Conversations for Change

 I n The Church as a Culture of Care: Finding Hope in Biblical Community, Dr. Dale Johnson provides a superb resource explaining the role of the church in soul care. He does this by showing the writer how God has equipped believers for the task, the Lord as the head of the church, his role as the good shepherd, the leader’s roles as under-shepherds, and suggests ways of creating a culture of care in the church. It is highly recommended. The Church as a Culture of Care can be found here

  In Consider Your Counsel: Addressing Ten Mistakes In our Biblical Counseling, Bob Kellemen addresses 10 mistakes that he commonly sees, while seeking to give a more robust approach. These ten mistakes are: ·         Elevate Data Above Soul Connection ·         We Share God’s Eternal Story Before Listening to People’s Earthy Story ·         We Talk at Counselees Rather than Explaining with Counselees ·         We Target but Diminish Suffering ·         We Fail to Fellow the Trinity’s Model of Confronting Care ·         We View People One-Dimensionally Instead of Comprehensive ·         We Devalue Emotions Instead of Seeing Emotions as God’s Idea ·         We Minimize the Complexity of the Body-Soul Interconnection ·         We Maximize Sin While Minimizing Grace ·         We Confuse the Sufficiency of Scripture with the Competency of the Counselor   Dr. Kellemen approaches these areas with concerns about what he has observed in his experience and gives suggestion

Written with an unusual and refreshing depth of understanding, compassion, and biblical wisdom, this book is a gift to Christian women (and men), counselors, and church leaders. Anne Dryburgh effectively dispels myths surrounding rape, shows how the Bible honestly addresses this unspeakable form of violence, and gives the reader an important understanding of its life-altering effects. Best of all, the author gives spiritual friends an example of how to bring gospel hope and help to victims by directing them to the stabilizing character of God and the newfound freedom and identity found in Jesus Christ alone. (Un)shamed is available  here

Written with an unusual and refreshing depth of understanding, compassion, and biblical wisdom, this book is a gift to Christian women (and men), counselors, and church leaders. Anne Dryburgh effectively dispels myths surrounding rape, shows how the Bible honestly addresses this unspeakable form of violence, and gives the reader an important understanding of its life-altering effects. Best of all, the author gives spiritual friends an example of how to bring gospel hope and help to victims by directing them to the stabilizing character of God and the newfound freedom and identity found in Jesus Christ alone. (Un)ashamed is available  here