Ministry Counseling

The heart, a term used all over the Bible, is a complex reality that captures the totality of a person's inner nature. This book explores the three capacities of the heart (knowing, loving, and choosing), explaining how each is redeemed through the threefold office of Christ (prophet, priest, and king). As listeners comprehend the heart as the source of all their thoughts, fears, words, and actions, they will discover principles and practices for orienting their hearts to truly love and obey God with all that they are.

Find the balance between tough love and tender love. In The Two Sides of Love, best-selling authors John Trent and Gary Smalley explain how to find a healthy balance between the protective, consistent, "hard side" of love and the tender, understanding, "soft side" of love. This is the groundbreaking book that introduced the four "animal" personality types and it will show you how to best demonstrate both sides of love in all your relationships-with your spouse, children, and friends. Included in this thoroughly updated edition is a free assessment of your core personality type.

The Art of Overcoming explores how we deal with loss, grief, and hurt, and challenges listeners to keep what looks like endings from discouraging or derailing us. The pain we experience is real—but there’s a difference between acknowledging it and giving into it. Rather than seeking a fake hope that pretends loss doesn’t exist or doesn’t matter, author and pastor Tim Timberlake encourages us to pursue hope rooted in God and gives this reminder: don’t quit!

The Mentoring Project’s flagship mentoring resource is its field guides. These long-form pieces provide practical guidance on various aspects of life as a Christian, like finances, purity, technology, work, and more. Written by pastors and other Christian leaders, these field guides provide a biblical framework for mentors and mentees to discuss these topics and grow together.

Pete and Geri Scazzero developed The Emotionally Healthy (EH) Relationships Course over a 21-year period to directly address core biblical principles to guide you and others into an experience of discipleship that will deeply change your life. In the EH Relationships Course, everyone will learn eight practical relationship skills to develop mature, loving relationships with others.

The Bible says the old life is gone and the new life has come (see 2 Cor. 5:17). But we still sin; still get angry, arrogant, and greedy. Sin destroys everything in its path, yet it’s also kind of fun and quite compelling. It often has us holding on to parts of the old life instead of embracing the new life we’ve been promised. Here, Pastor Bob Merritt exposes the inner battle we all fight with sin. He exposes the cycle of failure and loss and shows listeners that no matter how many setbacks they’ve experienced, there is a way to enjoy a new and better life in Christ.

If you choose to stay in your marriage, you have options other than punishing, tolerating, or ignoring your spouse; extraordinary growth awaits a woman willing to deal with the pain of her husband's struggles with sexual purity. Even if your spouse will not participate in a program for healing, you can change your own life in powerful and permanent ways. Shattered Vows is inspired by Debra Laaser's own journey through betrayal, her extensive work with hundreds of hurting women as a licensed marriage and family therapist, and her healed marriage after her husband's infidelity.

Do you sometimes wonder what happened to the life you dreamed you'd have? Say Yes by storyteller and artist Scott Erickson is a profound, unique meditation on the three arguments of The Voice of Giving Up and the three mental health and spiritual practices that can help you fall in love with your life again.

Are you your own worst enemy? Are you your biggest critic? Do others believe in you, but you find yourself filled with doubt? Do you sabotage the success you long for? Do you turn to addiction to make you feel better? You are not alone. Many people do the same. Why? The answer, in a word, is shame.

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.

The wisest counselor to a Christian Marriage is God! "Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: For it was founded upon a rock" (Matthew 7:24,25). Divorce is expensive and can lead to a lifetime of pain. Marriage is too important to get it wrong! Whether you are just starting out, or seeking restoration to your marriage, know exactly what God's advice is for your marriage.

Between alcohol, illegal drugs, prescription drugs, pornography, gambling, and eating disorders, fully 25 percent of the population of the United States is addicted to something. Those addictions are taking a massive physical, emotional, spiritual, and financial toll on individuals, families, and communities. The problem can feel insurmountable. But there is a solution, at once ancient and supported by the latest in neuroscientific research.

Welcome to ground level, to the dirt and the mess. We like the mountain tops and the sunshine. We like green grass under a clear blue sky. We like victory and breakthrough and answered prayers. But sometimes it rains, the shadows deepen, and life turns muddy. Sometimes God seems quiet. What then? What happens when depression descends, or anxiety hangs like a sword overhead? What happens when loneliness suffocates, the thief steals more than stuff, and you get blood on your shoes? In Digging in the Dirt, Jonathan Trotter delves into the disasters, the darkness, and the deluge, and he offers ...

This book is not about pornography. You won't find graphic depictions about the porn industry, the catastrophic effects it has on individuals and relationships, or how to think differently about porn. If you're reading this book, you probably have some understanding of those things already—the last thing you need is to be subjected to that kind of detail...again. Finally Free is about hope. It's about discovering the freeing power available to those who trust in Jesus Christ, who can, will, and does set people free from the power of pornography.

A friend feels rejected. A counselee is angry. A church member's child is ill. You want to help, but where do you begin? Author and counselor Michael R. Emlet outlines a model of one-another ministry based on how God sees and loves his people primarily as saints, while bringing comfort to the sufferer, and faithfully speaking truth to the sinner. Filled with everyday illustrations as well as counseling examples, Emlet demonstrates what it looks like to approach fellow believers simultaneously as saints, sufferers, and sinners.

Discover how facing your underlying pain will allow you to overcome it and move forward. With practical insights and biblical teaching about what it takes to break the cycle of addiction and shame, Reframe Your Shame will set you on the path to freedom.

How are Christians to understand and undertake the discipline of psychology? This question has been of keen interest to Christians because of the importance we place on a correct understanding of human nature. Psychology can sometimes seem disconnected from, if not antithetical to, Christian perspectives on life. How are we to understand our Christian beliefs about persons in relation to secular psychological beliefs? This revised edition of a widely appreciated Spectrum volume now presents five models for understanding the relationship between psychology and Christianity.

Recover in Color contains 52 lessons, with a weekly journal prompt of four discussion questions. Using a biblical worldview, Recover in Color contains 13 lessons in four categories: developing a sense of self, emotional literacy, boundaries, and spirituality. There is something here for everyone working a recovery program. This audiobook is also beneficial for family members of those in recovery programs. Recover in Color is a fresh approach to rehabilitation that incorporates the classic principles that have passed the test of time.

Accessing mindfulness is a therapeutic touchstone for a range of emotional issues, from mild distress to the treatment of trauma, but the term mindfulness has often left Christians wary. Stripped of Christlike spirituality, it sounds self-focused at best, and at worst like a fusion with modern pop-religions of the day. But the quality of mindfulness - of being fully present, aware of ourselves and our situation so that we can better respond to the chaos around us - is a profoundly biblical concept. And it can be used effectively by Christian counselors and healing practitioners.

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.