Life’s 7 Ultimate Questions

In ministry, when real people ask you real life questions, where do you turn for ultimate answers?

During my next How to Care Like Christ seminar (see below for details), we’ll explore how to change lives with Christ’s changeless truth.

We’ll discover scriptural answers to life’s seven ultimate questions:

1. What is truth? Where do I find answers? (The Written Word—The Bible)

2. Who is God? Can I know Him personally? (The Living Word—The Trinity)

3. Who am I? What makes people tick? (Creation—Understanding People)

4. What went wrong? Why do we do the things we do? (Fall—Diagnosing Problems)

5. Can people change? How do people change? (Redemption—Prescribing God’s SOUL-utions)

6. What’s my purpose? What’s my destiny? (Consummation—Eternity)

7. How can I help? How can I change lives? (Sanctification—Biblical Counseling)

Learn More About How to Care Like Christ

*Date: Saturday, January 29, 2011

*Time: 9:00-4:00 (Registration and Continental Breakfast Begins at 8:30, Lunch Provided 12:00-1:00)

*Host Church: Grace Bible Church, 9115 Lorton Station Boulevard, Lorton, VA 22079, 703-339-7292

*Online Information and Registration: Visit Changing Lives Seminar

Join the Conversation

For your life and ministry, how do you demonstrate your conviction that God’s Word is sufficient?

Tags: Biblical Counseling, Changing Lives Seminar, How to Care Like Christ

Free Resources for Your Life and Ministry

We have over 125 free resources for you at our RPM Ministries Free Resource link.

Here are three we’re highlighting today for your life and ministry.

1. How to Change Lives PowerPoint

This link provides the entire PowerPoint presentation of Dr. Kellemen’s morning session of the Changing Lives Seminar he presents around the country in local churches. This interactive seminar addresses life’s seven ultimate life questions.

2. How to Care Like Christ PowerPoint

This link provides the entire PowerPoint presentation of Dr. Kellemen’s afternoon session of the Changing Lives Seminar. This interactive seminar empowers Christians to implement the four biblical counseling relational competencies of sustaining, healing, reconciling, and guiding.

3. David Powlison’s Affirmations and Denials

Dr. David Powlison has provided the church a great service with his list of affirmations and denials regarding what makes biblical counseling truly biblical. For more of Dr. Powlison’s resources check out the CCEF site.

Tags: David Powlison, Free Resources, How to Care Like Christ, How to Change Lives

God’s Art Gallery of Spiritual Friendship

In the midst of spiritual crisis, we need spiritual connection—spiritual friendship. But just what does spiritual friendship look like? Would we know it if we saw it?

Allow me to guide you on a tour through God’s art gallery filled with walls lined with pictures of spiritual friendship. View pictures of spiritual friendship as:

Art Gallery Portrait One: Spiritual Friendship as Sacred Companionship

Spiritual friends are sacred companions. I’m convinced that one of the primary reasons that we fail to experience Christ’s power is because we fail to take our friendships seriously enough.

Our close friendships are sacred. They’re holy and sanctified, committed and consecrated, serious and mysterious, beautiful and blessed by God.

A sacred companion dares to enter the holy place of your soul—the messy rooms filled with fear, darkness, chaos, and confusion. She also thrills to enter the redeemed core of your soul—that central room touched by God, yet rarely tapped into or stirred up by the mere acquaintance. A sacred companion is someone who cares about you so much and knows you so well, that he helps you to taste God’s goodness and grace where others only see suffering and sin.

Even more, your sacred companions courageously encourage you to enter the Holy of Holies of your soul—to live face-to-face with God in intimate integrity. No wonder the author of Hebrews directly links bold entrance into God’s presence (Hebrews 10:19-23) with the bold encouragement shared between brothers and sisters in Christ (Hebrews 10:24-25).

Art Gallery Portrait Two: Spiritual Friendship as Voice and Touch

Spiritual friends connect voice and touch. In the prologue to Leadership Jazz, Max DePree writes about his granddaughter, Zoe:

Zoe was born prematurely and weighed one pound, seven ounces, so small that my wedding ring could slide up her arm to her shoulder. The neonatologist who first examined her told us that she had a 5 to 10 percent chance of living three days. When Esther and I saw Zoe in her isolette in the neonatal intensive care unit, she had two IVs in her navel, one in her foot, a monitor on each side of her chest, and a respirator tube and a feeding tube in her mouth. To complicate matters, Zoe’s biological father had jumped ship the month before Zoe was born. Realizing this, a wise and caring nurse named Ruth gave me my instructions. “For the next several months, at least, you’re the surrogate father. I want you to come to the hospital every day to visit Zoe, and when you come, I want you to rub her body and her legs and arms with the tip of your finger. While you’re caressing her, you should tell her over and over how much you love her, because she has to be able to connect your voice to your touch” (DePree, Leadership Jazz, p. 1).

DePree concludes with these insightful words. “God knew that we also needed both His voice and His touch. So He gave us His Word (His Son) and also His Body (the Church). God’s voice and touch say, ‘I love you’” (Depree, Leadership Jazz, p. 2).

God’s Word is his voice speaking to you. God’s people are his touch speaking his Word into your soul.

Art Gallery Portrait Three: Spiritual Friendship as Christ Incarnated in Christians

Spiritual friendship is Christ incarnated in Christians. Dave is one of my best friends from seminary days. One night when his daughter, Kristen, was about five or six, she awoke from a bad dream. Hearing her cries and whimperings, Dave got out of bed to comfort Kristen. He hugged her, and she was still. Then they prayed together. His prayer was meant to reassure her that Jesus was watching over her. But when Dave finished praying and was about to leave Kristen, her whimperings began again. Dave reminded her again, “You know that Jesus is watching over you.”

Kristen responded, “I know, but I need Jesus with some skin on him!”

That’s what God calls us to be for each other: Jesus with skin on him. Spiritual friends give each other small tastes, samples now, of how good and gracious Jesus is.

Spiritual friendship is a human relational bridge that reconnects our soul to God. We are more than professionals, or practitioners, or pastors; we are fellow pilgrims. We journey with one another through the valley of the shadow of death. Then we lay down our lives for each other, forming a bridge from the valley of death to the oasis of hope—the oasis of God’s goodness and grace.

Join the Conversation

Which portrait of spiritual friendship resonates with you?

Note: Excerpted from Spiritual Friends.

Tags: How to Care Like Christ, Spiritual Friends, Spiritual Friendships

Learn How to Change Lives

Equipping Lay People, Pastors, and Christian Counselors

As a lay person, what do you do after the hug? A friend shares a personal struggle, you hug, or, if you’re a guy, you grunt and say, “I’ll pray for ya’ man.” Now what? How do you help?

As a pastor, how do you speak the truth in love? When parishioners share deep struggles, how do you discern root causes, care deeply, and wisely share robust biblical counsel?

As a professional Christian counselor, how do you move beyond being a Christian who counsels to offering Christian counseling? How do you move beyond solution-focused-therapy to SOUL-u-tion-focused-Christian-counseling?

How to Care Like Christ

If you’re a lay person, a pastor, or a professional Christian counselor, learn how to change lives with Christ’s changeless truth. Learn what to do after the hug by learning how to care like Christ.

For lay people, this seminar helps you to help your friends.

For pastors, this seminar is the remedy for “Take two verses and call me in the morning.”

For Christian counselors, this seminar is the remedy for secular psychology.

Join me on April 24, 2010, from 9 AM to 12:30 PM at First Assembly of God Church, 1400 W. Washington Center Rd., Fort Wayne, IN.

In this interactive training seminar, you’ll learn how to use God’s Word to develop a Christ-centered, comprehensive, compassionate, and culturally-informed biblical model of counseling that truly values the sufficiency and relevancy of Scripture. You will be able to:

• Find God’s Answers to Life’s Seven Ultimate Questions: Learn how to relate Christ’s changeless truth to our changing times.

• Understand People Biblically: Discover how God designed us to live, love, and relate—who are we?

• Diagnose Problems Scripturally: Uncover why we do the things we do—what went wrong?

• Prescribe God’s Solutions Effectively: Apply Christ’s answers for our daily life issues—how do people change?

• CEU’s Available: 4.5 CE Hours have been approved.

Cost

Your cost includes the seminar, seminar notes, continental breakfast, and lunch. The cost is $65 for counselors, $45 for clergy, $45 for lay people, and $35 for students.

You’ll also enjoy a panel discussion after lunch with pastors, Christian counselors, and me discussing how to minister with truth and love.

Registration

Register before April 13th, to receive the early registration discount! To make it easy for you, we are offering many options for Registration:

• Online at http://www.fellowshipofchristiancounselors.com

• Send check or use a charge/debit via PayPal. Gret Machlan, Fellowship of Christian Counselors, PO Box 12963, Fort Wayne, IN 46866

• Pay at the door (higher rates apply)

• Call Gret Machlan 432-0066 x309 and we can work out the best fit for you.

Join the Conversation

How are you being equipped to care like Christ?

Tags: Biblical Counseling, Changing Lives Seminar, Christian Counseling, RPM Ministries

Be Empowered to Care Like Christ

Do you minister to people’s personal needs and care deeply, but desire further equipping so you can care like Christ?

Do you want to be empowered to use the Bible more wisely, powerfully, and lovingly?



Then attend the RPM Ministries Changing Lives Seminar: How to Care Like Christ.



Select from two upcoming RPM Ministries How to Care Like Christ Seminars:

1. Saturday, October 10, 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM at Grace Baptist Church, 7210 Race Track Road, Bowie, MD 20715.



Cost: $25 per person if registered by October 3. ($35 at the Door.) Your costs include a continental breakfast, a light lunch, the seminar notes, and the full-day seminar presentation by Dr. Kellemen.

To Register:

*Contact Pastor Mark Tanious at 301-262-1767.

*Or, download the online registration at: http://bit.ly/zJMvy

*Or, contact: secretary@gbcbowie.org

To Learn More:



Please visit: http://bit.ly/lX5PG



2. Saturday, October 31, 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM at Mt. Sinai Baptist Church, 1615 Third Street, N.W., Washington DC.

*Cost: $25 per person. Your costs include a continental breakfast, a light lunch, the seminar notes, and the full-day seminar presentation by Dr. Kellemen.

To Register:

*Contact the Church Office at 202-667-1833 and ask for Minister Charles Traylor and the Changing Lives Seminar.

*Or, email Paula Stevens-Lassiter at mtsinaidc@verizon.net