Five to Live By: The TGC11 Edition 

Linking you to the top 5 Christian blog posts of the week—posts that provide robust, rich, and relevant insights for living. Today’s Five to Live By converge around the theme of the 2011 Gospel Coalition Conference.

God’s Holy Love

TGC’s own blog has a boatload of great links and updates, including this one that responds to the “Rob Bell Controversy”: God: Abounding in Love; Punishing the Guilty.

Trevin’s Seven

Trevin Wax also has a TGC Edition this week in his Trevin’s Seven. He includes eight links (it was a special week and he couldn’t stop at seven—I’ve been there; done that) to keynote messages preached at the conference. Find them at The TGC Edition.

TGC and the BCC

Pastor Steve Viars talks about the benefits of coalescing coalitions in Coalitions Working Together.

Sister Coalitions

Maybe once or twice a year, at most, I include one of my own blogs in this list—only when it really fits a theme. This is one of those times. Read The Ministry of the Word—Public and Mutual for my take on how the Gospel Coalition and the Biblical Counseling Coalition mesh.

“Gathering the GC Tribe”

Darryl Dash of the Dash House shares his view of TGC11 in The Real Benefit of TGC11.

Join the Conversation

Which post impacted you the most? Why? What blog posts have you enjoyed this week that you want to share with others?

The Ministry of the Word: Public and Mutual 

As I’ve been enjoying the 2011 Gospel Coalition Conference in Chicago while representing the Biblical Counseling Coalition several “dual images” have come to mind.

• Preaching and Counseling

• The Public Ministry of the Word and the Mutual Ministry of the Word

• The Pulpit Ministry of the Word and the Personal Ministry of the Word

• Air Wars and Ground Wars

• Bombing the Shores and Hand-to-Hand Combat

Changing Lives with Christ’s Changeless Truth

Each twin metaphor compares and contrasts how God’s Word changes lives with Christ’s changeless truth either through the public proclamation of the Word (preaching, teaching, corporate worship, etc.) or through the mutual ministry of the Word (counseling, one-another ministry, personal discipleship, small group ministry, spiritual friendship, soul care, etc.).

Both “types of ministries” should be ministries of the Word. Both should be based upon the conviction that God’s Word is authoritative, sufficient, relevant, and profound. That foundation should never change, although the “method” of communication/connecting is quite different in preaching than in personal counseling.

Here’s what excites me about the Gospel Coalition and the Biblical Counseling Coalition. We are both committed to the public ministry of the Word where expository, exegetical preaching relates God’s truth to people’s lives, and we don’t “jump ship” and change our commitment when it comes to the personal (or private/mutual) ministry of the Word (counseling). We see no dichotomy between the foundation for the public and the private ministry of the Word.

Gospel-Centered Commitment

In other words, as pastors and teachers, when we’re in the pulpit or at the lectern, we trust the power of God’s Word to change lives, and when we’re in our offices with a struggling parishioner or at Starbucks with a spiritual friend, we maintain that trust, rather than trusting instead in worldly wisdom. We are confident that God’s Word is profoundly relevant to change lives when shared from the pulpit, and we maintain that confidence in the personal/mutual ministry of the Word when sitting across from a parishioner.

Again, I’m not suggesting that counseling equals individual preaching. I am, however, suggesting that counseling (the personal/mutual ministry of the Word) equals spiritual conversations based upon biblical insights for living mutually explored in the context of a committed, caring relationship (Ephesians 4:15-16; Philippians 1:9-11; 1 Thessalonians 2:8). I am suggesting that the Word is powerful to change lives both when preached from the pulpit and when applied together in the relational context of one-another ministry.

Join the Conversation

Why do some Evangelicals seem to lose their confidence in the authority, sufficiency, and profound relevance of God’s Word when they move from preaching/teaching to personal counseling? How can we encourage and equip God’s people to minister the Word powerfully in all contexts?

Serving Together: The Gospel Coalition and the Biblical Counseling Coalition 

Chicago will host the 2011 Gospel Coalition Conference, April 12-14. The theme of this year’s conference is They Testify About Me which highlights how all of Scripture, including the Old Testament, center on Christ: His person and work.

The theme is appropriate as The Gospel Coalition exists as ”a fellowship of evangelical churches deeply committed to renewing our faith in the gospel of Christ and to reforming our ministry practices to conform fully to the Scriptures.” This year, the newly launched Biblical Counseling Coalition will have four active roles in the conference. This, too, is fitting, as “the BCC exists to strengthen churches, para-church organizations, and educational institutions by promoting excellence and unity in biblical counseling as a means to accomplish compassionate outreach and effective discipleship.”

 David Powlison’s Workshop Session

Dr. David Powlison, of the CCEF and Board Member of the BCC, will lead a Wednesday (11-noon) session on The Pastor’s Counseling Ministry.

BCC Q/A Special Event

Dr. Powlison, Garrett Higbee (BCC BOD Member), Steve Viars (BCC BOD President), and Bob Kellemen (BCC Executive Director) will lead a BCC Q/A focused around Recent Advancements in Biblical Counseling. This special event will run from 12:30-1:30 PM on Wednesday.

BCC and Pastoral Care

Throughout the conference, the BCC will be providing pastoral care for attendees. This offering is motivated by TGC and the BCC’s concern for Christian leaders: who cares for the care-givers, who shepherds the shepherds?

BCC Booth

The BCC will also host a booth at the conference (booth 99) with literature related to the BCC, sample BCC documents, and sample materials authored by BCC Board Members and Council Board Members.

Join the Conversation

What are the benefits of para-church organizations serving together?

The Top Ten Trends in Biblical Counseling

Note: The Gospel Coalition originally posted the following article I wrote on The Top Ten Trends in Biblical Counseling.

As I speak around the country on biblical counseling, I typically hear two very different responses. Sometimes I’m asked, “When you say ‘biblical counseling,’ you don’t mean ___________ do you?” Various people fill in that blank with different labels—negative to them. What a shame that placing the word “biblical” in front of “counseling” causes some in the church to recoil in fear.

But there’s good news—the tide is turning. I consistently hear comments like, “God has used biblical counseling to change my life.” And, “Our church’s biblical counseling ministry is impacting our entire congregation and our community for God’s glory.”

It’s exciting to reflect on what God is doing as He empowers leaders to equip His people to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:11-16). With that reality as the backdrop, here are the top ten positive trends that I see in biblical counseling today—shared in reverse order, of course, to heighten the anticipation.

10. A Collegial Spirit

Increasingly, members of biblical counseling organizations are choosing to work together and to learn from each other. The 2010 launch of the Biblical Counseling Coalition (BCC) is just one example. The vision of Pastor James MacDonald and Pastor Steve Viars, the BCC exists to strengthen churches, para-church organizations, and educational institutions by promoting excellence and unity in biblical counseling as a means to accomplish compassionate outreach and effective discipleship. BCC President Steve Viars, explains this collegial vision:

“The BCC is about relationships and resources. Relationships because we believe that together we can accomplish more. Resources because we want to help everyone interested in practicing biblical counseling in their churches to have the best tools and training possible.”

To read the rest of the post, visit The Gospel Coalition site for The Top Ten Trends in Biblical Counseling.

To read the entire post in a PDF format, visit the RPM Ministries site at The Top Ten Trends in Biblical Counseling.

Biblical Counseling, The Gospel Coalition, and Tim Challies

It’s not a bad day in the Christian blogosphere if The Gospel Coalition or Tim Challies make mention of your existence. It’s a humbling day when both sites highlight your thoughts or materials about biblical counseling. Such has been the past twenty-four hours for RPM Ministries.

I was honored when Collin Hansen and the folks at The Gospel Coalition asked me to share my thoughts about the current state and future trends in biblical counseling. You can find that post at the GC site at The Top Ten Trends in Biblical Counseling. One of aspects that I most enjoyed about that post was the opportunity to share well-deserved shout-outs to groups like CCEF, Faith Biblical Counseling Ministries, the Association of Biblical Counselors, and the National Association of Nouthetic Counselors, along with shout-outs to a few of the many outstanding leaders in biblical counseling such as James MacDonald, Garrett Higbee, David Powlison, Steve Viars, Rob Green, Jeremy Lelek, John Henderson, Deepak Reju, Robert Cheong, Laura Hendrickson, Elyse Fitzpatrick, Charles Ware, Mike Wilkerson, Heath Lambert, and Kevin Carson.

I was equally honored when Tim Challies decided to offer gift packs of my books for his weekly Free Stuff Fridays. Check out today’s offer at Free Stuff Fridays. You’ll find summaries of and be able to sign up for a chance to win free copies of my first five books: Soul Physicians, Spiritual Friends, Beyond the Suffering, Sacred Friendships, and God’s Healing for Life’s Losses.

My passion, and thus the passion of RPM Ministries is to assist in equipping God’s people to change lives with Christ’s changeless truth. If these two posts advance that vision, for the glory of Christ, then indeed, it is a good day.

The Best of the Best Around the Christian Net: This Week’s Top 5

Linking you to the top 5 Christian blog posts of the week—posts that provide robust, rich, and relevant insights for living.

The Personal Ministry of the Word and the Pulpit Ministry of the Word

What is the relationship between biblical counseling and biblical preaching? Great question and Ed Welch provides a compelling answer in How Biblical Counseling Affects Preaching.

Living Nativity

Pastor Steve Viars ponders The Beauty of Serving Together in his post about meaningful service in the Body of Christ as members unite to build and “be” a living nativity scene. As the Apostle Paul said, we are epistles written on the heart…

Declining Interest in Marriage?

Jim Daley, President of Focus on the Family writes a guest article for Christianity Today in response to the recent Pew Survey of Americans’ view of marriage. Read his view in Marriage in Obsolescence.

What Is Justification?

Collin Hansen of the Gospel Coalition posts a long, detailed blog on the recently completed Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) meeting just completed in Atlanta. The keynote addresses and responses focused on the issue of the nature of justification. For an excellent summary of the discussion, read Hansen’s post: Justification: A Debate Long Overdue.

Justification, Take Two

Mike Wittmer pens a briefer yet still important and compelling post about the same ETS meeting. For his take on the controversy, read Wright at ETS.

Join the Conversation

Which post impacted you the most? Why? What blog posts have you enjoyed this week that you want to share with others?