Discipleship Counseling

T. Anderson Dr. Neil

Description

Building on the concepts found in Victory over the Darkness and The Bondage Breaker, Neil Anderson's counseling ministry guide provides clear information and excellent models to help you understand what discipleship counseling is all about. If you're a pastor, counselor, or lay leader, this resource will make you more comfortable, confident, and competent in your role as encourager. In turn, this will help you free people from their emotional pain and spiritual conflicts, as you guide them to a more complete understanding of who they are in Christ.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 26 août 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781441265531
• Langue: English

Extrait

© 2003 Neil T. Anderson
Published by Bethany House Publishers 11400 Hampshire Avenue South Bloomington, Minnesota 55438 www.bethanyhouse.com
Bethany House Publishers is a division of Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan. www.bakerpublishinggroup.com
Bethany House Publishers edition published 2014
ISBN 978-1-4412-6553-1
Previously published by Regal Books
Ebook edition originally created 2013
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
Other versions used are:
KJV — King James Version. Authorized King James Version.
NIV —Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version ®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
NKJV —Scripture taken from the New King James Version . Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
TLB —Scripture quotations marked ( TLB ) are taken from The Living Bible copyright © 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189. All rights reserved.
Cover and interior design by Robert Williams Edited by Benjamin Unseth
C ONTENTS
Foreword
Introduction
Part 1: Discipleship Counseling in Theory
Chapter One Toward a Biblical Balance
Chapter Two Defining Mental Health
Chapter Three Integrating Theology and Psychology
Chapter Four Who Is Responsible for What?
Chapter Five The Sanctifying Process
Chapter Six Counseling in Christ
Chapter Seven Counseling the Spiritually Oppressed
Part 2: Discipleship Counseling in Practice
Chapter Eight The Freedom Appointment
Chapter Nine Overcoming False Guidance
Chapter Ten Overcoming Deception
Chapter Eleven Overcoming Bitterness
Chapter Twelve Overcoming Rebellion
Chapter Thirteen Overcoming Pride
Chapter Fourteen Overcoming Habitual Sin
Chapter Fifteen Overcoming Ancestral Sins
Chapter Sixteen How to Set Up a Discipleship Counseling Ministry in Your Church
Appendix A Release Form
Appendix B Confidential Personal Inventory
Endnotes
F OREWORD
In my 20-some years of ministry experience, I have led many people to faith in Christ or through some form of discipleship material. I have met with them for counseling and have referred them to the best professionals in the community. Yet in the midst of all these disciplines and advice, I would still see countless dedicated Christian men and women struggling to get free from the emotional problems that beset them. Most of the time they struggle in silence, afraid to tell anyone the truth about how they feel or their real discouragement about the Christian life. This results in an unhealthy church, full of diligent “doers” who have resigned themselves to believe that this is as good as it gets. The lack of genuine joy, love and freedom of spirit make evangelism and community building very difficult.
If the Holy Spirit is not flowing naturally through church members and is quenched and grieved by unresolved issues of anger, fear, pride and unforgiveness, the average church leader resorts to a “program” approach to ministry. People are invited to events, service projects, concerts and classes, with no real impact on their maturity in Christ. What is more, the preaching and teaching of God’s Word—which is my primary ministry and joy—bears little fruit.
You can imagine my excitement in learning that Christians can live free and productive lives in Christ! It has been my great privilege and pleasure to have Neil and Joanne Anderson join our church, and I have seen the fruit of their ministry. I have witnessed the power of the truth set people free from bondage and bring closure to issues that have been festering under the surface for years! There is no question in my mind that God has given this hardworking farm boy from Minnesota an insight into the discipleship process that the Church sorely needs. I needed it!
As a pastor, so often I felt the gap between discipleship ministries in the church and the counseling needs of the body. We subtly send the message that spiritual disciplines and emotional problems are unrelated and that the Bible and prayer are great tools for equipping saints in witnessing, but emotional or relational difficulties are contracted out to the local psychologist. Consequently, we have people filled with Bible knowledge but no resolution to the problems and sins that beset them. In pride and fear we cover the insecurity lodged in our hearts. The genius of Neil’s book is to bring the care of whole persons back into the church—body, soul and spirit—and apply the great New Testament truths of our identity in Christ to the issues that plague us.
This book is not for the timid or passive. It is an intentional strategy to set Christians free from the chains that bind them, and it takes courage and faith to incorporate the reality of the spiritual world. Neil dares to suggest that the spiritual world impacts all we do, and he equips us to deal with these challenges. In a world that can analyze every problem to its smallest component, Neil dares to move us from analysis to closure, to give hope of seeing problems actually resolved. What is more, these principles are completely transferable, so any mature saint can learn the theology of discipleship counseling, be trained in the process and released to minister to one’s local body.
This is not “new” truth. This is ancient, New Testament truth that the modern Church, infatuated with rationalism and secular psychology, has neglected to her own hurt. What pleasure it must bring the Savior to see His people rediscovering their identity and authority as His beloved children.
May this book serve to transform your congregation, as it is transforming mine!
Sandy Mason
Pastor, Desert View Bible Church
Phoenix, Arizona
I NTRODUCTION
When I pastored a church, there were people in our congregation with problems that I did not have answers for, and that really bothered me. I believed that Christ was the answer for hurting people in this fallen world and I believed that biblical truth would set them free, but I was not seeing it happen in the lives of our people. When the Lord called me to teach at Talbot School of Theology, I requested permission to offer a master of theology elective to discover why we were not seeing more fruit from all our programs and ministries. Eighteen students enrolled the first year, and I felt like I was in the second grade, teaching first-grade students. The next year, 23 signed up; then 35; then 65; then 150 and finally 250 students signed up for a one-week summer elective. I was starting to see the lives of the students change as they discovered who they were in Christ and as they resolved personal and spiritual conflicts through genuine repentance.
My search led me through two huge paradigm shifts in my thinking. First, I realized that I had not fully understood the gospel, especially as it related to who believers are in Christ. Jesus did not come just to die on the cross for our sins, He also came to give us life in Christ. As a result, Christians are new creations in Christ, which means that they can be free from their past and are free to be all that God created them to be, as well as many other blessings. Indeed, it was for this freedom that Christ set us free (see Gal. 5:1). Second, my Western education had skewed my worldview, which left me with an inadequate understanding of the spiritual world. Jesus did not come just to forgive our sins and give us life; He came to undo the works of Satan (see 1 John 3:8).
As the Lord was renewing my mind, He began to direct hurting people to me. I wanted a biblical answer for these dear believers who desperately wanted to live liberated and productive lives in Christ. I also knew the message and method had to be academically credible and wholistic, or the Christian community as a whole would not accept it. Many wounded and anxious Christians waded through the process of learning with me. I had to tell some that I did not know how to solve their problems but Jesus did; and if they were willing to work with me, I would continue to pursue God for an answer. Over time and through much learning and experience, I began to see the Lord set captives free and bind up the brokenhearted.
I also became aware that these hurting Christians had only one thing in common: None of them knew who they were in Christ, nor did they understand what being a child of God fully meant. If “the Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God” (Rom. 8:16), why weren’t they sensing it? The apostle Paul wrote, “God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ ” (Gal. 4:6). The gospel message of “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27) was missing from their personal experience, and they were ignorant of their spiritual heritage.
In my educational experience, Western rationalism and naturalism had dominated my thinking. I was taught about the kingdom of God but nothing about the kingdom of darkness. Today I understand a little better the battle that is being waged between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness, between the Christ and the Antichrist, between the Spirit of truth and the father of lies, between the true prophets and the false prophets and between good and evil.
Jesus identified Satan as “the ruler of this world” (Joh