CLARUS 2013

Just a few more days until Desert Springs Church's annual theology conference called Clarus. The conference is completely sold out, but the sessions will be available in audio form on the church's website shortly after the conference. I am very excited for this conference and looking forward to sitting under the teaching of our very qualified speakers, Paul Tripp and Timothy Lane.

Clarus

Here is how DSC’s teaching elder, Pastor Ryan Kelly, explains what Clarus is:

Since 2005 Desert Springs Church (DSC) has held an annual conference weekend with a guest speaker and a focused topic. In 2008 we started giving it a name, Clarus—which is Latin for bright, clear, or radiant. We think that word aptly reflects our intentions with this conference: that God and His truth would be made more clear, more radiant to us, and more powerfully penetrating in us. To that end we set aside a full weekend every year for fellowship, singing, prayer, and instruction about God’s words and ways. In 2011, Clarus became a Regional Conference of The Gospel Coalition.

Clarus 2013

Ryan introduces this year’s theme:

God’s plan for our redemption is not merely to reconcile us to Himself, but to point us to those who share this reconciliation, the church. In Christ, Christians become part of a new family.

. . .Roughly 50 times the New Testament tells Christians to do something one to another. We sometimes refer to these as the one-anothers—e.g., love one another, serve one another, pray for one another, stir up one another, encourage one another, sing to one another, etc. Such commands simply cannot be done alone. We need partners. We need a partnership—which is really what “fellowship” is.

. . .To that end, we Christians meet regularly for worship and teaching; we read the Scriptures and pray, alone and in our families; we read good books and recommend them to others; we keep working at these relationships and our ministry to each other.

Dr. Tripp and Dr. Lane are not addressing a subject reserved for vocational ministers or even those involved in formal biblical counseling. They are addressing Christians with God’s Word concerning a most basic aspect of Christian discipleship: speaking the truth in love.

As Christians, we are to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18), and we are to also grow together (Ephesians 4:15-16). We do not do this perfectly because we are sinful people in need of a Savior. We hurt those that we love the most; we isolate ourselves from others because we don’t want our hearts exposed; we may put on a “good face” when we are around others, but inside we are in utter turmoil; we worship our own kingdoms. Without living in true Christ-centered biblical community, we will wallow in our failures and sins and live as those who have no hope.

But, of course, God calls us to something greater. He calls us to Himself! He calls us through the truth of the gospel, the hope of lasting change and the grace of God. In tune with Matthew 6:33, we seek His kingdom and His righteousness and in so doing, Jesus knits His church together because we are seeking after Him, not our own interests. He exposes our hearts and our sin for the good of His children and for the glory of God. We then let others in because we see that we need Jesus and each other. As Dr. Tripp and Dr. Lane remind us, “change is a community project.”

At DSC, we have been greatly helped by Dr. Tripp and Dr. Lane’s resources.How People Change and Instruments In the Redeemer’s Hands have been used here to train our membership in biblical counseling. This fall, our Community Groups worked through Paul Tripp’s marriage DVD series, What Did You Expect?: Redeeming the Realities of Marriage.

On a personal note, as a lay-biblical counselor at DSC, I am very excited to be part of a church that upholds the primacy of the Word in the pulpit, but also as central to the life of every Christian. And I’m thankful for this annual conference and the blessing that it has been to our church. Having Dr. Lane and Dr. Tripp teach will serve as an invaluable resource and encouragement, not only for the DSC family, but also for those from around the Southwest region who will join us. My hope is that this conference will remind us of our great need of Jesus both individually but also corporately. Christ is indeed the head of his church. By God’s grace, we are praying for the church in the Southwest region to be encouraged in the all-important work of one-anothering the Word.

For more information on this year’s conference, including talk titles and registration, visit clarusabq.com.

And I Am Helped...

This morning, I was reading in the Psalms and was greatly encouraged by Psalm 28:6,7.  I am so thankful to God for having the Psalms written down for us to be able to read about the heart of hurting people before Him.  God, in His perfect patience and mercy, knows that we are needy people, but He doesn't just leave us 'needy'.  Psalm 28:6,7 says, "Blessed be the Lord! for He has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy.  The Lord is my strength and my shield; in Him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to Him."  In Him, David's heart trusted and in Him, David was helped.  I believe that this is true for us today.  In Him our hearts can trust because He is so worthy of trust.  In Him we are helped, because He is the only One who really can help.

Matthew Henry puts it this way in his commentary on Psalm 28:

II. He encourages himself to hope in God for the perfecting of every thing that concerned him. Having given to God the glory of his grace (v. 6), he is humbly bold to take the comfort of it, v. 7. This is the method of attaining peace: let us begin with praise that is attainable. Let us first bless God and then bless ourselves. Observe, 1. His dependence upon God: "The Lord is my strength, to support me, and carry me on, through all my services and sufferings. He is my shield, to protect me from all the malicious designs of my enemies against me. I have chosen him to be so, I have always found him so, and I expect he will still be so.’’ 2. His experience of the benefits of that dependence: "My heart trusted in him, and in his power and promise; and it has not been in vain to do so, for I am helped, I have been often helped; not only God has given to me, in his due time, the help I trusted to him for, but my very trusting in him has helped me, in the mean time, and kept me from fainting.’’ Ps. 27:13. The very actings of faith are present aids to a dropping spirit, and often help it at a dead lift. 3. His improvement of this experience. (1.) He had the pleasure of it: Therefore my heart greatly rejoices. The joy of a believer is seated in the heart, while, in the laughter of the fool, the heart is sorrowful. It is great joy, joy unspeakable and full of glory. The heart that truly believes shall in due time greatly rejoice; it is joy and peace in believing that we are to expect. (2.) God shall have the praise of it: when my heart greatly rejoices, with my song will I praise him. This must we express our gratitude; it is the least we can do; and others will hereby be invited and encouraged to trust in him too.

I like how Matthew Henry says that 'not only God has given to me, in his due time, the help I trusted to him for, but my very trusting in him has helped me, in the mean time, and kept me from fainting.'  How many of us today feel like 'fainting?'  How many of us have regrets from 2011?  How many of us have set new year's resolutions to do better this year?  With all the things that we are facing this coming year, are we taking those to the Lord, or are we just trying to make it through another year with minimal damage?  David in this Psalm is encouraging himself to look to the Lord when trouble comes.  He is reminding himself that God is his strength and shield and that God is the One who helps. 

And this is true for us all today.  If you are wondering where and when help will come for your weary soul, draw near to the Lord and He will draw near to you.  Remember Psalm 28 as well as Psalm 120:1,2 "I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth." I am convinced that one of the main reasons we all feel like 'fainting' or weary and that God feels distant is directly related to the amount of time we spend with the Lord in prayer and Bible study.  Just as Jesus taught us in John 15:5, " I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing."  When we don't spend consistent time with the Lord in prayer and Bible study, it is like we are cut off from the vine.  Our hearts can wither and feel dry because our life blood has been slowed.  Now, I am not talking about salvation.  He who is a believer in Christ and has asked Him to be his Lord and Savior has been permenantly attached to the Vine, Christ, and will never be cut off.  Also, the true believer cannot be cut off from the Vine due to how they are feeling or their sin (Romans 8:38,39).  Most times, when we are not consistently spending time in God's Word, the truth, we are tempted to allow our feelings to dictate our responses to life and circumstances.  Therefore, a question arises, how well do we 'know' the Lord?  How well do I know Tim Tebow?  I know of him, but I don't know him.  Getting to know someone deeply requires lots of time with that person and lots of giving of ourselves to that person, whether they are a spouse, a friend or family member.  We don't just wake up and really know someone we've just met.  I desire to 'know' God and not just know 'of' Him.  In His grace, He had His Word written down for us to be able to get to know Him better. 

This year, may we resolve to further deepen our fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ by trusting Him to help us be more consistent in our walks with Him.  We just might find that things that felt insurmountable in our lives aren't that big of a deal after all.  They may still hurt and suffering may continue, but our responses to these will be grounded in the truth of who Christ is and who we are in Him instead of how we are feeling.  Feelings are deceiving, but God's Word stands forever true!

Let's Start 2012 With Vision

As we begin 2012, may we look to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ for His help, guidance and grace to endure the days to come.  May Christ be glorified in and through our lives.  God bless you all and have a Happy New Year!

O Lord,

I launch my bark on the unknown waters of this year,
with Thee, O Father as my harbour,
Thee, O Son, at my helm,
Thee O Holy Spirit, filling my sails.

Guide me to heaven with my loins girt,
my lamp burning,
my ear open to Thy calls,
my heart full of love,
my soul free.

Give me Thy grace to sanctify me,
Thy comforts to cheer,
Thy wisdom to teach,
Thy right hand to guide,
Thy counsel to instruct,
Thy law to judge,
Thy presence to stabilize.

May Thy fear be my awe,
Thy triumphs my joy.

Length of days does not profit me except the days are passed in Thy presence,
in Thy service,
to Thy glory.

Give me a grace that precedes, follows, guides, sustains, sanctifies, aids every hour,
that I may not be one moment apart from Thee,
but may rely on Thy Spirit
to supply every thought,
speak in every word,
direct every step,
prosper every work,
build up every mote of faith,
and give me a desire to show forth Thy praise;
testify Thy love,
and advance Thy kingdom.

From a collection of Puritan prayers in The Valley of Vision.

Community Groups and Biblical Counseling

Today's post is the last of this great six part series on the relationship between small group ministries and biblical counseling.  It has been such an encouragement to me to see the similarities between Desert Springs Church and these other churches in the vision of the small groups/community groups being the priority for doing life and ministry.  I hope these have been an encouragement to you as well.  Where do you fall in this topic?  Do you see the community group/small group/home group ministry as the first stop in seeking counsel/help in your lives?  All of God's children are counselors.  What kind of counsel are you offering?  What kind of counsel are you seeking?  God's Word is sufficient for our hurting and struggling hearts (2 Timothy 3:16).  As we seek to equip our leaders in biblical counseling, it is easy to see that some are intimidated by what they are being asked to do.  Being asked and trained to do something new is always intimidating.  I believe that over time as our leaders take steps in the practice of biblical counseling, they will see that God is faithful in His promises to use those in need of change to help those in need of change.  I also believe that the intimidation factor eases as we realize that it is God who is at work in and through us (Philippians 2:13) and when we see Him working in the lives of others right before our eyes, it is cause for great joy and praise to Him.  This is no different than when our leaders are teaching a passage of Scripture and 'light bulbs' go on and we see lives changed because the Word of God is living and active (Hebrews 4:12).  Praise God for His Word and for the ministries that He calls us all to.  He began this good work and He will be the One to complete it.

My Story

I have been on staff at The Village Church since December of 2006. I started out as the Care Pastor and built out the Pastoral Care Department. This included grief related ministries, pre-marital mentoring ministry, and lay biblical counseling training, among other things. I did this for four-and-a-half years.
Recently I have transitioned to Home Groups Ministry, where I am an Associate Groups Pastor at the Flower Mound campus. I have had the opportunity to bring biblical counseling training and resources to Home Groups within the leadership and coaching structures.

Small Groups and Discipleship

Small Groups Ministry at The Village Church has been the main avenue for discipleship since the church was replanted nearly 10 years ago. As the church has grown, the need for solid Home Group leaders has become a consistent priority.
This is where biblical counseling has become paramount for Home Groups at The Village Church. The three primary areas most affected have been the New Leader Orientation, Home Group Coach training, and resourcing.

New Leader Orientation

The New Leader Orientation is the training we put new group leaders through. A bulk of that training is derived from a conglomerate of biblical counseling resources (Equipped to Counsel, Instruments in the Redeemers Hands, How People Change, etc.). This has given us the opportunity to early and often introduce our leaders to the world of biblical counseling while equipping to be gospel-centered, heart-focused biblical counselors in their Home Groups.
Also, this gets them familiar with how/when/why to leverage excellent biblical counseling resources provided through the Association of Biblical Counselors (with whom we have a partnership). Most of the leaders at this point have heard about biblical counseling from the stage, Recovery @ The Village, and the resources we use throughout the church.

Home Group Coach Training

Our Groups Ministry has been implementing a coaching structure for the past couple of years. Each coach is over anywhere from 3-to-5 group leaders. They pour into the leader in a variety of ways and in essence become an extension of the pastors and elders.
We train our coaches using the curriculum written by Michael Snetzer in our Recovery Ministry, which is a biblical counseling ministry that addresses repentance, suffering, and spiritual dynamics. We also take our coaches through eight weeks of biblical counseling training (furthered from the New Leader Orientation Training they have already received). Again, we leverage resources for our coaches through the partnership we have with the Association of Biblical Counselors.

Join the Conversation

• How could you implement small group and biblical counseling training ideas from the ministry at The Village Church?
• Of the six blog posts from six different churches, what principles do you want to implement as you build a biblical intersect between small group ministry and biblical counseling?
• In addition to what you learned from these six churches, what would you add? What would you recommend that other churches consider doing in order to build bridges between small group ministry and biblical counseling?

Biblical Counseling and Community Groups

The following is part 5 of this 6-part series on the relationship between biblical counseling and small groups that the Biblical Counseling Coalition is doing.  You can find all 5 blogs about this at Grace and Truth Blog.  Part 5 gives us a great example of what training small group leaders in biblical counseling can produce.  Desert Springs Church also believes that the Community Groups are the frontlines ministry of the church and will ultimately become the lifeblood of the church.  With this vision, equipping the leaders in biblical counseling makes perfect sense because the leaders are the first point of contact with the majority of DSC's members.  What a great place to start helping the hurting and loving on them as they see God transform their lives!  As DSC seeks to equip these leaders, not only in biblical counseling, but in leadership and discipleship, our hope is that the our members would be greatly strengthened and encouraged in the Word. 

Frontline Ministry

How much effort should we put in helping small group leaders be equipped in biblical counseling? That’s an excellent question. Here at Harvest Bible Chapel (HBC) we think it is a no brainer. In fact, churches that equip their small group leaders as front line biblical counselors are leading the way in transformational ministry.
I just finished training some amazing Small Group Leaders (SGLs) and Flock Leaders (FLs) at HBC in Chicago (FLs have 6-10 Small Group Leaders and groups under their care). We see the Small Group Ministry as the front lines for Biblical Soul Care (BSC) which is what we call our full-orbed counseling ministry. SGLs are the first responders to the hurting in our church.

Levels of Training

We have four levels of training at Harvest. The first level is for anyone who wants to be more intentional as a disciple and advocate for others by living out the “one anothers” of Scripture.
Level 2 training is for SGLs and we equip them with four critical skills and over twenty tools to assess, target, and counsel at the heart level. As the leaders went through the training they were deeply moved and encouraged as the paradigm of an expert versus an advocate model of care, and privacy versus community in counseling were challenged. Often more applied and impacting counseling happens in real-life scenarios like in small groups.
The idea of a church counseling ministry without equipping the small group leaders is just plain thinking hard—not smart. Small groups are the preventive arm of biblical soul care. They are the ground troops in a full assault on sin and suffering.

Components of Blended Training

As we went through the skills training, we provided what we call “what-if scenarios.” The 70-some participants came alive as they identified and traced fruit issues to the root level. Their confidence in God’s Word increased and their skill in applying the Word with truth and grace grew.
We also taught them about how to assess group maturity and how to move from superficial, authentic, transparent, to vulnerable. We set the bar at “uncommon community.” They were pumped because God sets that bar for us and they were learning what it looks like to attain it as Christ and the Gospel gains a central place in all we do.
SGLs were hungry to be taught the fundamentals of biblical soul care. They wanted to be better care-givers. We defined their role as facilitator, discipler, and counselor rolled into one. The high-impact SGL goes deep. He or she listens, observes, calls out, and encourages the group.
The intimidation factor of “who am I to tell them” started to melt as we went through the “one anothers” of Scripture together. We discussed humility, bearing each others’ burdens, and the tension and blend of truth and grace.
The SGLs had to take an inventory of their own integrity and walk as well as that of their group. We created a safe place to soberly consider closing the gap between our spoken theology and our lived theology. It was, in a word, beautiful.

Testimonials

Here are a few testimonies we’ve received:

• “Now I know what a healthy SG looks like.”
• “This should be a requirement for all SGLs.”
• “I am applying heart revealing questions and our group is already more transparent.”
• “I am overwhelmed, in a good way. I will spend the rest of my life learning and applying these teachings.”

I cannot overstate the importance of equipping small group leaders in biblical soul care and counseling. We are not a church with a counseling staff, or a counseling center. We are becoming a church of biblical soul care counselors.

Join the Conversation

How would your small group ministry be impacted if all your leaders were also trained in biblical soul care counseling?

Community Groups and Biblical Counseling

Good morning!  Today's post is a re-post of the BCC's Grace and Truth Blog's series on the relationship between small groups and biblical counseling.  It is such an encouragement to read about other churches that have the same vision and practice as DSC in regards to our Community Groups.  Biblical counseling is an all God's people, all the time paradigm.  By God's grace, He is the one effecting change in a person and He chooses to use broken vessels to accomplish His will.  Praise God that it is not up to me to change a person!  I get to watch God change the person and that is an incredible thing to observe.  God is good and active in the lives of His people!  Again, these posts are at the Biblical Counseling Coalition's blog, Grace and Truth.  Enjoy...

The Ministry of the Word in Everyday Life

Our church, Covenant Fellowship Church, started as a church plant in 1984 with a team of a couple of dozen adults and children relocating to the Philadelphia suburbs. We are part of the Sovereign Grace Ministries family of churches. The church currently has a membership of about 1,500 people. We are committed to a pastoral care model built on Gospel centrality and biblical counseling. The pastors of the church care for the spiritual needs of the people in the church in preaching and teaching, in their personal ministry, and in creating structures of care for the church. We are committed to doing personal biblical counseling as a significant and ongoing part of our ministry responsibilities.
To be committed to care through biblical counseling, however, doesn’t mean that the pastors are the designated counselors within the walls of the church. While the call of the pastor presumes that he has gifts, skills, and experience in the care of people, biblical counseling doesn’t succeed or fail on the expertise of the one giving it. The emphasis isn’t on the gifts of the counselor, or the fact that counsel is coming “from the pastor,” but on the power and sufficiency of God’s Word. Therefore, we see counseling in a broad sense first—as ministry of the Word among ordinary people in everyday life.

Community Group Ministry

Our basic structure for ‘counseling,’ as understood above, is our Community Group Ministry. Small groups have been an integral part of our church since its inception. In fact, for the fifteen years that the church met in rented facilities, small groups were the sustaining context of the church on a day-to-day basis. That orientation remains very much who we are to this day even though we now occupy a building and have the programs and ministries that a building allows a church to provide.
Our Community Groups (as they are now called) have some features that make them distinct from the way small groups are structured in many churches. For one thing, the Community Groups are the primary context where members of the church receive the care provided by pastoral ministry. While our pastoral staff is dedicated to availability, responsiveness, and counsel to any member, it is neither biblical, practical, nor ultimately helpful for the members of the church to depend on personal pastoral meetings for care. People need the effect of the gifts the Holy Spirit distributes throughout the body of believers. We all need the ‘one another ministry’ that is embedded in biblical community. And we need the shared experiences of suffering, weakness, and change that are essential to the maturity and witness of the church. The Community Groups serve that function in a primary way at Covenant Fellowship Church.
Community Groups are so essential to who we are as a local church that they are an essential expression of membership in the church. In other words, to be a member of Covenant Fellowship Church, a person is committed to attending and actively participating in a Community Group. If a person is not involved in a Community Group they are not positioned to receive the pastoral care that the church has promised to them. As pastors, we are committed to the care of God’s people given to us through membership and seek to help anyone who is not participating in a Community Group find a way to experience this necessary care. Simply put, a person’s care from the church, whether it is meeting practical needs or addressing spiritual struggles, is intended to be centered in the familiar and supportive environment of the Community Group.
Our Community Group leaders, therefore, are more than just facilitators of the small group. They carry a responsibility to ensure that every member of the church has access to the practical care of the church and that the pastors are kept abreast of the needs and challenges the people in the church face. Our Community Group leaders are the primary laypersons who have personal ministry responsibility in the church. Prior to becoming Community Group leaders, they will have demonstrated a mature ability to offer counsel to others as brothers and sisters in Christ, will have gone through our general discipleship and leadership training courses, and will have had specific training in the responsibilities of Community Group leadership. Small group leaders meet as groups with pastors once per month for the purpose of their own care and for ongoing training in personal ministry.

The Personal Ministry of the Word

But we are not looking for the Community Group leaders to ‘do the counseling.’ We have sought to teach the church that ‘counseling’ is one expression of the personal ministry of God’s Word in community; alongside discipleship, intercessory prayer, biblical fellowship, wise advice, confession, encouragement and shared study of God’s Word. It is in the multiple layers of relational ministry that counseling occurs.
For example, if someone is struggling with acute anxiety, he or she may meet with a pastor who will help position them through formal counseling for change. But the pastor will involve the Community Group leaders, friends, and even at times a brother or sister who has struggled with the same issue to create a network of prayer, support, and counsel for that person. Since we view change as a work of God that takes place over time, this ‘community based counseling’ provides the insight, support and accountability to help a person with lasting change over time.
It is the cooperative work between creative pastoral engagement and enduring community fellowship that serves as our model of biblical counseling in the church.

Join the Conversation

What could you apply to your ministry from the way Covenant Fellowship Church blends creative pastoral engagement and enduring community fellowship?

Community Groups and Biblical Counseling

I am very excited about a new series that is being done at the Biblical Counseling Coalition's Grace and Truth Blog about the relationship between small groups and biblical counseling.  Today's post is Part 3 of this series, which I say 'Amen' to and hope that it is an encouragement for others to see that small groups and biblical counseling go hand-in-hand.  Since Desert Springs Church's vision is that the Community Groups become the primary place for life and ministry, biblical counseling is intended to happen mostly within those groups.  There is still need for more formal settings for counseling, but CG leaders are actively being equipped for the challenges of counseling members of their groups as needs arise.  God's children are all counselors.  We all give advice, have been asked for our opinion on something, or have sought to correct someone that was wrong.  We are all counselors.  The question is, what kind of counselor are you?  When you give counsel, whose counsel are you offering...God's or your own?  The biblical counselor seeks to offer God's counsel that is found in His Word by the power of the Holy Spirit.  As DSC steers all of the ministries toward the CGs, it will be very exciting to see God move in the lives of our members and help them have a biblical perspective on their problems.  By God's grace, this is happening and God is glorified.  You can read Parts 1 & 2 at the Grace and Truth Blog link that is hightlighted above.  I hope you enjoy these posts.





Biblical Counseling and Growth Group Leading

By God’s grace the pastoral staff of University Reformed Church envisions biblical counseling as an important part of our overall discipling ministry. One of my goals as Director of Counseling Ministries is to help create a culture of biblical counseling at URC. This includes training elders and growth group leaders in the basics of biblical counseling. Over a year ago, Associate Pastor Ben Falconer and I teamed up to plan biblical counseling training for the URC “shepherds.” We have done several training sessions to help them incorporate a biblical counseling model into the discipling they do as elders and Growth Group leaders. One session in particular was to help growth group leaders use biblical counseling questions in leading a Bible study.

URC’s Vision for Discipling and Growth Groups

URC’s vision has been well-captured in the words of Associate Pastor, Ben Falconer:

University Reformed Church is… a Bible-teaching and praying church, ministering to our neighbors, the campus, the nations, and the unreached peoples of the world. We attempt to accomplish this mission in large part through our two principal ministries: our Sunday services and our Growth Groups. At URC, Growth Groups are the primary place where Biblical Community is fostered. This means that Growth Groups are thoroughly biblical in content (the Bible is the regular source of study), nature (believers pray for, honor, serve, teach, encourage, meet with, and love one another), and purpose (our primary goal is that disciples of Jesus Christ are raised up for the glory of God).

In the summer of 2010, I was able to do a ministry project for my CCEF Introduction to Biblical Counseling Certificate on URC shepherd training. Here is how Ben and I sought to align biblical counseling and Growth Group ministry. The purpose of this training is “to equip URC shepherds to glorify God by making lifelong disciples through the gospel.” This includes:

• Knowing and caring for each individual member by watching over their welfare.
• Intentionally leading people into Christian maturity (discipling).
• Being available to pray for and help people work through sins and struggles (counseling).

Components of Our Training

The components of the training include:
1. Scripture Study:

• Jeremiah 17: 5-15—God’s model of change
• Hebrews: the ministry of parakaleo

2. Training and Practice in Biblical Counseling:

• Learning what biblical counseling is and is not
• Learning a vision for effective small groups
• Learning the Three Trees model and the questions that go along with it
• Learning the Love-Know-Speak-Do model of counseling
• Doing case studies, self and peer counseling, role plays, and group leading exercise

3. Various Biblical Counseling Readings:

• Five Advantages of Church-Based Counseling by Deepak Reju
• Counseling and Discipleship by Deepak Reju
• Some Thoughts on How to Provide Long-Term Pastoral Care by Tim Lane
• Why Small Groups? by C. J. Mahaney and others
• Leadership Training: Shepherding Leaders to Shepherd the Flock by Tony Giles

Preventative Counseling

Several of the questions/concerns we received after our first session related to getting practice in using biblical counseling preventatively (discipling) and not just correctively (counseling). This made a lot of sense because most ministry (especially by Growth Group leaders) will be preventative discipling rather than corrective counseling. So we designed one of the sessions to directly teach/model how to use biblical counseling questions in leading a Growth Group where you are studying Scripture and sharing together as a group. Ben already teaches growth group leaders how to lead an inductive Bible study. We added biblical counseling questions to supplement this and help bring the Bible study into the trenches of real life for people in the group. We chose to do a study on 1 Thessalonians 5: 12-18 incorporating both inductive study questions and biblical counseling questions. An outline of our study is provided below:

The passage we’re looking at comes from the section on Christian community: how do we live with one another in such a way that the body is built up and God is glorified? What hinders community? How can we overcome these hindrances? The passage contains several commands that give us specific directions for living in community.

Read 1 Thessalonians 5: 12-18 and ask:

• What do you notice about these verses?
• What are the main commands?
• What does it mean to respect our spiritual leaders? Esteem them in love?
• What do you see in verses 14-15?
• Can you think of examples of admonishing the idle, encouraging the fainthearted, and helping the weak? Are you involved in these kinds of activities?
• How would you summarize verses 16-18? What would it look like to do these things in real life?

1. Which one of these commands is most challenging for you? Why? Have several people share and discuss as a group what makes it hard to obey the commands. The purpose here is to get people talking and to see which command(s) get the most attention.
2. Choose a command that several people thought was hard to obey. Ask: Can anyone think of a specific time when you struggled to obey this command? What was going on in your life/day at that time? What stresses or blessings were you experiencing? How did your circumstances influence your obedience or disobedience? How did you respond? What do you think motivated your response (desires, fears, beliefs)? Ask another person the same set of questions and discuss. Point out how our shortsightedness and wandering desires get in the way of building community.
3. In 1 Thessalonians 5: 9-11 Paul gives us great motivation to build strong Christian community. How would you summarize Paul’s encouraging words? How would keeping these words in mind help us overcome our resistance to community building?
4. Let’s go to God in prayer right now and confess the ways we have hindered community. Confess not only actions but also underlying heart issues.
5. What is one way you could build community this week? How will the truth of 1 Thessalonians 5:9-11 encourage and motivate you?

The Way Forward

While we have sought to provide good training to Growth Group leaders, this is still in its infancy. There is much work to do to ensure that biblical counseling and Growth Group leading are aligned and that they reinforce each other. This year we plan to do more training, especially for Growth Group leaders, in leading inductive/biblical counseling type Bible studies.

Join the Conversation

What can you apply to your ministry from the way University Reformed Church relates their small group ministry and biblical counseling?

Building a Bridge

I just read about the following church planting organization.  What an encouraging direction that this organization and biblical counseling are moving in.  As Desert Springs Church partners with organizations like Acts 29 to be a church planting church, it is awesome to see a growing partnership between biblical counseling and church planting!  I hope you are as encouraged as I am.  I am excited to see what God does at Redemption Rio Rancho for His glory and praise.  May God bless Redemption RR and future plants to draw numerous others to His Son, Jesus Christ!




Two major Christian movements emerged in the 1970s: the modern church planting movement and the modern biblical counseling movement. The North American Church Planting Foundation (NACPF) is working to build bridges between these two movements.

The NACPF

The NACPF is a non-profit organization that exists to support and promote church planting efforts in North America. Among a handful of other ministry priorities, we emphasize the importance of biblical care and counseling within each church plant. It is our hope that a biblical counseling mindset will become the norm within the world-wide church planting community.
Throughout the landscape of established churches, as well as new church starts, biblical counseling theory and practice is less common than we would like. The churches that are born out of the current church planting movement represent, at least in part, the future of counseling in the local church. We believe an infusion of biblical counseling philosophy and practice into the DNA of new church starts is an essential key to the furtherance of the biblical counseling revolution and the continuance of effective soul care by local churches.

Values

Initiated in 2009 by Open Door Baptist Church in Raleigh, NC, The North American Church Planting Foundation is a network of like-minded churches, church planters, and sponsors that advocate three core values: Gospel, Community, and Mission. The NACPF establishes a culture of soul care among church plants by emphasizing the role of biblical counseling within each core value.

Gospel: Through the NACPF, we are working to fulfill the Great Commission by upholding and celebrating the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Through the NACPF, we are committed to proclaiming the hope of the Gospel and the surpassing riches of God’s grace toward us in Christ. In fact, the grace of God and the power of the gospel are both inextricably linked to our appreciation of biblical counseling. The churches within our church planting network are equipped and motivated to change through an insightful study of the Scriptures, personal ministry to one another, and through a caring culture of biblical community.

Community: By God’s perfect design, all Christians need community. We believe the New Testament model for local churches (plants) is one of cooperating, sharing, and growing together. This “one-another” quality within the Christian faith can only exist in a gospel-centered community. As a result, the NACPF is planting churches that are not merely places where people share burdens and fellowship about life. Rather, they do so with a unique perspective as they intentionally build each other up in Christ. This is the essence of a Gospel community, committed to grow as a community knit together by love through the mutual ministry of the word. Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, it is our desire to display the sufficiency of the Scriptures through the ministry of every church plant.
Relying on the Bible as our central resource for lasting change and restoration, we have gone to great lengths to shepherd and train future church planters in practical and godly biblical counseling ministry. NACPF church planters progress through an internship process by which they are equipped and mentored to counsel biblically in a local church context. Church planters are asked to complete biblical counseling criteria including, How People Change, Helping Others Change, Instruments in a Redeemer’s Hands, and other practical biblical counseling equipping tools. Even after the church is planted, the planting team has an on-going relationship with their sending church for further training and coaching. In terms of biblical counseling, we owe much to the instruction of Dr. Robert Jones, Director of Biblical Counseling at Open Door Baptist Church.

Mission: No conception of the Gospel is complete without an understanding of its outward momentum. Our God is a missional God. Churches within the NACPF intentionally structure their ministries and services to welcome those who have not heard or embraced the good news.
We believe that Jesus’ Great Commission is not merely intended to make converts, but to so magnify the glory of God that His name is known throughout the world. We take seriously God’s command to make disciples who know, love, and grow in Christ. Here is yet another connection to biblical counseling which must not be overlooked; the mandate to minister the good news to believers and unbelievers alike. In this respect, we seek to plant church-planting churches who will grow to the point that they are ready to plant self-sustained, theologically healthy, gospel-centered communities who also fueled by a sincere commitment to the Great Commission.
The NACPF is grateful to like-minded organizations such as CCEF, NANC, and the Biblical Counseling Coalition for their magnificent efforts to equip pastors and laity for biblical counseling ministry. We hope that together we can plant churches that glorify God and build up the body through the cure of souls. Learn more at www.nacpf.org.