Attention to the scientific benefits of pastoral care is a blessing and a curse.

The art of pastoral care may be difficult to describe but we know that the ability to measure and describe the process of becoming a clinically trained, professional pastoral care provider is possible. Within the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education we have developed standards that spell out the competencies needed to complete the desired skill outcomes. Instead of diluting the meaning of pastoral care, this movement has strengthened the training, at least for many supervisors, students and seminaries. I argue that being able to understand with more precision what we do and how we do it could only enhance the practice of our art and the understanding by others of what that art might look like.