





































Ecclesial Futures
2023 – Volume 4 – Issue 2

A R T I C L E

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DOI: 10.54195/ef14831

Learning to love: Pastoral care as mission at 
church-based, intercultural initiatives

Sue Holdsworth

Abstract
This article speaks to the relationship between social action and mission. It argues that 
mission at church-based, intercultural initiatives is better understood and enabled 
when principles and practices of pastoral care are applied. A study of four church-
based intercultural initiatives in Melbourne demonstrated that the development of 
intercultural pastoral care practices offers a way to understand mission that is relevant 
for local-church-based community initiatives.
Pastoral care and mission have a confused relationship in the literature and are brought 
into conversation with these four case studies, demonstrating that pastoral theology 
has insights to offer mission. In particular, this article explores themes of compas-
sion and empathy, formation for hospitality, and the need for deeper spiritual forma-
tion in local, church-based, intercultural community initiatives. This is an important 
understanding at a time when many Western Christians seem at a loss to know how to 
effectively engage with others in a rapidly changing and often indifferent society. It is 
suggested that mission is framed as pastoral care at similar church-based initiatives. 
Pastoral formational practices of reflective practice, spiritual engagement and super-
vision are recommended for all engaged in church-based, intercultural mission and this 
has broader relevance to all engaged in mission.

Keywords: Pastoral Care, Mission, Church, Community, Intercultural

1  Introduction
For several years during the 2010s, I worked with a mission agency in Melbourne, 
helping congregations relate interculturally, both internally and within their wider 
community. During my time in this role, I founded an initiative in a highly intercultural 
locality in Melbourne, providing a welcome and support for newly arrived asylum 
seekers. I recruited some missionaries operating in the locality and several local 
church leaders to help run this initiative. Many of our guests were Muslim, had made 



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the hazardous journey to Australia by boat and now awaited news as to whether they 
could stay. The first day we opened people streamed through the doors, confirming 
my sense of a need that could be met by local churches.

I soon regretted my open invitation to churches and agencies, as it transpired 
that we had very different ideas as to what we should be doing. I simply wanted to 
provide a safe space, offering hospitality to people who were largely traumatized, 
with an offer of English lessons if wanted. I was in a minority, however, in believing 
the initiative should not be a tool for evangelistic practices. Many guests had lost 
everything other than their Islamic faith. They needed stability at that point in their 
lives. Other volunteers insisted on Bible studies during English classes. This insist-
ence overlooked emotional needs in favour of the purely practical and set conditions 
for receiving care.

One church leader wanted to demonstrate to the local council that Christians cared 
for asylum seekers by inviting media and local counsellors to visit for photo oppor-
tunities. I was horrified, believing the last thing the migrants needed was official 
visits, many having been tracked down and watched by authorities in their country 
of origin. Some were not emotionally ready for English lessons. The volunteers were 
largely untrained, but resisted the idea of training, and I was left wondering what 
they wanted to achieve, what was really taking place, and what motivated them. 
I regretfully resigned, being unable to influence the running of the initiative in what I 
believed was a non-invasive, nurturing manner.

As a result of this experience, I decided to conduct research into what takes place at 
church-based intercultural initiatives. Four intercultural initiatives, all based at evan-
gelical churches in Melbourne, were studied to find how love of God and neighbour 
was expressed and what might enhance this.1

While such initiatives might be assumed to be missional, I discovered that in contrast 
to the joint church initiative described above, motivations and practice often aligned 
more closely with practices of pastoral care. This understanding may be key to effec-
tive mission and the following article will explore these connections.

1 The full study can be accessed at https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13057/5116



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2  Interpathy for pastoral care and mission
Interpathy is a term used to describe a deeply pastoral and spiritual mode of care 
with great relevance to mission. Definitions of mission have broadened over past 
decades. Newbigin defines mission as a collaborative partnership in which we 
share in God’s mission, personified in Jesus’ love demonstrated towards humankind 
(Newbigin 1978). Bosch proposed that the Church is missionary by its very nature 
(Bosch 1992: 372). Together with Flett and based on the work of Newbigin, Bosch 
describes mission as participation in the missio Dei (Flett 2010: chapter 4; Newbigin 
1992: 372). Mission is thus an encompassing term, covering many modes. This review 
argues for pastoral care practices to underwrite Christian practices of empathy and 
compassion, hospitality and spirituality. These are additionally missional practices in 
the context of the four initiatives studied.

The motivations of most volunteers were to provide care through the provision of 
a service. This fits with the aims of pastoral care as mission. St Nicholas2 was the 
exception, where the overriding aim was evangelistic, with the sewing club being 
an entry point for evangelistic conversation and interaction. The following review 
demonstrates that practices of pastoral care are applicable to mission.

Augsburger defines interpathy by clarifying the boundaries between sympathy, 
empathy and what he terms interpathy. He argues that interpathy supports 
cross-cultural counselling or care. It requires a willingness and ability to bracket out 
or suspend one’s own beliefs and worldview, to be fully present to the worldview and 
consequent lived experience of someone who is culturally (or religiously) different 
(Augsburger 1986: 26). Most participants in the study did not demonstrate inter-
pathy appearing more interested in talking than listening or guiding conversation 
onto topics of their choice. The absence of this deeply pastoral and spiritual mode of 
care was a loss for mission.

Doehring complements Augsburger’s discussion by describing empathy and 
compassion as central to pastoral care, a theme that resonates in the field of spiritual 
care (Pembroke 2019: 133–46). She explores the practice of empathy and compas-
sion in intercultural contexts where “empathy involves imaginatively stepping into 
another person’s emotional experience while remaining aware of and anchored in 
one’s own emotional state.” She describes compassion as empathy with a desire to 
help (Doehring 2015: 39–40). For the purposes of safe practice and boundary aware-
ness it is clear emotional regulation is important when expressing empathic concern 

2 Pseudonyms are used for all study locations.



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as it allows the caregiver to remain involved, rather than withdraw and, therefore, 
allows for ongoing compassionate care (Doehring 2015: 40). There is a clear impli-
cation that training and supervision are required to enhance compassionate care 
while moderating any damaging effects. These skills are routinely taught to chap-
lains and spiritual care practitioners in Australian healthcare settings. For instance, 
Spiritual Care Australia highlights empathetic engagement with clients as a funda-
mental quality of spiritual care professionals at all levels (Spiritual Care Australia 
2021). While this study concerns volunteers rather than professionals, these stand-
ards should influence volunteer practice.

Unlike pastoral texts, recent missions texts from evangelical and catholic traditions 
are noticeably quiet on the specific importance of empathy or interpathy. Although 
the Cape Town Commitment addresses the necessity for mission to be rooted in love 
(Lausanne Movement, 2011), there is nothing like the detailed articulation, descrip-
tion and learning opportunity afforded by pastoral literature.3 In a section entitled 
“Taking the first step, being involved and supportive, bearing fruit and rejoicing,” Evan-
gelii Gaudium refers to a theologically-oriented expression of empathy: “An evange-
lizing community gets involved by word and deed in people’s daily lives; it embraces 
human life, touching the suffering flesh of Christ in others.” (Francis 2013: 124). To 
better explore the meaning and application of such an embrace, we might ask how 
this works in practice and how it is evaluated.

2.1  Hospitality and listening as expressions of interpathy, formed 
out of Christ ’s mission and ministry

The literature of pastoral theology and missiology reveals common themes on hospi-
tality, in which the roles of hosts and guests are reversed (Ross 2016; Nouwen 1975; 
Gittins 1989). This reversal is particularly important when our ‘guests’ have experi-
enced trauma. This “flipped hospitality” builds trust and a sense of safety in relation-
ships (Kiser and Heath 2023: 188–94). Being a guest is disempowering and Doehring 
focuses on the nature of interpersonal relationships and suggests that the “process 
of stepping respectfully and compassionately into another’s narrative world can 
be described with the metaphor of hospitality” (Doehring 2015: xvii). Respect and 
compassion require deep listening, and spiritual practices including prayer and 
reflection to gain discernment necessary for what Bevans and Ross term prophetic 
dialogue (Bevans and Ross 2015). This includes bringing hope and peace in situa-
tions of despair. We develop deep sensitivity to people in need by connecting with 
our own experiences of being vulnerable and dependent (Pohl 2022: 65). Those of us 

3 For example, the Spiritual Care Australia literature just noted.



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from Western nations will gain insights into how hospitality and community might 
liberate others when we adopt what Russell calls postcolonial theological perspec-
tives. Western thinking is not superior to other cultures and people should be free to 
define themselves and to do this as equals (Russell 2009: 29–33).

Expressions of these aspects of spirituality display the love of God within the prac-
tices of pastoral care and mission and offer practice goals that each can aspire to. 
They can also be expressed through practices of hospitality that embrace all people 
and are earthed in an understanding of who is at the centre and who is at the margins 
of society. Hospitality offers hope, promotes lasting friendships, considers others 
within a hierarchy of agendas (Phil. 2.3-4), listens deeply to others, considers group 
as well as individual needs and celebrates diversity while offering Christ’s love to all.

I suggest it is that in Christ there is pastoral care and mission. This is expressed 
in practices of hospitality and listening, which are visible expressions of interpathy. 
What might this look like on the ground, at church-based intercultural initiatives?

3  The research context: four intercultural, church-
based initiatives

Swindon Baptist is a large, wealthy, suburban congregation running English conver-
sation classes for local migrants, based in its modern, purpose-built building.4 The 
classes had commenced many years previously, in response to need. Classes ran for 
one and half hours, most days a week, with different volunteers each day. Volunteers 
did around six initial sessions of training before commencing, although no further 
training was offered. Most did not feel confident to take classes of more than three 
or four students.

St Nicholas Anglican is also a large wealthy church, in Melbourne’s east. It has 
congregations spread over four locations, including the social housing estate where 
this study was conducted. The estate was inhabited by many former refugees who 
had arrived years earlier from south-east Asia. They still wore their cultural style of 
dress, unavailable to buy in shops and therefore requiring home sewing. The sewing 
club offered equipment for this purpose and women would arrive and leave as they 
pleased, bringing their sewing projects with them. The club had run for around 
twelve years.

4 Names, locations and other identifying features have been changed to preserve anonymity.



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Govan Church of Christ was in a blue-collar area of the city, where many young 
migrant families had settled. English conversation classes had been started, out of 
perceived need, by a church member who wanted to help migrants settle in Australia. 
She decided to teach English as something she knew she could do well. Tutors were 
drawn from the congregation. All appeared to enjoy their occasional volunteering.

Hope International was a highly multicultural Pentecostal megachurch. A training 
school was the focus of study, run by members, all but one of whom were migrants 
themselves. Despite being qualified for other high-paying professions, they had 
chosen to retrain as childcare educators. Their research of the locality had indicated 
a need for migrant women to be empowered to adapt to Australian life. The school 
therefore offered a government-accredited qualification in childcare for migrant 
women, to help them gain employment.

4  Method
Many hours as a participant observer were spent sequentially at each initiative, 
between 2015 and 2017. This allowed me to be involved in the running of the initia-
tives, and able to witness the minutiae of interactions between volunteers and those 
attending. Interviews with participants and church leaders, attendance at services 
and other church activities, and searches through church records provided thick 
data.

Observations were coded together with interview transcripts and data from church 
records. Reflexive comments were written during note taking and analysis to 
monitor my responses. Grounded theory methodologies allowed theory to emerge 
through coding and categorizing data in an iterative manner (Charmaz 2011, Bryant 
and Charmaz eds 2007). In this way, theory was built which can be further tested and 
expanded by future researchers.

Qualitative research and practical theology partner creatively when investigating 
projects based in ministry practice with a pastoral and theological perspective. Nigel 
Rooms and Cathy Ross argue for a close collaboration between practical theology 
and missiology, suggesting that practical theology challenges practitioners to “make 
connections between various disciplines, and within the context of differing global 
theologies” (Rooms and Ross 2014: 144–47). This study sought to make interdisci-
plinary connections by letting the data initiate discussion within a grounded theory 
approach. Grounded theory attempts to engage and capture as much of the complex 
realities of a situation as possible, attempting to obtain multiple perspectives for 



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theory generation by recognizing the wider contexts in which studied events occur, 
very much the context for the four projects (Corbin and Strauss 2008).

Participants were mostly volunteers, plus some church leaders. The exception 
was Hope International where participants received a wage. This acted as a useful 
comparison with the first three situations, as I noted differences and similarities in 
motivations and skill levels resulting from wage earning.

Findings regarding themes of mission as pastoral care, compassion and empathy, 
and hospitality and spirituality will be described in the following section. This will 
lead into discussion of these pastoral themes for effective, caring mission.

5  “Just caring” for others
Participant observation showed how care was provided differently between the four 
contexts. Practices of teaching, prayer, and practical offers of help varied across 
the four intercultural initiatives. Expressions of love were often noted at Swindon 
where one volunteer helped students make and attend medical appointments, while 
another invited students to her home at Christmas. The English classes at Govan 
started after asylum seekers came to church asking for practical help. The founder 
of classes felt unable to offer goods at that time, but offered what she could in the 
form of English lessons. These participants spoke of their primary motivation for 
service being one of care. The training school at Hope was an example of what might 
be achieved when church members desire to make a positive contribution to the 
local community, as an expression of care. They pro-actively cared for physical and 
emotional needs of students and were committed to enabling every student to 
be successful. The result was an experience for students of love, acceptance and 
academic success. Teachers were content to offer a high level of care with no evan-
gelistic agenda attached. For instance, meals would be provided to students in crisis 
and several teachers would pray regularly together for students. Bonds between 
teachers and students were displayed through student teacher interactions and 
reports of students in crisis texting teachers late at night, requesting prayer. I was 
left in little doubt that this was a special time for both students and teachers, one 
which would probably stay with them for life.

In contrast, volunteers at St Nicholas, while faithful and hard-working, revealed a care 
hindered by evangelistic aims. For instance, these participants described the women 
as difficult (for being strong minded) and one described the “tough ground” in which 
they worked. This resulted in them celebrating and loving the women attending less 
than they might if they had aimed simply to care.



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Spirituality was hard to discern when volunteers failed to pray or work together as a 
team, something resisted by volunteers at Swindon and Govan. While Govan volun-
teers mentioned they prayed privately, talk about God was often absent at Swindon, 
leading me to note, “God has gone underground!” Teachers at Hope and St Nicholas 
met together weekly for prayer, and this was reflected in the sessions where informal 
talk about God and faith took place. This seemed forced at St Nicholas, with volun-
teers actively seeking opportunities to lever talk about God into conversations. Talk 
about God seemed more spontaneous at Hope International. An example of this 
was when a teacher spoke during her class of a dream she had about the school’s 
manager taking up art. The manager was reportedly amazed by this, having felt God 
had recently been encouraging her to do just that. The volunteer, Lilly, later told me 
this anecdote was shared spontaneously. In other words, this was not a calculated 
attempt at evangelism. This behaviour reflected a strong sense of God’s immanence 
amongst the Christian teachers, an overflowing of nurtured spirituality.

The following discussion will explore how pastoral care, offered through expressions 
of love, is an effective and appropriate framework for church-based, intercultural 
community initiatives, as participation in the missio Dei. I will focus on the areas of 
empathy and compassion, hospitality and spirituality, all practices of pastoral care 
applicable to mission.

6  Expressing love of God and neighbour
If “pastoral care is an expression of human concern through activities” (Lartey 
1997: 25–6), essentially expressions of love, then this can include many activities, 
from counselling or celebrating, to simply being present with people. The four initia-
tives aimed to address human need through activities, ranging from learning English 
to assisting integration into Australian life, and training childcare workers hopeful of 
employment. For Doehring, pastoral care takes many forms and in North America 
often takes the form of crisis intervention, followed by supportive care. She describes 
this as spiritual care that comes alongside others to offer sustaining presence in 
either an ongoing way or through difficult seasons (Doehring 2015: xxii). Developing 
internal resilience through tough times is where Lartey sees that “pastoral caregivers 
have a concern for what meets the eye about human persons as well as what may lie 
deeply buried within them.” (Lartey 1997: 26). These pastoral values often resonate 
strongly and sometimes by implication with participants.

The provision of a community service is a form of spiritual care according to Lartey, 
Bosch and Kirk, but given the level of mutuality this care could also be extended 
through the formation and maintenance of friendships (Lartey 1997: 25–6; 



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Bosch 1992: 512–18; Kirk 1999: 205–25). Because of this overlap between pastoral 
care and mission in a practical theological framework, each has a spiritual element, 
and the source of love is God. Mission is at the heart of the church and when mission 
and pastoral care are undertaken, evangelism may take place, as appropriate partic-
ipation in the missio Dei.

Caregivers addressed in the pastoral care literature are often specialists, profes-
sionals or interns, so it would be unrealistic to expect the mostly volunteer partic-
ipants to perform as qualified pastoral carers. However, their effectiveness as 
intercultural pastoral carers is assessed simply on their ability to communicate 
love. The following discussion is guided by the finding/insight that participants were 
motivated by a desire to see migrants flourish in Australia. All participants, whether 
practicing Christians or not, acted on behalf of the sponsoring church, prompting a 
working assumption that they therefore possessed some level of concern about the 
wellbeing, and perhaps the spiritual wellbeing of migrants.

6.1  Empathy and compassion
Lartey suggests that empathy has “three characteristics … a feeling (affective) level, 
a thinking (cognitive) level and a tendency to action (conative) level. Empathy then, is a 
way of being with other people, which enters into how it feels like to be who they are” 
(Lartey 1997: 92). While it was not possible to observe and trace the feelings of partic-
ipants, a cognitive level of empathy was expressed during interviews as participants 
spoke with understanding of the difficulties faced by new migrants and related these 
to their own experiences. This was then fed back into their volunteering or work.

For Doehring, the intercultural dimensions of “empathy and compassion play a 
central role in pastoral and spiritual care. Empathy involves imaginatively stepping 
into another person’s emotional experience while remaining aware of and anchored 
in one’s own emotional state” (Doehring 2015: 39–40). Participants at Northern 
Training demonstrated such empathy through boundaried emotional involvement 
with students. Participants at Swindon spoke of a desire to help their students learn 
English, based on their own experience of living overseas, having to study a foreign 
language, and observing a family member from overseas adjust to life in Australia.

Participants were engaged in mission, often through formation in the “disciplined 
exercise” of empathic listening, creating what Augsburger describes as “sharing 
another’s feelings, not through projection but through compassionate active imag-
ination. Empathy is an intentional affective response” (Augsburger 1986: 27). For 
Pembroke, whether in the parish or healthcare context, care that is “built on a foun-
dation of empathy and compassion is an expression of agape … a commitment to 



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extend oneself in acting in a loving, kind, and beneficent way towards one’s neigh-
bour” (Pembroke 2019: 133–46). This is an essential factor if those attending initia-
tives are to experience and sensitively express God’s love.

Pembroke’s deceptively simple, but pastorally and vocationally complex principle 
becomes a highly desirable criterion for selection, training, and formation of volun-
teers. One participant had previously had little to do with migrants before volun-
teering at the English lessons, but she was, however, someone who cared deeply for 
others and this concern was expressed through her plans to serve and her attentive 
listening and responses to her students.

Shared experiences of migration enabled empathy with new migrants. Cognitive 
and conative levels of empathy were apparent in the advocacy framework of one 
person’s provision of medical care for women who rarely received the level of care 
enjoyed by other Australians. The affective level may have been there, but it was 
“acting in a loving, kind, and beneficent way” that counted.

Lartey describes the pastoral carer as needing to progress from sympathy (often 
counter-productive) to empathy and then to interpathy. Augsburger’s definition 
captures the movement that needs to emerge across the sites, through formation 
and reflective practice if possible. He revisits and extends comment on interpathy 
by identifying the core dynamic of this shift in affect as an intentional cognitive 
envisioning of another’s thoughts and feelings, even though the thoughts rise from 
another frame of moral reasoning and the feelings spring from another basis of 
assumptions. “I (the culturally different person) take a foreign perspective, base my 
thought on a foreign assumption, and allow myself to feel the resultant feelings and 
their cognitive and emotive consequences in my personality as I inhabit, insofar as I 
am capable of inhabiting, a foreign context” (Augsburger 1986: 30).

Lartey warns that interpathy must “rest upon the premise of human universality.” 
(Lartey 1997: 94). Interpathy was the next learning bridge to be crossed when partic-
ipants described their feelings or experiences. A truly interpathic caregiver may 
become as close as possible to being “emic”, as described by Hiebert, based on a 
definition by Kenneth Pike (Hiebert 2009: 90; Pike 1990). To be emic is to be a cultural 
insider, while a cultural outsider is classed as etic. The aim of the missionary, the 
anthropologist, or in the case of this study, the intercultural carer, is to move towards 
an emic stance, even though this is ultimately not possible for someone from a 
different culture. Formation and training in reflective practice can still enhance this 
skill. Few people would be naturally interpathic. For westerners raised into a world-
view that often implies that Western culture is superior, this may be a particular 



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pastoral formation challenge. One participant stated that she did not need to under-
stand the cultures of her students, as she was there to teach them English! While 
she was naturally empathic, embodying interpathy would have enhanced her caring 
skills.

Doehring describes compassion as empathy that results in action, or more accu-
rately, care in action (Doehring 2015: 43). By this definition, compassion was strongly 
in evidence at all initiatives. Already open to international students because of her 
intercultural experience, Jean, a volunteer, worried about her students because 
“they had real trouble getting through to others … what their needs were”.5 Another 
responded to the needs of asylum seekers by initiating the English lessons at Govan, 
a motivation not always the reason for engagement. Some volunteers were moti-
vated initially by their belief that, as Christians, they needed to serve in the life of the 
church which meant that compassion was harder to discern at St Nicholas. Partici-
pants had a functional approach to their service and spoke of the women in a matter-
of-fact manner, indicating some knowledge but no empathy, and at times with some 
frustration with their lack of responsiveness to Christianity. Formation of volunteers 
that embraces a pastoral care view of reflective practice while engaged in cross- 
cultural encounter would enable more honest self-awareness.

Empathy is easier to attain when based in shared experiences, although it is possible 
to learn. The progression from sympathy to empathy to interpathy is often a reflec-
tive journey of self-discovery and if interpathy is like being emic, then being a 
cultural insider is a goal that pastoral practitioners and anyone in mission can aspire 
to. Empathy is harder to access when care is driven by a desire for conversions, a 
tension each initiative faced without effective resolution.

6.2  Hospitality: A friendly and welcoming environment
Hospitality is a gateway to mutuality, friendship and community, and all initiatives 
held potential for long lasting friendships and community-building. The biblical 
theme of hospitality amongst Christians served to identify aspects of hospitality 
noted at each project.6 For Lartey, loving one’s neighbour as oneself

5 Jean interview.
6 For example, Isa. 58.7, Tit. 1.8. These references support my arguments on the theme of hospitality.



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is closely linked in the teaching of Jesus to that of “loving God with all one’s mind, 
strength and heart.” The Church as the Body of Christ in the world manifests its theo-
logical insights most clearly by the ways it relates within itself and with the world 
community around it. (Lartey 2006: 121).

The data suggested that the practices of hospitality and friendship-building in a 
community context should be viewed as key elements of a model of pastoral care. 
Deep and careful theological reflection upon this theme can inform carers as they 
re-assess the levels of care they are willing or able to provide, and also reframe the 
focus of further training.

How do volunteers learn to welcome strangers? Ross describes hospitality as a 
two-way process in which hosts (participants) have much to learn from those at 
the margins and indeed become guests of the migrants attending initiatives (Ross 
2016). This suggests, therefore, that pastoral care and all expressions of mission are 
two-way processes of hospitality that become a meeting point where an exchange 
of power teaches and empowers and holds the possibility of transformation for 
the carer. Most participants at all locations sought to express some form of friend-
ship with attending migrants and a cultural context of friendliness and welcome 
were significant findings. While for some this friendship was expressed only in the 
sessions, others sought to foster relationships at other times. These friendships 
were life-enhancing and nurturing, especially when attendees were marginalised in 
Australia due to ethnicity, culture, and limited English.

A commitment to friendship and journeying together (to varying degrees dependent 
on context) is a realistic expectation of Christian practice in similar intercultural, 
church-based initiatives. Hospitality is a practice to which Christians are called 
throughout the New Testament.

Where mutuality was observed, genuine friendships were therefore possible. Gittins 
describes the roles and expectations of hosts and guests, noting that while guests 
and strangers are differentiated in the English language, they share the same term 
in many languages. Therefore, if strangers (and all volunteers were initially strangers 
to their students) do not allow others to be hosts they demonstrate disrespect and 
cause confusion. This involves deferring to them and respecting their cultural norms. 
Not allowing others to be hosts is to demonstrate aggression (Gittins 1989).

Attendees may not experience aggression, but unthinking colonization or lack 
of awareness of power may well have the same impact. Hosts, whoever they are, 
therefore hold a great deal of power and the task of balancing this power echoes 



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Doehring’s description of the co-creation of theological meaning in the care-giver/
care-receiver relationship (Doehring 2015: 100–102). An appreciation of this can chal-
lenge participants and volunteers in similar, church-based initiatives to invite their 
guests to become, not a part of their culture, but to step into a space within which 
a third, new and shared culture can emerge – one where roles may be exchanged. 
I am reminded of Pembroke’s application of the “relational space” within the Trinity 
to pastoral care practice. Members are unified, yet with space between them that 
allows for distinctiveness (Pembroke 2016: 26–8), a liminal movement potentially 
empowering and certainly defining of identity.

Glimpses of friendship and sparks of compassion appeared in the findings and while 
a few volunteers at Swindon only wanted to teach English others were concerned to 
care any way possible. Northern Training participants clearly wished to empower 
students in line with the school’s rationale and ethos but where on the training 
and development agenda were processes for developing empathy, interpathy, and 
reflective listening skills? Where the aim of an initiative is evangelism, love-in-action 
may demonstrate truth claims but the tension remains of creating what Nouwen 
describes as the sensitive but life-giving task of creating space for strangers in our 
lives:

When hostility is converted into hospitality then fearful strangers can become guests 
revealing to their hosts the promise they are carrying with them. Then, in fact, the 
distinction between host and guest proves to be artificial and evaporates in the recog-
nition of the new-found unity. (Nouwen 1975: 67)

We are therefore called to invite the stranger to “a free and friendly space where he 
can reveal his gifts and become our friend … Really honest receptivity means inviting 
the stranger into our world on his or her terms, not on ours” (Nouwen 1975: 98). 
To do this in an intercultural setting, we acknowledge and contain our tendencies 
towards ethnocentricity and develop listening skills that take us beyond empathy 
into interpathy (Augsburger 1986: 27–32). This necessitates education and inten-
tional formation in growing and developing pastoral and spiritual care skills, often 
lacking in mission preparation and actual settings.

6.3  Spirituality for pastoral care and mission
Christian spirituality may not be readily discernible, as observed at Swindon. It 
is suggested that a rich inner life will express itself in outward manifestations, in 
commitment to living a Godly life and in care for others. Care for others is, however, 
also a societal value and where participants did not easily speak of their faith, it was 
not clear whether their care for migrants was rooted in the internal and transcendent 



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movements of spirituality. This is a loss, in that mutual encouragement in fostering 
a spiritual life was absent and those attending the initiatives could be less likely to 
appreciate that the care they received was an expression of God’s love (Bevans and 
Ross 2015: xv-xvi).

Bevans and Ross describe mission as necessarily prophetic dialogue in which deep 
listening to others precedes engaging in what they term prophetic dialogue as 
mission. Deep listening is a prerequisite for discernment, a mature pastoral skill and 
a spiritual discipline. Mission can only be done, in the final analysis, by women and 
men who pray regularly, who spend time in contemplation, who share their faith in 
theological reflection, who study and read the Bible individually and in community, 
who understand cultural trends and current events (Bevans and Ross 2015: Intro-
duction).

This applies equally to practices of pastoral care and mission, especially if we add 
opportunities for pastoral supervision. The value of being a reflective practitioner 
is strong and clear whether the person is a volunteer teaching sewing or leading 
complex international programmes.

Jesus teaches us to love others as we love ourselves (Lk. 10.27), often a difficult 
concept for Christians warned against selfishness or taught that if we lose our lives 
then we will gain them. Jesus taught that loving others as much as ourselves is the 
greatest commandment, a benchmark that suggests that to love ourselves and prac-
tise self-compassion also provides the psychological flexibility and embracing hospi-
tality important for loving others. When our awareness of God is rooted in a sense of 
God’s love for us, we may gain the sensitivity to discern how he would express God’s 
love for others, through us. This may involve proclamation but more often it will be 
by listening, celebrating others and through acts of service.

7  Summary and conclusion
This article has explored interactions between pastoral care and mission. I have 
demonstrated that effective expressions of love of God and neighbour at church-
based, intercultural initiatives depend upon pastoral care practices including expres-
sions of empathy and compassion, hospitality and spirituality.

Three proposals emerge from this article. First, I propose that church-based intercul-
tural initiatives will most effectively communicate love of God and neighbour when 
organisation and delivery follow the principles, practices, and functions of intercul-
tural pastoral care. Second, mission planning and practice should always be informed 



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by the foundational elements of pastoral care. Third, spirituality needs nurturing in 
individuals and groups for participants to better express love of God and neighbour.

Ongoing group prayer and reflective practice are recommended as pastoral prac-
tices for church-based groups engaged in intercultural community initiatives. Super-
vision is also important for pastoral carers and warrants further consideration for 
those engaged in mission.

If I was to return to the ministry I started, outlined in the introduction, I would do a 
number of things differently. Training sessions would be run for all volunteers before 
they commenced. It would be taught that pastoral care was our mission, expressed 
through our care of asylum seekers. Deep listening would be taught and the concept 
of interpathy. The importance of allowing our guests to take the lead in relationships 
would be emphasized, with the promise that they would ask questions about the 
Christian faith, if and when they were truly interested. Team sessions would take 
place following each session which would include reflection and prayer.

About the author
Dr Sue Holdsworth is an Honorary Postdoctoral Associate at Eva Burrows College, 
University of Divinity. Originally form the UK, Sue has extensive experience working 
with diaspora communities in Melbourne and South Korea. She has also lived in 
France. Her PhD, stemming from these experiences, was titled “A critical, compar-
ative analysis of four church-based, intercultural initiatives in the multicultural city 
of Melbourne”. Sue has been a member of three mission organizations and has 
served on the executive of the Australian Association of Mission Studies. Contact: 
sue. holdsworth@divinity.edu.au

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