The doctrine of Scripture is under attack today. Recently John MacArthur held an Inerrancy Summit with some of the top theological minds in the Church today. At this conference, these theologians instructed us about the doctrine of the Bible. One of the key pieces of the doctrine of Scripture is the sufficiency of the Bible. This is the idea that when the Bible speaks, people are to hear and obey it. In other words, the sufficiency of Scripture relates to the authority of the Bible. Since, the Bible is authoritative, God’s people are to implement what it says into every area of their lives. Yet, often times in the Church we say we believe this. Whether in sermons, books, articles or blog posts we pledge allegiance to the Bible in name but in practice we often minimize it. We think, “I need to give my opinion on that issue” and we may well need to speak to that particular issue, but we need to speak with the Bible. We need to speak what the Bible says and declare what it says. This is one way that the sufficiency of the Bible is under attack today. We also see the Bible under attack in the field of Christian counseling. Often times secular theories of psychology take the place of the Bible in our counseling. As the Church, we are seeing an erosion of the doctrine of Scripture in our generation. Since the pulpit is the spear of the local church’s ministry, the counseling office is the hospital. Both are critical as Scripture and Counseling God’s Word For Life In a Broken World show. As this book shows, Pastors and counselors can work together, and should work together to help people grow in their understanding of the Word (pulpit) and to address real world issues from pulpit with the purpose of seeing healing, deliverance and help (counseling) to aid His people in their spiritual growth and development.
This book has two parts. In part one, we come to learn how we view the Bible for life in a broken world. In the introduction Kevin DeYoung and one of his counselors at University Reformed Church, Pat Quinn demonstrate how the senior pastor and counselors can work together to help the church grow in Christ. In this section, we learn about the richness and relevance of God’s Word, the sufficiency of the Bible for life and godliness truth, psychology, applying the sufficiency of the Bible to our lives, the Christ-centeredness of biblical counseling, the great cloud of witnesses and counseling, a theology of the body, and the relevancy of the Bible in counseling. Part two considers how we use the Bible for life in a broken world. The authors consider the rich relevance of the Word of God. Along with this they consider the practicality of the Bible for becoming a church of biblical counseling, biblical counseling and small groups, speaking the truth in love, the competency of the biblical counseling, relating truth to life, biblical narrative in personal ministry, the place of wisdom literature in the personal ministry of the Word, using the Gospels in the personal ministry of the Word, using the epistles in the personal ministry of the Word, and lessons learned through counseling. The book has three appendixes that including the mission, vision, and passion of the biblical counseling coalition, the confessional statement of the biblical counseling coalition, and the doctrinal statement of the biblical counseling coalition.
Whether you’re a pastor, counselor or lay person this book has something for you. First, this book will help you understand the relationship of the pulpit ministry to the ministry of one another each other. Second, this book will help you to understand how Scripture relates to life. This book will help you to understand how to use the Word of God when helping others. This is no small thing because we all know people who need help but often times don’t know how to help. This book will help you to learn how to help and where to look in the Bible to help address people’s issues. Finally, this excellent book should be on the bookshelf of every pastor and counselor. I highly recommend this book and believe it should be required reading in every pastoral ministry class at every conservative Bible college and seminary in the country. My prayer is that this book and the other book in this series will gain a wide readership for in doing so we’ll see a recovery of the place of biblical counseling in the local church.
Buy the book at Amazon or WTS Books.
Title: Scripture and Counseling God’s Word For Life In A Broken World
Author: Bob Kellemen, General Editor, Jeff Forrey, managing Editor
Publisher: Zondervan
I received this book for free from Zondervan for this review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”