My Author Interview with P&R Publishing 

Note From Bob: This author interview was first posted by Kim McKeever and P&R Publishing at their website. It is re-posted here with their permission. You can read the original post here 

This week we get to learn more about Bob Kelle­men, author of three P&R Publishing books: Equip­ping Coun­selors for Your Church: The 4E Min­istry Train­ing Strat­egy, Anx­i­ety: Anatomy and Cure, and Sex­ual Abuse: Beauty for Ashes. 

Ques­tion # 1: “Tell us a lit­tle bit about your­self: where you’re from, fam­ily, job, per­sonal inter­ests, unique hob­bies, what do you do in your spare time, etc.” 

RK: “I was born and raised in Gary, Indi­ana. I did not grow up in a Chris­t­ian home, but came to Christ as a fresh­men in high school. I have been mar­ried to Shirley for 34 years. We Bob and Shirleyhave two young adult chil­dren and two grand­chil­dren. I am the Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the Bib­li­cal Coun­sel­ing Coali­tion and also the Elder Chair­per­son and Teach­ing Elder at Cor­ner­stone Com­mu­nity Church in Hobart, IN. My wife and I live in Crown Point, Indi­ana, where we enjoy ten­nis, bik­ing, hik­ing, and host­ing large par­ties. I like to run and I am a fan of all Chicago pro­fes­sional sports teams.” 

Ques­tion # 2: “When did you first want to write a book?”

RK: “I have always loved writ­ing, but it was when I began as a sem­i­nary pro­fes­sor at Cap­i­tal Bible Sem­i­nary that I really started think­ing about writ­ing a book. My stu­dents kept say­ing, ‘Your lec­ture notes are more help­ful than any of the books you require on bib­li­cal coun­sel­ing. You should write bib­li­cal coun­sel­ing equip­ping books.’ So I did!” 

Ques­tion # 3: “What inspired you to write this book, about this topic?” 

RK: “I have pub­lished three books with P&R. I was inspired to write Equip­ping Coun­selors for Your Church because there had not been a book writ­ten on this topic in a gen­er­a­tion. Cover ImageSince I have equipped coun­selors in three churches and since I taught sem­i­nary stu­dents and pas­tors how to equip coun­selors, I wanted to share some best prac­tice wis­dom with local church leaders. 

I have also pub­lished Anx­i­ety: Anatomy and Cure with P&R. I was moti­vated to write this book­let because few peo­ple have a prac­ti­cal the­ol­ogy of emo­tions, includ­ing anx­i­ety. I wanted to share a unique bib­li­cal per­spec­tive on how even a dis­tress­ing emo­tion like anx­i­ety can be brought under the cross. The gospel pro­vides a hope-filled jour­ney from anx­i­ety and fear to trust and peace. 

I also pub­lished Sex­ual Abuse: Beauty for Ashes with P&R. My coun­sel­ing min­istry has focused or spe­cial­ized in help­ing vic­tims of sex­ual abuse. I wanted to share a gospel-centered Bundle 7mes­sage of heal­ing hope—one where we look in par­tic­u­lar at the story of Tamar’s abuse in 2 Samuel 13. In this pas­sage we learn what the Bible teaches about the dam­age of sex­ual abuse and what the Bible teaches about God’s heal­ing in Christ.” 

Ques­tion # 4: “What advice would you give to aspir­ing writers?” 

RK: “I love to help aspir­ing authors. Sev­eral of my books I co-authored with first-time writ­ers and that has been a joy. Advice? Find your pas­sion and your gift­ed­ness and even before you write about it—teach about it. Do a Sun­day school les­son. Cre­ate a sem­i­nar. Then begin to man­u­script what you are say­ing. Before you know it, you have cre­ated the foun­da­tion for a non-fiction book that has been tested in ‘the trenches of real life.’” 

Ques­tion # 5: “What’s your favorite sport to watch? Why? Favorite sport’s team?” 

RK: “I love watch­ing the Chicago Bears (foot­ball). Why? Hmm, maybe because I used to watch ‘Da Bears’ with my dad when I was a child.” 

Ques­tion # 6: “What’s your favorite ani­mal? Why?” 

RK: “The Amer­i­can Bison. I col­lect bison art/carvings. Why? Our fam­ily went on a three-week West­ern vaca­tion when our kids where in mid­dle school. Our church was going through a dif­fi­cult time. When I read about the ‘come­back’ of the Amer­i­can Bison, it made me think of com­ing back from the brink and then also of Christ’s res­ur­rec­tion power. Since my per­sonal min­istry is called RPM Min­istries (Res­ur­rec­tion Power Mul­ti­pli­ers), I like the imagery of the Bison com­ing back from extinc­tion. Christ’s power within us can renew everything.” 

Ques­tion # 7: “Lord of the Rings or The Chron­i­cles of Nar­nia? Why?” 

RK: “Wow. That’s a tough ques­tion. I like both. We read The Chron­i­cles of Nar­nia to our chil­dren when they were in ele­men­tary school—what won­der­ful mem­o­ries. Because of that, I give the slight edge to Chron­i­cles, but I am a big-time fan of both book series.” 

Inter­ested in learn­ing more about Bob Kelle­men and his work? 

Visit his web­site: RPM Ministries 

Fol­low him on Twit­ter: @BobKellemen 

Like his Face­book Min­istry page: RPM Min­istries 

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