The Remedy for Secular Psychology

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The Remedy for Secular Psychology

A friend shares with you a set of emotional symptoms that leave the two of you stumped. Where do you turn for answers that make a real difference?

A parishioner tells you about a decade-old “besetting sin” that they just can’t find victory over. Where do you turn to discern root causes and robust cures?

Real Answers for Real People with Real Problems

Whether you’re a lay person or a pastor, where do you turn for real answers?

Unfortunately, too often, in our sincere desire to help our hurting friends, we race to the latest trends. We turn to secular psychology and find human-shaped answers for God-shaped problems. We discover human-sized solutions when what we really need are God-sized SOUL-u-tions.

There has to be a better way.

There is. It’s God’s way. It’s learning to be a soul physician from the ultimate Soul Physician—Christ. It’s Christ-centered, comprehensive, compassionate, and culturally-informed biblical counseling and spiritual formation.

It’s the way the Apostle Paul spoke about and prayed about in Philippians. “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight” (Philippians 1:9).

Soul Physicians: The Remedy for Secular Psychology

It was in my first pastoral ministry that I began equipping lay people and pastors to become soul physicians. I longed for them to understand people, diagnose problems, and prescribe solutions—biblically. I long for you to do the same.

Twenty-five years later, I authored Soul Physicians: A Theology of Soul Care and Spiritual Direction. It’s the remedy for secular psychology.

It’s also the remedy for “take two verses and call me in the morning.” It remedies “secular help” and “shallow help.”

Soul Physicians helps you to help your friends. It empowers you to change lives with Christ’s changeless truth.

Unique Focus: Life’s Seven Ultimate Questions

Soul Physicians explores from the Scriptures seven truths that shape the way we see life and ministry. These truths about life’s seven ultimate questions teach us what makes biblical counseling truly biblical.

• Question 1: “What is truth? Where do I find answers?” Answer 1—The Word: “God’s Word is sufficient, authoritative, profound, and relevant.”

• Question 2: “Who is God?” Answer 2—Community/The Creator: “God is Trinitarian.”

• Question 3: “Who am I”? Answer 3—Creation: “We are created with dignity by God in the image of Christ.”

• Question 4: “What went wrong?” Answer 4—Fall: “We sinfully and foolishly choose god-substitutes over God.”

• Question 5: “Can we change? How do people change?” Answer 5—Redemption: “We must apply our complete salvation to our daily sanctification.”

• Question 6—“Where am I headed? What is my destiny?” Answer 6—Consummation/Glorification: “Heaven is my final home.”

• Question 7—“Can I help? How can I help?” Answer 7—Sanctification/Ministry: “We dispense God’s cure for the soul—grace.”

Unique Features

• Soul Physicians includes a built-in personal application discussion guide to help develop the Christlike character of the biblical counselor.

• Soul Physicians includes a built-in ministry implication discussion guide to help develop the relational competence of the biblical counselor.

• Soul Physicians is written in the language of “theo-drama”—relating theology practically and powerfully to our calling to love God and to love one another.

• Soul Physicians is comprehensive and compassionate—blending robust biblical truth with caring one another application.

• Soul Physicians is perfect for individual and group work. Join the growing number of lay people, pastors, professional Christian counselors, and students who are using Soul Physicians as their twenty-first century manual for understanding people and ministering to them God’s way.

Learn More

To read what others are saying, to download a free sample chapter, and to order Soul Physicians at 40% off, visit my RPM Ministries (http://www.rpmministries.org/) Soul Physicians page: http://www.rpmministries.org/writing/soul-physicians/

Join the Conversation

Where are you turning to be equipped for one another ministry in the local church that trains you to understand people, diagnose problems, and prescribe solutions—biblically?

Imparting Healing Hope

Voices of Healing: African American Women of Faith
Part V: Elizabeth Keckley: Imparting Healing Hope

Note: Taken from Sacred Friendships: Celebrating the Legacy of Women Heroes of the Faith. For more information on this book, please visit: http://bit.ly/YmaM1

Note: For Part I on Elizabeth Keckley, please visit my blog post at: http://bit.ly/FSNIt. For Part II, please visit: bit.ly/ENWjJ. For Part III, please visit: http://bit.ly/gI1H6. For Part IV, please visit: http://bit.ly/x9Axx

Healing Hope

Elizabeth Keckley not only understood how to offer sustaining comfort. She also recognized how to impart healing hope.

“At the grave, at least, we should be permitted to lay our burden down, that a new world, a world of brightness, may open to us. The light that is denied us here should grow into a flood of effulgence beyond the dark, mysterious shadows of death.”

Hope-Giving Spiritual Friendship

The hope-giving spiritual friendship between “Lizzy” Keckley and Mary Lincoln continued for a lifetime. The widowed Mrs. Lincoln needed it desperately. Elizabeth describes Mrs. Lincoln in these post-White House years.

“A few words as regards the disposition and habits of Mrs. Lincoln. She is no longer the sprightly body she was when her very presence illumed the White House with gayety. Now she is sad and sedate, seeking seclusion, and maintaining communication merely with her most intimate personal friends.”

Lizzy, or Lizzie, as Mary affectionately called her in letter after letter, was her most intimate of friends—a friendship continued by letters until Mrs. Lincoln passed away. Unfortunately, history records only the letters written to Elizabeth from Lincoln. But even these provide more than a glimpse into the openness of this sacred friendship, and the trust and safety that that an otherwise mistrusting Mrs. Lincoln felt because of Elizabeth’s care for her soul.

A Broken Heart

Writing on a Sunday morning, October 6, 1867, the still-grieving Mrs. Lincoln opens her heart wide to Lizzy. “My Dear Lizzie: I am writing this morning with a broken heart after a sleepless night of great mental suffering. . . . Pray for me that this cup of affliction may pass from me, or be sanctified to me. I weep whilst I am writing. I pray for death this morning. Only my darling Taddie prevents my taking my life. . . . Your friend, M. L.”[1]

One week later, Mary cries out again for Elizabeth’s friendship. “Oh! That I could see you. Write me, dear Lizzie, if only a line. . . . I am always so anxious to hear from you, I am feeling so friendless in the world. I remain always your affectionate friend. M. L.”

It is obvious that Elizabeth provided sustaining and healing soul care from the preceding lines.

Helping Others to Be Better

It is equally clear that she was Mary Lincoln’s source of reconciling and guiding spiritual direction from the following words. “Write me my dear friend, your candid opinion about everything. I wish to be made better off.”

Lincoln offers a great purpose statement for spiritual direction—helping others to be better off—spiritually, socially, mentally, emotionally.

A Friend Like No Other

The next month, on November 9 and 15, 1867, Mary expresses further appreciation for the depth of connection that she shares with Lizzy. “How hard it is that I cannot see and talk with you in this time of great, great trouble. I feel as if I had not a friend in the world save yourself. I sometimes wish myself out of this world of sorrow and care. . . .”[1]

“Your last letter has been received, and believe me, I duly appreciate your great interest in my affairs. I hope the day may arrive when I can return your kindness in more than words.”

The widow’s sadness is unrelenting. Her need for her best friend’s enduring presence is equally indefatigable. “Chicago, November 24. Why, why was not I taken when my darling husband was called from my side? I have been allowed no rest by those who, in my desolation, should have protected me. How dearly I should love to see you this very sad day.”

The End of the Story: What Is a Soul-Care Giver?

What is a soul care-giver? She is someone like Elizabeth Keckley who can be trusted to provide unremitting rest, protection, and presence in the saddest days of life on fallen planet Earth.

Note: Readers can enjoy the empowering narratives of over two-dozen African American women (and scores of African American men) narrated in Kellemen and Edwards, Beyond the Suffering. For more information, please visit: http://bit.ly/XvsTu

Foundations for Soul Care: A Christian Psychology Proposal

Foundations for Soul Care: A Christian Psychology Proposal

· Author: Eric L. Johnson, Ph.D.
· Publisher: IVP Academic (September, 2007)
· Category: Biblical Counseling, Christian Psychology

Discerning Reader Editorial Review

Reviewed 04/23/09 by Bob Kellemen, Ph.D.

Recommended: A core text that expands the conversation regarding what makes Christian psychology truly Christian and biblical counseling truly biblical.

Review: What Makes Christian Psychology Truly Christian?

Writing before the advent of modern secular psychology, Old Testament scholar and church historian, Franz Delitzsch, noted that “biblical psychology is no science of yesterday. It is one of the oldest sciences of the church” (A System of Biblical Psychology, 1861, p. 3).

His assertion is vital to remember before any knee-jerk reaction to the subtitle of Eric Johnson’s book, Foundations for Soul Care: A Christian Psychology Proposal. It is not oxymoronic to link “Christian” and “psychology,” or “biblical” and “psychology.”

Dr. Eric Johnson is Professor of Pastoral Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Founding Director of the Society of Christian Psychologists. Dr. Johnson has committed his life and ministry to the epic task of answering one foundational question. “What would psychology look like if it were built solely upon a Christian understanding of human nature?

Foundations for Soul Care provides his answer, his opus. For Johnson, “psychology” is the study of the soul in order to care for the soul based upon the inspired wisdom of the Creator of the soul.

Wisdom, as Solomon uses it in Proverbs, is what Johnson offers in Foundations. Johnson combines scriptural interpretation, the history of Christian soul care, and astute life observation to develop a deep, thinking, intellectual, complex (in the best senses of those words) approach to Christian psychology.

Yet, like Proverbs, Johnson’s work is eminently practical in its purpose. He shows how biblical insights about human nature lead to Christlikeness—maturity in reflecting the Creator of human nature. Thus, Foundations refuses to offer a humanistic perspective. Rather, Christian psychology, in the hands of Johnson, is all for the higher (highest) purpose of glorifying God by helping others to reflect God’s glory.

Johnson writes courageously. He places himself outside any one “camp,” which, of course, means that those from all the various camps may take issue with him (and take aim at him) for assorted reasons. Positively, Johnson’s deep thinking should motivate members of every “camp” toward profound reflection.

Johnson presents a detailed overview of the reigning paradigms in the field of Christian counseling. Building on their respective strengths, he seeks to move beyond the current impasse in the field to develop a more unified and robustly Christian understanding. He proceeds to offer a new framework for the care of souls that is comprehensive in scope, and flows from a Christian understanding of human beings. The intended end result is a distinctly Christian version of psychology: understanding people, diagnosing problems, and prescribing God’s solutions—biblically.

As a professor, speaker, and writer on soul care and spiritual direction, I highly recommend Foundations as a core text that expands the conversation regarding what makes Christian psychology truly Christian and biblical counseling truly biblical. Readers won’t agree with every point, but with eminent scholarship Johnson thoroughly addresses every point worth discussing. All serious Christian teachers, students, and practitioners in the fields of psychology, counseling, soul care, and spiritual direction need to engage this text thoughtfully.

Nourishing the Hunger of Your Soul: Introduction

Nourishing the Hunger of Your Soul: Introduction

Be nourished by some core concepts from the Introduction to Soul Physicians.

“What would a model of biblical counseling look like that was built solely upon Christ’s gospel of grace?” (Soul Physicians, p. 3).

“Love is not enough. Truth is not enough. Love and truth must kiss” (Soul Physicians, p. 5).

“My passion is to infuse biblical counseling with Christian theology to change lives with Christ’s changeless truth” (Soul Physicians, p. 7).

“To what degree do you have confidence in the relevancy and potency of God’s Word in your life?” (Soul Physicians, p. 8).

“How do you evidence your confidence in God’s Word to help you when you are suffering?” (Soul Physicians, p. 8).

“How do you evidence your confidence in God’s Word to help you to have victory over sin and to grow in sanctification?” (Soul Physicians, p. 8).

“Do you agree or disagree that modern Christian counseling has lost its confidence in the relevancy and potency of God’s Word?” (Soul Physicians, p. 9).

“To what degree is your biblical counseling theologically informed?” (Soul Physicians, p. 9).

“What could you do to infuse your soul care and spiritual direction with Christian theology?” (Soul Physicians, p. 9).

“What makes biblical counseling biblical? What makes soul care and spiritual direction Christian?” (Soul Physicians, p. 9).

Margaret Baxter: An Artful Soul Physician, Part II

Margaret Baxter: An Artful Soul Physician, Part II

We know the name Richard Baxter, the Puritan pastor and author, but we are much less familiar with the spiritual writings of his wife, Margaret Baxter. Yet, when we uncover the rich buried treasure of her soul care and spiritual direction ministry, we have to wonder why in the world the world has not told her amazing stories sooner.

Confrontation for My Sinning: The Freshness of God’s Goodness and Grace

Having received God’s healing physically, Margaret cooperates with God’s Spirit in finding ongoing spiritual healing (forgiveness) and growth. Consider this covenant with God that she wrote upon her healing. “. . . I here now renew my covenant with almighty God and resolve by his grace to endeavor to get and keep a fresh sense of his mercy on my soul, and a greater sense yet of my sin; I resolve to set myself against my sin with all my might, and not to take its part or extenuate it or keep the devil’s counsel, as I have done, to the wronging of God and the wounding of my own soul.”[i] Margaret perceives the horrors of her sins—they wrong God and wound her soul. She also recognizes the wonders of God’s grace—it is her fresh sense of goodness that motivates her to eschew evil.

Margaret is a master in the art of Devil craft. “Though the tempter be busy to make me think diminutively of this great mercy, yet I must not, but must acknowledge the greatness of it”[ii] What a concise, precise account of the Devil’s grand scheme—to con us into thinking diminutively of God’s colossal grace.

To her self-reconciling, Margaret adds self-guiding. She applies her theological understanding of her personal relationship to the Trinity to the issue of progressive sanctification. “. . . I am already engaged by the baptismal covenant to God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; and to the Father as my God and chief good and only happiness; and to the Son as my Redeemer, Head, and Husband; and to the Holy Ghost as my Sanctifier and Comforter . . .”[iii]

What difference does this intimate relationship with the Trinity make as she battles besetting sins? “All creatures . . . had nothing that could satisfy my soul . . . which should teach me to keep my heart loose from the creature and not over-love anything on this side heaven. Why should my heart be fixed where my home is not? Heaven is my home, God in Christ is all my happiness, and where my treasure is, there my heart should be. Come away, O my heart, from vanity; mount heavenward, and be not dead or dull if you would be free from trouble, and taste of real joy and pleasure. . . . O my carnal heart! Retire to God, the only satisfying object. There may you love without all danger of excess!”[iv] Here we see a sample of the enduring Puritan tradition of avoiding over-much-love of the creature by passionately pursuing ever-increasing-love for the Creator, our only Satisfier, and the Lover of our soul.

No wonder the master pastor, Richard Baxter, praised his wife as an artful soul physician. “Yes, I will say that . . . she was better at resolving a case of conscience than most divines that ever I knew in all my life. I often put cases to her which she suddenly resolved as to convince me of some degree of oversight in my own resolution. Insomuch that of late years, I confess, that I was used to put all, save secret cases, to her and hear what she could say. Abundance of difficulties were brought me, some about restitution, some about injuries, some about references, some about vows, some about marriage promises, and many such like; and she would lay all the circumstances presently together, compare them, and give me a more exact resolution than I could do”[v]

[i]Ibid., 69.
[ii]Ibid., 70.
[iii]Ibid.
[iv]Ibid., 71-72.
[v]Ibid., 118-119.

Just Where Did the Emergent Idea of Salvation Emerge From?

Just Where Did the Emergent Idea of Salvation Emerge From?

Recently Moody Press released Why We’re Not Emergent: By Two Guys Who Should Be. The “Emergent Church” (EC) is a name given to a loosely knit "group" of Christians who see the church emerging out of its tryst with modernism and emerging into and beyond the post-modern era. Because of its very post-modern way of thinking/being, definitions become nebulous. If you want to learn more, read the book. I highly recommend it.

Salvation and Eternal Life

My thoughts today relate to one aspect of emergent thinking: salvation and eternal life. As is true with much in the EC, they tend to throw the proverbial baby out with the bath water.

Listen to what one EC leader, Spencer Brooks, says about salvation. “I am discovering to my wonder, joy, and amazement that I have mistakenly placed the emphasis of the good news on the eternal. In the Gospels . . . people could become a part of the Kingdom of God . . . not a heavenly dwelling but the place where God is King.”

Let that quote percolate in your mind while we read what another EC leader, Brian McLaren, shares about the kingdom versus salvation. He claims that the stuff of our evangelistic tracts—“God’s grace, God’s forgiveness . . . the free gift of salvation”—is, at best, only a “footnote to a gospel that is much richer, grander, and more alive, a gospel that calls you to become a disciple and to disciple others, in authentic community, for the good of the world.”

Come Let Us Dialogue Together

I could dissect these quotes (excuse me, in the EC, people don’t dissect, they dialogue and converse—so I could converse about these quotes) from many perspectives. However, given my passion for church history and given the EC’s hatred for modernity, here’s the point. The EC would have us believe that the church’s focus on salvation as something you get in the future rather than as something you are now is a result of Enlightenment modernism.

I have news for them . . . long before the Enlightenment, Christians focused on both—salvation as a future gift and as a present reality. Again, I could share much more about this both/and focus. But since the EC denigrates the focus on salvation-equals-eternal life, and since they claim this is a thoroughly modern facet of Christianity (and, therefore, evil to its core—bad, really, really bad), dialogue with me as we briefly focus on their historical fallacy.

Historical Fallacy

As many of you know, I have studied church history for over a quarter century. The church fathers, the desert mothers, the medieval scholastics and the medieval mystics, the Reformers and the Counter-Reformers, men and women, black and white and brown all lived today in light of tomorrow. They all emphasized salvation as the future hope that sustains us now. Yes, the Kingdom had already broken in. Yes, they wanted to live differently now. But, they only survived and thrived because they remembered the future—salvation as their future, eternal hope.

Writing Sacred Friendships: Listening to the Voices of Feminine Soul Care-Givers and Spiritual Directors, my co-author, Susan Ellis, and I have over 1,000 pages of research notes. More than 1/3 of those pages highlight salvation as our future, eternal, heavenly hope. Now, it is possible, I suppose, that all of these godly women, living pre-Enlightenment, could have all gotten it wrong all the time. But that’s not really the point. The EC folks insist that salvation as eternal life later and not only or primarily as eternal life now, is modern. That is, it started in the 1700s with the Enlightenment.

Hmm. Someone should tell the female martyrs of the first and second centuries, like Perpetua, that they were impacted by a movement that did not start for another 1,500 years! Someone should tell the desert mothers of the second through fourth centuries that they were influenced by a movement that did not start for another 1,300 years! Someone should tell the women of the Reformation that they were infected by a movement that did not start for another 100 years!

Before we contextualize the nature of these women’s eternal hope, dialogue with me about another group of historical believers who also focused on salvation as eternal hope. Many of you know that I co-authored with my African American friend, Karole Edwards, Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction. Granted, some of these African American believers lived after the Enlightenment (though some lived before it). However, historically there is no evidence that enslaved African American Christians had any exposure to Enlightenment thinking. But guess what? These non-Enlightenment African American believers highlighted salvation as a future eternal hope.

Situational Pomposity

Now, let’s contextualize this motif of salvation as future eternal hope. In letter after letter, in journal entry after journal entry, in martyrdom report after report, in repeated conversion narratives, in repeated slave narratives—in other words—everywhere, suffering women and African Americans looked to their future eternal salvation as their only hope to survive and be sustained through the horrible abuse they were enduring.

Now, here’s the point. The leadership of the Emergent Church is predominantly lily white, upper class, affluent, well-to-do, country-club-like, and male. In terms of their experience of life, they have had it made in the shade. They have lived the good life. So, it is so easy for them to say, “Thinking about salvation as future eternal life is selfish, shallow, and modern!”

Well, historically it is hardly modern.

And personally, experientially—it is hardly shallow.

Instead, for the oppressed, the suffering, and the persecuted it is pre-modern and it is deep. It reaches from before the dawn of time into time to give all those who are currently oppressed a future hope so they can draw a line in the sand of retreat, so they can survive, and, yes, through Christ’s grace, so they can thrive.

Biblical Sanity

Eternal life for the great masses of persecuted and suffering Christians has always been both/and. It has always been salvation later and the strength to live for Christ now in light of the future hope.

Isn’t it fascinating that this emergent idea of salvation only as a now thing did not emerge from an oppressed people. It is easy for those living a life of ease to say that “the free gift of salvation” is only “a footnote to a gospel that is much richer.” Oh yeah? Take some time to read the plethora of primary sources where pre-modern, non-Enlightenment Christians clung to the biblical view of salvation as an eternal future that gives hope for today.

So perhaps when you mix one part life-of-ease and one part historical-inaccuracy (and one part diminishing-original-sin . . . but that's a blog for another day) you bake a fluffy cake that claims it is sinfully modern and shallow to emphasize the Gospel as focusing on eternal salvation later. But let the yeast of suffering and history infiltrate that mix, and your cake crumbles.

Applying Church History to Ministry

What has motivated my twenty-five-year study of church history? My passion for relating truth to life. I want to learn from that great cloud of witnesses how they applied God’s truth to human relationships.

Guess what? With suffering people 100% of the time soul physicians helped them to find healing hope by looking candidly at misery now in light of a future where there will be no more tears.

The EC in all things claims to want to be relevant. Relevance has been elevated by the EC to God-like status.

Okay, someone explain to me how in the world it is relevant to suffering people to jettison an other-worldly, future-worldly perspective?

The EC also claims that in all things they want to express concern for the least of these. In fact, they correctly define one aspect of kingdom living as active compassion on the least of these.

Okay, someone explain to me how in the world it is compassionate when the “most of these” (the affluent) jettison an other-worldly, future-worldly perspective that for 2,000 years has been the only perspective which has brought sustaining comfort and healing hope to “the least of these”?

Truth Really Does Matter

You see, truth really does matter. Historical truth matters. Biblical truth matters. I have no qualms with the EC folks reminding me that salvation ought to impact how I live today. I agree 100%.

But I have big problems with anyone telling me, and telling suffering Christians that our future salvation, our eternal life are the crumbs off the table. I’m sorry, but those “crumbs” have nourished hurting hearts and hungry souls since the Cross.

Take away “God’s grace, God’s forgiveness, and the free gift of salvation” and you rob and abuse every sinner who ever lived—which is every person who ever lived except our Savior—the one who promised us eternal life for now and for forever.

For Such a Time As This

For Such a Time As This

Today marks the launch of Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction. We offer this book with the prayer that God would allow all readers to:

1. Be empowered to apply proven ways to help people find healing hope in the midst of deep pain and sorrow by identifying with past African American believers who ministered in the crucible of suffering.

2. Be equipped to minister more effectively in cross-cultural settings by uncovering the buried treasure of wisdom about soul care and spiritual direction as seen through the eyes, experienced in the souls, and told from the lips of past African American Christians.

3. Be enabled to skillfully practice the historic soul care arts of sustaining, healing, reconciling, and guiding which are distinctively grounded both in the Word of God and in the legacy of African American believers.

4. Be encouraged to build healing communities where Christians find courage and comfort in God and each other.

5. Be enlightened by the founding fathers of the African American church about how to be a godly male leader who leaves a lasting legacy of love.

6. Be enthused by the heroic sisters of the spirit of the African American church in how to be a powerful female spiritual friend.

7. Be enriched by past African American husbands, wives, fathers, and mothers concerning how to nurture and enjoy godly living in the home.

Caucasian Writer Co-Authors Book on African American Ministry

Caucasian Writer Co-Authors Book on African American Ministry

*Note to My Blog Readers: Please feel free to forward this news release to your local newspapers.

The Elephant in the Room

When Bob Kellemen offers seminars on his new book Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction, he starts by addressing the proverbial “elephant in the room.” “Why did a white guy write a book about African American church life?”

As Kellemen explained, “First, I didn’t write it, I co-wrote it with Karole Edwards who is a wonderful African American friend and a graduate of the seminary where I teach. Second, we like to say that we didn’t co-author the book as much as we co-edited Beyond the Suffering. We wove together first-hand accounts of the amazing narratives concerning how African American Christians found courage and comfort in God and each other to move beyond the suffering of slavery to a place of healing hope.”

Kellemen continued, “But that still doesn’t address what prompted my interest in this fascinating topic. I grew up on 11th and Hovey in downtown Gary, IN. I’ve spent my whole life in a multi-cultural environment. Currently I teach at a school (Capital Bible Seminary in Lanham, MD) with no majority culture. God has called me to a life-long, multi-cultural ministry.”

A Mutual Passion

Kellemen’s co-author, Edwards, shared her own passion for Beyond the Suffering. “For me the journey began as I delved deeper into historical African American stories and discovered a cavern of invaluable truth. As I was being changed by the story unfolding before me, I wondered how others might also be changed by seeing God’s story unfolding through our history.”

Baker Books

According to the publisher, Baker Books, “Beyond the Suffering is the African American story told by African Americans for the benefit of all Americans. The African American Church has always helped hurting and hardened people through personal and corporate ministry. Beyond the Suffering uncovers the great spiritual riches of this African American Christian tradition.”

Kellemen concurred. “Beyond the Suffering desires to inspire today’s generation as they hear the voices of past African American Christians speaking through its pages. By listening to its historical narrative, readers learn to speak to today’s world with relevance. Beyond the Suffering assists African American and non-African American lay people, pastors, and Christian counselors to become more spiritually aware and skillful by deriving modern implications from these recovered resources. And it equips all believers for more effective cross-cultural ministry.”

Pulling the Rope in Unison

Of the 100s of real-life vignettes recorded in the book, Kellemen shared one story (“Pulling the Rope in Unison”) illustrative of the practical nature of the entire book. “Venture Smith was born in Guinea about 1729. Kidnapped at age eight, Robertson Mumford purchased him a year later. After living with Mumford for thirteen years, Venture married Meg at age twenty-two. They remained together for over forty-seven years, through many trials and tribulations, until parted by death.”

“Venture’s narrative contains an explanation for their marital faithfulness. On the occasion of their marriage, Venture threw a rope over his cabin and asked his wife to go to the opposite side and pull on the rope hanging there while he remained and pulled on his end. After they both had tugged at it awhile in vain, he called her to his side of the cabin and by their united effort they drew the rope to themselves with ease. He then explained the object lesson to his young bride. ‘If we pull in life against each other we shall fail, but if we pull together we shall succeed.’” According to Kellemen, “premarital couples, newlyweds, and seasoned married spouses would all do well to heed Venture’s guiding wisdom.”

Dr. Tony Evans

Internationally-known African American pastor and author, Dr. Tony Evans, in his Foreword to Beyond the Suffering noted that “Most students of history focus on the pain of the African American experience in America. There was a lot of pain! And we should not minimize that pain. However, as the title suggests, Beyond the Suffering goes further. It shows us how the pain experienced by people from the African American culture can be redeemed to give life to people from any race or culture. The captivating true stories and first-hand narratives have a therapeutic and healing quality for the reader and those they serve. After you read Beyond the Suffering, you will have a deeper understanding of how God forged character in people through their suffering and be able to apply many valuable insights to your personal life and future ministry.”

So About That Elephant?

So, about that elephant in the room? Kellemen said, “Regardless of the color of our skin, we are all human beings with similar struggles and suffering, hopes and dreams. Beyond the Suffering listens to the voices of a people who ministered in the crucible of suffering. Everyone, from every race, can benefit from hearing these voices, from reading and applying these courageous stories.”

To Order

Beyond the Suffering is available at Amazon.com, Barnes and Nobles, Wal Mart, and other bookstores and bookselling websites.

African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction: Super Bowl Style

African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction:

Super Bowl Style

The more direct quotes I read from the two Super Bowl coaches, Lovie Smith (Chicago Bears) and Tony Dungy (Indianapolis Colts), the more amazed I am by their coaching styles. And, the more I become convinced that their way of relating to their players follows directly in the lineage and heritage of the history of African American soul care and spiritual direction.

In “Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction,” my co-author (Karole Edwards) and I highlight the myriad ways that past African Americans sustained and healed one another. In dynamic case after case, African Americans “climbed in one another’s casket” of despair, identifying with each other’s pain. They then, on the basis of their Christian hope in Christ, brought hope to one another by “celebrating the empty tomb” and thus experiencing Christ’s resurrection power.

Coaching: Mentoring Men as Iron Sharpens Iron

Just a few current examples from the coaching lives of Smith and Dungy will suffice to demonstrate that these two African American coaches understand how to mentor others with biblical soul care and spiritual direction. Chicago Tribune writer, David Haugh, in his January 28, 2007, story entitled “The Lovie Connection” emphasizes how with Smith, “like mentor Dungy, being his player’s friend and counselor comes easily.”

When Bear’s player Tank Johnson lost his best friend, Willie B. Posey, in a nightclub shooting, more than anything, Johnson needed to know that he wasn’t alone. As Haugh says, “That’s when Lovie Smith picked up the phone to pick up his defensive tackle’s spirits.”

These two men of quiet strength, bonded by five years together on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ staff and by similar Christian convictions, hope that the necessary focus on their skin color doesn’t overlook a shared coaching style evident in Smith’s phone call to a troubled Johnson.

“He’s a Coach Who Listens a Lot”

As Johnson records of Smith, “He called me and said, ‘Hey, Big Guy, how are you doing? I’m going to call you every day through this process to make sure you’re OK,’” Johnson recalled. “That means a lot when you’re on pins and needles about a lot of things in your life. But it’s that kind of thing that makes Lovie different. He’s a coach who listens a lot.”

Wow! This is classic soul care. An empathic concern for how another human being is doing in the midst of a struggle. A consistency of follow-up (not just there in a crisis, but there day after day). Listening a lot.

Unfortunately, the two most negative sports writers in Chicago, Jay Mariotti of the Sun Times and Rick Morrissey of the Chicago Tribune, just never got it (and they rarely do). When Smith and the Bears stood behind Tank (not for his unwise choices or foolish behavior, but behind the person, the man), they tried to tank Smith. Morrissey falsely and foolishly accused Smith of having “no concept of right and wrong.” It is Morrissey and Mariotti who have absolutely no concept of sustaining and healing, no concept of humble empathy for another human being’s plight and pain. No concept of biblical, historical soul care and spiritual direction.

Lovie’s Love

But enough about them. Back to Lovie’s love.

When Bears’ rookie safety Danieal Manning started feeling a little lost in the big city and the bigger world of an NFL starter, Smith related his own small-town Texas upbringing to the Corsicana native and helped pull him through. “Coach Lovie understood me,” Manning said. “He understands us.”Whenever Rex Grossman sought reassurance during a very trying season, Smith invited him into an office that doesn’t require appointments.“One of the first things Lovie said to me when I got here last year was he wanted to be involved with the players’ lives and wanted to know how they’re doing so he has an open-door policy,” wide receiver Rashied Davis said. “Some coaches, it’s us against the coaches. You just don’ feel that here.”

Another “Wow!” Pastors and counselors have much to learn from Lovie’s love. Understanding. An open door policy (as John Piper would say to pastors, “Brothers, we are not professionals, meaning, drop the CEO office concept and be a caring human being). Equality. Universality (we’re all in the same boat). Humility.

The Mentor of the Mentor

In Indianapolis, Colts’ players who have described similar experiences with Dungy this week feel the same way. And from whom do you think Smith adopted his mentoring style?

On January 26, 2007, another Chicago Tribune sports’ writer focused on Tony Dungy in an article entitled “Indianapolis: Strength in Sorrow.” Terry Bannon’s subtitle says it all: “Colts Band together When a Teammate Suffers Family Tragedy.”

Colts’ player Reggie Wayne lost his brother in a car accident on September 24, 2006. Who was there for Reggie? Tony Dungy, of course.

“The thing about coach Dungy is his office is always open if I ever need him,” Wayne said. “He’s never too busy for us. I always knew if I had a problem, I could go to him.” Sound familiar?

“How You Get through Problems”

“Football is lifelike, but just because our guys are on television they’re not bigger than life,” Dungy said. “They go through all the things that everyone else does, all of us do. You’re not immune to it.”

“That’s one of the things that has helped me be there and counsel our guys when they do have problems. I believe God has me here for a purpose. I have a strong Christian inner faith. That’s what drives me and I use that to help those guys.”Dungy is known as a coach who treats his players as people first, which shapes his approach to their personal lives. “I tell guys all the time they’re not immune to it, they’re going to have problems,” Dungy said. “It’s how you get through them that’s important. That’s how I was raised, and I’m glad I was raised that way.”

A third “Wow!” Always available. Human. Honest. Christian counseling. Inner faith. Driven to help others. Treating people as people. Facing problems and finding hope.

Passing the Baton of Soul Care

You read what Dungy said about where he learned his “soul care.” He was raised that way. Smith got it from Dungy, Dungy got it from his parents. His parents got their soul care philosophy and practice not from school, but from the school of hard knocks. They got it from the beautiful and powerful heritage of African American soul care.

How does one learn to help others to move “beyond the suffering?” By facing one’s own life suffering, as African Americans have, and then by living face-to-face with Christ in order to move beyond suffering to healing hope.

Here's the Thing

Here's the Thing

I just returned from the wonderful experience of engaging two-dozen graduate students in a week-long course on the history of soul care. One-third of that course focused on the history of African American soul care.

Here's the thing . . . (as "Mr Monk" from the TV show "Monk" would say): These well-educated men and women, many of them African Americans, kept saying, "In high school and college we read books and had courses on African American history. But we NEVER heard about their Christian faith."

What's up with that?

Having read more than 500 primary sources in the research and writing of "Beyond the Suffering," I am floored by the amount of biased editing that has to occur in order to obscure and down-right leave out the tremendous Christian faith perspective of a multitude of enslaved African Americans.

Here's the thing . . . as my students communicated, "Now, armed with hundreds of power quotes and true stories, we can go back into our churches, our counseling offices, our youth group, and our homes and tell young Black men and women: 'You have a great faith legacy!'"

Indeed. Everywhere in African American history we learn of movement beyond suffering to healing hope on the basis of faith in Christ. That's the thing!

When suffering hits home, embrace it, face it, but always learn how to grow through it and to find God in it. That's the legacy left to us by African American believers. It is their gift to all Americans.

Beyond the Suffering

Beyond the Suffering

I'm excited to announce that Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction, my latest book, is now available for pre-order on Amazon.com.

To secure your copy, go to:

http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Suffering-Embracing-Spiritual-Direction/dp/0801068061/sr=8-1/qid=1165786697/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-2504482-8956116?ie=UTF8&s=books

Beyond the Suffering gives voice to the voiceless, allowing the words of past African American Christians to share how they ministered healing hope to one another which allowed them to move beyond suffering to victory in Christ.