JUNE 24, 1917 - OCTOBER 21, 1999

When asked if he was a Freudian or a Rogerian, Oates would respond, "No, I'm a Christian pastor."

Pastoral Counseling's Pioneer Recalls His Experiences By Mark Wingfield Reprinted with permission from the Western Recorder, November 3, 1998, Volume 172, No. 43. LOUISVILLE-If a minister in your Baptist church excels at pastoral care, you probably have Wayne Oates to thank. If you've been touched by the ministry of a Christian chaplain in the hospital, in the military or in a business setting, you probably have Wayne Oates to thank. Oates may never have stepped foot in the church, hospital or military base where you received ministry, but his writings and teachings over the past 50 years probably have been influential in the life of the minister or chaplain you encountered. That's not just because he's the nation's most prolific writer of books on pastoral care, with his 58th volume soon to be published. It's because he's one of three or four people who gave birth to the modem concept of pastoral care and counseling. In the mind of many ministers, counselors and chaplains, he is the patriarch of the pastoral care and counseling movement; having taught from 1948-74 at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and then since 1974 at the University of Louisville School of Medicine. "He has made a significant impact on generations of Southern Baptist ministers who have made pastoral care part of their ongoing ministry simply because of their course with Wayne Oates at Southern Seminary," said Andy Lester, one of Oates' former students who now teaches pastoral theology and pastoral counseling at Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth, Texas. In addition, Lester said, "There are very few pastoral care specialists who are Baptists who couldn't track their roots back to Oates." But his reach has extended well beyond Baptists too, explained Vicki Hollon, director of the Wayne Oates Institute in Louisville. She recalled a recent phone call from a high -- ranking chaplain in the Air Force who called Oates "the grandfather of clinical pastoral education for the Air Force. I got the program started," the man said, "but he's the one I learned from." What Oates is credited for most often is the integration of theology with psychology and psychiatry. "He put together the practice of pastoral ministry ... with the wisdom and resources of psychiatry and psychology in a masterful way," explained Roy Woodruff, executive director of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors. "He became bilingual (in theology and psychiatry) and could move back and forth with amazing agility." Oates, now 81, admits the improbability of someone from his background making such a far-reaching impact on Christian ministry and academia. "I grew up in poverty in the cotton mill area of South Carolina," he explained in a recent interview. "None of my people went past the sixth grade. His mother worked in the cotton mills; his father had left the family when he was born although his mother still wore her wedding ring when she was buried in 1972. "I saw my way out of this was education," Oates said. "I got through the eight grade, and then was appointed a page for Congress in Washington." After completing high school, he went back to work in the South Carolina mills for two years before earning an undergraduate degree from Wake Forest University. Finally he landed in Louisville at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he met Gaines Dobbins, a pioneering professor in several practical ministry disciplines. Through the influence of Dobbins, Oates developed an interest in what he calls "sick religion." (Oates book titled When Religion Gets Sick is still in use and was recently republished on CDROM by the Wayne Oates Institute.) The integration of theology and psychiatry not only was a new concept in the 1940s, but was considered heretical by some in the seminary community. After graduating from Southern with both a master's degree and a doctorate, Oates assumed a fulltime faculty post at the seminary in 1948, much to the consternation of other academics. When his second book, The Bible in Pastoral Care, was published, five professors went to President Duke McCall to protest, Oates recalled. They "complained that I didn't have any right to write on the Bible." McCall, he said, was unimpressed by the protest and told the professors they ought to write their own books about the Bible instead of criticizing Oates. One of his first students was Myron Madden, who went on to be a major figure in pastoral care education himself. Madden recalled the emerging tension of those early days. "When I was in the seminary, the assumption was you're just given the Bible and that's enough," he said. "But that's not enough. You've got to relate it." What Oates advocated was putting feet to theology, Madden said, although it was a "one-man battle" to get this added to the curriculum. That's why the seminary department Oates founded was called "psychology of religion' 'rather than "pastoral theology," Lester added. "They would not allow the word theology to be used." Although most of the academic emphasis Oates established at Southern has been dismantled in recent years, it was a "classic program!' in the field of pastoral care, said Woodruff, who also was one of Oates' students. "It was one of the two or three most outstanding degree programs and a very exciting place to be with him.,, In the final analysis, it was Oates' survival in a difficult upbringing that created in him the kind of pioneering spirit to accomplish what seemed impossible, said Hollon. "Anybody who knows him can see the pioneer side has come out of his independence and commitment to basic disciplines." That commitment has been a guiding force in Oates' life, Hollon and others close to him said. They credit him with doggedly insisting that the training of pastoral caregivers remain rooted in the Bible and not "sell out" to psychology and psychiatry. Oates wrote his doctoral dissertation on Sigmund Freud, but never published that work because of concern that he would be labeled a Freudian. In fact, the aim of Oates' dissertation was to critique Freud and those who blindly subscribed to every theory Freud put forth. Instead of publishing his dissertation, Oates chose instead to write his own credo first, and he called it The Christian Pastor. First published in 1951, this volume now is in its fifth printing. "I decided who I was and who I intended to be," Oates explained. "I thought of myself as a pastor." When people would ask if he were a Freudian or a Rogerian or a follower of some other figure in the world of psychiatry, Oates said he always would respond, "No, I'm a Christian pastor." "He always kept pastoral care grounded in theology and the Bible," Lester said. "There are many who would thank Oates for holding the field's feet to the fire of biblical and theological roots and relevance." "He has been a very healthy influence in helping pastors not get seduced by psychiatric influences. He's one of just a few who have held the line," said Madden, who retired as director of pastoral care at Baptist Hospital in New Orleans and taught at the Louisiana State University Medical School. This is important, Madden insisted, because psychology and psychiatry can do only so much. As an example, Madden cited a time he needed counseling himself. He had a good friend who was a psychiatrist with no theological training. But he didn't think this man could bring him to complete healing. "So he helps me through the process, but he cannot come back and affirm me and bless me," Madden explained. This sense of restitution is an important part of what a pastoral counselor offers that bridges the world of psychiatry and theology, Madden said. To explain, he recalled a woman who once came to him from the care of a psychiatrist. She wanted to see a pastoral counselor to answer a question her psychiatrist could not: "Can I be forgiven?" Madden is considered an authority on the need for people to feel a sense of "blessing" to function wholly. This concept he said, is something that flows naturally out of Oates, his mentor and colleague. Oates said he "never made a theological point of this" but thinks the concept of blessing people is "one of the functions of a Christian pastor." And it was something he attempted to model for his students, both at the seminary and at the university medical school. "I had students bring their new babies to class for a time of blessing," he said. "It taught the students that little babies are a miracle of God." Oates also believes in the power of laying hands on people, not just at ordinations but in everyday situations of blessing. The power of touch conveys a comforting sense of blessing, he said. For many former students, the Oates legacy does not end at the graduation line. Hundreds have kept in touch and call or write or visit him regularly. "He has been a pastor with a capital P," Lester said. "He's been their comforter, their counselor, their confessor, their priest. ... His ability to hear you out, to know where you're hurting and give the care you need is an unbelievable part of his legacy." For Oates himself, these relationships are a blessing. "The crucial test of maturity," he said, "is the capacity of a person to form and maintain durable relationships."