Our personal narratives capture a large and important swath of who we are and why we do what we do. In the book of Philippians, Paul tells his narrative, and by doing so he tells ours too. This session will consider how he takes our personal narratives to places we would never include, such as personal failures, and then moves them one step further to their inevitable conclusion—where his story, and our own, is “Christ.”

We often think of Paul as a leader, a missionary, a church-planting extraordinaire, but we don’t often think of Paul as a counselor. Yet his letters are counsel to real people living in the real world with a variety of challenges within and without. In this session, we’ll take a look at one of Paul’s earliest letters to the church in Thessalonica to see how rich, pastoral counsel meets people where they are, engaging their struggles and circumstances with the truth and beauty of God's Word.

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Prayer, teaching on prayer, and prayer requests make up about 15 percent of Paul’s epistles. Because of our western secularism, there is much we’ve completely missed about Paul’s different ways of praying. Paul’s letters are a window into how the early church was a living, breathing, praying community. This session will look at the structure of some of Paul’s prayers, how his theology informs his prayers, and how our hearts can be stirred with a new passion for engaging the living God in prayer.

Anger can be destructive, sinful, and self-centered, but it can also be redemptive, righteous, and full of mercy. Paul knew both sides of this reality. Before Christ, his anger was a foothold for the devil, even fueling murderous persecution. After Christ, his rampaging zeal was transformed into a passion for truth, love, and the protection of God’s people. This session will examine Paul’s journey and consider how to steward anger, shaping it to reflect Christ’s just and merciful heart for his beloved people.

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Life in a fallen world is full of burdens. Caring for others—which is every Christian’s calling—adds to the weight. Paul was not superhuman. Like us, he often faltered beneath the load. Yet his enduring joy in Christ bleeds through his letters. Even in hardship—especially in hardship—his joy seems resilient. This session will explore the roots of Paul’s mysterious joy behind the torn veil of the new covenant.

Unity is a mountain to be climbed and an instrument to be learned. It doesn’t happen quickly or on its own but is always the result of hard work, practice, and cost. Paul urged the early church to “maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph 4:3). This exhortation requires every Christian to cultivate relationships and corporate virtues that foster unity. This session will examine Paul’s labor to cultivate unity in the church.

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No one likes to admit weakness or to feel powerless. We prefer at least a healthy dose of strength and ease in life. But Paul reveals how God’s power is paradoxically perfected in his weakness, to the extent that Paul boasts all the more gladly of his weaknesses! How can this be? This session will explore how we can increasingly grow in contentment amid weakness and suffering as we rest in the sufficient grace of Christ, who himself became weak on our behalf.

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Many of us have experienced the heartache of living with unwanted and persisting weakness. It is an experience that often leads to discouragement and disappointment. This session will explore how Paul's journey with God in his weakness can orient and encourage us. There is a beautiful path for those whose lives bear the imprint of persisting weakness—it is a path that gives us hope and opens our eyes to the riches of God's grace.

There’s no biblical marker for discerning when someone “gets old” or when the aging process begins. However, Scripture gives clear counsel to faithfully and soberly acknowledge that this earthly life is fleeting. Paul neared the end of his life with an assurance that he had “fought the good fight . . . finished the race . . . kept the faith” (2 Tim 4:7). This session will consider how we can finish well as we help each other to wisely number our days, resist disheartenment, and devote ourselves to remaining steadfast in devotion to Jesus.

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Paul endured unimaginable hardships—imprisonment, suffering, and ultimately martyrdom—yet lived with a deep, unshakable contentment. His confidence in Christ never wavered, no matter the challenges he faced. What empowered him to persevere through such a life and ministry? The answer lies in the love of Christ. This session will explore how God's steadfast love not only sustained Paul but also serves as the key to living, loving, and ministering faithfully in a broken world.

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In young adulthood and beyond, it can be hard to grow up and find your place in the world. In Ephesians 4, we see Paul’s vision of maturing in Christ together that leads to steadiness and security. This spiritual growing up brings mature engagement with relationships, work, and adversity. This session will affirm the challenges of a modern life that lacks coming-of-age rituals and traditional sources of identity formation and belonging. We will apply the theme of spiritual maturity to problems such as emotional immaturity, insecurity, and failure to launch.

Life with others is extremely challenging because differences abound. Too often our differences have become occasions for division and strife that harms relationships, discourages fellow believers, and corrodes church life. This session will examine how to deal with the reality of differences within the body of Christ by considering why God gave us differences, understanding how they can become destructive, and responding to them in a way that reflects our unity in Christ.

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Discernment is the ability to distinguish between what is pleasing and displeasing to the Lord in unclear situations. It is an ability granted to believers by the Spirit and through faith. Throughout his epistles, Paul often identifies this superpower as key to living a godly life. This session will consider how biblical counselors can seek to foster faith leading to discernment with their believing counselees in the context of unclear counseling situations.

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Aliens, strangers, enemies of God, separated from Christ, having no hope without God in the world. That’s the origin story we all have in common until peace came through the broken body of Jesus Christ, breaking down the dividing wall of hostility between God and man and between ethnic groups. Yet the reality of walls of division are evident in the abundant culture wars of our day. In this session, we will discuss how growing in cultural intelligence facilitates loving our cross-cultural neighbors over chasms of difference.

Many Christians going through intense suffering have a love-hate relationship with Romans 8:28—“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” We value the “end of the journey” perspective of this precious promise, but we can also feel rushed by it. In this session, we will pick up in verse 25 to see the way Paul patiently walks toward this hope-giving promise and to learn how we can minister its truth with comparable grace.

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In Colossians 2:23, Paul speaks of external rules and practices that are “of no value” in “stopping the indulgence of the flesh” (ESV) or “restraining sensual indulgence” (NIV). But what is of value? Paul’s answer seems to be to “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Gal 5:16). But what does that mean, practically? This session will explore how the gospel of grace is of value for bodily sin struggles in a way that external behavior management can never be.

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Parenting children at any stage can leave us feeling powerless. We must regularly confront our inability to secure our children's blessing, shield them from suffering, and even spare ourselves from the pain that parenting sometimes brings. But in God's wisdom, he uses our powerlessness as a channel for his grace and strength. In this session, we will seek to receive encouragement from the apostle Paul as he shows us a path forward—one of humble dependence, hope, and Spirit-empowered faithfulness in the midst of our weakness.

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The J-Curve describes the way we die and rise with Jesus. As we’ll see from stories in Acts, it shapes the contours of the apostle Paul’s life, and it shapes the life of every believer. It describes our union with Christ, not in some abstract idea but in a way that transforms our experience of suffering and trials. This session will consider how learning to look at life through a resurrection lens moves hope from a belief to a habit.

Paul is remarkably open about his failings and weaknesses, as well as in expressing the strength of his affection for those to whom he writes. What can we learn from his example? How can self-disclosure in ministry, particularly by leaders, glorify God and help us to love others well? This session will explore the why, what, and how of self-disclosure in ministry, as well as some of the cautions that we should be aware of.

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We often speak of the Holy Spirit’s power and presence. But what does that truly mean for our lives today? In this session, we’ll track Scripture’s unfolding revelation of the person of the Holy Spirit. Then we will focus on a selection of Paul’s teachings where we learn more about the Spirit’s creative, transformative power—discovering how the Holy Spirit both sustains our life in Christ and makes it dynamic. Together, we’ll honor the mysteries even as we ponder the profound ways the Spirit is with us.

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While commentators seem unclear on the nature of Paul’s affliction in 2 Corinthians 1, we are not left to speculate over the emotional impact. This is not a list of the customary trials that shadow every leader; Paul describes devastation, the unguarded moments when ministry crashes through the door and delivers a kind of death. But God was setting the stage for a resurrection. Paul’s darkest moments were a backdrop for a tutorial on trust followed by a glorious deliverance. This session will consider how God designed ministry to deepen our confidence in him, as we learn to anticipate resurrection, hope for deliverance, and embody the transformational gospel we are called to proclaim.

Paul makes some provocative statements about being unmarried, such as, “I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another” (1 Cor 7:7). His aim is always to exalt Christ, and a biblical theology of singleness does exactly that! This session will consider how, as the world faces a pandemic of loneliness, the church needs to uphold both the beauty of God’s design for marriage and the goodness which can be experienced through Christ-dependent, kingdom-informed singleness.

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In 1 Corinthians 6–7, Paul shows his pastoral heart as he guides the Corinthian believers who have been living promiscuous sexual lives. What lessons does Paul offer us for premarital sex, pornography, neglect of sex in marriage, and self-control? In this session, we will learn from Paul’s pastoral heart and grow in our love and care for those who struggle with sexual sin.

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Paul was honest about the difficulties of his life and ministry, noting that he was “afflicted in every way” (2 Cor 4:8), yet this much-afflicted apostle was characterized by contentment. It wasn’t so much a choice he made as something he learned, both through hardships and rich blessings. This session will focus on Paul, who maintained a vertical focus on Christ, rather than a horizontal focus on circumstances. The former produces a life characterized by love, joy, and fruitfulness; the latter, a discontented life marked by envy, ingratitude, and ultimately despair.

What might Paul have thought about the cultural phenomenon of “boundaries,” with its heavy emphasis on caring for and prioritizing the self? This session will consider a theology of mattering and making decisions with yourself in mind. Our goal will be to understand the appeal of this contemporary idea as well as to offer a biblical framework in which the individual truly matters.

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Knowing Christ fosters a likeness to him that unites Paul with the body of believers. In a life filled with loneliness and hardship, Paul is comforted by Christ himself through constant companionship with his people—always surrounded by partners in ministry, commending others, delighting in them, and longing to be with them. Counseling can often feel like a solitary endeavor. This session will consider practical implications for what it means to be bound to the body of Christ as a counselor and also for those we counsel.

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Paul was intensely ambitious, aspiring to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. His church planting efforts are unrivaled. Yet he also emphasized contentment as a foundational virtue of the Christian life. In a complex and broken world, we are often called on to navigate the tension between virtues like these. In this session, we will examine how Paul’s life and writings provide a fascinating case study in how to do this well.

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