ABSTRACT
Ministers and other pastoral caregivers confront God-talk on a daily basis. Some of the God-talk comes in the form of statements such as “God just doesn’t like me anymore” or “God took Uncle Harry today” while others rise such as “I don’t know why all of this has happened to me now but I guess there is some reason for it.” Depending on the context, we may dismiss some of the statements, but others must be considered carefully as we administer pastoral care. Deep within such responses lie a person’s theology of and experience with God that are quite pertinent to the crisis at hand, thus they must be handled with care and not dismissed as just irrelevant babble or evidence of improper theology.
