The way that you counsel other people is determined by how you understand God, yourself, other people, life’s pressures, and change. This course addresses the depth, breadth, and balance of your understanding. How does Christ’s past grace, present grace, and future grace speak to our hearts and change how we live our daily lives? This course is about people. It is about how we face the troubles of life. It is about how we deal with our inner struggles. It is about how we change into Jesus’ image. Through case studies, class lectures, assigned readings, and Scripture, you’ll explore these practical questions. Self-counseling projects will help you to make first-hand, practical application of the concepts learned in class.

Let’s say you have a basic and growing understanding of biblical counseling. You know the key ideas and have been able to apply them to yourself. Now comes the hard part: How do you apply this understanding in your everyday relationships? This course will take the content you already know and get specific about how you can actually deliver the content. Case studies, lectures, and group discussions will help you grow in your ability to listen well, know people, interpret another person’s story from a biblical perspective, and offer biblically-based truth that will motivate others in their growth in Christ.

Note: This course has two unique requirements. First, you will be grouped with 3-4 other students for a bi-weekly community group. This group will decide when they want to meet, and what format works best (Skype, Google Hangout, Phone Call, etc.)

You will also meet weekly for an hour with someone (a friend, fellow church member, neighbor, etc.) to put into practice what you are learning in Helping Relationships. You will receive more information about these activities in your course syllabus and in the opening lecture.

Who is God? Who are we? Most everything we do comes from our answers to these questions, so we want to get the answers right. This course will focus especially on the questions Who am I? and Who are we? Since we are made in the image of God, we will also have the pleasure of asking Who is God? The goal is practical theology. We want answers that will inspire, instruct, guide and provide direction for our face-to-face ministry.

This course aims to go deep with the everyday and universal problems of life, such as guilt, shame, fear, anger and suffering. The course content also goes broad by considering problems that are not found in a concordance, such as bi-polar disorder, schizophrenia, dissociative identity disorder, anorexia and bulimia, and addictions. Through case studies, lectures, and outside readings, you’ll learn to move toward people with any type of struggle in a way that is engaging, helpful, and Christ-centered.

The modern psychologies provide the lenses through which most people view life’s problems. They shape how people interpret troubling behaviors, emotions, and relationships—so that sin is never part of what goes wrong with us. They shape the solutions offered—so that Christ plays no necessary part in addressing what is going on. Through practical assignments, group discussion, lectures and assigned readings, you’ll develop skills to lovingly and wisely engage the ways others seek to understand and solve personal problems. You’ll develop your ability to reinterpret what they see most clearly and care about most deeply. This class will help you to understand where biblical counseling fits both within the church and in relation to the surrounding mental health system.

Today’s children and teens struggle with many common counseling issues, such as depression, eating disorders, broken relationships, suicide, and peer pressure, to name a few. At the root of these problems is a heart struggle that the Lord wants to redeem and transform through the application of Gospel truths. Through practical, hands on project assignments and creative class exercises, you’ll learn how to build a relationship with a child or teen and apply Scripture in a way that gives life. You will apply the counseling strategies and methodology taught in class, with a child or adolescent of your choosing, with whom you will commit to meet weekly throughout the duration of the course. You’ll also have lectures and assigned readings that help you understand a biblical method of family counseling; issues of learning and development; and develop an understanding of common counseling problems with children and teens. While this course focuses on applying counseling skills to children and teens, the skills you’ll build are applicable to counseling adults as well, learning to draw them out and feel comfortable discussing their problems, and applying Scripture.

What does actual counseling look like? It’s one thing to learn about biblical counseling through reading books and listening to a lecture, but it’s quite another to learn by actually seeing it done. You’ll have the opportunity to observe various CCEF counselors and faculty members as they counsel actual cases, either live or on video. You’ll experience the unscripted, unpredictable, and often messy aspects of face-to-face personal ministry, and be introduced to the artfulness, skill, and utter dependency on the Spirit that is needed to counsel wisely. Class discussion will focus on topics that arise out of each counseling session, and you’ll learn how to make effective progress notes to document your own counseling sessions.

Taught by Ed Welch or Mike Emlet (alternates each term)

*Please note: Dynamics of Biblical Change and Helping Relationships are prerequisites for this course.

Scripture for Life & Ministry (SLM) will be offered in place of Biblical Interpretation (BIN) starting in the Summer 2021 semester. If you have completed BIN previously, you may use either BIN or SLM toward the completion of the Foundations of Biblical Counseling Certificate. 

SLM seeks to preserve the best elements of BIN (hands-on interpretation of Scripture applied to life) but makes that process even more explicit and practical for students in their contexts of ministry. SLM is a substantially different course (perhaps 70% or more new lecture material) although there is some overlap in the assignments with BIN (e.g. Acts 8 passage work, Psalm 77 final paper). There are several new assignments with SLM as well. Students who have taken BIN would still benefit from taking SLM as an elective.