Dr. Kellemen Launches RPM Ministries Full-Time

Dr. Kellemen Launches RPM Ministries Full-Time

Friends,

I’d like to share with you a decision that I’ve made after much prayer and consultation. After thirteen years of ministry at Capital Bible Seminary (CBS), effective July 1, 2009, I will no longer be serving as the Chairman of and full-time Professor in the MA in Christian Counseling and Discipleship (MACCD) department. I will remain connected to CBS as Professor-at-Large where I will offer key classes as visiting professor and present equipping seminars as a guest lecturer.

RPM Ministries 2.0

I am following God’s leading to expand RPM Ministries. Myself and a team of fully-equipped and highly-qualified colleagues have laser-focused our mission.

It is our passion to equip God’s people to
change lives with Christ’s changeless truth
through speaking, consulting, and writing
on comprehensive, compassionate, and culturally-informed
biblical counseling and spiritual formation.

Speaking: Changing Lives Seminars

Through day-long or half-day seminars, and through one-session presentations, RPM Ministries will equip pastors, lay people, and Christian counselors to grow through biblical truth related to daily life. Every speaking opportunity includes engaging PowerPoint presentations, interactive group discussions, personal applications, and ministry implications.

1. What to Do After the Hug: How to Care Like Christ

Be equipped to use the Bible accurately, powerfully, and lovingly in biblical counseling and spiritual friendship.

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

Be equipped to journey with hurting people through the eight stages in the biblical healing process.

3. Heroes of Black Church History: Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity

Christians of all races learn how to apply the legacy of the heroes of Black Church history to life and ministry today.

4. Cultivating Christlike Intercultural Relational Competencies: A Christ-Centered TEAM Approach

Be equipped to develop four championship TEAM skills to relate harmoniously and minister powerfully in our culturally-diverse society.

5. Heroines of Church History: Celebrating Life Lessons from the Legacy of Christian Women

Be equipped to apply the legacy of women heroes of the Church to life and ministry today.

Consulting: “4E” Ministry Equipping

Through RPM Consulting, we provide biblical wisdom to churches and para-church organizations. Christian leaders are passionate about equipping lay counselors, care-givers, and spiritual friends. However, most leaders are terrified about the process—fearing legal issues, quality of care matters, training material questions, and supervisory difficulties.

Step-by-step, we empower you to equip your people for the work of the ministry. Learn how to envision God’s ministry, enlist God’s ministers for ministry, equip godly ministers, and empower God’s ministers.

Writing: Changing Lives with Christ’s Changeless Truth

I’ll continue my writing ministry with:

1. Daily blog posts on Changeless Truth for Changing Times: http://rpmministries.blogspot.com/

2. Free resources on my web site (over 50 already!): http://www.rpmbooks.org/free_resources.html

3. Weekly updates on my RPM Ministries Facebook page (join today): http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=131391165161

4. Books such as Soul Physicians, Spiritual Friends, and Beyond the Suffering: http://www.rpmbooks.org/orders.html

5. New Books

That’s right, look for these two exciting new books:

a. Sacred Friendships: Listening to the Voices of Women Soul Care-Givers and Spiritual Directors (July, 2009, BMH Books, co-authored with Susan Ellis).

b. God’s Healing for Life’s Losses: How to Find Hope When You’re Hurting (December, 2009, BMH Books).

6. The VineLine: This is our monthly e-newsletter with free resources, to-the-point equipping, community-building, and ministry updates. If you would like to be added to our growing e-list, email us at: rpm.ministries@gmail.com.

Prayer Partnership

Your prayer support is greatly appreciated.

1. We’ll likely be transitioning from a sole proprietorship to both an LLC status and a 501 C 3 status.

2. We need to be wise in what to say “Yes” to and what to say “No” to. We want to keep our laser focus. Already for 2009 we only have three open weekends left for seminar ministry. If you are interested in having your church host one of these final three events, email us: rpm.ministries@gmail.com or call: 219-662-8138.

These are exciting days. Thank you for being a friend, supporter, and partner in ministry.

In Christ’s Grace,

Bob

Words Matter

Words Matter

In the November 19, 2008 issue of The USA Today, political analyst Sandy Grady rightly praises President-elect Barack Obama for his eloquence ("His Words Will Matter").

Grady aptly notes about Obama's speeches, "They always have rhythm, repetition, alliteration, balance. They flow with a narrative, his story meshing into America's story" (p. 13A).

Anyone familiar with historic and current African American preaching (see my work Beyond the Suffering: Embracing African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction) knows that Obama's style reflects the best of a long tradition.

Amazingly, in this day of the tele-prompter and of the speech-writer, Obama writes his own speeches.

Some of his more powerful, poetic words include:

July 27, 2004, Democratic National Convention Speech: "There is not a black America and a white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America."

January 8, 2008, Manchester, NH, after Hillary Clinton defeated him in the primary: "Yes we can!"

March 18, 2008, Philadelphia, answering the Rev. Jeremiah Wright controversy: "It is a story that has seared my genetic makeup, the idea that this nation is more than a sum of its parts, that out of many, we are truly one."

November 4, 2008, Grant Park, Chicago: "If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible . . . tonight is your answer."

Words matter.

Whether or not one agrees with President-elect Barack Obama on each and every issue, one has to respect his stirring use of words.

And we all can learn from him.

1. Write and speak with passion from the heart. Tell a story that means the world to you and it will mean the world to the world.

2. Write and speak your own story and style. Write with originality and freshness. Sure, research the works and words of others. But don't mimic. Find and use your own voice.

3. Write and speak "poetically" even if writing non-fiction prose. For example, in my theology of Christian counseling text book (Soul Physicians) I use the literary style of "theo-drama" to tell the awesome story of God's work in history. Theology should never be dry-as-dust! It is God's story!

4. Write and speak in narrative. Life is a story. We all live in story, in narrative. Craft a compelling depiction of the main characters, their setting, their aspirations, even in non-fiction. For instance, in Beyond the Suffering we did not simply tell historical facts. We placed African American Christians in their historical setting, drawing out and describing their personal passions and their life-changing interactions.

5. Write and speak with relevance. Whatever "truth" you have to tell, relate truth to life. In our book on the history of women's soul care (Sacred Friendships), my co-author and I did not simply write a history text. We paused at each step along the journey to ask the "So what?" question. "So what difference does the life of this godly woman make for us today?

Words matter.