Be Equipped to Change Lives

Be Equipped to Change Lives: How to Care Like Christ

I know you are committed to changing lives. I know you care deeply for people and want to care like Christ.

I also realize that sometimes it is difficult to find relevant resources that equip you to change lives with Christ’s changeless truth.

That’s why I want to introduce you to five books that all share the same passion: to provide Christ-centered, comprehensive, compassionate, and culturally-informed ministry equipping to empower you to care like Christ.

Soul Physicians: A Theology of Soul Care and Spiritual Direction

Soul Physicians equips you to understand people, diagnose problems, and prescribe solutions—biblically! It empowers you to apply God’s Word to your own life so you grow in grace. It’s a comprehensive training manual for one another ministry and for growth in Christlikeness.

Its two built-in discussion guides—one for personal application and one for ministry implications—make Soul Physicians 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. Change lives with Christ’s changeless truth.

*To read a boatload of testimonies about the power of Soul Physicians, please visit: http://bit.ly/1SszRo

*To read a sample chapter of Soul Physicians, please visit: http://bit.ly/3yNUGf

*To order your copy of Soul Physicians at 40% off, please visit: http://bit.ly/3WsKoX

Spiritual Friends: A Methodology of Soul Care and Spiritual Direction

Spiritual Friends equips you to relate Christ’s truth to human relationships—yours and others. It’s a biblically-relevant training manual and a relational practical workbook with thousands of illustrative interactions and hundreds of skill-building exercises.

Its built-in discussion guide—with role-plays, vignettes, life applications, and ministry implications—makes Spiritual Friends perfect for individual and group work.

Join the growing number of church small groups, church lay counseling training ministries, pastors, professional Christian counselors, and students who are using Spiritual Friends as their twenty-first century manual for people helping. Care like Christ.

*To read a boatload of testimonies about the power of Spiritual Friends, please visit: http://bit.ly/LvKul

*To read a sample chapter of Spiritual Friends, please visit: http://bit.ly/17vtyd

*To order your copy of Spiritual Friends at 40% off, please visit: http://bit.ly/JiOR5

Beyond the Suffering:
Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction

Do you long to learn from African American heroes of the faith how God uses suffering to move His people to a place of healing hope? Beyond the Suffering equips Christians of all races to be empowered by the heroes of Black Church to minister God’s healing hope to one another.

Its built-in discussion guide makes Beyond the Suffering ideal for celebrating the legacy of African American Christianity. Its amazing narratives are a gift to African Americans—validating their tremendous contribution to Christianity. Its powerful vignettes are a gift from African Americans—teaching all of us how to be powerful spiritual friends.

Join the growing number of individuals of all races, of churches of all races, of church small groups and Sunday School classes, of college and graduate school campuses, and of para-church groups using Beyond the Suffering as their twenty-first century manual for culturally-informed people helping. Build bridges of spiritual reconciliation.

*To read a boatload of testimonies, to read the Foreword by Dr. Tony Evans, to view the PowerPoint overview, and much more about Beyond the Suffering, please visit: http://bit.ly/XvsTu

*To read a sample chapter of Beyond the Suffering, please visit: http://bit.ly/MgQrB

*To order your copy of Beyond the Suffering at 40% off for just $9.99, please visit: http://bit.ly/WarAa

Sacred Friendships:
Celebrating the Legacy of Women Heroes of the Faith

Do you long to learn from godly women of the faith how to be a powerful spiritual friend? Sacred Friendships equips men and women to be Christlike mentors, coaches, ministers, and people helpers.

Its built-in discussion guide makes Sacred Friendships ideal for celebrating the legacy of women heroes of the faith. Its amazing narratives are a gift to women—giving voice to the voiceless. Its powerful vignettes are a gift from women—teaching men and women how to sustain, heal, reconcile, and guide one another for Christ’s glory.

Join the growing number of men and women, churches, Sunday School classes, church small groups, college and graduate school campuses, and para-church groups using Sacred Friendships as their twenty-first century manual for compassionate people helping. Learn from the great cloud of female Christian witnesses.

*To read a boatload of testimonies about the power of Sacred Friendships, please visit: http://bit.ly/6frbF

*To read a sample chapter of Sacred Friendships, please visit: http://bit.ly/1S1haj

*To order your copy of Sacred Friendships at 40% off, please visit: http://bit.ly/MG1l5

God’s Healing for Life’s Losses:
How to Find Hope When You’re Hurting

Have you experienced a loss and do you long to find God’s hope in your grief? Do you desire to minister God’s healing to your grieving friends? Then discover God’s healing for life’s losses.

God’s Healing for Life’s Losses equips you to apply eight scriptural stages in your response to life’s losses—helping you to find hope when you’re hurting. It also empowers you to minister healing hope to others so that they can face suffering face-to-face with God.

Its two built-in grief guides—one for your grief journal and one for your grief journey—make God’s Healing for Life’s Losses perfect for individual and group grief work.

Join the growing number of lay people, pastors, professional Christian counselors, recovery groups, grief groups, church small groups, Sunday School classes, and college and graduate school students using God’s Healing for Life’s Losses as their twenty-first century manual for Christian grief recovery. Find hope when you’re hurting.

*To read Pastor Steve Viars’ Foreword to God’s Healing for Life’s Losses, please visit: http://bit.ly/155J4r

*God’s Healing for Life’s Losses will be released in 2010. A sample chapter will be posted at that time at www.rpmministries.org

*When God’s Healing for Life’s Losses is released, you will be able to order it online at sale pricing at: www.rpmministries.org

Stimulate Your Soul with the RPM Stimulus Package

We have “bundled” our first four books in three combinations to offer you additional savings and additional resources.

The Biblical Counselor’s Library

Together, Soul Physicians and Spiritual Friends offer a unique Christ-centered, comprehensive, compassionate, and culturally-informed approach to biblical counseling and spiritual formation.

Purchase Soul Physicians and Spiritual Friends together, and save more—45% off. To order them together, please visit: http://bit.ly/3WsKoX

The Voice for the Voiceless Library

Together, Beyond the Suffering and Sacred Friendships offer a rarely heard multi-cultural and feminine perspective on one another ministry.

Purchase Beyond the Suffering and Sacred Friendships together, and save more—45% off. To order them together, please visit: http://bit.ly/MG1l5

The Soul Care and Spiritual Direction Library

Together, Soul Physicians, Spiritual Friends, Beyond the Suffering, and Sacred Friendships provide a Christ-centered, comprehensive, compassionate, and culturally-informed theology, methodology, and history of soul care and spiritual direction.

Purchase Soul Physicians, Spiritual Friends, Beyond the Suffering, and Sacred Friendships together, and save more—45% off. To order all four books together, please visit: http://bit.ly/JiOR5

How Can We Help Equip You?

What Further Equipping Do You Seek?

Please let me know your thoughts on the following two questions. Either post a comment on the blog, on Twitter, on Facebook, or email us at: rpm.ministries@gmail.com.

1. What blog topics would you be interested in?

*Marriage
*Parenting
*Praying
*Anger
*Depression
*Anxiety
*Phobias
*Emotional Intelligence
*Sexual Abuse Recovery
*Overcoming Sexual Addiction
*Other: _______________

2. What ministry areas would you like further equipping in?

*Teaching/Preaching
*Equipping Lay People
*Evangelism
*Church Growth
*Administration/Leadership
*Change Management
*Conflict Resolution
*Church Discipline
*Worship
*Small Groups
*Other: ____________

A Church of Biblical Counseling

Why Some Biblical Counseling Is Only Half Biblical!
Part Eleven: A Church Of Biblical Counseling

*Note: If you’re disappointed that I’m saying that some biblical counseling is only half biblical, then please read my comments at the end of my first post in this series: http://tinyurl.com/n8k799.

My Premise

Some modern biblical counseling considers the seriousness of sin—sinning, but spends much less time equipping people to minister to the gravity of grinding affliction—suffering. When we provide counseling for sin, but fail to provide counseling and counselor training for suffering, then such biblical counseling is only half biblical.

Half-Biblical Counseling Negatively Impacts Body Life

Half-biblical counseling negatively impacts Body life—the natural, ongoing, daily one-another ministry of God’s people in the church. When we define biblical counseling as discerning what God wants to change and confronting sin problems using God’s Word, then we make normal spiritual conversations specialized to a subset of real life.

If I’m at a church picnic with a friend, or at Starbucks with a co-worker, or talking over the backyard fence with a neighbor, I don’t simply want to be thinking, “What need for change do I need to confront?” That stymies true Body life and natural conversations.

So what happens? Sometimes we have sin-spotting conversations. More often, we simply delegate “biblical counseling” to what happens in formal counseling settings between the “counselor” and the “counselee.”

Comprehensive Biblical Counseling Positively Impacts Body Life

“Counseling” already has enough baggage. To me, “biblical counseling” is a subset of full-life discipleship. In fact, I like to use a number of synonyms for biblical counseling to convey how multi-faceted, broad-based, and real-life focused it is:

Spiritual friendship, encouragement, discipleship, soul care, spiritual direction, spiritual formation, mentoring, coaching, spiritual conversations, Body life, one another ministry, etc.

Even my more “technical” definition of biblical counseling seeks to highlight how basic it is to one another ministry:

Christ-centered, comprehensive, compassionate, and culturally-informed biblical counseling depends upon the Holy Spirit to relate God’s inspired truth about people, problems, and solutions to human suffering (through the Christian soul care arts of sustaining and healing) and sin (through the Christian spiritual direction arts of reconciling and guiding) to empower people to exalt and enjoy God and to love others (Matthew 22:35-40) by cultivating conformity to Christ and communion with Christ and the Body of Christ.

Armed with this definition, when I’m at a church picnic with a friend, or at Starbucks with a co-worker, or talking over the backyard fence with a neighbor, I enjoy a full-range of spiritual conversation options. I can be a spiritual friend who response biblically (Christ-centered, comprehensive, compassionate, and culturally-informed) about whatever my friend shares: suffering or sin, hopes and dreams. And, I do so with the relational focus of loving my neighbor as myself and with a mindset of cultivating communion with Christ and the Body of Christ.

A Church Of Biblical Counseling

If we want a church of biblical counseling rather than just a church with biblical counseling, then we must define biblical counseling comprehensively so that it deals with all of life: sustaining, healing, reconciling, and guiding. And we must emphasize that we are doing biblical counseling just as much when we are at the bedside of the grieving widow as when we are in the office with the adulterous spouse. And we must clarify that both consolation and comfort for suffering and confronting and correcting for sinning require more than “input in.” It is more than sharing Scripture. It is always Scripture and soul.

Therefore, we must be sure that our definitions of biblical counseling, our texts on biblical counseling, our seminars and conferences on biblical counseling, and our illustrations and descriptions of biblical counseling give equal time and weight to suffering as to sinning.

Spiritual Friendship: A Normal Feature of Christianity

John T. McNeil, in A History of the Cure of Souls, when speaking of the Apostle Paul’s plethora of passages on soul care, explains:

“In such passages we cannot fail to see the Apostle’s design to create an atmosphere in which the intimate exchange of spiritual help, the mutual guidance of souls, would be a normal feature of Christian behavior.”

Only when we combine issues of suffering and sin, can our ministry become a normal feature of Christian behavior. Otherwise, we become a church with biblical counseling rather than a church of biblical counseling. Otherwise we become sin-spotters and problem-saturated, rather than grace-sharers and one-another-saturated.

A sin-spotting, problem-saturated orientation is neither biblical, nor is it practical for day-by-day living, nor is it conducive to natural, ongoing spiritual friendship.

Where Do We Go From Here?

I have heard some pastors argue, “But Bob, my people don’t come to me with suffering issues. They come with sin issues!” In our next post we ponder what to make of such a situation and how it relates to comprehensive biblical counseling that is church-based.

Why Some Biblical Counseling Is Only Half Biblical: Whatever Happened to Suffering?

Why Some Biblical Counseling Is Only Half Biblical!
Part Two: Whatever Happened to Suffering?

*Note: If you find yourself upset that I am saying that some biblical counseling is only half biblical, then I would ask you to be sure to read my comments at the end of this blog post. Thanks!

My Premise

Some modern biblical counseling considers the seriousness of sin—sinning, but spends much less time equipping people to minister to the gravity of grinding affliction—suffering. When we provide counseling for sin, but fail to provide counseling and counselor training for suffering, then I am of the conviction that such biblical counseling is only half biblical!

Whatever Happened to Sin?

Some might object, “So, are you watering down sin? Are you saying that Christ came to heal our suffering and not to save us from our sin? Are you saying that our primary problem is our suffering rather than our sin?”

No. Actually, anyone who omits suffering in their biblical counseling is watering down sin!

Unlike the Church Fathers, unlike the Reformers, unlike the Puritans, and most importantly, unlike the Bible, we tend to make Christ’s victory over sin predominantly individual and personal, rather than also corporate and cosmic. Christ died to dethrone sin. Christ died to defeat every vestige of sin. Christ died to obliterate every effect of sin—individual, personal, corporate, and cosmic—including death and suffering, tears and sorrows, mourning, crying, and pain.

That’s why twice in Revelation, John shares the blessed promise that, “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Rev. 21:4; see also Rev. 17:7). Christ died to defeat every enemy, every evil, including the devil who holds the power of death (Hebrews 2:14-15), and the last enemy—suffering and death (1 Corinthians 15:25).

Yes, of course, in the evangelism and discipleship process, our first joy is helping someone who does not know Christ to surrender to Christ so his or her sins are forgiven. And, of course, as we disciple one another we want to help each other to grow in their victory over sin’s tentacles.

Whatever Happened to Suffering?

However, our calling from Christ is also to minister to one another concerning sin’s effects—including suffering. That’s why we are called to weep with those who weep (Romans 12:15). That’s why we are called to comfort one another (nine times in 2 Corinthians 1:3-11). That’s why the New Testament calls us to a parakaletic ministry (to come alongside to help, comfort, and encourage one another in suffering). That’s why the New Testament uses the word parakaletic over 100 times!

Christ’s Cross defeated our deprivations—the evils we suffer, and our depravity—the sins we commit. Frank Lake explains Christ’s victory over both:

“The very powers of evil, standing in the shadows behind ‘the mystery of iniquity’ and ‘the mystery of suffering,’ were dethroned by Christ’s active, obedient submission to their onslaught. Therefore, He reconciles to God by His Cross not only sinners, but sufferers. Not only memories of culpable sin which condemn the conscience, but the memories of intolerable affliction which condemn faith as a delusion, these too are confronted by the fact of Christ’s Cross. These passive evils, which are not of the soul’s own making, are not accessible to a pastoral care which can talk only in terms of the forgiveness of sins. Such sufferers are usually not insensitive to their status as sinners. They have sought God’s forgiveness. But, like Job, they complain of the comforters whose one-track minds have considered only the seriousness of sin, and not the gravity of grinding affliction” (Lake, Clinical Theology, pp. 24-25, emphasis added).

Lake makes several astute points.

1. Academic Theology: As we have said, Christ’s died to defeat sin and sins’ effect—death and suffering, depravity and deprivation.

2. Spiritual Theology: “Passive evils” are what some today called “innocent suffering.” Not that anyone is innocent (or sinless), but that some suffering is not directly due to our own personal sin: the woman who is raped, the child who is abused, the cancer patient, the parents of a dying child, the victim of a drunk-driving accident, etc.

3. Pastoral Theology: Counseling such individuals, they typically understand that they are sinners. They want to know if their pastors, counselors, and spiritual friends understand that they are sufferers! If we do not, if we preach them a sermon on sin, then we are like Job’s miserable counselors with their false theology that God is a tit-for-tat God and that every incident of suffering is directly related to one’s personal sin. (See John 9:1-3 for Jesus’ theology of innocent suffering/sufferers.)

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be known as a miserable counselor. I want to be known as a comprehensive, compassionate, and culturally-informed biblical counselor!

Frank Lake again explains what that looks like.

“Clinical pastoral care has, as its introduction, the task of listening to a story of human conflict and need. To the extent that our listening uncovers a situation which borders the abyss or lies broken within it, we are nearer to the place where the Cross of Christ is the only adequate interpretative concept” (Frank Lake, Clinical Theology, pp. 18-19).

Sin and suffering—they both offer us the opportunity to provide wisdom found only in the Gospel. When we skirt our biblical counseling responsibility to minister to the suffering, we limit the limitless power and infinite relevancy of the Cross of Christ.

When we talk about the sufficiency of Scripture but in practice deny the relevancy of Scripture to address human suffering, then we have watered down sin and we have diminished the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ!

When we understand the Cross of Christ, then we practice biblical counseling that combines the sufficiency and the relevancy of Scripture and that unites counseling for the sufferer and for the sinner.

Where Do We Go from Here?

Tomorrow we’ll start addressing the following vital questions.

*So, has anyone else in Church history ever said we must focus on both sin and suffering?

*So, what would it look like to focus on both sin and suffering?

*So, what’s your definition/description of truly biblical counseling?

*Note: Why I Am Addressing This Topic

All who have followed my ministry know that I am about bridge-building and not about wall-building. You might wonder then, “Bob, why blog about something that is surely to be controversial?”

Those who follow my ministry also know that I am about equipping God’s people to change lives with Christ’s changeless truth through comprehensive, compassionate, and culturally-informed biblical counseling and spiritual formation.

Biblical counseling that fails to deal with suffering, fails the test of comprehensive, compassionate, and culturally-informed biblical counseling. I would be a hypocrite to my calling if I remained silent.

Others might wonder, “Are you talking about a particular ‘model’ of modern biblical counseling, or about a particular person or persons who are writing today?”

No. I am not. This is not an attack against. These blogs are not directed toward any one person or group.

These blogs are directed to all of us—myself included—who love biblical counseling. They are for all of us—myself included—who need good Bereans to help us to assess how biblical or unbiblical our approaches to biblical counseling truly are.

I write to help, not to hurt. I write to equip, not to attack. I write to start a conversation, not to finish one.

Please join the conversation.

An Evangelical Theology for Kids 10 to 100!

An Evangelical Theology for Kids 10 to 100!

Book Review Details

Title: Big Truths for Young Hearts: Teaching and Learning the Greatness of God

Author: Bruce A. Ware, Ph.D.
Publisher: Crossway (2009)
Category: Parenting, Theology, Discipleship

Reviewed By: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., LCPC, Author of Soul Physicians, Spiritual Friends, Beyond the Suffering, and Sacred Friendships (http://www.rpmministries.org/)

Recommended: A highly recommended antidote to the dumb-downed, frills, and cotton-candy approach so prevalent in American Evangelicalism today.

Review: An Evangelical Catechism for Kids Ages 10 to 100!

When someone like Bruce Ware, professor of Christian theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and 2009 President of the Evangelical Theological Society, writes a book on theology, I take notice. When he writes it for parents and children—my interest is truly sparked.

Big Truths for Young Hearts: Teaching and Learning the Greatness of God is a modern-day Evangelical catechism. Ware’s purpose is to equip parents to raise their children to know and love God through raising them to know and love theology. How sad that such a goal seems so foreign in so many Christian circles today.

In many ways, as indicated by the precious foreword written by Ware’s young-adult daughters, Big Truths for Young Hearts is the “Theology 101” he taught (and modeled and lived) for and in front of his daughters. He’s just graciously sharing it with the rest of us. There is no grander testimony than their words, “Dad really believes the things that are in this book. His theology shapes the way he lives, as we have seen many times” (p. 11). There is no greater parental challenge than their challenge to us: “To parents: it may sound cliché, but we followed our father’s teaching in part because he practiced what he preached. Like all children, we needed to look up and see our parents looking up at a great God who has great things in store for those who love him” (p. 12).

Ware’s own testimony about the origin of the book mirrors his daughter’s memories. From the time they were toddlers, he tried creatively to teach them the same theology sequence he was teaching his seminary students. Ware has crafted his two-decade-long instruction of his girls into a theology book for parents and children.

The book covers the classic core doctrines of systematic theology. (Shh. Just don’t tell the children the “theological terms” in the parentheses below!)

*Chapter One: God’s Word (Bibliology) and God’s Own Life (Theology Proper)
*Chapter Two: God As Three in One (Trinitarian Theology)
*Chapter Three: Creator and Ruler of All (Theology Proper, The Sovereignty and Glory of God)
*Chapter Four: Our Human Nature (Anthropology) and Our Sin (Hamartiology)
*Chapter Five: Who Jesus Is (Christology)
*Chapter Six: The Work Jesus Has Done (Christology/Soteriology)
*Chapter Seven: The Holy Spirit (Pneumatology)
*Chapter Eight: Our Great Salvation (Soteriology, Election, Sanctification)
*Chapter Nine: The Church of Jesus Christ (Ecclesiology)
*Chapter Ten: What Will Take Place in the End (Eschatology)

Big Truths for Young Hearts is meant to be read together—parents and children. Each chapter is like a series of brief “theology devotionals,” each about three pages in length, and each concluding with Questions for Thought and with Memory Verses.

Frankly, as I read each chapter I kept thinking, “Now this is how theology should be taught to adults and to seminary students!” And I’m a seminary professor who teaches a class on theology for biblical counseling. In other words, any adult, no matter how well schooled in Evangelical theology, could and would benefit from this book. The book is beautifully written, Bible-saturated, Christ-centered, creatively-illustrated (word-pictures), and theologically-comprehensive.

As a parent of two young adult children, and as a parent who attempted to do similar training with our children, I repeatedly asked myself, “At what ages would this book ‘work’”? The reading level is likely best suited for the late elementary to the young adult. I would imagine that most children—toddler through fourth grade—might have somewhat of a difficult time staying with the reading.

I was a little surprised that there were no “Instructions for Parents.” This excellent book could benefit from a “Parents’ Manual” which could give parents ideas for how to “teach” and not just “read” these truths. What creative methods might a parent use? How could a parent best engage a child in the material? What personal life applications could parents and children discuss? How could parents apply the Deuteronomy 6 principle of “throughout the day” inculcation of truth applied to life? Big Truths for Young Hearts is a “what to teach book” (and does it extremely well). It is not, per se, a “how to teach” book. Perhaps a companion training book is in the works.

That said, Big Truths for Young Hearts is still a tremendous book for adults, young adults, middler schoolers, and high schoolers. It is an excellent book for parents to explore and apply with their pre-teens and teens. It would make a fine Sunday School book for teachers in grades 5th through Senior Saints! Youth groups, small groups, and homeschooling groups all will find Big Truths for Young Hearts very attractive, informative, and beneficial.

Whatever Happened to Truth?

Whatever Happened to Truth?

Do you need a theological foundation for your people-helping ministry?

Do you want to know the seven topics every person must master if they are to do truly biblical ministry?

On the first page of my first book, Soul Physicians (http://tinyurl.com/d8grf6), I describe why we need a theological foundation for people ministry. I also outline the seven-part foundation we must understand if we are to have a comprehensive and compassionate approach to the personal ministry of the Word of God.

The Physician’s Desk Reference

Two books are standard in any physician’s office: The Physician’s Desk Reference (PDR) and The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy (Merck). Both are considered “Bibles of medical knowledge and practice.”

With its 3,223 pages of prescription drugs, the annually updated PDR is the most comprehensive, widely used drug reference available. It details the usage, warnings, and precautions for more than 4,000 prescription drugs.

Merck is the most widely used medical text in the world. It provides the latest information on the vast expanse of human diseases, disorders, and injuries, as well as their symptoms and treatments. Intended for physicians, it is still useful for the lay person. As one sage has commented, “a must for everyone in a human body.”

The The Soul Physician’s Desk Reference

If the PDR and Merck are the Old Testament and New Testament for physicians treating the body, then the Bible is God’s final, authoritative word for soul physicians treating the soul. It is the soul physician’s desk reference manual for dispensing grace. It’s “a must for anyone who is a soul.” God’s Word provides not only the latest, but the eternal, lasting information on the soul’s design and disease, as well as its care and cure.

What do we discover as we read the pages of the Soul Physician’s Desk Reference (SPDR)? We learn what makes Christian counseling Christian. We learn our Great Physician’s authoritative truth about:

1. Nourishing the Hunger of the Soul: Preventative Medicine—God’s Word

2. Knowing the Creator of the Soul: The Great Physician—The Trinity

3. Examining the Spiritual Anatomy of the Soul: People—Creation

4. Diagnosing the Fallen Condition of the Soul: Problems—Fall

5. Prescribing God’s Cure for the Soul: Solutions—Redemption

6. Envisioning the Final Healing of the Soul: Home—Glorification

7. Dispensing God’s Care for the Soul: Spiritual Friends—Sanctification

These seven biblical categories are essential for developing a theology of soul care and spiritual direction. In Soul Physicians (http://tinyurl.com/d8grf6), we examine them meticulously, as a physician would the skeletal structure of the human body.

Watered-Down or Nourished with the Spring of Living Water

Christianity today is all-too-often watered-down. You can attend church and not even need to bring a Bible. You can attend seminary and not even be equipped thoroughly in biblical studies and biblical languages. You can go through training in biblical counseling and not even open your Bible!

However, if you want to do truly biblical counseling, then you must have a biblical foundation. The bare minimum includes the seven content areas listed above.

Seven Questions Every Biblical Counselor Must Answer

If we are to do God’s work in God’s way, with depth of insight, then we need to be able to ask and answer the following seven questions:

1. Do I know how to use God’s Word to change lives?

2. Do I comprehend how the Trinity serves as the foundation for how I relate to others?

3. Do I understand people—biblically?

4. Can I diagnose problems—biblically?

5. Can I prescribe God’s solutions—biblically?

6. Do I grasp how our eternal future makes all the difference in how we live today?

7. Am I able to dispense God’s grace and care for others competently?

Truth and Love

If we can’t answer these questions, then we need to go back to “soul school”!

It was the Apostle Paul who prayed that our love would abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight (Philippians 1:9). Society today says, “Let your love abound more and more in more love!”

No. We need truth and love—love grounded in God’s truth.

We have no “love life” if we have no “truth life.” We need both, with our love founded in God’s Word.

Do you need a theological foundation for your people-helping ministry? I do!

Do you want to know the seven topics every person must master if they are to do truly biblical ministry? I do!

*Quick Link to your copy of Soul Physicians on RPM Ministries: http://tinyurl.com/d96hc6

Are You Ready to Learn What to Do After the Hug?

Are You Ready to Learn What to Do after the Hug?

You care deeply. But perhaps sometimes you struggle to know what to do after the hug. Learn how to care like Christ--how to change lives with Christ's changeless truth.

In What to Do After the Hug, I've condensed all of Soul Physicians and all of Spiritual Friends in fifty pages. In fact, for good measure, I wove in and condensed Beyond the Suffering, too! In fifty pages, you gain my entire approach to biblical counseling and spiritual formation in miniature!

Think of it as your own refresher course on biblical counseling.

What a great way to equip those you minister to.

The Cost

The cost?

For just $7.50 you receive the fifty-page Word Document What to Do After the Hug as an e-document. It summarizes a Christ-centered, comprehensive, compassionate, and culturally-informed model of biblical counseling and spiritual formation to equip you to change lives with Christ's changless truth.

To Order

It’s simple. Order here by PayPal or with Visa or Master Card:

http://www.rpmbooks.org/credit_card_orders.html#hug

Or, phone order with Visa or Master Card to: 219-662-8138.

Or, send a check to RPM Ministries, PO Box 270, Crown Point, IN 46308, for $7.50. (Be sure to include your email address so we can send you your copy of the e-document: What to Do After the Hug.)

Enjoy!

RPM Ministries 2.0

RPM Ministries 2.0

Be Equipped by RPM Ministries 2.0

We’re taking RPM Ministries to the next level! And I do mean “we.” Over a dozen associates are now ministering with me to minister to you.

We are offering five different types of seminars. To learn about hosting one or attending one in your area, please email us: rpm.ministries@gmail.com.

We will also be updating them on our website in the coming dates.

New Facebook RPM Group

We have created a new Facebook RPM Ministries group. It will replace several different FB groups I have led, so that now I am on FB only in two places: my blog and the new RPM group. You can join here (see link below this paragraph) and received free resources and a boatload of equipping while connecting with other people passionate about changing lives.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=131391165161

Upcoming Blog Equipping

I want to thank all of you for following the RPM blog: Changeless Truth for Changing Times. You can bookmark it as a favorite at two addresses:

http://rpmministries.blogspot.com/ (On the RPM website)

http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/changeless_truth_for_changing_times/ (On Facebook)

You Asked, We Deliver

Thank you for your feedback on what you want to see next from our upcoming posts.

Based upon your requests, in the coming months, we will be focusing on some of the following topics, in no particular order:

1. Blogs we follow and why.

2. Books we’re reading and why.

3. Equipping for pastors and lay people in comprehensive, compassionate, and culturally-informed biblical counseling and spiritual formation for the church and para-church.

4. How to find hope when you’re hurting: God’s healing for life’s losses.

5. How to minister to sexual abuse victims.

6. How to understand and deal with issues of depression and anxiety.

7. Learning how to minister from the great female soul care-givers (based upon my soon-to-be-released book, co-authored with Susan Ellis).

Join the Journey

As you enjoy the conversation and join the journey, please consider:

1. Inviting others to join our blog family. 2. Rating the RPM blog (on Facebook): http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/changeless_truth_for_changing_times/
3. Putting the RPM blog on your blog, on your website, and linking our blog as a blog you read.4. Setting our blog as an RSS feed so you get daily updates.5. Guest blogging. 6. Commenting on the RPM blog home page: http://rpmministries.blogspot.com/

Is Targeted Evangelism Biblical?

Is Targeted Evangelism Biblical?

I received a great comment post on my blog about intercultural ministry. Please read Demetrius' excellent question. Please read my brief response. Then please share your thoughts/

Is Targeted Evangelism Biblical?

Doc K: How would you apply inter culturalism on the mission field? The reason I ask is that I am a short term missionary in Cambodia for 7 months. In Cambodia there are various people groups such as the Vietmese, Khmer, Chinese, Korean, Nigerians, and Ex-pats to name a few. However, many the missionaries are only targeting specific groups to start their churches due to immense barriers between the races and the classes. The irony is I am African-American ministering primarily to Cambodian American Deportees who have an inner city disopositon and attitude toward life and I minister to the poor Khmer in the slums of Phonm Penh. Demetrius Walton.

Targeted Evangelism and Intercultural Discipleship

Demetrius, That's a great question. While the ultimate goal of heaven and thus our ultimate goal on earth is intercultural worship, it seems that wisdom could still dictate an approach like you describe in your ministry under certain situations. Since you are working to evangelize the unsaved, we cannot expect the unregenerate to act regenerate until they are regenerated! That being said, a major part of the discipleship process then should include intercultural reconciliation. What a testimony and witness it would be for the entire region if/when Vietmese, Khmer, Chinese, Korean, Nigerians, and Ex-pats began forgiving one another, reconciling with one another.

Your Thoughts?

And what do others think?

Core Equipping Course Goes Online

Be Equipped by the Book Online

I am excited to announce the first ever Capital Bible Seminary (CBS) online distance education (ODE) course.

I will be teaching Discipleship Counseling I (DC I) as an ODE course from February 4 to May 2, 2008. DC I is our core course which equips pastors, counselors, and lay people to think biblically about soul care, spiritual direction, and biblical counseling.

The online edition of DC I enables students to take the course from the comfort of their homes, on their own schedule, while actively engaging other course members and the professor through the course web site. Enrollment is strictly limited to the first fifteen qualified students. Because of pre-class assignments, the last day to enroll in this course is January 18, 2008.

To receive a copy of the DC I ODE syllabus please email me at bob.kellemen@gmail.com. For more information, or if you have questions, please feel free to contact me.

Musings on Biblical Counseling: Teaching an Old Dog, New Tricks

Musings on Biblical Counseling

In seeking to launch the Biblical Counseling and Spiritual Formation Network (BCSFN), I’ve invited over 100 “experts” from various backgrounds. Many e-mails have been quite encouraging.

However, one, from a leader in the field, who has never met me and really did not even know of me until my invitation, was disappointing. I wasn’t so much disappointed in what he said about me. I was more disappointed because what he said spoke volumes about his practice of his model of counseling. I won’t even go into what he said. Let’s just say that it was negative and confrontational.

I began to ponder this e-mail from a biblical counseling perspective. Step one in any biblical model of communication involves earning the right to communicate. Solomon reminds us that the wounds of a FRIEND are faithful. The Hebrew word for “friend” literally means “lover”—one who has demonstrated love for you. I was not “feeling the love” from this stranger. Not having established a friendship with me, biblically, his words were not “faithful wounds.”

Another common “step” in biblical counseling is data collection. After opening his e-mail with the words, “"I did not know of you before your e-mail,” he continued by confronting the motives behind the launch. Mind you, he did not interact about the lengthy document attached. It made me think, “If I had some questions about a complete stranger’s motives, would I drop them like a bomb? Or, would I ask questions to clarify, before confronting from a lack of knowledge?”

Another core aspect of biblical counseling is humility. Paul warns that those who seek to help a stumbling brother should do so in a spirit of meekness. They should demonstrate a conscious awareness of their own frailty, failings, and fallenness (Galatians 6:1-3). In this, Paul amplifies the words of Jesus regarding looking at the two-by-four in my eye before pointing out the sawdust in my brother’s eye. So, I thought, “How would I have wished for this brother to have responded to me, if he had questions about the motivation and sincerity of the BCSFN launch?”

First, if it were me, I doubt that I would have used e-mail which is notorious for miscommunication of tone and tenor. Second, whether by e-mail, phone, or in person, I would have liked for the brother to say, “Wow, what an intriguing endeavor. More power to you in trying to develop a network of biblical counselors and spiritual friends. However, I have some questions. Some things that potentially raise some red flag. I don’t mean to be judgmental nor condescending, so, could we dialogue a bit—some good old fashion give and take?” That would have been inviting. And humble.

Additionally, true biblical counseling is “holistic.” It seeks to sustain (“It’s normal to hurt”), heal (“It’s possible to hope”), reconcile (“It’s horrible to sin, but wonderful to be forgiven”) and guide (“It’s supernatural to mature”). My sense with this e-mail was that the approach was only one-half of one aspect of true biblical counseling. Its focus was on “It’s horrible when YOU sin!” There wasn’t any reconciling grace. Nor any guiding grace.

The approach of this e-mailer actually clarified further, even after a quarter-century of biblical counseling, the goal of biblical counseling. The goal of biblical counseling is NOT to spot sin. That is one sign post along the journey, not the destination itself.

The ultimate goal of biblical counseling, spiritual formation, and of life, is to fulfill the Great Commandment: to love God and love one another. We glorify God as we exalt Him BY enjoying Him and His children.

In biblical counseling, we glorify God as we help others to become more like Christ by exposing grace: we are to “spot grace.” In Romans 5-6, Paul reminds us that where sin abounds, grace superabounds. Counseling that has as its main goal to “spot sin” falls short of the glory of God. It falls short of glorifying God.

When we expose sin, it is an intermediate step toward exposing the grace that forgives, which in turn is an intermediate step in exposing the grace that guides—that empowers us to supernaturally mature. Biblical counseling with Christian seeks to stir up the grace-gift of God that God has placed in His regenerated children so that they love God and others better so that God is rightfully glorified.

So, what mood could the e-mailer have set if his goal were to “spot grace” and stir up the gift of God? What biblical and historical “method” could he have followed if his goal was to glorify God? Maybe something like this. . . .

“Wow, I bet launching this BCSFN is a wild and difficult endeavor fraught with risks” (sustaining).

“I’m praying for you that by God’s grace and by clinging to His Word, you and the team that God calls together will find His hope and peace and power” (healing).

“I do wonder if I see some red flags. If so, could we talk about a more godly way to go about this, and about God’s grace to forgive any sinful ways that might have crept in?” (reconciling).

“Most importantly, could I join you in the journey, as a co-laborer, if not with the BCSFN, at least in your life, helping you to be the most loving leader of the BCSFN that you can be?” (guiding).

“Because, more than anything, I want to see God glorified as you and your team love Him and love others well, and as you equip others to disciple people to love well” (the ultimate goal of true biblical counseling).

It’s amazing what an e-mail about biblical counseling can teach a biblical counselor. I guess that you really can teach an old dog (me) new tricks. You can even do it by throwing some rather distasteful bones at the old dog—because God can take our bones and use them for His best—to nourish us so that we glorify Him.