Happy One-Year Anniversary!

It’s been one year since Jon Barnes designed and launched my new website. I’ve been very happy with it. Apparently you have been too, as visits have quadrupled compared to the former site.

My Top Ten Blog Posts: What You’re Reading

Here are the ten blog posts that you read this past year at RPM Ministries.

1. Let’s Roll!: Not surprisingly, my 9-11 post on Lisa Beamer was my most read blog post of the year.

2. Stephen Hawking: Brilliant, but Foolish: Thousands of you wanted to read a biblical perspective on why one of today’s most brilliant men is also a fool.

3. Brian McLaren, I Accept Your Invitation: I penned a multi-part series sharing my biblical counseling perspective on Brian McLaren’s latest book. If I combined all the parts in this blog series, it would have been the most read of any of my posts.

4. A Biblical Model of Grieving: My 1,000-word summary of God’s Healing for Life’s Losses became a compelling read.

5. 100 Fastest Growing Churches: This likely says a great deal about the power of being linked to by The Gospel Coalition and Tim Challies!

6. Report on the Historic Biblical Counseling Coalition: You were quite interested in my summary of the Biblical Counseling summit. There’s much more to come in 2011. Stand by!

7. My Top Ten Books of 2009: Top ten lists are ever-popular, as were this one and the next one.

8. My Top Ten Trends in Biblical Counseling: You wanted to know what I thought the top ten trends over the past ten years had been related to the biblical counseling movement.

9. How Do You Break the Stranglehold of Strongholds?: We all want biblical wisdom regarding spiritual victory.

10. Every Life Has a Story: This was my favorite post of the year. I’m a little surprised it was not higher on your reading list…perhaps because it was posted somewhat recently.

Top Dozen Site Landing Pages

Here are the pages on my site that you’ve visited the most over the past year.

1. Home Page: Not surprising that you would land here. Based upon the time on this page, most of you were reading my blog from this page.

2. Free Resources: I’m delighted that so many people have benefited from the hundreds of free resources that I offer. Keep it up.

3. Store: Of course, I’m pleased, too, that so many of you are benefiting from my books, e-books, and e-documents. Did you know that in addition to my books, I have nearly a dozen other e-books and documents? It’s also nice to know that over 90% of the people who visited the store, then purchased a resource from RPM Ministries.

4. Writing: God’s Healing for Life’s Losses: Thousands of you wanted to know more about my latest book—I’m sure many of you read the free sample material, the 1,000-word summary, and the top three dozen quotes of note from the book.

5. Schedule (Where’s Bob?): This one surprised me, but apparently a lot of you want to know Where’s Bob? Perhaps you thought it was a game like Where’s Waldo?

6. Book Reviews: With over 500 reviews now, this has been your sixth most popular destination.

7. Consulting: Another surprise, but maybe I shouldn’t have been, since I’m doing a lot of consulting, especially about 4E Ministry—Equipping Counselors for the Local Church.

8-11. Writing: If I combined these (Soul Physicians, Spiritual Friends, Beyond the Suffering, Sacred Friendships), they would be much higher on the list. I’ve had a boatload (big boat—luxury liner) of visits to each of these pages that provide summaries of each of my books, including free sample chapters.

12. Reject Shrinking Thinking: This was part of what started as a mini-series on overcoming anxiety, but became a maxi-series with scores of posts.

Join the Conversation

What was your favorite blog post this past year on RPM Ministries?

Top Ten Trends in Biblical Counseling from 2000-2009

Part 1: Trends 10-6

Do you remember where you were when “Y2K” did not hit? That was the beginning of the decade that people don’t know what to call. Is it the zeros?

People often like to label decades by “themes.” I’ve already heard some people call the past decade the “Selfish Decade.”

While there’s certainly plenty of negatives to toss about, I’d like to consider some positives. Remember, “Aslan is still on the move!”

Here are the first five of my top ten positive trends in biblical counseling over the past ten years (in reverse order, of course, to heighten anticipation!).

10. Synergy Is Energy

Instead of territory-protecting and camp-building, increasingly biblical counseling groups are choosing to work together and to learn from each other. For example, Jeremy Lelek and the Association of Biblical Counselors (ABC) are to be commended for hosting a symposium that brought together leaders from Faith Biblical Counseling Ministries (FBCM), the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation (CCEF), the Biblical Counseling and Spiritual Formation Network (BCSFN), and the Society for Christian Psychology (SCP).

9. Positive Perspective

For too long, modern biblical counseling suffered under the stereotype of what it was against. Over the past decade a shift has taken place as we’ve focused more on what we’re for. For example, the BCSFN, which was launched this decade, included “being a positive voice for biblical counseling” in its vision statement. The SCP purposes to develop from the Scriptures and Church history a positive presentation of a psychology (understanding of the soul as designed by God) that is thoroughly Christian.

8. New Gen Leadership

We all ought to be grateful for the “founders” of the “modern” biblical counseling movement. I’m also grateful for a new generation of leaders in biblical counseling. Examples abound. I think of Pastor Rob Green at Faith Biblical Counseling Ministries and Faith Seminary, of Chris Boucher at Capital Bible Seminary, Brad Hambrick of Crossroads Counseling, and Garrett Higbee of Twelve Stones Ministries.

7. Local Church Equipping

There’s a growing movement to return biblical counseling and spiritual friendship to its rightful place—the local church. Pastors are being equipped to equip their people for one another ministry. Among many examples are the CCEF, the BCSFN, FBCM, the ABC, Rick Thomas of The Counseling Solutions Group, and my own RPM Ministries all have well-developed local church equipping models, conferences, seminars, and consulting ministries. And individual churches are increasingly becoming equipping centers, such as Faith Baptist under the leadership of Pastor Steve Viars, Harvest Bible Chapel under the leadership of Pastor James MacDonald and Dr. Garrett Higbee, and New Antioch Baptist Church’s “LEAD” ministry under the direction of Sister Ellen Barney (where she has trained over 500 women in spiritual friendship). These equipping ministries and churches understand that biblical counseling is a normal part of the one another ministry that God calls every believer to participate in.

6. Compassionate Care

There was a time when “modern biblical counseling” was stereotyped as “harsh confrontation.” Joyfully, that label is dissipating as biblical counselors embrace a biblical sufferology. Biblical counseling is addressing how to provide soul care through sustaining and healing for suffering. It is also addressing how to provide gentle, humble spiritual direction for sin and sanctification through reconciling and guiding. Paul Tautges’ Comfort Those Who Grieve is one excellent example of biblical counseling for suffering. Ian Jones’ Counsel of Heaven on Earth is a great example of compassionate care for both suffering and sin. My own work, Spiritual Friends equips readers with twenty-two biblical counseling relational competencies for helping those who are suffering and sinning to move toward growth in grace.

The Rest of the Story

Be sure to join us for Part II when I share top trends 5-1 related to biblical counseling from 2000-2009.

Join the Conversation

What top trends would you add to this list?

What individuals, groups, churches, and books would you add to trends 10-6?