Quotes of Note from Christ-Centered Biblical Counseling, Part 3
You’re reading Part 3 in a four-part mini-series of Quotes of Note from Christ-Centered Biblical Counseling. Read Part 1 where you’ll find quotes from the Introduction and Chapters 1-7. Read Part 2 where you’ll find quotes from Chapters 8-14.
Chapter 15: The Biblical Counseling Ministry of the Local Church—Rob Green and Steve Viars
We pray that you want your church not only to have a counseling ministry, but to be a counseling ministry—a place where the sufficiency of the Scripture and the doctrine of progressive sanctification permeate everything.
Biblical counseling is part of the way that maturity, teaching, and completeness occur within the body of Christ. Throughout Scripture this involved both a public and private ministry of the Word: a ministry of proclamation and a face–to–face ministry around his Word.
Chapter 16: The Health of the Church and Biblical Counseling—Deepak Reju and Mark Dever
Counselors who go at it alone forsake one of God’s greatest means of change: a loving, unified, self-sacrificial church.
Word-centered churches produce Word-centered people who are eager to share the Word with those around them who are struggling.
In a healthy church, the members have an expectation that it is normal for believers to care for and counsel one another with the Word.
When a church has a culture of discipling, the whole personality of the church is one of making and caring for disciples. Discipling is in the DNA of the church.
Chapter 17: The Personal, Private, and Public Ministry of the Word—Kevin Carson
It is contradictory to say that we are biblical counselors and that the Spirit of God uses the Scriptures to change people, if we consistently get the Bible text wrong.
Self-counsel means the daily perpetual invitation to heart searching, heart repentance, and heart renewal through God’s Word.
Before we work on our theological system and before we move toward others in ministry, we must make a conscientious effort to walk in the power of the Spirit through the Word.
The private ministry of the Word must always rest solidly upon a passion to use the Word of God accurately and a passion to minister to God’s people with Christ’s love.
Recognizing the importance of the Bible to the change process, biblical counselors strive to minister the Word with excellence in personal, private, and public ministry.
Chapter 18: The Transformational Tie Between Small Group Ministry and Biblical Counseling—Brad Bigney and Ken Long
We’re convinced that the biggest reason for the high percentage of failed small group ministries and constant ‘makeovers’ is that churches have not intentionally developed their small groups to be a place of grace and growth for all of the walking wounded that are coming through our front doors.
Even struggling small group ministries can be revitalized by refocusing the purpose of the small groups on spiritual formation and by tying the small group ministry to the church’s biblical counseling ministry.
Don’t start a small group ministry without an equally vital biblical counseling ministry.
A transformational small group focuses on everyone giving and receiving hope and help from God’s Word to spiritually mature in Christ.
Chapter 19: The Goal and Focus of Spiritual Formation—Robert Cheong and Heath Lambert
The goal of the disciplines—of spiritual formation—is Christ, Himself.
Biblical counselors are not narrowly concerned about changing behavior. As important as these things are, biblical counselors are satisfied with nothing less than formation into the likeness of Christ.
Any counseling that does not pursue spiritual formation through an intimate relationship with Jesus by faith as one of its chief goals is not worthy to be called biblical counseling.
Chapter 20: The Importance of Multiculturalism in Biblical Counseling—Rod Mays and Charles Ware
As biblical counselors, we must adhere to a biblical theology that addresses a variety of cultural realities.
The biblical counselor must always remember that the root problem is deeper than skin, it is sin. The ultimate cure is not culture, but Christ.
While Christ is the universal cure for the human family, the Word of God warns us of possible cultural biases that may reside in the counselor. The biblical counselor needs to honestly and continually examine his/her motives and perceptions, otherwise cultural bias may hinder one’s counsel.
Chapter 21: The Nature of the Biblical Counseling Relationship—Jeremy Pierre and Mark Shaw
But for biblical counseling, friendship is central to the counseling relationship because it is a key aspect of the gospel.
Our vision of the counseling relationship begins to form around this task: to make disciples to the glory of God. And God uses the love of a Christian for his or her friend to accomplish this—a Word-dependent, Christ-trusting, God-glorifying love. Any other kind of love falls short of the calling of the biblical counseling relationship.
Biblical counselors have the responsibility of pointing counselees to Christ Himself, the object and source of hope. Like pointing to the coming dawn in the dark night, the counselor points counselees to consider the glory of Jesus that provides light for navigating what seems so dark.
The Rest of the Story
Come back tomorrow for Part 4 where I’ll share Quotes of Note from chapters 22-28 of Christ-Centered Biblical Counseling.
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