Quotes of Note: Martin Luther—Master Pastor, Part 2

Note: You’re reading Part 2 of a blog mini-series sharing Quotes of Note derived from my Ph.D. dissertation: Spiritual Care in Historical Perspective: Martin Luther as a Case Study in Christian Sustaining, Healing, Reconciling, and Guiding. Read Part 1.  

In Part 1, we enjoyed quotes regarding Luther’s ministry of biblical sustaining: bringing people God’s comfort by empathizing with their suffering. Foremost in this process was helping people to turn their eyes to the cross of Christ and the Christ of the cross.

Having turned people to Christ for His infinite comfort, Luther then became “Jesus with skin on” by empathizing with his hurting spiritual friends.

Participation in Suffering: I Suffer with You

“I wish to write this to you because I am anxious about your illness (for we know not the hour), that I might become a participant of your faith, temptation, consolation, and thanks to God for his holy Word . . .” (LSC, p. 31).

“So I pray that the Lord will make me sick in your place.” (LSC, p. 48).

“We must support one another and be supported” (LSC, p. 40).

“I know that your trials contribute to the glory of God and to your profit and that of many others. I, too, suffered from such trials, and at the time I had nobody to console me. When I complained about such spiritual assaults to my good Staupitz, he replied, ‘I don’t understand this; I know nothing about it.’ You now have the advantage that you can come to me, to Philip (Melanchthon), or to Cordatus to seek comfort . . . .” (LW, Vol. 54, pp. 132-133).

“Accordingly we all are deeply grieved by his death . . . As is natural, your son’s death, and the report of it, will distress and grieve your heart and that of your wife, since you are his parents. I do not blame you for this, for all of us—I in particular—are stricken with sorrow” (LW, Vol. 50, p. 51).

Permission to Grieve

“It is quite inconceivable that you should not be mourning. In fact, it would not be encouraging to learn that a father and mother are not grieved over the death of their son. The wise man, Jesus Sirach, says this in ch. 22: ‘Weep for the dead, for light hath failed him . . .’” (LSC, p. 61).

“Grace and peace. My dear Ambrose: I am not so inhuman that I cannot appreciate how deeply the death of Margaret distresses you. For the great and godly affection which binds a husband to his wife is so strong that it cannot easily be shaken off, and this feeling of sorrow is not so displeasing to God . . . since it is an expression of what God has assuredly implanted in you. Nor would I account you a man, to say nothing of a good husband, if you could at once throw off your grief” (LSC, p. 62).

“Grace and peace in Christ. My dear Cordatus: May Christ comfort you in this sorrow and affliction of yours. Who else can soothe such a grief? I can easily believe what you write, for I too have had experience of such a calamity, which comes to a father’s heart sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing even to the marrow, etc. But you ought to remember that it is not to be marvelled at if he, who is more truly and properly a father than you were, preferred for his own glory that your son—nay, rather his son—should be with him rather than with you, for he is safer there than here. But all of this is vain, a story that falls on deaf ears, when your grief is so new. I therefore yield to your sorrows. Greater and better men than we are have given way to grief and are not blamed for it” (LSC, p. 60).

“When I asked him about the passage in which Jeremiah cursed the day in which he had been born and suggested that such impatience was a sin, he (Martin Luther) replied, ‘Sometimes one has to wake up our Lord God with such words. Otherwise he doesn’t hear. It is a case of real murmuring on the part of Jeremiah. Christ spoke in this way. ‘How long am I to be with you?’ (Mark 9:19). Moses went so far as to throw his keys at our Lord God’s feet when he asked, ‘Did I conceive all this people?’ (Num. 11:12).’ Accordingly it is only speculative theologians who condemn such impatience and recommend patience. If they get down to the realm of practice, they will be aware of this” (LW, Vol. 54, p. 30-31).

“The Scriptures do not prohibit mourning and grieving over deceased children. On the contrary, we have many examples of godly patriarchs and kings who mournfully bewailed the death of their sons. At the same time you ought to leave room for consolation” (LSC, p. 67).

Comfort in Community: Do Not Grieve Alone

“‘He’s gnawing at his own heart, said Luther. ‘I, too, often suffer from severe trials and sorrows. At such times I seek the fellowship of men, for the humblest maid has often comforted me. A man doesn’t have control of himself when he is downcast and alone, even if he is well equipped with a knowledge of the Scriptures. It is not for nothing that Christ gathers his church around the Word and the sacraments and around prayer and hymns and is unwilling to let these be hidden in a corner. Away with monks and hermits! These are inventions of Satan because they exist apart from all the godly ordinances and arrangements of God. According to the plan of creation every man is either a domestic or a political or an ecclesiastical person. Outside of these ordinances he is not a man, unless he is miraculously exempted. Accordingly a solitary life should be avoided as much as possible’” (LW, Vol. 54, p. 268).

“The papists and Anabaptists teach: ‘If you wish to know Christ, try to be alone, don’t associate with men, become a separatist.’ This is plainly diabolical advice which is in conflict with the first and second table . . .” (LW, Vol. 54, p. 140).

“Thereupon he entreated Weller to cultivate the company of men when he is afflicted with such melancholy and not live alone. ‘Woe to him who is alone,’ the preacher says (Eccles. 4:10). When I’m morose I flee above all from solitude” (LW, Vol. 54, p. 276).

“Be very careful not to leave your husband alone for a single moment, and leave nothing lying about with which he might harm himself. Solitude is poison to him. For this reason the devil drives him to it” (LSC, p. 91).

“This is my only and best advice: Don’t remain alone when you are assailed! Flee solitude!” (LSA, p. 277).

“Seek the company of others who may be able to rejoice with Your Grace in a godly and honorable way. For solitude and melancholy are poisonous and fatal to all people, and especially to a young man. No one realizes how much harm it does a young person to avoid pleasure and cultivate solitude and sadness” (LSC, p. 93).

“All Christians truly are of the spiritual estate, and there is no difference among them except to office. Paul says in I Corinthians 12 that we are all one body, yet every member has its own work by which it serves the others. This is because we all have one baptism, one gospel, and faith, and are all Christians alike; for baptism, gospel, and faith alone make us spiritual and a Christian people” (LW, Vol. 44, p. 127).

The Rest of the Story 

In Part 3, we’ll see how Luther, having first turned empathized with and comforted others, next encouraged others to find Christ’s healing hope.

Join the Conversation 

Which of today’s Quotes of Note impact your life and ministry the most?

Note: These quotes are derived from Spiritual Care in Historical Perspective: Martin Luther as a Case Study in Christian Sustaining, Healing, Reconciling, and Guiding. The entire 212-page dissertation is available in PDF form at the RPM Store for $15.

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Quotes of Note: Martin Luther—Master Pastor, Part 1

In my Ph.D. dissertation, I studied Martin Luther’s pastoral care. The official title was Spiritual Care in Historical Perspective: Martin Luther as a Case Study in Christian Sustaining, Healing, Reconciling, and Guiding. 

I learned so much about biblical counseling from Luther that I want to share with you Quotes of Note from my study. In Part One of this blog mini-series, we enjoy quotes regarding Luther’s ministry of biblical sustaining: bringing people God’s comfort by empathizing with their suffering.

Specifically, Luther began his sustaining ministry by joining people in developing a faith perspective on their suffering. Foremost in this process was helping people to turn their eyes to the cross of Christ and the Christ of the cross.

Developing a Faith Perspective on Suffering

“If only a man could see his God in such a light of love how happy, how calm, how safe he would be! He would then truly have a God from whom he would know with certainty that all his fortunes—whatever they might be—had come to him and were still coming to him under the guidance of God’s most gracious will” (LW, Vol. 42, p. 154).

“The mercy of God shows us in our infirmity that even though death should not be taken away, its power has been reduced by him to a mere shadow” (LW, Vo. 42, p. 150).

“It is not as reason and Satan argue: ‘See there God flings you into prison, endangers your life. Surely He hates you. He is angry with you; for if He did not hate you, He would not allow this thing to happen.’ In this way Satan turns the rod of a Father into the rope of a hangman and the most salutary remedy into the deadliest poison” (LW, Vol. 16, p. 214).

“He who does not believe that he is forgiven by the inexhaustible riches of Christ’s righteousness is like a deaf man hearing a story. If we considered it properly and with an attentive heart, this one image—even if there were no other—would suffice to fill us with such comfort that we should not only not grieve over our evils, but should also glory in our tribulations, scarcely feeling them for the joy that we have in Christ.” (LW, Vol. 42, p. 165)

“All that remains is for us now to pray that our eyes, that is the eyes of our faith, may be opened that we may see. Then there will be nothing for us to fear” (LW, Vol. 42, p. 163).

“And it is equally true that we measure, feel, or do not feel our evils not on the basis of the facts, but on the basis of our thoughts and feelings about them” (LW, Vol. 42, p. 127).

“Faith, is, as it were, the center of a circle. If anybody strays from the center, it is impossible for him to have the circle around him, and he must blunder. The center is Christ” (LW, Vol. 54, p. 45).

“In speaking of the consolations which Christians have, the Apostle Paul in Romans 15:4 writes, ‘Brethren, whatever was written, was written for our instruction, so that through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures we might have hope.’ In this passage he plainly teaches us that our consolations are to be drawn from the Holy Scriptures” (LW, Vol. 42, p. 124).

“Her illness is, as you see, rather of the mind than of the body. I am comforting her as much as I can, with my knowledge. In a word, her disease is not for the apothecaries (as they call them), nor is it to be treated with the salves of Hippocrates, but by constantly applying plasters of Scripture and the Word of God” (LC, p. 402).

Turn Your Eyes Upon the Cross of Christ: Christ Suffers with Us

“The flesh cries out against the belief that God is good, but the suffering Savior brings consolation that this is indeed true” (LSA, p. 157).

“God’s friendship is a bigger comfort than that of the whole world” (LW, Vol. 49, p. 306).

“When, therefore, I learned, most illustrious prince, that Your Lordship has been afflicted with a grave illness and that Christ has at the same time become ill in you, I counted it my duty to visit Your Lordship with a little writing of mine. I cannot pretend that I do not hear the voice of Christ crying out to me from Your Lordship’s body and flesh saying, ‘Behold, I am sick.’ This is so because such evils as illness and the like are not borne by us who are Christians but by Christ himself, our Lord and Savior, in whom we live even as Christ plainly testifies in the Gospel when he says, ‘Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me,” (LSC, p. 27).

“Jesus Christ, God’s Son, has by his most holy touch consecrated and hallowed all sufferings, even death itself, has blessed the curse, and has glorified shame and enriched poverty so that death is now a door to life, the curse a fount of blessing, and shame the mother of glory. Suffering has been touched and bathed by Christ’s pure and holy flesh and blood and thus have become holy, harmless, and wholesome, blessed, and full of joy for you. There is nothing, not even death, that his passion cannot sweeten” (LW, Vol. 42, pp. 141-142).

“Grace and peace in the Lord. Christ has given me abundant testimony of you, dear brother Lambert, that you do not need my words, for He Himself suffers in you and is glorified in you. He is taken captive in you and reigns in you, He is oppressed in you and triumphs in you, for He has given you that holy knowledge of Himself which is hidden from the world.” (LC, p. 213).

“Herewith I commend you to Him who loves you more than you love yourself” (LW, Vol. 49, p. 270).

“True faith draws forth the following conclusion: God is God for me because He speaks to me. He forgives my sins. He is not angry with me, just as He promises: ‘I am the Lord your God.’ Now search your heart, and ask whether you believe that God is your God, Father, Savior, and Deliverer, who wants to rescue you” (LW, Vol. 4, p. 149).

(Discussing Psalm 119, “In my distress I cried unto the Lord, and he heard me.”) “The first verse teaches us where we should turn when misfortune comes upon us—not to the emperor, not to the sword, not to our own devices and wisdom, but to the Lord, who is our only real help in time of need. ‘I cried unto the Lord in my distress,’ he says. That we should do this confidently, cheerfully, and without fail he makes clear when he says, ‘And he heard me.’ It is as if he would say, ‘The Lord is pleased to have us turn to him in our distress and is glad to hear and help us’ (LSC, p. 204).

“Our sufferings have not yet become so deep and bitter as were those of his own dear Son and of the mother of our Lord. By the thought of these we should be comforted and strengthened in our sufferings, as St. Peter teaches us (first epistle, iii.18): ‘Christ has once suffered for us, the just for the unjust’” (LSA, p. 148).

The Rest of the Story

In Part Two, we’ll see how Luther, having first turned people to Christ for His infinite comfort, then became “Jesus with skin on” by empathizing with his hurting spiritual friends.

Join the Conversation

Which of today’s Quotes of Note impact your life and ministry the most?

Note: These quotes are derived from Spiritual Care in Historical Perspective: Martin Luther as a Case Study in Christian Sustaining, Healing, Reconciling, and Guiding. The entire 212-page dissertation is available in PDF form at the RPM Store for $15.

RPM Ministries: Equipping You to Change Lives with Christ’s Changeless Truth

Not Your Father’s Pastoral Counseling Class

The first week of 2012, I’ll be teaching a modular (Tuesday-Friday, 8 AM to 5 PM) Pastoral Counseling class at Moody Theological Seminary.

After some personal introductions and connecting as a class, I begin with the phrase, “This is not your father’s pastoral counseling class.” 

In the past, Pastoral Counseling classes sought to give a person a fish, but not to teach a person how to fish.

Typically, they focus their energies giving students an eclectic smattering of resources on about a dozen typical pastoral counseling issues. This might spend two hours each on pre-marital, marital, family issues, depression, anxiety, suicide, financial, conflict, anger, pornography, abuse issues, and general spiritual growth.

A fine list. All important topics.

But they’re all fish.

Teaching Care-Givers to Fish

I prefer teaching people to fish, rather than simply giving a person a fish.

When we know how to fish, then we can develop our resources for a lifetime.

How do I do that in a one-week course?

We address life’s seven ultimate questions. Anyone who gains biblical insight into these seven ultimate questions will be able to:

• Develop their own biblical resources for addressing any specific life issue.

• Assess extra-biblical resources written about any specific life issue.

Life’s Seven Ultimate Questions That Every Pastoral Counselor Must Address 

Here’s what you need to ponder and probe to be a competent and compassionate soul physician.

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

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

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

• Knowing the Creator of the Soul: The Great Physician—The Trinity

3. Do I understand people—biblically?

• Examining the Spiritual Anatomy of the Soul: People—Creation

4. Can I diagnose problems—biblically?

• Diagnosing the Fallen Condition of the Soul: Problems—Fall

5. Can I prescribe God’s solutions (soul-u-tions)—biblically?

• Prescribing God’s Cure for the Soul: Solutions (Soul-u-tions)—Redemption

6. Do I grasp how our eternal future makes all the difference in present living?

• Envisioning the Final Healing of the Soul: Home—Glorification

7. Am I able to dispense God’s care for others by caring like Christ?

• Caring Like Christ/Dispensing God’s Care for the Soul: Spiritual Friends—Sanctification

These seven biblical categories are essential for developing a theology and methodology of soul care and spiritual direction.

In the class, and in my book Soul Physicians, we examine these seven categories meticulously, as a physician would the skeletal structure of the human body.

Join the Conversation

Are you equipped to care like Christ?

RPM Ministries: Equipping You to Change Lives with Christ’s Changeless Truth

Reflections After 30 Years of Biblical Counseling

Note: This post was originally posted at the Biblical Counseling Coalition under Lessons Learned as a Biblical Counselor.

I Am Learning That Biblical Counseling Is About Scripture and Soul

If there is one verse that captures the heartbeat of my biblical counseling ministry after three decades it is 1 Thessalonians 2:8. “We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.”

Right out Bible college and in seminary, I was 90% Scripture and 10% soul. I was predominantly focused on truth and not enough on love (speaking the truth in love—Ephesians 4:15).

I don’t think the answer is a “50% + 50% balance” of truth and love.

I’m learning that the biblical model is 100% truth and 100% love. Paul says it powerfully in Philippians 1:9. “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight.”

As a biblical counselor, I want to make Paul’s prayer my prayer. I want my love for my spiritual friends to abound more and more as my biblical knowledge and depth of insight abounds more and more. I want to enter people’s lives deeply with Christ’s love and wisdom and engage people deeply with Christ’s grace and truth.

I Am Learning That Biblical Counseling Is About Suffering and Sin

A quote I display in my office captures well the next lesson I’m learning:

“Pastoral care is defective unless it can deal thoroughly with the evils we have suffered as well as with the sins we have committed.”

Again, right out of Bible college and in seminary, I was focused on “noutheteo” but limited in my focus on “parakaleo.” That is, I was predominantly about confronting heart sins, but not equally attuned to comforting people in their suffering.

Paul tells us eight times in 2 Corinthians 1:3-7 that God calls and equips us to comfort one another (parakleo). Similarly, he tells us in Romans 15:14 that God equips us to care-front one another (noutheteo). It is both/and, not either/or.

I needed to learn the lesson of John 9:1-3 that much suffering is not due to our own personal sin, but rather due to living in a fallen, sinful world. I needed to learn it so much that I ended up writing a book on it: God’s Healing for Life’s Losses: How to Find Hope When You’re Hurting.

I Am Learning That Biblical Counseling Is About the Intersection of God’s Story and Our Story

Coming out of Bible college and seminary, I knew more about the pulpit ministry of the Word than the personal ministry of the Word. I was better prepared to preach God’s Word than I was to engage my brothers and sisters in Christ one-to-one.

Decades ago I used to rush in with God’s Word and expect people to listen to me before I had listened deeply to them. I’m learning that in biblical counseling I need “pivot feet”: one foot always standing in and entering into my friend’s earthly story, and one foot always standing in and traveling with my friend to God’s eternal story.

I’m coming to understand that biblical counseling is not preaching at an audience of one. Biblical counseling is not a monologue; it’s not even a dialogue; it’s a trialogues: the counselor and the counselee listening together to the Divine Counselor through the Word of God and the Spirit of God.

I Am Learning That Biblical Counseling Is About You and Me 

I wasn’t quite sure how to word this header as a both/and. Here’s what I mean. Counseling is not one-size-fits-all. We need to care for, know, and relate to each unique counselee in a unique way.

My first pastoral counseling ministry was in an urban mega-church of over 3,000 people. We had a long history of “excellence” and “professionalism” in ministry. Before a counseling session, people completed a four-page Personal Information Form. Nothing wrong with that…in that setting.

My second pastoral ministry was in a small rural church. My first week of ministry a “Sr. Saint” came to see me. I whipped out my Personal Information Form. This dear saint took one look at it, looked at me with knowing, wise, aged eyes and said, “Pastor Kellemen, I’m not sure how they did things where you came from, but we don’t do things like that around here.”

I’m so glad for this seasoned saint.

I learned then and I’m continually learning that I don’t plop a “model” of counseling on people. I don’t pull “skills” or “methods” out of my counselor’s “toolbox.” Rather, I engage people relationally, soul-to-soul, as together we explore how God’s Word relates to their daily lives.

God fearfully and wonderfully hand-crafted and designed each of us—body, soul, cultural background, family background, life experiences, etc., etc., etc. I want my counseling to be one-another relating—my unique self with another unique image bearer.

I Am Learning That Biblical Counseling Is About Christ and the Body of Christ 

To say that counseling is about you and me is not to say that we stop at the two of us. Frankly, I don’t want to point people to myself.

I want to point people to Christ. He is always there for them (Hebrews 4:14-16). He is perfectly there for them (Hebrews 2:14-16).

I also have learned over the past thirty years that biblical counseling is about the Body of Christ. A parishioner or counselee can’t become dependent upon me. I want them mutually dependent with God’s people on Christ. That’s why I always require counselees to attend at least morning worship and an Adult Bible Fellowship (Sunday School) and/or a small group.

I’m learning that for biblical counseling to have lasting impact beyond the brief time we spend together each week, those receiving counsel must be engaged in spiritual fellowship with the Body of Christ and practicing spiritual disciplines as they connect to Christ.

Join the Conversation 

What lessons have you learned about biblical counseling and one-another ministry during your years of ministry?

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?

Not Your Father’s Pastoral Counseling Class 

This week I’ll be teaching a Master of Divinity class on Pastoral Counseling at Moody Theological Seminary in Chicago. When I was young, a commercial tag-line said, “Not your father’s Oldsmobile.” The car-maker was communicating that something new, something fresh was on the horizon.

I could say the same about the Pastoral Counseling class I’m teaching: “Not your father’s pastoral counseling class.” For too long, seminaries have taught pastoral counseling classes by trying to cram every conceivable pastoral counseling issue into the class and trying to cover each topic with a one-hour content dump.

I took a course like that. It was a total waste of time and money. An eclectic approach like that fails miserably at helping future pastors to think through what it truly means to offer biblical pastoral care and counseling.

So what we will do instead?

A Better Way: God’s Answers to Life’s Seven Ultimate Questions

I want to help my students to explore a biblical theology of biblical counseling in the local church (pastors and members). I want to assist these church leaders to develop a Christ-centered, church-based, comprehensive, compassionate, and culturally-informed model of discipleship counseling that embraces life issues in a biblical and relational way.

In seeking to discern what makes biblical pastoral ministry biblical, we’ll explore seven foundational biblical categories covered in the book Soul Physicians. I describe these categories as God’s Answers to Life’s Seven Ultimate Questions:

• God’s Word: “What is truth?” ”Where do I find answers?”

• The Trinity: “Who is God?” “How can I know Him personally?”

• Creation: “Who am I?” “What makes people tick?”

• Fall: “What went wrong?” “Why do we do the things we do?”

• Redemption: “Can I change?” “How do people change?”

• Glorification/Consummation: “Where am I headed?” “How does our future destiny impact our present reality?”

• Sanctification: “How does God change lives?” “How can I help others to grow in grace?”

Teaching People to Fish versus Giving People a Fish

The old way of teaching pastoral counseling offered people a fish; it didn’t teach them to fish. The new way teaches students how to think biblically about every pastoral counseling issue. They can then use their biblical grid, their biblical way of thinking about life issues, to develop effective biblical counseling approaches to whatever issues people bring to them.

In our five days together, we’ll use a host of creative, interactive means to stretch one another to see how the Bible is our robust, relevant, relational, authoritative, and sufficient guide for life and ministry. Some examples include:

• Relating God’s truth to our lives.

• In-depth, interactive exploration of specific biblical passages.

• Personal application projects.

• Ministry application projects.

• PDQs: Prompting Discussion Questions.

• Real life counseling vignettes.

• Role-play counseling scenarios.

• Movie clips to illustrate pertinent points.

• Music clips to illustrate pertinent points.

• Q/A time.

• Evaluations of current models/approaches to pastoral counseling.

• And much, much more.

I can’t wait. I love helping to equip pastors for the work of the ministry.

In fact, the end goal of the class is not simply that these students become better pastoral counselors. But rather, that these students help their churches become churches of biblical counseling—churches saturated with a vision for every member speaking the truth in love. In other words, I want my students to equip others also.

Join the Conversation

How do you best learn how to minister to others?