Practices in Biblical Counseling – Part 1

This post is simply a summary post on chapter 22 “The Central Elements of the Biblical Counseling Process” of Christ-Centered Biblical Counseling.  Randy Patten and Mark Dutton submit that there are six practices that summarize the counseling process: Gathering pertinent information Sorting out the problems Involvement Hope Instruction: the path forward Homework What follows is…

{New Post} Mistakes Leaders Make

Several weeks ago I finished Mistakes Leaders Make by Dave Kraft.  It was a short, easy read with several helpful principles that leaders tend to make.  His list involves mistakes that oftentimes go unaddressed which is unfortunate because they can have serious consequences, to the pastor and church or both. Read through the following list…

Repentance is a Good Thing

If you’re interested in reading one book on biblical counseling read Christ-Centered Biblical Counseling.  It gives the nuts and bolts of biblical counseling and is thoroughly biblical, focused on Jesus and is saturated with God’s Word. The chapters included the power of the Redeemer (Jesus), the ministry of the Holy Spirit, the unity of the…

{New Post} Everyday Pastoral Care – What Does This Look Like?

Tim Chester and Steve Timmis in Everyday Church: Gospel Communities on Mission give five principles of community-based, gospel-centered, mutual pastoral care that are very helpful in answering the question, “what does everyday pastoral care look like.” And just as a preface they contend that “pastoral care is not the sole responsibility of pastors anymore than evangelism…

{New Post} Are You a Secure or Insecure Leader?

This past weekend Ed and Kathy Litton facilitated a marriage retreat for Indiana Pastors/Wives and among many of the encouraging and challenging things Ed shared was the issue of where is security found. A Christian’s security should not be in anyone or anything else but the person of Jesus.  If we wrongly place our security in…

{New Post} Boston and Holiness

It’s been over two weeks since the bombing in Boston so most people’s thoughts, unfortunately, have moved on to other things; such is the nature of our culture and lives. However, we need to be intentional about understanding and being able to explain why things like this happen and how to rightly respond to events…