A Word from Bob: I’m often asked to provide a summary of my written resources. Finally…I’ve carved out the time to craft this summary of 25 Biblical Counseling & Christian Living Resources. These include my 16 published books, my 3 published booklets, and 6 sample free resource documents (out of over 100 free resources you can find here at my RPM Ministries Free Resources site). You can also download a PDF copy of this document here: 25 Biblical Counseling & Christian Living Resources.
Books by Dr. Kellemen
Kellemen, Bob. The Annual Guide to Biblical Counseling Resources: 2020 Edition
Where do you turn when someone you love asks you, “What would you recommend that I read for help with my struggles with anxiety?” Where do you turn someone in church says, “Do you have any books you recommend that would help me deal with the sexual abuse I experienced 20 years ago as a child?” If you were struggling in your marriage what trusted resources would you read? Now you can turn to The Annual Guide to Biblical Counseling Resources. This 230-page e-book provides 920 biblical counseling resources, each listed by topic/category, each category alphabetized by author for ease of location, each with a direct link to where you can locate the resource, and each with a one-paragraph summary description. Find the biblical counseling resources you need for your life and ministry.
Kellemen, Bob. Counseling Under the Cross: How Martin Luther Applied the Gospel to Daily Life
Martin Luther not only reformed theology; his understanding of the gospel revolutionized soul care. In Counseling Under the Cross, biblical counselor Bob Kellemen mines Luther’s writings to help readers gain a new appreciation for how Luther richly, relevantly, robustly, and relationally applied the gospel to suffering, sin, sanctification, and our search for peace with God. Counseling Under the Cross guides pastors, counselors, lay leaders, and friends toward a rich understanding of the gospel that will directly impact their personal ministry to others. Through lively vignettes, real-life stories, and direct quotes from Luther, readers are equipped to apply the gospel to themselves and others so together they find their hope and help in Christ alone.
Kellemen, Bob. Equipping Counselors for Your Church: The 4E Ministry Training Strategy
How do we equip counselors for the church? How do we train Christians to speak the truth in love to each other? We’re all tired of approaches that promise much and deliver little. We’re ready for an equipping ministry model that is comprehensive, easy to implement, and relationship-oriented. The 4E Ministry Training Strategy (Envisioning, Enlisting, Equipping, and Employing), tested in hundreds of churches, is a best-practice tool for empowering God’s people for one-another ministry. Make your church into a place not simply with biblical counseling, but a church of biblical counseling where every member is a minister and where the Body of Christ grows up together in Christ.
Kellemen, Bob. God’s Healing for Life’s Losses: How to Find Hope When You’re Hurting
Are you ready for real, raw, honest, and hopeful conversation about suffering, loss, and grief—from a Christian perspective? When life’s losses invade your world, learn how to face suffering face-to-face with God. God’s Healing for Life’s Losses is the perfect gift book for those dealing with any type of loss and suffering. Biblical and relevant, each chapter includes personal reflection questions and small group discussion questions.
Kellemen, Bob. Gospel-Centered Counseling: How Christ Changes Lives
Everyone talks about the personal ministry of the Word, but how do we make one-another ministry truly biblical? Gospel-Centered Counseling equips readers to change lives with Christ’s changeless truth. It does so by examining life’s eight ultimate questions and then guiding readers on a journey that explores the biblical, gospel-centered narrative of each question. It provides a biblical counseling theology—applied to daily Christian living—of all the classic categories of systematic theology. Gospel-Centered Counseling is ideal for equipping biblical counselors in churches, colleges, graduate schools, seminaries, and para-church training institutes.
Kellemen, Bob. Gospel-Centered Family Counseling: An Equipping Guide for Pastors and Counselors
Counseling individuals is complex enough. Where do you start? What do you listen for? How do you compassionately speak truth in love? How do you relate God’s eternal story to people’s earthly story? Family counseling? Now you have a whole group of struggling folks gathered together in the same room. What is family counseling even supposed to look like? Do you just counsel the parents? Just the children? Everyone together? Gospel-Centered Family Counseling walks readers through a step-by-step training manual for developing their skills and competences in biblical family counseling. In fact, “readers” is the wrong word. “Participants” is better. Gospel-Centered Family Counseling is a work-book, or “working-book,” or “workout-book.” Thus the sub-title: An Equipping Guide for Pastors and Counselors. Chapter-by-chapter, skill-by-skill, participants use the questions, exercises, role play directions, sample dialogues, and much more to develop their competency and increase their confidence in biblical family counseling. Gospel-Centered Family Counseling is designed to be used either individually or in a small group setting. It’s ideal for the busy pastor or active biblical counselor to work through chapter-by-chapter. And, it’s perfectly suited for groups, classes, or seminar participants to move through as a group.
Kellemen, Bob. Gospel-Centered Marriage Counseling: An Equipping Guide for Pastors and Counselors
Counseling individuals is complex enough. Where do you start? What do you listen for? How do you compassionately speak truth in love? How do you relate God’s eternal story to people’s earthly story? Marriage counseling is even more complex. Now you have three sinners, saints, and sufferers in the same room—the wife, the husband, and the counselor! Where in the world do you start? Gospel-Centered Marriage Counseling walks readers through a step-by-step training manual for developing their skills and competences in biblical marriage counseling. In fact, “readers” is the wrong word. “Participants” is better. Gospel-Centered Marriage Counseling is a work-book, or “working-book,” or “workout-book.” Thus the sub-title: An Equipping Guide for Pastors and Counselors. Chapter-by-chapter, skill-by-skill, participants use the questions, exercises, role play directions, sample dialogues, and much more to develop their competency and increase their confidence in biblical marriage counseling. Gospel-Centered Marriage Counseling is designed to be used either individually or in a small group setting. It’s ideal for the busy pastor or active biblical counselor to work through chapter-by-chapter. And, it’s perfectly suited for groups, classes, or seminar participants to move through as a group.
Kellemen, Bob. Gospel Conversations: How to Care Like Christ
How does a person learn to counsel others with the truth of God’s Word? How do we learn to speak God’s truth in love? Bob Kellemen believes that the best way to learn counseling is by doing it—by giving and receiving biblical counseling in the context of real, raw Christian community. That’s why Gospel Conversations is designed as a practical training manual for use in counseling labs and small group settings. Gospel Conversations explores the four compass-points of biblical counseling: 1) Sustaining: “It’s Normal to Hurt.” 2) Healing: “It’s Possible to Hope.” 3) Reconciling: “It’s Horrible to Sin, but Wonderful to Be Forgiven.” 4) Guiding: “It’s Supernatural to Mature.” These four compass points combine to equip readers to develop twenty-two biblical counseling skills and relational competencies—the “how to” of caring like Christ.
Kellemen, Bob. Hebrew Anthropological Terms as a Foundation for a Biblical Counseling Model of Man
What is the nature of human nature created in the image of God, defaced and fallen because of sin, and justified, reconciled, regenerated, and redeemed in Christ? This book (thesis) develops a biblical anthropology—a biblical understanding of human nature—as relational, rational, volitional, and emotional beings—and uses it as a model for biblical counseling.
Kellemen, Bob. Raising Kids in the Way of Grace: 5 Practical Marks of Grace-Focused Parenting
As Christians, we have first-hand experience of God’s amazing grace and love. But as parents, we can be unsure how to communicate Christ’s grace as we parent our children. We recognize that being a Christian parent means more than just taking our kids to church and opening up the Bible with them, but we can often feel unsure of exactly how being a Christian should impact our parenting. Experienced pastor, counselor, writer, and father, Bob Kellemen, blends practical principles and a focus on God-dependent living to explain how we can bring our knowledge and experience of God’s grace to bear on the daily joys and challenges of family life. In Raising Kids in the Way of Grace, he explains how we can mirror our heavenly Father through 5 practical marks of grace-focused parenting. Short enough to read in one sitting, but packed with biblical wisdom, you’ll want to keep this book handy to dip into for counsel, encouragement, and support on your parenting journey.
Kellemen, Bob. Soul Physicians: A Theology of Soul Care and Spiritual Direction
Soul Physicians equips pastors, counselors, and one-another ministers to understand people, diagnose problems, and prescribe solutions—biblically. It is a twenty-first century theology manual for soul care, relating theology to counseling in the areas of: God’s Word, the Trinity, Creation, Fall, Redemption, Glorification, and Sanctification.
Kellemen, Bob. Spiritual Friends: A Methodology of Soul Care and Spiritual Direction
Spiritual Friends is a biblically relevant training manual and a relationally practical workbook for relating God’s truth to human relationships. Whether you’re a lay person, a caring pastor, a competent professional Christian counselor, or a student-in-training, Spiritual Friends will equip you to master the personal ministry of the Word. Enrich your spiritual friendships with thousands of illustrative interactions and hundreds of skill-building exercises that teach you how to: 1) provide biblical sustaining of people so they know that it’s normal to hurt, 2) provide biblical healing for people so they know it’s possible to hope, 3) provide biblical reconciling for people so they know it’s horrible to sin but wonderful to be forgiven, and 4) how to provide biblical guiding for people so they know it’s supernatural to mature.
Kellemen, Bob, and Kevin Carson, Editors. Biblical Counseling and the Church: God’s Care Through God’s People
As people face addictions, deal with loss and grief, and seek help in restoring broken relationships, where can they turn for counsel and assistance? The local church has been uniquely blessed with the gift of the gospel and is able to offer hope and counsel that no other institution on earth can. In Biblical Counseling and the Church, Bob Kellemen and Kevin Carson have assembled over twenty respected ministry leaders who examine the relationship between counseling and the church. This comprehensive resource, part of the Biblical Counseling Coalition series, helps leaders and counselors develop a vision that goes beyond being a church with a biblical counseling ministry to becoming a church of biblical counseling—a church culture that is saturated by “one-another” ministry.
Kellemen, Bob, and Karole Edwards. Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction
The African American church has always helped hurting people through the ministries of sustaining, healing, reconciling, and guiding. This four-dimensional model is the traditional and widely recognized pattern for understanding one-another ministry, spiritual friendship and pastoral care. Beyond the Suffering offers an in-depth exploration of this rich tradition showing Christians proven ways to help people find hope in the midst of their deep pain.
Kellemen, Bob, and Susan Ellis. Sacred Friendships: Celebrating the Legacy of Women Heroes of the Faith
Sacred Friendships celebrates the incredible stories of over fifty amazing Christian women. It gives voice to the voiceless as it narrates how godly women for the past 2,000 years have provided sustaining and healing soul care along with reconciling and guiding spiritual direction. Sacred Friendships enlightens readers to the often neglected legacy of Christian women and then equips women and men to apply that legacy to their lives and ministries.
Kellemen, Bob, and Jeff Forrey, Editors. Scripture and Counseling: God’s Word for Life in a Broken World
Scripture and Counseling brings you the wisdom of twenty ministry leaders who write so you can have confidence that God’s Word is sufficient, necessary, and relevant to equip God’s people to address the complex issues of life in a broken world. It blends theological wisdom with practical expertise and is accessible to pastors, church leaders, counselors and students, equipping them to minister the truth and power of God’s Word in the context of biblical counseling, soul care, pastoral care, and small group facilitation.
Kellemen, Bob, and Steve Viars, Editors. Christ-Centered Biblical Counseling: Changing Lives with God’s Changeless Truth
Christ-Centered Biblical Counseling is a comprehensive guide that equips God’s people to use biblical truth to change lives. It increases people’s confidence in the sufficiency and relevancy of God’s Word to address real-life issues in a multitude of counseling situations. Readers will understand clearly why they should embrace biblical counseling, be encouraged to trust God’s Word to provide rich insight for living in the midst of even the most difficult challenges, and enjoy relevant, pastoral, and theological teaching. Multi-authored by over two dozen leading biblical counselors, Christ-Centered Biblical Counseling provides a theology of biblical counseling as well as a methodology of biblical counseling.
Booklets by Dr. Kellemen
Kellemen, Bob. Anxiety: Anatomy and Cure
Anxiety, worry, and fear get the best of all of us sometimes. Since we live in a fallen world, we may not have full victory over anxiety until heaven. However, Bob Kellemen shows us how we can have victory in our anxiety—we can learn how to experience the peace of God from the God of peace even in the mist of stress and distress. In this practical, realistic, biblical study, he lays out a compassionate biblical understanding of anxiety. Along the way, he helps us to apply the gospel to our daily lives and reclaim anxiety for what it should be—vigilance to motivate us to do God’s work in Christ’s resurrection power.
Kellemen, Bob. Grief: Walking with Jesus (A 31-Day Devotional for Life)
This thirty-one-day devotional booklet guides you on a journey through the gospels. Page-by-page and day-by-day, you’ll walk with Jesus as He models how to cling to the Father as He faces suffering, loss, grief, and death. Jesus is a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, and He is your sympathetic High Priest. So, He not only models godly grieving, Jesus also grieves with you. Grief: Walking with Jesus is ideal for the person who wants to grow closer to Christ while facing life’s most excruciating losses.
Kellemen, Bob. Sexual Abuse: Beauty for Ashes
Sexual abuse ravages the soul, causing unimaginable distress, damage, and disgrace. It is faced honestly and openly in the Bible—but can the church truly help those who have been sexually abused? Bob Kellemen says, “Yes, it can;” and using the biblical story of Amnon and Tamar (2 Samuel 13), he compassionately portrays the damage done by sexual abuse and the relevancy of God’s Word for this difficult topic. He then takes us on a journey toward healing—helping sufferers to reclaim beauty from the ashes of abuse.
Select Resources by Dr. Kellemen
This free PDF document from RPM Ministries contains fourteen pages of bibliographical resources on Community-Based Ministry, Community Development, Cross-Cultural Ministry, Multicultural Ministry, Multiethnic Relationships, Race Relationships, Racial Reconciliation, Urban Ministry.
Kellemen, Bob. 220 Resources on Black Church History in America
This free PDF document from RPM Ministries contains fourteen pages of bibliographical resources on the history of the Black Church in America.
Kellemen, Bob. Depression, Medication, and Biblical Counseling
This free PDF is a collation of an RPM Ministries Changing Lives blog mini-series interaction between Bob Kellemen and David Murray. Dr. Kellemen describes the purpose of his focus in this blog dialogue: “How we respond to people struggling with depression and struggling to know whether or not they should take anti-depressants is a serious and vital issue. That’s why I’m making the time to ponder what a compassionate and comprehensive response might look like.”
Kellemen, Bob. Learning the Biblical ABCs of Emotional Intelligence
As Christians, we are all about growth—growing in grace to become more like Christ. And, as Christians, we have scores and scores of resources for renewing our minds and taking every thought captive to the gospel. Yet, as Christians, we don’t spend as much time thinking about, nor do we have many solid biblical resources on renewing our emotions or taking every emotion captive to the gospel. Learning the Biblical ABCs of Emotions is written with this dearth of resources in mind. It not only provides a biblical theology of emotions; it also offers practical biblical wisdom on how to grow in Christlike emotional maturity. Each of the 6 parts concludes with a series of reflection and application questions.
Kellemen, Bob. Mental Illness and the Church: Developing a Compassionate & Comprehensive Biblical Counseling Response
As the Body of Christ and as a biblical counseling movement, God calls us to respond compassionately and comprehensively to individuals (and their families) suffering with troubling emotions and thoughts. To minister Christ’s gospel to people compassionately and comprehensively, we need to reflect biblically and historically (church history) on several interrelated questions. How do we cultivate a gospel-centered culture of grace in our churches as we respond to sufferers struggling with deep, ongoing emotional distress? How do we become redemptive communities engaging in gospel-centered relationships with people diagnosed with mental illness? How do we respond to a Christian world that has, perhaps, accepted a definition of mental illness that is not always comprehensively biblical or fully compassionate? How do we speak wisely about mental illness and the complex interaction of the brain/body/mind/heart/soul? How do we address root causes of life struggles (heart) without being heard to say that we are ignoring the whole person or lacking empathy for social factors (nurture) and physiological issues (nature)?
Kellemen, Bob, and Tim Challies. Spiritual Abuse
Tim Challies interviews Bob Kellemen about spiritual abuse. Together, they define spiritual abuse biblically, discuss signs of spiritual abuse, and interact about the opposite of spiritual abuse—humble servant leadership. The article includes this working definition of spiritual abuse: Spiritual abuse is a spiritual role-reversal where a shepherd, instead of clinging to and emulating the Great Shepherd by shepherding God’s people (Acts 20; 1 Peter 5; 1 Timothy 3; Ephesians 4), subtly demands that members exist to meet the shepherd’s needs (James 4:1-4). Rather than relating as a servant leader, the pastor “pulls rank” and “lords it over others” (Matthew 20:20-28; 1 Peter 5:1-6), not for the benefit of the flock, but for the benefit of the pastor. Rather than speaking the truth in love and rather than ministering grace and truth (Ephesians 4:11-16, 29; Colossians 4:3-6; Titus 2:10-12), the spiritually abusive pastor intimidates, judges, condemns, shames, and blames the sheep without regard for the spiritual wellbeing of the sheep (Jeremiah 23:1-4; Matthew 23:1-39).
