7 Equipping Sessions on Biblical Counseling and on Grief

3 Questions About Truth for Life 

1. How do we use God’s Word to effectively help hurting and struggling people?

2. What does the Bible say about finding healing hope in the midst of devastating loss and grief?

3. Can and should we provide biblical counseling to non-Christians? If so, how?

I’ll be addressing these and other questions on Friday and Saturday, May 10-11, 2019, beginning at 5:45 PM on Friday and 8:30 AM on Saturday. I will be presenting 7 sessions on biblical counseling and grief at Road to Emmaus Biblical Counseling Center in Beaverton, Oregon at Southwest Hills Church. Road to Emmaus is an ACBC certified training center.  They desire to raise up counselors in the Pacific Northwest who will faithfully be able to minister God’s Word in their churches and communities. The church is located at 9100 SW 135th Ave. Beaverton, OR  97008.

Go here for a flyer about the training weekend.

Go here to register.

Equipping Sessions

2 Sessions: How to Care Like Christ: 4 Biblical Compass Points for Gospel Conversations 

Learn how to care like Christ through four biblical compass points for biblical counseling—sustaining, healing, reconciling, and guiding. Learn how to weep with those who weep: Offer sustaining care for discouraged people—empathize with people. Learn how to give hope to the hurting: Offer healing comfort for suffering people—encourage people as you relate God’s truth to daily life. Learn how to be a dispenser of grace: Offer reconciling care-fronting for sinning people—enlighten people as you speak the truth in love. Learn how to disciple, coach, and mentor: Offer guiding counsel for growing people—empower people to tap into Christ’s resurrection power. 

Part 1: Parakaletic Gospel Conversations for Suffering and Sanctification

So, you and your church are excited about one-another ministry through biblical counseling. But what do we do after the hug? What do we say after we pray? What does it look like to help hurting and hardened people—all of us as saints who face suffering and struggle against sin? In this session, we’ll learn together a comprehensive, compassionate biblical and church history approach to helping one another to face suffering face-to-face with Christ so that people know that it’s normal hurt in a fallen world and that it’s possible to hope in Christ. The combined teaching of Part 1 and 2 provide us with a biblical GPS that maps out the ministry focus of an equipped biblical counselor.

Part 2: Nouthetic Gospel Conversations for Sin and Sanctification

Helping hurting people can feel like a maze. Sometimes that maze takes us into the territory of suffering and being sinned against (Part 1). Other times that maze leads us into a journey of helping people who have fallen into sin. In this session, we’ll learn together a comprehensive, compassionate biblical and church history approach to helping people to see that it’s horrible to sin, but wonderful to be forgiven, and that it’s supernatural to mature. The combined teaching of Part 1 and 2 provide us with a biblical GPS that maps out the ministry focus of an equipped biblical counselor. 

1 Session: Biblical Counseling with Unbelievers: Eternal Hope for Earthly Struggles 

God’s Word tells us to “Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; making the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasons with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone” (Colossians 4:5-6). In 1 Peter 3:15 we read, “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” In the biblical counseling world we have different convictions about and answers to the question, “Should we do biblical counseling with unbelievers, or, should we only do evangelism with unbelievers?” This session seeks to use 1 Peter 3:15; Colossians 4:5-6; and other passages and biblical principlesas a foundation for thinking through this important question theologically and practically. 

4 Sessions: God’s Healing for Life’s Losses: How to Find Hope When You’re Hurting 

When you, your family members, or your friends are grieving over one of life’s many losses, where can you turn for gospel-centered help and hope? Are you ready for real, raw, honest, and hopeful conversations about suffering, loss, grief, and growth—from a Christ-centered perspective? Through God’s Healing for Life’s Losses, Dr. Bob Kellemen encourages you to journey with Christ to find His healing hope when you’re hurting. Bob will also equip you to minister Christ’s healing hope to others so they can face suffering face-to-face with God in Christ.

• Session One: (75 Minutes): Launching Your Grief Journey with Christ

• Session Two: (75 Minutes): Inviting God to Join Your Grief Journey

• Session Three (75 Minutes): Waiting with God on Your Journey of Hope

• Session Four (75 Minutes): Traveling with God on Your Journey of Faith