摘要：The study investigated the effectiveness of pastoral counselling practices for married persons amongselected Christian churches in Gweru Urban. The research design adopted for this study was the descriptive surveydesign. The research used a convenient sample of 70 ordinary church members to respond to the counselloreffectiveness questionnaire, 5 pastors/priests responded to the pastors questionnaire and 12 ordinary churchmembers participated in the focus group discussion making a total of 87 research respondents. Data were collectedby use of questionnaires and focus group discussions. Results indicated that church members present marriage issuesthat are found in any other population for counselling. Marriages within the church are traditional, civil or churchbased. To deal with issues presented, pastoral counsellors use mostly group counselling and individual counselling toa limited extent. Training of pastors does not include counselling though clients think it is part of the training.These findings agree with reviewed literature though there is conflicting direction as to the influence of culture andhow it should be handled within the church. The study therefore recommends that research be conducted intopastoral counselling which should also include observation of how pastoral counsellors do their work in addition touse of other instruments to get a clearer picture of what takes place.
