Ministry Counseling

No one is immune from life’s difficulties, yet many people are reluctant to talk about mental health or seek professional help when they are struggling. People of faith who are battling issues such as anxiety, depression, life changes, stress, or relationship problems may suffer in silence, believing things will get better if only their faith was stronger, they prayed more, or they had more self-discipline. The stigma about needing to seek help is all too real. But seeking professional help isn’t a sign of weakness.

Worship leader and recording artist Laura Story's life took an unexpected turn when her husband, Martin, was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Their lives would never be the same. Yes, with God all things are possible. But the devastating news was that no cure existed to restore Martin's short-term memory, eyesight, and other complications. The fairy-tale life Laura had dreamed of was no longer possible. And yet in struggling with God about how to live with broken dreams, Laura has found joy and a deeper intimacy with Jesus.

Are you distracted by racing or anxious thoughts? Distressed by intrusive or irrational thoughts? Struggling with sinful or untrue thoughts? You may feel trapped in your own head, but God and his Word have given you many different ways to find freedom. In this practical and sympathetic guidebook, biblical counselor Esther Smith provides twelve powerful strategies that are targeted to different thought struggles. Each chapter is filled with a variety of exercises so that you can begin to change your thoughts right away and live at peace.

Pastors and counselors regularly minister to people whose marriages or families are in crisis. Tempers run high and feelings are brought low when a marriage is hurting or a family is in disarray. Pastors and counselors need practical, biblical help in order to connect their theological training to the reality of modern messy relationships.

Caring for the Souls of Children equips counselors, parents, pastors, and other helpers who love children, to boldly trust in the sufficiency of Scripture for counseling. 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.

Is an argument-free marriage possible? Fawn Weaver’s answer is yes, absolutely, even when one or both partners are strong willed, independent, and opinionated. (She admits to being all three.) In this groundbreaking book, the best-selling author and award-winning marriage blogger asks listeners to invest twenty-eight days in learning how to live together without bickering, blame, angry outbursts, or silent treatments.

Over the last decade, husband and wife team Evan and Jenny Owens have helped thousands of people overcome the trials, tragedies, and traumas of their past, and in this book, they show you how you can too. With empathy and insight, Healing What's Hidden offers a practical, step-by-step process to help you acknowledge your trauma, heal your invisible wounds, and reclaim your future so you can live beyond the anxiety, depression, and shame trauma leaves behind. Others are already experiencing healing. Now it's your turn.

A step-by-step guide to emotional health that guides you from toxic thoughts, emotional wounds, and bondages from your past into total inner healing. Through 21 daily lessons and personal application exercises, this incredible book helps you transform your life and relationships.

Many are finding themselves under the clutches of disturbing thoughts and emotions that keep showing up in their mind. They get lost in how to deal with these troublesome thoughts that demand their attention.

Trauma, abuse, childhood wounds, and toxic relationships have broken us. But there is no shame in brokenness. In fact, it’s in our brokenness where the healing power of Jesus comes to find us. Brave Enough to Be Broken is a biblical road map you can use to heal from the pain, the shame, and the regrets that have tried to steal your joy, so you can rest in the unconditional love, healing, and hope of Jesus.

We desire to be transformed, to grow more and more like Christ. But for many of us, our strategies for change don’t work. We misperceive God as a judgmental Father, leaving us demoralized and paralyzed by shame. Stumbling Toward Wholeness offers a new strategy for spiritual growth and life transformation: regularly returning to the arms of a kind and loving Father.

Everyone talks about the personal ministry of the Word, but how do we make one-another ministry truly biblical? Gospel-Centered Counseling equips you to change lives with Christ’s changeless truth. It does so by examining life’s seven ultimate questions and then guiding you on a journey that explores the biblical, gospel-centered narrative.

In Free to Thrive, Josh McDowell and Ben Bennett blend hard-won wisdom and youthful energy to present biblical, time-tested, and research-supported principles for overcoming hurts, struggles, and hindrances to a whole life - a life of spiritual, emotional, and relational wholeness instead of brokenness - the kind of life you were born to live.

If you're longing to become more attentive to God - to listen to him, know his voice and experience his love, spiritual direction can point the way. In Seeking God Together, experienced spiritual director Alice Fryling offers a unique introduction specifically for group spiritual direction: a place where individuals can experience what it means to be listened to and loved by others, so that they can learn to listen more attentively to God in their daily lives and be used by God.

Whether by choice or circumstances out of our control, we will have moments where we feel like we've been punched out, dragged down, or knocked out. What do we do in those situations? You must learn to persevere. Perseverance requires a deep sense of hope, and thought leader, pastor, and podcaster, Bianca Juárez Olthoff, knows that personally. Using the life of Paul the Apostle as a case study, Bianca shows how grit was the genesis of his transformation from a judgmental Pharisee to a world-changing follower of Jesus.

A worship disorder: This is how Edward T. Welch views addictions. "Will we worship our own desires or will we worship the true God?" With this lens the author discovers far more in Scripture on addictions than passages on drunkenness.

Carlos Whittaker equips you with practical steps to destroying the roots of your deep-seated habits so you can get rid of what's holding you back and embrace true freedom in Christ. Are you tired of trying to live for Christ - only to fail time and time again with the same old behaviors? Do you pray for guidance, ask for deliverance, and vow to do better, yet fail to progress? Throughout Kill the Spider, Carlos walks you through the key aspects of killing the spiders in your own life.

In this book, renowned psychologist Dr. Dan Allender and counselor Cathy Loerzel present a biblically trustworthy and transformational method for healing from painful memories and emotional trauma, stepping into true freedom, and discovering that your wounds are unlikely guides to inner strength and joy.

John Elmore is no stranger to addiction. Fifteen years ago, he put a loaded shotgun to his head and later had three doctors tell him he was going to die of alcoholism. Now he leads the world's largest weekly recovery gathering where people journey toward healing in Christ. In Freedom Starts Today, he makes a huge promise to the addicted: You can be free from your struggle, and much sooner than you may think. Through easily digestible readings grounded in Scripture and the practice of daily surrender, Elmore tells you how to break the cycle of addiction.

Whether you are dealing with substance abuse, relational struggles, or eating challenges, or you simply want to let go of what is holding you back in life, you will find answers in The Road to Freedom. In addition to telling his own story, Baker offers 10 principles of healing. These life lessons remind you that pain has a purpose, small and steady improvement lasts longer than overnight change, serving others leads to deeper healing, and facing your problems is the only way to heal.