Earlier this month, Pastor Jordan and Pastor Kevin spent a week at Faith Lafayette Church in Lafayette, Indiana for their annual Biblical Counseling Training Conference (BCTC). We are both currently trying to complete our required course work in hopes that we can become certified biblical counselors through ACBC (Association of Certified Biblical Counseling) and become helpful ambassadors of the Kingdom of God among hurting people. Below are some highlights of the week:
The Making of a Biblical Counselor
This message by Dr. Charles Ware, President of Crossroads Bible College in Indianapolis, IN was a wonderful encouragement from 2 Corinthians 4:1-16 about the making of a biblical counselor. We teach Christ with our mouths and our lives. We can learn to be counselors in the class but nothing matches the effectiveness for being compassionate towards hurting people than suffering ourselves. Being perplexed, persecuted, struck down yet not being destroyed are ways we manifest both the death and resurrection life of Christ through the counseling ministry.
Difficulties and Delights of Counseling
Dr. David Powlison delivered a wonderful address to fellow counselors, stating that both chairs are hard to sit in when it comes to counseling. Each counselee’s most pressing questions are not verbalized but determine the path of the counseling: Do I need help? Do I trust you? Will I be honest with you? Do you really understand me? Will I listen to what you say? Will I take what you say to heart? Will I act on what we are talking about? Will I persevere? Powlison urges counselors of God’s word to pursue humility and skill in caring for counselee’s to ensure effective counsel and love for hurting people.
The Church Has Everything it Needs to Counsel
The premise of all training offered at BCTC is that the church stewards the Word of God and therefore it has everything that it needs to counsel people from within. The Scriptures are sufficient (2 Peter 1:3) and the goal of each church should be to grasp God’s Word in a way that meets people where they are at in their lives with the hope of the good news of the Gospel. In other words, counseling isn’t only a formal endeavor reserved for trained professionals, it is something that every believer is called to on one level or another.
Depression Myths
Is depression a biblical term? Is it a sin to take an anti-depressant for sadness? Is depression equivalent to feelings of sadness? Is it a medical disease as we are led to believe by the “scientific world?” How do we treat depression and what do you say to someone who is facing depression? These are good questions that demand some biblical thinking. Unfortunately, sadness fulfills the world’s criteria for being diagnosed with depression and most prescriptions are made with much too little time for a doctor to actually get to know a patient. Biblical counseling is committed to knowing a patient and skillfully applying the hope of the resurrection of Jesus. Another interesting fact: sadness is mostly connected to lack of sleep.
Being Human, Living God, and Dead Idols
To be human is to have an active heart, to seek, to pursue things they love, to take refuge and protect themselves. In other words, to be human is to be a worshipper. According to David Powlison students coming into his seminary classes by the early 2000’s actually entered with this very conviction in stark contrast to the popular movement that had fizzled out, which claimed humans as empty vacuum’s that need to be filled by circumstances, people, and life. The Bible is about life and biblical counseling addresses the worship/idolatry of the heart that are the basic problems and questions that humanity faces.
The Goal Of Pre-Marital Counseling
“Premarital counseling should reveal evidence that the believing couple understands the patterns of idolatry in each other hearts and should equip the couple to respond in grace to help each other be more like Christ.” Brent Aucoin
This definition captures the essence of God’s design in marriage and extends to the issues married people face as marriage is a picture of the redeeming and sanctifying work of Christ in each other.
Invitation To Biblical Counseling
Join the movement. ACBC is currently experiencing an influx of counseling needs that is exceeding their labor pool. Next year Faith Lafayette will be offering training in the twin cities, hosted at Grace Church Eden Prairie February 22-23, March 24-25, April 25-26.
May the Church be equipped to apply the word of God with skill in the effort of biblical counseling so that many will come to know the good news of Jesus Christ.
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