formation certificate

Dynamics of Biblical Change

with David Powlison & Alasdair Groves

sample lecture

The way that you counsel other people is determined by how you understand God, yourself, other people, life’s pressures, and change. This course addresses the depth, breadth, and balance of your understanding. How does Christ’s past grace, present grace, and future grace speak to our hearts and change how we live our daily lives? This course is about people. It is about how we face the troubles of life. It is about how we deal with our inner struggles. It is about how we change into Jesus’s image.

What to Expect

Course Work

Each week you'll listen to pre-recorded lectures, read articles and books, and engage with other students through online forums.
You'll complete various projects and papers, demonstrating your understanding and personal growth in the topics covered during the lectures and reading.
Your online instructor will give you feedback and interact with you throughout the course.
Throughout the term, you'll have the opportunity to participate in optional online engagements with your instructor.
Self-counseling projects will help you to make firsthand, practical application of the concepts learned in class.
Please note: you must have access to a computer to complete this course.

Course Objectives

Demonstrate an understanding of the biblical view of progressive sanctification
Describe and apply the Biblical Counseling model of change to your own life as well as to other situations
presented in case study format
Analyze the ways that the Biblical Counseling model of change might affect a church’s worship, preaching,
evangelism, missions, offices, youth ministry, fellowship, children’s programs, and equipping

Course Schedule

Week 1: Course Introduction
Week 2: Understanding the Person
Week 3: Understanding the Heat & the Three Trees Model
Week 4: The Wisdom Found in Christ
Week 5: Understanding the Situation
Week 6: Practical Application
Week 7: Influences on the Heart
Week 8: Sin & the Heart
Week 9: Sin & Transformation
Week 10: Living with Personal Integrity

At a Glance

terms offered

Every September & March

course cost

$700–$750

course length

10 weeks

workload

6–9 hours/week

Formation Certificate

Dynamics of Biblical Change is one of two courses in the Formation Certificate. Learn more about our current courses and certificates of completion below.

Certificate options

current students

Meet the Lecturing Faculty

David Powlison served as CCEF’s executive director (2014-2019), a faculty member, and senior editor of the Journal of Biblical Counseling. He held a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania and an MDiv from Westminster Theological Seminary. David wrote extensively on biblical counseling and on the relationship between faith and psychology. His books Seeing with New Eyes and Speaking Truth in Love probe the implications of Scripture for how to understand people and how to counsel. The Biblical Counseling Movement: History and Contextexplores the background and development of CCEF’s mission. David is survived by his wife Nan, their three children and spouses, and seven grandchildren.

david's resources

Alasdair is the Executive Director of CCEF, as well as a faculty member and counselor. He has served at CCEF since 2009. He holds a master of divinity with an emphasis in counseling from Westminster Theological Seminary. Alasdair cofounded CCEF New England, where he served as director for ten years. He also served as the director of CCEF’s School of Biblical Counseling for three years. He is the host of CCEF’s podcast, Where Life & Scripture Meet, and is the coauthor of Untangling Emotions (Crossway, 2019).

alasdair's resources