For more than 40 years, CCEF’s Journal of Biblical Counseling has provided a forum for the development of clear thinking and effective practice in biblical counseling. We do this by publishing articles that faithfully bring the God of truth, mercy, and power to the issues that face pastoral ministries of counseling and discipleship.
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JBC Vol. 36 · No. 3 Articles
Letter from the Editor
by Kimberly Monroe
The JBC editorial team finds that most issues of the journal display a certain unity by the time they are ready for publication. This issue is no exception. Read the editorial to discover what we mean.
Counseling in a Season of Faith Deconstruction
by Michael Gembola
What an important subject! This article discusses how to help those struggling to hold on to their faith. Gembola notes that many of these struggles result from ethical concerns rather than objections to the gospel, and he offers practical wisdom on how to respond. He also provides an extensive list of resources for your reference and a reflection exercise that counselors can use as they walk with people through a season of faith deconstruction.
FREE Article
God Loves a Complainer: A Case for Sharing Our Laments with Him
by Laura Andrews
Why do we often remain silent before God when we are in distress? Andrews explores some of the common reasons for our silence and encourages us to speak to God about our troubles. She shows how the road to holiness, wisdom, and maturity passes directly through honest, godward lament. Jesus cries out to his Father, so shouldn’t we cry out to him, as well? This article equips you to share these truths with counselees who hesitate to bring their complaints to God.
What Should I Tell My Spouse about My Sexual Sin?
by J. Alasdair Groves
As helpers, how can we provide guidance for constructive communication between spouses after sexual sin has occurred? Groves offers an answer by drawing on wisdom from Ephesians 4:29. He outlines a framework for confession that prioritizes what is best for the spouse who was sinned against over what is comfortable for the offender. How unusual this is in our culture! Such an act of selfless love, grace, and honor can be sustained only by dependence on God’s forgiveness and support of the offending spouse.
Richard Baxter: Puritan Ministry for Modern Churches
by Ric Rodeheaver
In a thought-provoking piece, Ric Rodeheaver shares his admiration for the pioneering work of Puritan Richard Baxter, a 17th-century English pastor. Baxter engaged in regular counseling care for his congregants and argued that preaching alone is an insufficient view of the pastorate. Rodeheaver agrees and asserts that counseling must be part of every pastor’s schedule. Based on his experience, he offers three ongoing practices to help a church build a culture of care and counseling that includes trained lay counselors who can support the pastor in fulfilling the call of this crucial ministry.
A Suicide Care Plan: One Church's Model
by Kendra Fabel
In this article, Kendra Fabel describes how her congregation cares for people experiencing thoughts of suicide. The church provides suicide prevention training to its pastoral staff and lay volunteers and has a triage team that stands ready to help with decision-making in response to a person in crisis. Their plan also calls for the creation of a care team to provide longer-term support for an at-risk person. This is a good starting place for any church considering how to minister to people despairing of life.
Teaching Safety Skills to Our Children
by Julie Lowe
Author and counselor Julie Lowe is passionate about teaching safety skills to children, but she does not advocate teaching “stranger danger.” She reminds us that most child abuse is perpetrated by adults that children already know—family members and friends—not strangers. So rather than living in fear of strangers, Lowe advises us to equip children to evaluate a person’s intentions by what they do, not by what they say or whether they are known to them. She explores how role-playing can help parents and other trusted adults teach these skills. It is an excellent resource for any parent, children’s counselor, or youth pastor.
Purchase the digital edition of the Journal of Biblical Counseling Volume 36:3.
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Purchase the print edition of the Journal of Biblical Counseling Volume 36:3.
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About the JBC
For more than 40 years, CCEF’s Journal of Biblical Counseling has provided a forum for the development of clear thinking and effective practice in biblical counseling. We do this by publishing articles that faithfully bring the God of truth, mercy, and power to the issues that face pastoral ministries of counseling and discipleship.
Our late senior editor David Powlison wrote, “CCEF works and prays to restore Christ to counseling—and to restore counseling to the church. The Journal of Biblical Counseling serves this mission as a publishing ministry of CCEF. We believe that true, life-explaining insight into people necessarily involves thinking Christianly. Loving, lasting help necessarily involves practicing ‘counseling’ as one aspect of consciously Christian ministry. The deeper you gaze into what actually goes wrong with people—the weight of our sins and sorrows—the more clearly you see that Jesus Christ is essential to making it right.”
Journal articles cover a broad range of biblical counseling and methodology topics. Many are written by CCEF faculty including Ed Welch, David Powlison, Michael Emlet, Julie Lowe, Todd Stryd and others. We also welcome articles from other authors, pastors, and practitioners in the field.
David Powlison was the senior editor of the JBC from 1992 until his death in 2019.
Editorial Staff
Senior Editorial Board: Michael R. Emlet,
J. Alasdair Groves, and Edward T. Welch
Managing Editor: Kimberly Monroe
Developmental Editor: Lauren Whitman
Consulting Editor: Michael Gembola
Assistant Editor: Brandon Peterson
Proofreader: Bruce E. Eaton