Book Recommendation for the Counselor’s Ministry: Shame Interrupted
You’re reading the fourth in a weekly series of posts in which I recommend books for counselors. Shorter than a book review but longer than a tweet, these recommendations will whet your appetite to obtain books that will build your ministry by equipping you to change lives with Christ’s changeless truth.
• Read my first recommendation: The Cross of Christ
• Read my second recommendation: Dynamics of Spiritual Life
• Read my second recommendation: Christ Formed in You.
Shame Interrupted by Ed Welch
I appreciate books that develop a comprehensive biblical theology of life issues. That’s 
exactly what seasoned counselor and theologian, Ed Welch, does with Shame Interrupted: How God Lifts the Pain of Worthlessness & Rejection. Welch covers the theme of shame studying the Bible cover-to-cover to provide a Creation/Fall/Redemption/Consummation conceptualization of shame.
I also appreciate books that relate the richness and relevance of God’s Word robustly and relationally to our lives. Once again, Dr. Welch does this consistently and powerfully. I thought I was reading Shame Interrupted for research. Instead, many times I found myself stopping my reading to make personal application.
Shame Interrupted is not only the book on understanding and addressing shame from a Christian perspective, it is a classic example of how any author can trace a biblical “concept” of a “life issue” and share Christ-centered insights for living.
Join the Conversation
What impact has Ed Welch’s Shame Interrupted had on your life and ministry?
What additional books do you recommend for the counselor’s ministry?
RPM Ministries: Equipping You to Change Lives with Christ’s Changeless Truth
How does this book differ from modern day pop-psychology’s view of shame? Does the book also cover God inspired shame?
Michael, That’s an important question. As I say in the recommendation post, it differs in that it develops a biblical, theological creation (naked and unashamed), fall (shame before God and one another), redemption (sin and shame dealt with at the cross), and consummation (no more sin, suffering, or shame) approach to shame. Thus, throughout it covers God-inspired shame from a cross-centered, Christ-focused biblical perspective. Because the world mis-defines and mis-handles shame, is no reason for the church to ignore a biblical concept woven from Genesis 2:25 through Revelation. Bob
I love the book, have one client just finished reading it, and am working through it with another. Shame and guilt are so much a part of so many peoples experience. Thank you Ed.