On August 31, 2020, New Growth Press will be releasing Caring for the Souls of Children: A Biblical Counselor’s Manual. Amy Baker is the general editor and a contributing author. In addition to Dr. Baker, other contributing authors include Julie Lowe, Jonathan Holmes, Mike Emlet, Ed Welch, Kevin Carson, Charles Hodges, Joni and Friends, myself, and several others.
I was honored when Amy asked me to contribute a chapter on counseling grieving children. My chapter is called:
Facing Death and Grief: Hope and Help for Hurting Children
Why I Wrote Facing Death and Grief
As you may know, I’ve written two books on grief:
God’s Healing for Life’s Losses: How to Find Hope When You’re Hurting
So this topic of biblical counseling and grief is very important to me. Why?
Grief & the Trinity
Grief counseling is important to me because our grief is very important to the Trinity.
When we are distressed, our Father, too, is distressed (Isaiah 63:9). God is the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).
Jesus is the Man of Sorrows, acquainted with grief (Isaiah 53:3). He is our sympathetic High Priest who is touched with the feelings of our infirmities, weakness, loss, and sorrow (Hebrews 4:14-16). Jesus wept (John 11:35).
The Holy Spirit is our Divine Comforter (John 14:16). He groans with us in all our sorrow (Romans 8:26-27).
My Story
But why grief and children?
Grieving as a child is a huge part of my story. Or perhaps I should say, grieving as a child and not receiving much care, comfort, and help is a huge part of my story as a child.
In my chapter, I share a vignette about a boy named Jared—who is grieving the loss of a loved one. The counsel and care I and his parents give Jared are the comfort and hope I wish I had received when I faced my first encounter with the loss of a family member.
Our Story
Since those days as a child, I’ve had many, many opportunities as an adult to counsel children and their parents as families have journeyed through the trail of tears due to death of a loved one.
Death is a part of life. Grief is a part of death.
Jesus promised that in this life we will have trouble (John 16:33).
Jesus also promised that we could take heart because He has overcome this fallen, evil, dying world.
I wrote Facing Death and Grief: Hope and Help for Hurting Children to:
- Give children permission to grieve. It’s normal to hurt.
- Help parents and counselors better understand and more compassionately minister to grieving children. You’re competent to comfort.
- Encourage children, parents, pastors, counselors, and friends to join the grief journey with Jesus. With Christ, it’s possible to hope.
Why You’ll Want to Read Caring for the Souls of Children
Coming alongside struggling children can feel like an uphill battle. Yet children struggle with the same desires adults struggle with, are lured by the same lies adults fall prey to, and can find hope in the same source adults can find hope—in Jesus.
This manual helps counselors share Christ—the way, the truth, and the life—while tailoring interactions and teachings to the understanding of children.
Caring for the Souls of Children equips counselors, parents, pastors, and other helpers who want to love children to boldly trust in the sufficiency of Scripture. Edited by counselor and author Amy Baker, this in-depth resource begins with an overview of foundational principles for counseling children and addresses a different counseling topic in each subsequent chapter.
Topics addressed include a wide variety of general and specific issues that children face including:
Anxiety, anger, abuse, suicidal thoughts and actions, self-harm, shame, grief, disability, disease, sexual identity, and many others.
Articles are written by a wide range of biblical counselors, authors, and pastors who have worked with children for many years including:
Amy Baker, Julie Lowe, Marty Machowski, Jessica Thompson, Jonathan Holmes, Michael R. Emlet, Garrett Higbee, Edward T. Welch, Kevin Carson, Harvest USA, Charles Hodges, Joni and Friends, Bob Kellemen, and Pam Bauer.
“I’ve Waited for Over Thirty Years for a Book Like This!”
You can read several endorsements here. I was particularly encouraged by this endorsement by Dr. Robert Jones:
“As a longtime biblical counseling pastor and now professor, I’ve waited over thirty years for a book like this! Amy Baker and her team provide a one-stop shop of readable, gospel-centered, biblically-driven strategies to help counselors and caring adults minister to kids facing all sorts of struggles. Children need Jesus; this book helps us bring him to them.”—Robert D. Jones, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; author of Pursuing Peace
Learn More About Caring for the Souls of Children
For endorsements, for a sample chapter, for the Table of Contents, and more, you can visit my Writings Page here: Caring for the Souls of Children: A Biblical Counselor’s Manual. If you’d like to order a copy at 30% off, you can visit my online RPM Bookstore here.
